Only stop when the foundation of your home starts sagging, less than that and you are good.
Record collecting versus hoarding
At what point does "collecting" records become hoarding? Unless you are in the business of selling records either primarily or even secondarily, why do so many people here talk about having 2,3,4,6,10,000 records and CDs? It's not stamps or coins.
Let's say you listen to records 15 hours a week (a good estimate for me) that equates to about 750 hours a year or 1000 records a year. I like to listen to mine at least once every three months - I have 300 records and change. In the rare instance when I replace one for a better sounding one (I've done it maybe 4-5 times), I immediately sell the old one - with only one exception. The Sgt Pepper UHQR. I already had it on the Beatles Collection and do occasionally listen to it when I want a treat. It does sound better than the regular Mofi one, which sounds great to me.
Why would you have multiple copies of the same record and not just listen to the best sounding one and sell the rest?
Why would you want records you listen to less than once a year?
Maybe some people listen a lot more than me (and replace cartridges/styli pretty ofter or have a bunch of them)?
The reason I bring this up is because Acoustic Sounds is releasing Steely Dan's studio albums from the 1970s on their UHQR brand (not sure how they now own the name and not Mofi, but that is not the point), I am a huge fan and will be getting a few of these overpriced (IMHO) records, which will replace a few of my non-audiophile (except the Aja Mofi) records. I plan to sell the Aja Mofi immediately after getting the UHQR, which I am sure will sound much better. That is worth a few bucks, but the others I sell should be worth $10-15 in trade at a record store.
Anyone with records they play less than once a year or keep multiple pressings of a single album, please let me know your rationale.
Are you a hoarder? Too lazy to get rid of them? Like the way they decorate your room?
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@rufusluna , my foundation started sagging years ago and I am still going. I should also mention that I have 5 tons of woodworking machinery😏 |
Wow. I certainly have thought about this a lot. I have met a few record hoarders, and I think there are two distinct types: those who buy records, and those who buy “stuff”. I met one of each type just before the pandemic hit, and each let me to a decision. I met a guy who was a verifiable hoarder, like out of the TV show. He was sued by the local county for hoarding and told to clean up his stuff. He retaliated by putting up an “Antique Shoppe” sign in front of his house. (To be fair, he did have some nice stuff…). He had, by my estimation, about 25,000 records in his basement. They were all in piles about 7 feet high, about 35-40 piles that I could see all throughout the basement. I could only access about ten piles, and at that down to only a couple feet before each pile became unstable. The mold stench was almost overpowering, and I could see some water damage on many or the sleeves. I only found two records that I was interested in before I had had enough, and they were both local singers that my dad grew up with (Dick Curless - “A Tombstone Every Mile” and Hal “Lone Pine” - “Sings His Favorites”
The second guy was someone I knew from record buying; he and I would often run into each other and chat at the flea markets and record stalls. He had a stroke and died, and his wife called a few of his record acquaintances to help sort out the house. There were about 5,000 records in the basement, neatly boxed by genre (more or less). Then the widow says, “There’s more in the garage, and we haven’t touched the trailer yet…”. More records than he could ever listen to. Definitely a hoarder.
But those two situations affected me. The first hoarder was stuck in an unhealthy, dangerous situation. He was under legal threat. His hoarder mentality had completely taken over his life.
The second hoarder situation was worse, in my opinion. The hoarders widow was left to clean up. She had to deal with thousands of (some extremely valuable) records while mourning, clean up a house and sell so she could move on. She was overwhelmed. I did not have as many records (at the time, 2600 or so), but I was trending in that direction. I suddenly realized I did not want to put my wife in that situation. A couple months later my wife got a new job with increased responsibilities, and we decided to move into the city to be closer to her work. We would have to make due with a much smaller space until she retired in a couple years. I sold my records to a few shops I had dealt with (the week before Record Store Day 2019, as it turned out), got rid of my equipment and bought a streamer. I am extremely happy with my decision to avoid being a hoarder. Of course, YMMV. |
@lewm - i meant that listening to any records not worthy of being in my rotation takes away from those in the rotation. The heavy rotation is just that the artists with more titles get played more since all titles are theoretically played equally. I know that some of the ones I don’t like as much will end up getting skipped over when they were probably due for a spin. Not a perfect rotation, but good enough that no record would go a year without being played. that’s really my point. If you don’t like a record enough to play it at least once a year, you really don’t like it. Unless you like everything or don’t listen to your favorites often. |
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