Cartridges

"Mr. Hot Stamper indeed. What this guy provides for lazy well-heeled audiophiles is a complete cleaning including ultrasonic cleaning of non-scratched/abused copies"

I believe chrisoshea sums it up, but missing the other ingredient-the dead wax stamp of 1st release press. While I haven't done a shoot out, perhaps the 2nd run sounds just as good as No.#1

My luck has been good over the years finding "stamper" candidates at wallet friendly prices.

How did I miss this thread?

You already have a darn good turntable / audio system that you appreciate and feel the Need to purchase Quality Pressings.  I have a Symphonic All in One with no name cardboard speakers.  Secondhand store vinyl suits me fine. 

Absolutely, get the "Hot Stampers".  You will eventually have to replace or retip the stylus or buy the hot new premium cartridge that has appeared anyway.  Once that artist's record is sold out, you will pay the price of Retpping for it.

btw.  Last year I broke my stylus.  I hemmed and hawed about spending $2.99 for a replacement needle from China.  Almost gave up on vinyl.

The answer to the OP's question is yes.  Do both.  You will get instant appreciation of your existing collection, but new records will probably sound better.  

In my humble opinion, buy 3 or 4 NM copies of an LP at about $30 each, chances are one of them is a so-called “hot stamper” and you’ve saved yourself hundreds to a thousand or two dollars.

If you properly cared for your records over the last half century, you don’t have this problem, of course. Original presses tend to sound best.

My two sense.

Having said that, I otherwise more or less agree with @bpoletti  

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