Would I be wasting my money to get a turntable?

@bigtwin , I have never done any golf except for miniature golf, but wouldn't the distance one can hit a ball with a new club actually be measurable?

As far as the "hot tweeter," that was mentioned a couple of times on a thread in 'speakers' but no one defined it for me.  I was thinking, however, of something along the lines of what @thecarpathian  spelled out.

Thank you all for the responses and a very entertaining conversation. This hobby can be an amazing rabbit hole and as I have started, innocently, to consider equipment I’ve begun to appreciate that I may have entered the rabbit hole of all rabbit holes. 
 

Do I need a turntable? Probably not. Would it give me pleasure to have an attractive piece of kit to play with and look at and reacquaint myself with the 75 or so albums from the 60’s - 70’s that I have tucked away? Absolutely. Therein lies the benefit I guess. I don’t have a $100,000 system or thousands to spend on pursuing some holy grail, but the joy of adding something new to my system keeps drawing me in and that pretty red Rega P3 I have my eye on would look so nice. That and the memories of taking that new Beatles or Dylan out of the sleeve for the first time and setting the needle down on that spinning wax are still sweet. 

So go for it.  You’ve self identified as one who places significant value on the aesthetics of vinyl, which renders sound quality issues as secondary 

Music Direct has the P3 on sale with different options that include a premounted cartridge. I’d get one with a cartridge unless you or a friend can install the cartridge. Your amp has a phono stage for mm or moving coil if I’m not mistaken.

I would call Music Direct and get their advice.

Mswale, I don’t know where you’re buying your used LPs, but someone is gouging you on the prices. Yes, for certain jazz LPs that have gained iconic status, and for perfect condition, one can pay $20 and up, way up. But other works by the same artists are nearly always available for $10 and less. Here I’m referring to high quality sellers who’ve preselected the records they sell to eliminate junk. From lesser sources, you can pay much less. I think one can assemble an excellent collection of 1000 LPs for $10,000 or less and over the course of a few years. That’s buying one or several at a time.