Collecting Vinyl Records

Buy What You Love

Never purchase a title you don’t really enjoy. Records are not a good investment. Besides what is the point of getting a record only to flip it.

Spend Wisely

Use a price range and stay within that parameter. I have a range of $15—$30. I wait for sales too. Wherever you buy records never go wildly outside your personal range of spending.

Pointers For Beginners

Buy your favorite artist, if you have had records in the past you may only want to get a few key titles to save space in your library.
Spend $35 at the most for NEW releases not re-issues.
“Deluxe” sets are loaded with cds, posters, and ephemera for $100 or more. It’s up to you whether you want to spend that much on a single record.
Watch YouTube Videos using Vinyl Community or VC as a keyword. You can watch people like you who also collect records. Most of them are super knowledgeable about this subject too.
Essential TItles are great to have in a collection but do not buy one unless you really want that artist. You see there is now a classic rock canon of artists from The Beach Boys to Frank Zappa.

^{Record Store Day}
Now 3 times a year April, June, and Black Friday in November there is a list of releases on vinyl online to be avaiable at independent record stores across the country. You may or may not participate. Watch Record Collectore in the Vinyl Community for videos on this topic.

Use Your Shelf Space Wisely

Depending upon the type of dwelling you inhabit the collection will be free to go as high as thousands of titles or hundreds of titles or even in my case dozens of titles.

As you fill up space at home with newly acquired albums you will find out what works best for you.

Maintenance

Records are physical product that must be cleaned and kept in a cool dry place. You must make a small investment in a kit that will take care of this job.

Evan's Gate