[gmku]

I want to know your darkest, most obsessive secrets. How many times do you go the record store? How many times have you bought the same album? Are you a vinyl junky? How do you arrange your collection? Suff like that. Spill the beans, people.

[Alex's Trip]

I go to the record store whenever I have money to spend. I don't buy vinyl, I don't have a turntable. I arrange my CD alphabetically first by artist then by album title. I currently have 93 CDs, not very many I know.

[finding nobody]

I'm a vinyl enthusiast all the way. The only record stores by me are places like FYE and Best Buy. I perfer Best Buy

[LittlePuppetBoy]

I buy whenever I feel like it

[gmku]

This article is too funny! Maybe mostly cuz I've almost crossed that line... (How many freaking double copies do I think I can accumulate in one lifetime...?!)

I especially like the advice under #7 at the bottom of the page:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articl...rd-licking.htm

"What seperates the freakish collector from the monster that is the Licker can be summed up in one word: proportion. Understand your place in this world, and understand the impossibility of ever comprehensively knowing all there is to know about even one genre of music, and you should make out OK. There is no need to panic, to paw, to obsess, or even to collect. Like what you like, love what you love, and track down one or two rare things if need be. But please, stay away from eBay. No piece of vinyl is worth getting in a bidding war over. Especially not with the Japanese—they will defeat you. And for Christ's sake, please put the records away once in a while and go outside. There's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with dusty old crates of secondhand records, or even shiny new CDs."

[Savage Clone]

I have little interest in digital format (though I still buy CDs if the album doesn't come any other way or if the packaging is particularly amazing), but I do obsessively collect vinyl. Being unemployed right now, I am buying drastically less stuff, and consequently feeling out of touch. I used to go to record stores 2 and 3 times a week, but now there are fewer stores and I have fewer funds. I mailorder stuff much more than I ever did before, as less stuff I want seems to be in the stores anyway, plus it tends to be slightly cheaper.

I have my collection in two large record-store browsers, alphabetically organized with old divider cards from my friend's old store (RIP after 18 years). Some genre separation, but not too much. My CDs are not really organized, but I pretty much know where they all are. Same with 7-inches. I do periodic purging of stuff I don't consider essential; the most stuff I ever purged was around 120 CDs at once. LPs I sell off in far fewer quantities, and only if the value is going to be enough to be worth dealing with selling it in the first place.
I have definitely bought the same album more than once on several occasions. Sometimes it's to get a nicer vintage copy, sometimes to get a really nice reissue pressing, sometimes to get the vinyl of something I only had on CD before. On rare occasions I miss something I used to have and buy it again, but this has only happened a couple of times.

The most I have ever paid for a record is about 60 or 70 dollars (twice I paid $180 for comprehensive box sets), but I have many that are now worth several hundred.


Edit:
I don't fall into the record licker category (just read the article, and I know the type all too well), apparently. I stay the hell away from the dollar bins for the most part. I am pretty hung up on condition, and the dollar bins are not usually a good place to find either quality titles or decent condition in LPs.

[Rob Instigator]

I am a vinyl junkie. It all depends on what I play my music on. from 1981-86 I owned vinykl and played it on my dad's turntable.
from 1986-1992 all i bought were cassettes which were being sold back to indie record stores by people buying the then new CD format. so I had boxes and boxes of cassettes. I still have them. great indie rock stuff. REM, buttholes, so nic youth, dinosaur, dead milkmen etc etc
Around 1993 I was given a turntable streo system by my then wife. I creamedy pants. I bought vinyl again.
that machine broke down sometime in 2000 so I purchased a used, heavy as hell piopneer turntable from sound exchange in houston. I have been using that for years now. I have it hooked up to a quality receuiver but I have no CD player hooked up to it. so now, all I buy is vinyl, unless it does not come in vinyl and I must have it.

I love my fucking records. I have two full to th brim 14"x14"x3' crates of my rock n funk stuff. It is divided up alphabetically by artist, and then chronologically within each artist. i like to keep my CD's and records like that. I like to see the chronology of each artits/groups output.
I have another 300 or so jazz and classical records. those are in no order whatsoever.
I have two 7" single boxes full, divided up alphabetically with cards I made dividing up the letters of the alphabet A-Z. That makes it much easier to look through the 7" singles and put them back onc eI play them.
I need to do the same thing to my records.

I am no completist, but there are certain exceptions. i will buy anything the youth put out, anything the butthole surfers put out. If bands are defunct and I like them I try to buy all their output (unwound, polvo, dinosaur etc.)
I love to sort through dolla rbins. 99.999% of it is crap or i aready own it or it is in shit condition, but those rare gems, oh my god those arre gems. I love to rifle through stacks and stacks of 7" singles. but I will NOT buy a single no matter how old it is withoutsome sort of prtective sleeve.

I will NOT buy and album, no matter how much I want it or been looking fro it or love it, if it has any scratch on it. surface abrasion is one thing I can deal with, but actual scratches, fuck that. it is not worth it to me to spend any money no matter how .little, on an album that will skip or pop or jump.

I will be at the austin record convention in late october. see you there!

Oh, and any used album i gt I clean throuroughly before playing it.

[gmku]

Yeah, I think staying away from the dollar bins has saved me from becoming a licker. I've seen those men, though, and vowed not to become one. It's all about standards.

The most I've paid for a record is $75 (first pressing White Album). Generally, for used Lps, I'm looking in the $8-12 bins--clean copies and rarer or harder to find stuff. I'm also into the new 180 gram reissues, especially the ones that offer a rare or new mix, mono, new packaging, etc.

The little things matter greatly to me when I'm buying used--not just the condition of the vinyl but also whether the LP contains the original posters, inserts, etc., and whether the matrix numbers indicate a first or later pressing.

I've pretty much sworn off CDs unless it's something I just can't find in good condition on vinyl. Or it's a favorite that was never released on vinyl or only in a very limited number.

[gmku]

Yeah, I rule out any vinyl with a scratch. My favorite store won't knowingly sell a scratched record, actually.

I'm fairly tolerant of minor surface noise, especially if it's only a little crackle in the trail off grooves of a cut or between cuts. But I won't put up with surface noise that overwhelms the music signal.

[Cantankerous]

are you kidding me? i fucking work at the record store.

Originally Posted by gmku

Yeah, I rule out any vinyl with a scratch. My favorite store won't knowingly sell a scratched record, actually.

we do, in the 99cent section. employees get those free.

[schizophrenicroom]

i found unrest's "fuck pussy galore" for 3 bucks in a bargain bin, and it's scratched, but i don't mind buying it scratched and cleaning it if it's something like that. scratched vinyl, though- no.

[Cantankerous]

i will buy anything. anything.

[Rob Instigator]

The most I have ever paid for an album is $40 for the Butthole Surfers' DOUBLE LIVE with the insert booklet stil in there and in good condition.

The Lickers hitting those dusty bins is crazy. I will browse through those but it is ussually cursory. I too prefer the $5-$10 used bins. The Jazz albums cost some more though.

I am not interested in first pressings and such as long as the music sounds great. I do love to find good quality originals, but I reserve that for my jazz collection. I found a pristine copy of Brubeck's Take 5 original pressing. after not buying maybe 10-14 lesser quality copie sof that album over the course of 10 years. I have Ella Fitz' Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie first pressing in perfect condition too.

I guess for me even though I love the rock more, I want my jazz original!

I love 180-200gram re-issues. LOVE EM.

[Savage Clone]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

The most I have ever paid for an album is $40 for the Butthole Surfers' DOUBLE LIVE with the insert booklet stil in there and in good condition.

I got lucky with that one. 6 bucks!

[Glice]

"The second is hiding, the placing of one or more items in some "secret" locale, usually behind bin cards or amongst the used rap 12" singles."

I hate that guy. Not the 'licker' variety, but that cunt who can't afford the record he knows someone else will want. There are two people who hide records I know: one does it because he is a good friend (benevolence - he tells me where he hides things he knows I want) the other is a cunt who knows full well that I have money more often than him, and will likely buy the record if it is where it should be.

I've curtailed the record collection. It's not quite curtailed to the point where I don't buy 5+ records a week, but I have made a staunch decision to only get things that are good in my quasi-objective criteria (which I shall explain if prompted) or in a genre which is lacking in my collection.

I think you chaps above me all have a good decade's worth of collecting on me, so I shall call myself a junior rekkid obsessive.

Edit: I have five copies of one record, a fair few duplicates and triplicates. I have bought an item twice in the past without realising I owned it already. It was one of the inummerable shit Johnny Cash records.

[Cantankerous]

i got an original pressing of Sgt. Peppers (just for the sake of having it) for 99 cents before i started working there but it didn't have all of those papers to the story inside, it only had like two or three.

[Inhuman]

I prefer vinyl to CD, but getting harder to find vinyl is annoying because at first you'd rather not open it and just stash it away, and then you can't find it on soulseek to download.

[Glice]

Originally Posted by Cantankerous

i got an original pressing of Sgt. Peppers (just for the sake of having it) for 99 cents before i started working there but it didn't have all of those papers to the story inside, it only had like two or three.

I just heard the sound of record collectors across the world going, "Pah. Amateurs" to that statement.

[Savage Clone]

Originally Posted by Glice

"The second is hiding, the placing of one or more items in some "secret" locale, usually behind bin cards or amongst the used rap 12" singles."

I hate that guy. Not the 'licker' variety, but that cunt who can't afford the record he knows someone else will want.

Indeed. Any self-respecting record nerd will be familiar enough to the staff to ensure having a personal "hold bag." I used to have a hold BOX, for god's sake.

[Glice]

Originally Posted by Savage Clone

Indeed. Any self-respecting record nerd will be familiar enough to the staff to ensure having a personal "hold bag." I used to have a hold BOX, for god's sake.

I'm lucky enough to not care enough about rock albums to ask people to keep things back. I have two non-rock stores which keep/ get stock for me, often without my needing to ask.