I know everyone has heard about it by now, but the auction for the stock from Record Rama (a Pittsburgh area record shop/personal collection) just ended today. I love records, but to be honest, I don’t love them that much. I take great pride in knowing basically every single record I own, to have that many seems just a bit ridiculous. Richard Brophy over at Test Industries made a post the other day talking about separating the wheat from the chaff in his collection. In the comments, the size of his collection was discussed, and I figured it would be fun to ask all the vinyl nerds on here what their collection size is like and how they go about trimming it down. You can read my thoughts on this here as a reply to his post.
I know there’s lots of different philosophies out there. One cat I know (who will remain unnamed due to the embarrassing nature of his crimes) actually holds on to crap like Mariah Carey’s Christmas Album. Another guy I know is a serious vinyl enthusiast and producer, but keeps his personal collection at about 1000 records by selling things off as he gets new things he likes.
So, dear ISM readers, how do *you* deal with your record addiction?
“I love records, but to be honest, I don’t love them that much.”
Tom, I reckon you love your records more than he did his. I would guess that his greater pleasure was in having more of something than anyone else. And what a mass of crap must be in that collection. All that stuff that he probably didn’t even like that he bought for “historical purposes”. Some music is best forgotten by history anyway (e.g. Mariah Carey Christmas Album)
My own collection is somewhere between 2000-2500 but is long overdue a trim. Could easily get below 2000 without much grief but my problem is going through them all and grading them, etc, etc.
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I purged about 3000 records, of all genres, when I left San Francisco, and probably kept about 3000 more. I purged plenty of dance music from styles that I knew I’d never play again, and for which my fondness had faded, but I kept all the old punk & HC, for example, and basically anything I liked that I knew I’d never see again in that format. Now my collection is split between Portland, OR — mostly all the old stuff — and Barcelona, where I live, and rack up promos and new purchases. I’m long overdue for a promo purge, actually, because there are so many white labels I just don’t care about, and probably plenty of things I’ve bought, too. Unfortunately Barcelona doesn’t have the greatest resale infrastructure, and I’m too lazy for eBay, so that purge probably won’t happen until I change cities again.
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oh yeah, in BCN I suppose I have… 500? 1000? I’m terribly bad at estimating numbers. What’s the rule of thumb in terms of records, 1 cubic foot = ??
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The last time i counted i owned 2,344 pieces. About a year and a half ago i sold/gave away over a thousand shit or unwanted records. Since then ive sold alot more and now have less than 300 pieces. I no longer collect vinyl on regular basis, purely because i was at one time addicted to vinyl and wasted too much money on it.
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For me it’s easy to hoard them but it’s freeing to let some go. Clearing out mostly titles that never really left me with much of an impression. I have to hold onto something for a few years at least before I deem it ready for sale.
So after the last few recent purges its left me with roughly 800-1000 titles which is a nice amount for the stands and space I have available.
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I purged my collection of hundreds of records because I went through a period of moving from flat to flat about every 6 months and it damn nearly killed me carrying them all. A lot of them were pure shit anyway…I was a chronic beatdigger for a while and you end up with some dodgy-as-fuck records just for the sake of a naked beat!! I probably only have about 500 records now but I love each and every one of them - it feels a lot better to know theres no Billy Joel albums in my house, even though “Stiletto” has a great intro….
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in the past 3 years or so, ive been trying to go through my collection every couple of months to find stuff that i dont really play anymore and dont think that i will ever play again. a collection should really be more about quality, than quantity. heres a few pics i took recently of my collection. i just got shleves from ikea:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/drum8bass/Picture136.jpg
and there’s still part of my collection that really isnt organized that well:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v684/drum8bass/Picture133.jpg
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man, i dunno exactly how many i have - i’m gonna put it at somewhere between 3-4000… they’re in at least 3 locations so being more specific is impossible. i know my parents would be proper pleased if i cleared out some of the boxes that clutter their house and garage up. i’ve been buying for about 13 years, but most of the stuff i bought for the first few years was bog standard cheesy house, so that lot could all go in a skip for all i care. i really, really wanna purge probably around a third of my records, but all i ever seem to do is come home with bundles of new stuff from charity shops - can’t resist taking a punt on cheap stuff, which is often shit, but might yield a good sample or two. my records are both the bain and the enduring love of my life, i trip over them daily, i fondle them often, i clean them not often enough, i play them all the time, and sometimes i sleep while clutching my copy of donnie on dj international, with sir. ron hardy’s mix on it. i love them, i hate them, i lust after them, i’m never satisfied with what i’ve got, i always want more. how anyone could ever get rid of ALL their records, i’ll never know. you might as well kill yourself right there.
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I used to be a right hoarder, not just with records. I’m the complete opposite now. I don’t want anything I don’t really like. I got rid of maybe 600 records, possibly more, over the last few months and they were all things I know I won’t miss.
Quite a lot, possibly 100 or more of the records I got rid of were actually alright and weren’t what you’d call awful. But that’s just it - they were alright. Average. I don’t want any of that in my collection.
I have no idea how many records I own, but one thing I do know after the last few months sorting out - I’m really into every single one of them.
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I was round my mates house one night and his girlfriend came home ridiculously drunk and sat/collapsed on a huge pile of his records…the look of panic and terror in his eyes will haunt me forever.
The guy in the photo looks a bit like Saddam Hussein
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Quote - Conductor:
I was a chronic beatdigger for a while and you end up with some dodgy-as-fuck records just for the sake of a naked beat!!
Man thats one of my biggest problems. I’ve got so much shit that i bought just for one beat or one hit. In barcelona last year i bought an album for 22euro for one hi-hat! When your listening to records and you find this one sound, you just have to have it man, my mate says i need to look into something less addictive - like heroin
I heard that collection was bought by an irish person too, any truth in that??
As you were saying:
I was round my mates house one night and his girlfriend came home ridiculously drunk and sat/collapsed on a huge pile of his records…the look of panic and terror in his eyes will haunt me forever
A few months ago my heavily pregnant friend was in my house, was wearing a kind of dress type thing - sits down on my (open at the top) record bag! Now she was not far away from her expected birth..got me thinking - what if her waters broke or some shit like that.. i think i may have had a minor heart attack at that very moment
DAAMN woman, up off ma rekkids now!!
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I have somewhere between 2000 and 2500 records and a bit under 500 CDs. When I moved to the UK I’d got it down to 1000 that I would definitely not part with and about 100 I had trouble parting with before leaving.
I bought stupid quantities of records in my first two years in the UK, as my tastes were broadening and I bought almost nothing between 98-99 and I was still jonesing for more variety. Also, when I arrived here I only had about 50 records from my stateside collection. All are here now.
I have maybe 200 I’ll sell sooner or later, and I could probably be a bit more ruthless about another 2-300 if I were really pressed. Mostly I’m just buying less these days though. More than anything I just don’t have the time to listen to what I get.
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I have 1861 records of which I have 273 on sale at discogs.com and at least 100 more that I am pretty sure will wind up there eventually. I already sold around 400 records over time. But I buy records faster than I sell them.
I do try to keep only quality stuff in my collection but I make exceptions for certain labels and genres. Even then I won’t keep total junk just for collectibility’s sake.
What makes it difficult for me is that I like so many different genres that it’s hard to keep the size of my collection down.
I think the ideal collection size is one where you know every record you have and what it sounds like and play every record in the collection around once a year. I think that would put it around 1000 pieces.
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I’m not trimming my collection, in fact I’m slowly
adding to it!!
From what I’ve heard, this Record Rama guy has
thousands of common titles (like ‘Frampton Comes
Alive’) and wants to sell it as a complete lot!!
I’ll be very surprised if it actually sells, not
counting the phony bids that have surfaced.
Bill
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