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Estimate how much money you have wrapped up in your music collection

How much money do you have wrapped up in you music collection?

  • 10 - 1000 bucks

    Votes: 20 11.3%

  • 1001 - 3000 bucks

    Votes: 16 9.0%

  • 3001 - 5000 bucks

    Votes: 19 10.7%

  • 5001 - 10000 bucks

    Votes: 40 22.6%

  • 10001 - 20000 bucks

    Votes: 42 23.7%

  • 20001 - 50000 bucks

    Votes: 28 15.8%

  • 50001 - 1000000000 bucks

    Votes: 12 6.8%
  • Total voters
    177
For sure, I know when I first started buying records they were 6 to 12 dollars a piece depending on if they were singles or double LP's. And that was in the early 70's. Now the cheapest ones are in the low 20 dollar range and my upper range records are 50 or more. With tens of thousands of records many of them imports, some DMM's, half speed masters, MOFI and the likes, even if I used the lowest cost that records once cost of 6 dollars multiplied by tens of thousands it sure adds up. I never could have afforded all my music if it had not been for the millions of people that abandoned vinyl in the past. As during the lull before vinyl came back I was able to really clean house for very little money. It would be nice if this vinyl interest last for a long time. As when I get older I could start listing them and build up a nice cash stash to help my sons out before I leave this world. I think the cash would be much more useful to them, over two houses full of records and audio gear.
 
As it is, I give my oldest son all the digital download tickets in the new music I buy. He loads it on some digital player, not really sure what he uses.
 
I have bought, sold, and traded quite a bit of equipment since 1969, what I currently own probably cost me somewhere around $25K
 
I have bought literally thousands of records and I keep maybe 10% of each big haul. However, my investment is still under $2k. With very few exceptions, I have always bought at thrifts and if i see a promising stack, I always ask..."how much for all of them?" This has often (though not lately I have to admit) resulted in the "gimme 25 bucks and take em all" response. Of course, I really enjoy taking 3 or 400 LPs home and spending the weekend culling through the dusty musty boxes. The very occasional gem is just so much fun to find it's worth all the effort and the musical education, like when I found an entire collection of mint opera box sets, is too much fun for the money.

I would say that of those hauls, 95% goes right back to another thrift, but over the years, my collection has grown much larger than I would have imagined at an average of 50 cents an LP. It's only recently that I've been dropping the occasional 30 bucks on a new 45rpm half-speed-blah-blah-one-cut-only audiophile pressing. But most of the time it's to replace one of my own original records that I've played to death from the 80's.

If you count cassettes and CDs, you can add another $100. Right now is the golden age of thrift store CDs at least around my neck of the woods. They practically pay you to take them.
 
Hmmm. I seem to be the odd man out having a greater investment in what plays the music. I buy what I really like, but only have ~1500 albums of various formats.

Like gear, I'm not as much into the quantity of it. :)
 
E-Stat said:
Hmmm. I seem to be the odd man out having a greater investment in what plays the music. I buy what I really like, but only have ~1500 albums of various formats.

Like gear, I'm not as much into the quantity of it. :)
Click to expand...

I think if the negativity of any "hoarding" transgression could/should be forgiven... it would be in the form of an extensive music collection. I know we have crossed paths before with the theme being Quantity vs. Quality, but do you think you could be more lenient in your convictions when we are talking about a vast music selection?
I personally, am proud of my varied taste in music that has led to an ever growing music selection.
 
biscuithead said:
I personally, am proud of my varied taste in music that has led to an ever growing music selection.
Click to expand...
Your tastes are apparently wider than mine. To each his own.

My collection continues to grow, too as I discover new content. I'm a recent Tidal HiFi subscriber which has brought new stuff to my attention and allows me access to literally millions of albums.

My library would play continuously for about sixty days. :)
 
Probably $3,000 to $5,000 for me.

I've cheapened up over the last 15 years or so but when we were just out of college and had some disposable income, we went pretty CD crazy. Like really crazy.
 
About $10K for me, but streaming has actually cut back my music spending. Every now and then I hear something I'd rather have on CD (vinyl went long ago) and place an order, but streaming is adequate for most of my listens.
 
E-Stat said:
Hmmm. I seem to be the odd man out having a greater investment in what plays the music. I buy what I really like, but only have ~1500 albums of various formats.

Like gear, I'm not as much into the quantity of it. :)
Click to expand...

I'm the same way, I only have about 1000-1200 records at this point. I think most collectors start just wanting to own a wall of records, raiding every dollar bin and thrift store they can find, then at some point, usually around the time you have to move house you start second guessing the point of owning 5000 25 cent records and start focusing on the good stuff. At this point in my life I am definitely at the quality over quantity stage of collecting.
 
I don't have a clue? 6 ,that's right I just got a TT, 6 records, 200 CDs or so, a dozen cassette tapes I can't seem to throw away, 33000 songs in digital format. The 33000 songs takes up the space of a couple bars of soap. I have 13000 songs on my laptop which I use mostly in random mode. I use Pandora 80% of the time or YouTube songs/artist. I was at a music store in Birmingham AL last week next to Tomssound which I stop at every couple weeks. The guy (Beck) had a good bit of Beatles albums in his humble collection, we started a conversation on the fact I had never listened to the Beatles unless it randomly came on. I asked him which album I should bust my cherry on. He sold me Abby Road so when I get home I'll get comfy and sit down for a listen from start to finish.
 
jeremyjustic said:
I'm the same way, I only have about 1000-1200 records at this point. I think most collectors start just wanting to own a wall of records, raiding every dollar bin and thrift store they can find, then at some point, usually around the time you have to move house you start second guessing the point of owning 5000 25 cent records and start focusing on the good stuff. At this point in my life I am definitely at the quality over quantity stage of collecting.
Click to expand...

I realized that exact thing about 10 years ago when I saw boxes and boxes of thrift store LPs that I knew would never enter the rotation. That's when the "great purge" happened. It's amazing how when I used the "do I want to clean it and play it RIGHT NOW" yardstick the stacks of "take back" started growing. I quickly went from 5000 to about 500 (and that's because 300 were records I had from childhood) so I haven't done the numbers but the percentage was low.
 
This thread is not about passing judgement on others on how they spend their money, whether vintage is the 'better' way, or how/what to collect.

Your way ain't no better than mine...just different.

Enjoy the music and keep on topic.
 
Erik Tracy said:
This thread is not about passing judgement on others on how they spend their money, whether vintage is the 'better' way, or how/what to collect.

Your way ain't no better than mine...just different.

Enjoy the music and keep on topic.
Click to expand...

I'm with you, but I don't think that's happened just yet. Observations are fine. Judgement is lame. So far everything's fine.
 
Stabone454 said:
I'm new to this page, how do I get people to view my question??
Click to expand...

Not sure I understand what you mean. If you have a question, you can ask it in thread that's already going on or you can start a new one. If you are unsure how to start a new thread go ahead and send me a PM and I will be glad to help. Ummmm and if you're not sure how to PM (private message) just post here like you did before. :)
 
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