# Do you cull your collection?



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

As my collection gets more and more unwieldy I'm beginning to find things I think I may no longer listen to. I have CDs that I have ripped over into mp3 files as well as mp3s downloaded (legitimately!) from on line sites. Some of the earliest ones are of dubious quality due to bandwidth considerations back then or just poorly recorded. 

With a collection as cumbersome as mine, I dread the prospect of going back through and trying to find all the crummy recordings. I suppose I could look at the file dates and also the bit rate for the mp3s. For the CDs the recording date is not an indicator. All of mine are stereo, and almost any recording from the stereo era could be of good enough quality for me. 

Maybe I should just make a note to replace anything I happen to hear that sounds bad, but this could take years!

Any ideas? How do you cull your collection?


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

There are sometimes cds which one only likes in part, or only likes one or two tracks out of umpteen. They go first. Then duplicates - recycle the less preferred. Ask yourself how likely you are to want to listen to it, or how much will you miss it? A good plan is to weed out what you think you could and put them at the back of a wardrobe and review the situation in two or three months. Then you know that you didn't miss them at all - or you are _so_ relieved that you didn't cast them out.

It's a good idea also not to buy anything new unless you really _really _want it. Try holding off & listening to it on YouTube for a while to clarify your thoughts.

And remember that if you do recycle it to a charity shop, you are helping spread pleasure & music education as well as donating to the charity.

Occasionally, you might end up rebuying something, but that's good for Music too, & it will be like finding an old friend again.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Culling has been as much a part of my collecting as acquisition, since I began collecting 45s in the late '60s. In my younger years, my favourites were constantly changing, but since the '90s, my favourites are no longer rock, but classical, so they have remained constant and unchanging. Should I chance upon something that doesn't seem to fit me anymore, I put it onto the culling table. Only a few of those ever get culled, as a reappraisal generally reaffirms my original motive to acquisition. These albums are rarely classical ones (unless a new purchase has rendered redundant an album in my collection) and I have pruned the other genres so severely over the decades, that I am and have been for some time unable to cull any further. The days of the major readjustments are long behind me, as my primary interest, by a long shot, is classical. I, too, have reacquired a few items that I had once too zealously culled.

With digital files, culling is easy: with the mouse, select all, then delete. If it's worth having, it's worth buying on CD.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

It just occurred to me that this is a prime example of a "1st world problem." I do appreciate the suggestions though. Actually, pawing through my collection ought to be fun for me, becoming reacquainted with things I haven't heard in a while.


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## Centropolis (Jul 8, 2013)

I do have a thing against donating things to the charity stores like Salvation Army or Goodwill (not sure if you have Goodwills in other parts of the world). I am not against donating anything if they actually try and sell it to make money for their charities so that they can help others. But I know that the staff goes through all the donations and take everything they want first before it is put up in the store. I don't think that's right. I even heard a senior staff training a new hire in the store and the guy doing the training said something like "the staff that has worked here the longest gets the first go-through and so on....."


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

I try not to think of excuses for not helping charities. If the staff gets something special once in a while, that's fine with me. They're doing good work for a good cause and are probably underpaid (if at all).

Volunteers are even more important than donors.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

One reason I don't have "a collection" is that I have always culled the recordings I own / owned -- including a sort of "culling" of not buying several different performances of the same piece because one, or two, really is more than sufficient.

Yes, I cull, ruthlessly, so much so that it never accumulates into "a collection."


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

Centropolis is right. 

I briefly managed a thrift store owned by the Disabled American Veterans. Thrift stores are not necessarily about raising money for charity, although they are considered not for profit. Unless they are really successful, they are more about making things affordable for low income people and offering a place to pass on items people no longer need without throwing them away. The staff is usually paid close to minimum wage although we had a couple of volunteers we could not pay as they were on disability. They worked when they pleased and it was kind of a social thing for them I think. We always ran at a loss because the dumpster bill was astronomical! People would dump all kinds of garbage in the back lot thinking they were "donating." Also items that just never sold had to be thrown out eventually -- except for cotton clothes and linens. These were bundled with a big scary baling machine to become recycled cotton fiber.

The policy was not to allow the staff to buy (or outright pilfer) donations before they had been on the sales floor, but there was no way to monitor or control it without becoming oppressive.

For my part I will not donate to charities that phone me for donations. My life is not a TV show to be interrupted with commercials or public service announcements. Calling is the ultimate intrusion next to home invasion to me and I do not tolerate it. I also will not donate to "charities" that have a political agenda. Unfortunately that is many of them. 

I think instead I will give my spare CDs to my close friend who has several antique booths throughout the city. She is always in need of something to clutter up shelf space and can sell them to folks who might enjoy them.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Big fan of culling. I've found that obsessing over a collection is a sure way to lead you down an aggravating road. Music is a pleasure... having some misguided pride in your library will only turn it into a hassle.


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## Itullian (Aug 27, 2011)

My local library has a very nice Classical section thanks to me.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have also donated, over the years, numerous CDs to the library that I was unable to trade at local shops (they have an annual fund-raising sale of their own culled collections and not required donations).


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