# The eight tribes of vinyl collector



## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Interesting BBC article:

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26990263


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

It's record store day tomorrow (Saturday April 18) here as well. I don't buy LPs anymore, but I'll go to my local shop to look around. They're also having a CD sale. This shop sells almost all classical.


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## Headphone Hermit (Jan 8, 2014)

if I had space, then I'd collect vinyl because of the outstanding variety and quality of second hand LPs sitting in charity shops just waiting to be bought for a few coppers. Many of these are interesting recordings from the 1950s-70s, often with attractive covers. As it iis, I have just one piece of vinyl - a copy of the first classical LP I bought (Berlioz Symph Fant)


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Oh man! I could come up with better categories than that!

The accumulator- scoops up large batches at swap meets regardless of whether he's familiar with the music or not (also disparagingly known as bottom feeder)

The targeter- will pay high prices for specific titles. no interest in anything other than what's on his list

The stamp collector- buys records for the covers. Condition matters, but not on the record itself

The Japanese feeder- Scours swap meets for records that he can resell at insane prices to Japanese collectors

The time traveller- Interested in time periods, not specific types of music

The childhood recreator- Trying to recreate his long lost childhood collection exactly

The **** retentive- CONDITION CONDITION CONDITION!

The numbers man- Someone who collects a record label... trying to gather up every release on that label. Organized by stock number

The decorator- Looking for contemporary records to put in his carefully restored console stereo from the 50s. Authenticity is a must!


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## Don Fatale (Aug 31, 2009)

Naturally I prefer bigshot's list but I'm not sure where I fit in.

Initially I was an _accumulator_, via Ebay job lot auctions, but you can't do that for long before the house gets overrun with vinyl. Now I'm gap filling. I love box sets in particular. Having a Beethoven Piano Sonatas set makes a lot more sense than loads of miscellaneous single LPs. And of course operas... don't get me started! There's nothing in my collection for value or rarity, all for listening and enjoying. In recent times I've got 3 people to buy or resurrect their record players, so could I suggest the category of _vinylevangelist_?


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Once an accumulator, always an accumulator!


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

KenOC said:


> Interesting BBC article:
> http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-26990263


I liked this article and love my vinyl collection even though I've a whole bundle of CDs.

However, someone bought me http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vivaldi-Rec...?ie=UTF8&qid=1399730597&sr=8-5&keywords=vinyl earlier this week (as a 'jokey' gift) and I loath it. Loussier's Bach is rather better than Richter's Vivaldi but I still wonder why either bothered.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Alexander said:


> In recent times I've got 3 people to buy or resurrect their record players, so could I suggest the category of _vinylevangelist_?


I like _vinylevangelist_ as 'a category'. My local record store is selling more and more vinyl albeit though I'd prefer to buy Lady Gaga's 'latest' on CD than on vinyl since a) it'd be easier to hide from anyone who came visiting and b) because it's probably a DDD recording so why would I want to add an extra layer of distortion in 'analogue playing' it (akin to my playing an ADD or, worse, AAD CD rather than using a vinyl version of said recording). Yes, vinyl has a warmer and less clinical sound whilst CD has a more accurate BUT sanitised one ... neither is 'perfect' any more than a valve amp is better than a solid state one and we each have preferences (and our own version of 'perfect for us').

I liked the 16 year old boy's comments in the article ... vinyl was almost dead barring the second-hand market but has now recovered to survive within a growing 'niche' one which looks 'here to stay'. I still have my childhood collection and would never part with any of it ... possession verging on the demonic sometimes ;-)


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

I know many but have never really understood what motivates the "collector". There's always exceptions but I'm certain that for most it has little to do with audio quality and more about people who are desperate to collect something. 

I'm a "Replacer". If I find a recording which I think is better than the one I've got, it will replace it instead of being added to the collection. The exception is opera as there's more variables to what I think makes for good listening.


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Couac Addict said:


> There's always exceptions but I'm certain that for most it has little to do with audio quality and more about people who are desperate to collect something. If I find a recording which I think is better than the one I've got, it will replace it instead of being added to the collection. The exception is opera as there's more variables to what I think makes for good listening.


The problem I have here is with 'better' rather than 'different' since I have several versions of 'this or that' (with some then being directly replicated in the CD format where a remastering has taken place). Playing/playing styles/playing tempos and a host of other variables render one version of many things simply not enough unless you've only the finance or storage capacity for a singleton of whatever. Remastering onto CD also sometimes just doesn't 'cut it' and, though audio quality is important to me, performance is also making this 'better' thing 'a bit of a juggling act'.

Yes, I am guilty of having some 'childhood dross' in my collection (BUT not a huge swathe of it) though I've never been 'desperate to collect' and have only ever gotten stuff I'd heard (and liked) or that which was well-reviewed (where unheard first). In my youth I made lists and was also guilty of being an accumulator, when starting my 'classical' collection, but now I've a fairly large collection and am far more selective so it's back to listing for me ;-)


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## Jos (Oct 14, 2013)

I completely agree with Svelte here in the last sentence of his last posting. Same with me; I don't see myself as an accumulator but a musiclover with a weird preference for vinyl (no it's not the soundquality, resolution or other hifi-blabla).
One gets more critical in purchasing once the collection is over, say, 2000 albums, at least I am. 
An exception is made for TurnaboutVox ofcourse.........
The music is what matters, not the medium.

Cheers,
Jos


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Jos said:


> The music is what matters, not the medium.


3 cheers for 'music not the medium' and on that note I'm off out for dinner once 'black-tied'.


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## Antiquarian (Apr 29, 2014)

Lately I've become an "Accidental Accumulator" when it comes to vinyl. Everyone who knows me is aware that I love classical music. Consequently, when someone who is a friend of a friend remarks that their father has just died and left them their classical lp's, and " it's such a terrible nuisance to move them" or "it's simply that I have no room for them" or "I really have no way to play them" , I become the "go to" guy. At this moment, for instance, I have three large crates just given to me in my garage filled with opera. The complete Wagner's Ring (Solti), Puchini's Madama Butterfly (Leinsdorf, both the Leontyne Price and the Anna Moffo performances), Turnadot (Leinsdorf again),Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (Furtwängler), you get the picture. It's not that they are junk, since they are remarkably clean (never played wet), but they are not 'sigh' mine in the sense that I bought them for my enjoyment. It's sometimes annoying, since occasionally I do get rubbish (a set of well worn Golden Guinea Collector Series comes to mind), but I find that I have a hard time tossing them. What a problem to have!


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## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

That was happening to me and I had to put a stop to it. No more room!


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Antiquarian said:


> Lately I've become an "Accidental Accumulator" when it comes to vinyl. Everyone who knows me is aware that I love classical music. Consequently, when someone who is a friend of a friend remarks that their father has just died and left them their classical lp's, and " it's such a terrible nuisance to move them" or "it's simply that I have no room for them" or "I really have no way to play them" , I become the "go to" guy. At this moment, for instance, I have three large crates just given to me in my garage filled with opera. The complete Wagner's Ring (Solti), Puchini's Madama Butterfly (Leinsdorf, both the Leontyne Price and the Anna Moffo performances), Turnadot (Leinsdorf again),Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (Furtwängler), you get the picture. It's not that they are junk, since they are remarkably clean (never played wet), but they are not 'sigh' mine in the sense that I bought them for my enjoyment. It's sometimes annoying, since occasionally I do get rubbish (a set of well worn Golden Guinea Collector Series comes to mind), but I find that I have a hard time tossing them. What a problem to have!


Get a bigger house or extension or share with friends who don't get the offers you do


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

bigshot said:


> That was happening to me and I had to put a stop to it. No more room!


See above as if you lucky lucky guys don't save the stuff who will?


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