Do any of y’all have a record player, if so do y’all collect vinyl?

[Amiapowerlessman]

[Red_Arrow]

I saved many, many records over my life. I carefully kept them in the paper sleeves and those in the cardboard covers. But over time they managed to get pits and collect bits of dust, even with the brush attachment ahead of the needle. With all the methods of digital preservation, I see no reason to fight the problems of records and stick with digital methods of saving music. And with many radio stations playing the older music that I like, I can just turn on my radio at home or in my car and hear the music that I love.

[FunkyMonkee]

Do I collect vinyl? DO I COLLECT VINYL? Wait a minute, DO I collect vinyl? Oh, yeah!! I do!! I've got over 62,000 records, so far! If I still had my house, I'd have over 64,000, now!!
Yes, I've got at least one record player.

[Amiapowerlessman]

Just wanted to ask because on my days off I like to spend time in the record store

[FunkyMonkee]

Okay, well, yes, I collect records. Been collecting since I was 2. So does my next door neighbor but, he's only got about 36,000.

[guy_123]

It must be extremely tough to find a certain record amongst 64000! That is incredible... How do you store that?

[FunkyMonkee]

@guy_123 Back when I only had about 10,000, I hardly had any trouble remembering what I had. Mostly, I just remember the labels. But, in the past 20-some years, I've picked up thousands more and haven't even had the chance to listen to most of them, let alone recall what I've got. When I was a kid, I'd play with them, sorting them into different piles or just play them a lot so, I got used to knowing what I have. I just haven't had the time to do that with all of these new ones, yet so, I still don't have a clue what's in these new thousands. In fact, I'm going through the most recent bunch right now to give the naked ones (45's) some sleeves that I just bought. I've sleeved just over 200 in the past 3 or 4 hours. While I'm doing that, I'm also weeding out all the ones I don't want/need in order to sell them again.
Any time I get new records, I add them to my catalogue of all the records I have so I can take that with me when I go to record stores and that way, I'll know what not to buy, again.
I have a pretty good head for labels and who's on them and I keep everything in alphabetic order according to label so, if I want, King Crimson, I just go to the A's and the W's because they're on Atlantic (in the early years) and Warner Brothers (in the `80's). I'd also have to go to P because there's one on Polydor. (For CD's, because everybody switches labels as often as I change underwear, it's better to just sort them by artist.) If I want Connie Francis, I go to M for MGM. Tangerine Dream is another case entirely! They're on a couple dozen labels and I have nearly everything they ever recorded. Moody Blues; London, Deram and Threshold.

[FunkyMonkee]

@guy_123 As for storing, the albums are in 25 wooden orange crates (they're also in 2 or 3 ply poly bags so the wood can't scrape away at the cases), the CD's are in miniature wooden crates similar to the orange crates. The 45's are on "book" shelves converted to fit more records than they normally would. Most of the 78's are in 100 piece stacks on the carpet until I can get enough milk crates to store them in. Some are already in milk crates. So far, I've only got one cylinder and maybe two 80 RPMs so, the cylinder just sits on one of the 45 shelves and the 80's will go into one of the milk crates. Cassettes go into old converted Coke or Pepsi bottle cases. The open reels are either stacked on the floor or will eventually go onto more book shelves.