#record collecting

[nodirectionhome-ao3]

Sorry in advance for the niche rant lol but I’ve been saving to buy a turntable for a really long time now because I’ve been wanting to collect records since I was a kid and I’m finally at the point where I can justify the expense and start buying the equipment.

So recently I fell down the ~record cleaning~ rabbit hole (a very deep rabbit hole as it turns out) and long story short, the consensus is that the Discwasher brush is the gold standard when it comes to cleaning brushes. But it’s discontinued, which means the only way to buy it is second hand online. So I’ve been scrolling through eBay for days looking for one that’s in good shape and reasonably priced (a tall order considering the fact that vintage things like this tend to be exorbitantly overpriced haha)

BUT LOOK WHAT I JUST FOUND IN MY PARENTS’ BASEMENT??

It’s from the ‘80s (or late ‘70s??) and the brush looks like it’s hardly been used, despite some dust on the outside of the box.

An actual JACKPOT. I am SO excited rn😅😅

[mrbopst]

[yurugua]

Today’s Vinyl: J Dilla’s Donuts

[punisheddonjuan]

Huh, so I've been cataloguing my vinyl collection with Discogs and apparently a copy of the original UK pressing of the "Bela Lugosi's Dead" 12" on Small Wonder Records in as good a condition as mine is worth somewhere around $110.

(Bonus: I've also got the original pressing of the "She's in Parties" 12".)

I think I picked this up for maybe $15 in 2012 at a record store in St. Catherines. I'm also learning that I have a bunch of weirdly expensive records, like who knew the first pressing of the first Idles album goes for $157 (bought it for $25 at a show), or that the pressing of Herbie Hancock's Fat Albert Rotunda I own goes for $75. I've catalogued 63 entries (including the two King Crimson box sets 1969-1972 and 1973-1974) out of the maybe 450-500 records I own and it's already making just want to stop out of embarassment.

There's no way my collection should be worth this much, and I'm not even a quarter of the way through...

[thnks-for-th-venom]

the worst part about Record and CD collecting for me are the prices now. I usually get CDs and Vinyl from local stores but I went to Newbury Comics today to find Saviors and I found a couple cd being sold for 20 dollars (it wasn’t deluxe or exclusives) when it’s 14 when I look it up online. That’s just a scam like I would rather buy it off Amazon and I am a fucking hater of Amazon

[viewfromthelake]

Was checking out some record stores yesterday and came across a find that ended up being cooler than it seemed at first glance. In the bin of album covers without records in them being sold for $2, I found this sleeve for Hall & Oates' Big Bam Boom album with some writing and a mysterious sticker on it. Looking closer, the writing matched a Google image search for what their autographs look like. Also, later research showed that their 1985 tour was sponsored by Pontiac and the backstage passes were satin stickers of the kind on this sleeve. Cool stuff!

[lydia-the-tatt00ed-lady]

I think this is the coolest album cover I’ve ever seen

Spook Along With Zacherley (1960) - Zacherely

[thefuturesbright]

Not Tortured Poets related but Taylor related

So context my Taylor collection is complete from Fearless Platinum Edition to now Tortured Poets right, technically it is complete because I brought Taylor Swift off of eBay. Which is where the problem starts

I brought the album a week ago. Have yet to get a update, idk if it shipped, I contacted the seller 2 days ago they did not respond and I want to be patient I plan on contacting them again but if I don’t get an update at least by next week I’m just gonna ask them to cancel or go through eBay cause eBay said it’s too late to cancel. I just need some help idk what to do?

[singles-bar]

[vinyl-connection]

DARK PLEASURES

It’s a striking opening line to the first song on your first album: “I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand”. Searching, yearning for direction, for counsel. The song is called “Disorder”, a one-word summary of the singer’s internal state. A plea for human contact: take my hand. Please. Welcome to the dark electro pop of Joy Division. Welcome to their first album, 1979’s…

[therecordchanger62279]

THE VINYL COLLECTORS COMMUNITY

Now that I’ve jettisoned Facebook, I have more time for other pursuits on the world wide web. I live a very insulated life. I rarely go out. I don’t socialize with people at all. I never talk on the phone for social purposes. The few friends and family I have live in other cities, and most of them have not seen me in person in more than five years, and most never will again. If I was famous, the press would call me reclusive. I don’t know if I really am as far as my personality goes. It’s just that I have no reason to go out, and I don’t get much pleasure from being around other people.

But a bit of long-distance contact is something I can usually tolerate for short periods, so I went looking for a new online community to take the place of my now-defunct Facebook Friends List. I still love music, and I have a nice collection of records, so I discovered the Vinyl Collectors Community on YouTube. These are people who spend most of their money, and waking hours collecting records, and making videos about what they buy, and what they own, and what they like to listen to. I seem to fit in. My comments are always welcome, and seem to get a good response from everyone who reads them. The irony is that I’ve sort of joined this group of people at a time when I’ve pretty much decided to stop buying vinyl records.

I do enjoy the give-and-take, however, and I’m still interested in what other people are buying, and listening to. I have subscriptions to 28 channels so far, and I’m adding new ones all the time. It costs nothing. A sub just means you’re able to keep track of your favorites, and get notices when they post a new video. It takes the place of the one-to-one contact I used to have with customers when I was managing record stores. That was one of the best parts of the job – trading ideas, and making small talk about music with people who shopped the store. None of my Facebook pals are even buying records anymore – even though most of them were people I met because I managed record stores.

In any case, it was time to move on, and find new people to interact with, and with whom I had something in common. There’s no commitment. I can watch, and be silent. I can watch, and comment. And when I turn off my computer, I can return to my insulated existence, and not give any of it a second thought until I decide I want another fix. Maybe, I’m learning how to navigate my social life in the 21st century better than I thought.

(Pictured above is a collector named Robert Fithen. I subscribe to his channel because he’s funny, and knowledgeable, and doesn’t take any of it too seriously.)

One week later: After a deeper dive into this vinyl collectors community thing, 19 of the 28 subscriptions I had were dropped, and the magic has already begun to go out of it for me. Many of them are already talking about not buying records any longer due to the expense, and many more had not posted anything in several months. Still others simply have nothing to offer me as a collector. They're novices just beginning their own journey while I'm at the end of mine. I'll dabble now and then just to keep my hand in, but there really is no comfortable fit for me when it comes to "keeping company" with other human beings - whether in person or in cyberspace. My own records, and books are still the best company I keep. How 20th century of me.

[cumberbitchhhh]

can i just say that, whilst i love all of the cover art and i’m so so so so excited for the new album, i’m kind of annoyed that, in order to have every song (that we know of) on TTPD physically, you have to buy 3 copies.

physical copies of music are not cheap a lot of the time, especially vinyl/records. as a record collector, i do not want to buy 3 copies of the same album just to get an extra song. i know some people don’t mind buying variants, but a lot of people simply cannot afford to spend that much money just for 1 extra song per record.

it’s really irritating because they could definitely just do 1 standard record, and 1 deluxe record, instead of releasing 1 song on each variant. i like to listen to my music physically, so it’s annoying that it’ll be missing out on a couple songs just because they’re on a different record.

and i already know someone is going to say “just stream the songs,” which i would be completely fine with, but for a lot of bonus tracks on taylor’s albums that are only available on certain physical copies, they either don’t get released on streaming services for months on end or they don’t get released at all. we saw this on midnights with hits different, which was released 7 months after the original album came out, and also you’re losing me, which was released 13 months after midnights.

i just think it’s very frustrating and all of the variants just seems like a way to get more money. i love taylor and i defend her endlessly, so i know some people will probably come after me for saying this, but it’s just my (very strong) opinion on the matter.

[dejablonde]

Looking for blogs to follow (or even be mutuals, come say hi!) because I keep cycling through the declining number of apps I have for content and it's getting depressingly empty. Tumblr is the only one that's hopping, but I haven't followed any new blogs in a while.

Some of the things I like:

- Record collecting/music, mostly things that could be considered rock, but I'm flexible. Latest band obsession is Ghost.

- History and historic/vintage fashion

- Animals (of the cute variety and the less conventional, including a lifelong love of bats)

- The usual Tumblr shitposting

- I also have ADHD so that gets talked about

- General nerdery; Marvel, Star Wars, plus plenty of other Tumblr mainstays. Don't want to make this post too long with an exhaustive list, you get the idea.

- Spoopy stuff

So yeah, if any of that sounds like you or a blog you like, lemme know!

[yurugua]

Today’s Vinyl: Frank Ocean’s nostalgia,ULTRA

[moltengarnet]

Custom record player table and record collection storage I made in 2021. I don’t have this anymore but I want to remake something similar eventually.

I made this original one at the Melbourne Makerspace in Florida.

[sweatloaf2002]

some of my favorite 45 picture sleeves I've found 🌀