How many albums is enough albums in a collection?

I always think of it as "oh crap I've got 4,000 lp's, that means if I spin 3 a day i'll only hear each one once every __ years, gahh, too many records..."

Pruned down to 800 lp's now, reckon 1,000 will be my sweet spot, spin 3 a day, hear each one once a year or so.

Maybe 1,000 is still too many...

If I had 40,000 like some do I'd go potty.
 
Melt Face Molly Drop said:
You either collect until you hit a certain number or collect long enough to see yourself become the villain. Then you rent a space in an antique shop and name it this (not mine don’t worry)

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I’d say the law of diminishing returns starts at about 1000 though. I’m about 200 north of that and working to cut down.
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Of course there’s a Herb Alpert.
 
Interesting thread, as I haven't really contemplated these issues. But I occasionally think about cutting down och downscaling. I'm at about 500 vinyl albums at the moment. The collection have metamorphed many times since the 80s when I first started collecting (purging vinyl for CD in the early 90s, purging CD's for digital in the early 00's, and then reconnecting with vinyl in the last decade). I'm slowly starting to warm up to the idea of having a solid base of great records that I won't part with, and then having some that I can rotate with new releases to keep the collection fresh. I think about 500 is a good cap for me, at least for now.
 
Sprague Dawley said:
I always think of it as "oh crap I've got 4,000 lp's, that means if I spin 3 a day i'll only hear each one once every __ years, gahh, too many records..."

Pruned down to 800 lp's now, reckon 1,000 will be my sweet spot, spin 3 a day, hear each one once a year or so.

Maybe 1,000 is still too many...

If I had 40,000 like some do I'd go potty.
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Like some others here I’ve been stable enough (few moves, enough space) that I never really had to worry about having to many LPs due to physical constraints.

The result being I’ve never sold anything. (Vinyl or CDs). I lost a handful of early vinyl to youthful indiscretion and poor equipment but I still have most everything. I’ve given away a fair # of LPs from used vinyl that came my way as I only keep really nice condition used vinyl. So beat up vinyl that would not ever be played is the only culling. Nothing gets into the main listening room that isn’t cleaned,sleeved, and great shape.

My personal thoughts on repeatedly reducing the collection to maintain a certain size is that your tastes change over time. So while I could easily pull 500 or 1000 recs out I don’t think I will ever listen to again it is hard to know what I may be enjoying 5 or 10 years from now.

Different parts of the collection fall in and out of favor over time. A collection gathered over a long period of time reflects the entire journey not just what you are into at any given time.

Just my POV. I could do a 180 tomorrow and decide to take back the space. Also, I know someday all to soon time and age will catch up to me forcing me to downsize the collection. I’ve just never felt the need as of yet. I look forward to getting it all into the hands for others to enjoy when that time comes.

All other opinions and collecting profiles equally valid.
 
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This is a great thread because anyone who buys records eventually runs into this dilemma. Big slabs of vinyl + time = storage issues.

I bought my first few records in 2002, but CDs were my predominant medium between 1995-2005 (at its peak, I had > 900 CDs; over the years I've purged most of them, down to maybe a couple hundred). The switch flipped around 2006, when vinyl was still ridiculously cheap. Before long I accumulated around 200-300 records.

In the early 2010s I went to law school in the Middle of Nowhere. The lack of record stores combined with the advent of Spotify led to some lean collecting years (which is good, given that I moved 10 times within a span of 3 years).

Once I resettled in Michigan in 2013, I was quite content with my 300 or so pop/rock records. Things were relatively under control until (1) I started exploring more genres and fell in love with jazz and funk, and (2) my job was a block away from a killer record store.

Fast forward to today and my Discogs is at around 950 records (not including classical). Space has been an issue for the last year or so (crates are now a thing). I've done at least a couple of 50-record purges over the last year but within a few months my collection rebounds back. I'm *this* close to convincing my wife that our living room would look great with a couple of small Kallax shelves, which would probably buy me enough storage for another year or so.

All of which is to say that the title of this thread is actually a rhetorical question. I'd be happy to double or triple my collection, but it's also conceivable that I would enjoy a cream-of-the-crop downsized collection that is two or three times smaller.

(I'm now wondering how big my collection would be if I hadn't regularly purged over the years. Other than the law school stretch, I've basically been buying an average of one album every 3-4 days for most of the past 25 years. There are CDs/LPs I've sold and then rebought more than once. I would need a bigger house.)
 
Outside of the obvious physical constraints (how much space is there in the end), I have set an arbitrary three cube maximum near the turntable. This is where I keep the "these are only leaving my possession in case of emergency or upgrade" records: basically my favorite artists and their releases as well as my favorite all-timer albums. This is where I am mentally keeping my floor, but it also makes me put in a little extra effort for ones outside of that realm in terms of retrieval and the like. This helps me mentally cull what I really do want to keep long term and what I will be unlikely to go back to once I reach whatever the "enough" number is for me. Right now, I'm personally at about 5.5 cubes or so and I think if I needed to cull I could probably easily weed out a good number. With that said, the collection is still very much expanding, so until that point is reached...

My girlfirend on the other hand is a book collectors, so she gets no moral high ground on me.
 
Having been a music lover/listener and Musician for around 40 years, the thing I've found is that my tastes have moved around a lot in that time. I've always listened to Jazz and Contemporary music, but not much contemporary music from the last 20 years.The last few years I listen to about 90% Jazz . For example in the early 2000's for about 10 years or so I got heavily into Americana through Ryan Adams , I have 100's of his live gig's on CD from when he allowed such things and I was on a board that you could download flac's of his gig's. But I never really listen to that stuff anymore and have got rid of a lot of those albums, I still have albums from the 80's that I listen to, but not too many , Music is such an important part of me, but I've grown into different music as I've grown myself and I find that I don't go back to a lot of things I used to as much. So it's always evolving and always changing and I'm always listening to stuff I've never heard before .
 
wenis said:
I just hit 1,500 today. Sometimes I’m fully happy with my collection and other days I find myself putting up some records for sale on Discogs. Depends on my mood.
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Oh collections are definitely mood driven.

There are the occasional days when just that one more snap, crackle, pop sends me over the edge.......

"THAT'S IT, I'M SELLING EVERYTHING AND JUST STREAMING!!!" ;)
 
I do find that each time I get close to filling up the available space I become much much much more selective with my purchases, which can only be a good thing really.

I'm currently at 24 cubes, 2 wine boxes and a free-standing stack, so basically exceeding the permitted space at the moment. Usually, I buy records from every range of prices, from cheap finds, to middle-tier average, to the occasional high priced rarities. Lately, I have found that the vast majority of my purchases have cut out the middle 'average price' tier (with a few exceptions) and its mainly cheap finds with the occasional expensive purchase. A key example is the recent Joel Ross release. I loved his first album and the live gig of his that I went to was fantastic. However, there's nothing limited about his latest release so I have basically told myself to wait and get it when it drops significantly (which it is bound to do eventually).

It's a strange justification as at face value it has nothing to do with space, but doing this has actually reduced the number of records that I am I adding to the pile.
 
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As someone on the smaller collection side (150) I am mind-blown by those of you with 1000+. I don't even know enough artists to to ever grow a collection that big :ROFLMAO:.

Echoing what others have said, much of my interest in collecting lately is somewhat personal. Early on it was very much pressure and FOMO driven, though I did discover artists I never would've otherwise. Now much of what I want to collect is focused on completing discographies of artists I TRULY like, 60s/70s pop/rock that my mom and in-laws grew up with, and the occaisonal limited edition release i cant help but own. The FOMO still kicks in from time to time, but I've gotten much better at resisting the urge.
 
epyon415 said:
As someone on the smaller collection side (150) I am mind-blown by those of you with 1000+. I don't even know enough artists to to ever grow a collection that big :ROFLMAO:.

Echoing what others have said, much of my interest in collecting lately is somewhat personal. Early on it was very much pressure and FOMO driven, though I did discover artists I never would've otherwise. Now much of what I want to collect is focused on completing discographies of artists I TRULY like, 60s/70s pop/rock that my mom and in-laws grew up with, and the occaisonal limited edition release i cant help but own. The FOMO still kicks in from time to time, but I've gotten much better at resisting the urge.
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I’ll say that a lot of mine has been buying in bulk as an excuse for music discovery. What makes the hobby great is those blind buys at thrift shops for a couple bucks.
 
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wenis said:
I stopped doing the complete collection of bands thing awhile ago. Sometimes you gotta acknowledge that some of your faves didn’t have the output during the 90’s that you would listen to with any regularity to invest $20-$30 bucks.
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100% agreed. Some artists I've "ended" their disco after a specific release knowing I would never listen to later releases.
 
Sad but true. I just went through with removing some of the outside-of-the-prime releases off my wish list of some of my favorite artists. If I'm gonna use shelf space and money I'd rather use it on something new I really like or buying releases of artists I listen to less that I would like more, and a lot of artists have pricey titles that would just be completionism checks as opposed to items I'd cherish.
 
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