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How big a record collection is necessary?

I've built up my record collection for close to 40 years. From the early 70's I've been compelled to acquire more and more. My main interest was rock and pop, but eventually began adding in blues, jazz and even some classical. I had close to 5000 albums which is a lot to me, but probably not close to many other inmates. It's all relative. I do know that I could listen for days on end to stuff and not even dent what I have on the shelf. Recently I would still buy selected new titles and even some used if the price was right, but it was more out of habit than a need. The shelf space and weight of the collection becomes too much after a certain time.
All record collectors will eventually be approached by people who no longer enjoy their vinyl and know that you collect. They just want a good home for their old favorites. Some want money for their meager stack and others just give it over for free. I had a good friend contact me a year ago and wanted me to help appraise what he had and possible buy it from him. He had a good amount of Beatles, Stones, Deep Purple, Jethro Tull, etc. But I had many of his titles and wasn't feeling like I needed to add his entire collection to mine. How many does one man need? He eventually just let me cherry pick what I was interested in and gave them to me. He decided selling one at a time on Ebay would be too much hassle.
I've gotten many old milk crates over the last decade from people done with vinyl but unwilling to just give it to Goodwill or toss it. Many people have similar albums and this gets tiresome. How much Christmas music, Hawaiian music or Bon Jovi titles does one guy need. I have four copies of the Wall because many people bought it and I've gotten those copies.
Recently this trend was taken to a whole new level. A woman in my dentist's office works for a fundraising charity who does a huge book sale each year. It's a multi-day event that takes over three large hotel conference rooms where they sell donated books. She is in charge of picking up books all year round. They used to deal with vinyl but stopped a few years ago. Now if people want to donate books and records, they won't take the records.
So she knows I am big into vinyl and calls me about an older gentlemen's family looking to pare down his possessions in a house. Rumor is that there is a fairly large shelf with a lot of albums and maybe more in a basement if they can clear a path to it. So D-day comes and I show up with my 16 yr. old son, this lady who has arranged this pick up and eventually even my wife shows up. I don't know what he has, but to be polite I figure I'll just help with the clean out and if they want to will these to me I'll take them and figure out what I have later. I didn't just want to spend time cherry picking.
First shelf took 5 minutes of boxing and it was unclear what I was getting. I just piled them in and carried them out to my Land Cruiser. Then we get word the basement was a go. We proceed down some old wooden stairs into a hoarder like basement filled with a lifetime of stuff. Way in the back down this narrow little path is some bookshelves. One is about 7 feet tall and is stuffed with vinyl. Lighting is minimal so I can really appraise what's there. It's also quite hot and stuffy. So we commence just stuffing boxes and carrying them out. The owner's daughter was ecstatic we were helping her pare this stuff down and was happy it was finding an owner who would appreciate it.
It took about an hour of packing and hauling, but we got it done. When I finally emerged to see my Land Cruiser it was sagging under the weight of the boxes. We had around 20 boxes stacked up in the back seat and back hatch area. I was tired and a bit giddy and felt guilty for my good fortune. I didn't know how I was to fit all these on my shelves and I figured I might have to grab the best and move on the rest. Estimate was a 1000 albums, but this includes many multi-disk albums.
Back at my garage I finally had time and good light to begin the process of seeing what I had gotten myself into with this huge addition. I was literally stunned to find what I had. It appears this gentlemen was very cultured and well read. It was primarily disks from the mid-50's to the late 60's. 80% was classical and the rest a mix of international folk, show tunes, movie soundtracks and a bit of jazz and rock. The basement was luckily dry and although musty kept most of the titles in really good shape. I had to wonder how long they were on the shelf and when they last saw the light of day.
I am not a classical music aficionado. I like some of it and would like to know more. What I found was a lot of very pristine disks from Mercury Living Presence, Columbia Masterworks and many others I'm not familiar with. Most have a bit of aging on the covers, but the records were many times brand new with immaculate sleeves and many great booklets. From what little research I've done some titles seem very desirable, but it's unclear if I have any holy grail type first pressings. But I don't know what I don't know. Now I'm leaning toward doing more research before giving up any of these. The challenge is to find shelf space for them and the time to go through them all.
So now I'm at around 6000 titles and there is another rumor of a collection of 400 albums I might be getting a call for. It's a great connection to have but how many records does one man need?

I'd like hear more stories of people getting other people's collections.


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Topic - How big a record collection is necessary? - tommytube 09:27:46 08/4/14 (31)

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