Record collecting versus hoarding

Soko, I trash unplayable LPs, even if I like the music on them, and then I search for a better copy.  If it's a really special performance, in my own mind, I try to replace the bad sounding copy with a better one almost immediately.

I am fine with keeping LPs I do not play, because of the possibility that I will want to listen to them some day. What I don’t tolerate are bad sounding LPs (meaning poor quality recordings) or LPs that have noise causing surface damage that resists a good cleaning on my RCM (if I otherwise enjoy the music recorded on them).  LPs in either of those two categories go to the recycling bin immediately.

What do you mean here?: “I don’t want to take away from my records on heavy rotation.”

In my opinion, one must have a certain number of LPs in order to enjoy occasionally that serendipitous musical revelation, where you spot an LP you hadn’t played in years or didn’t even know you had in your collection, and you experience the delight of listening to it. I suppose that critical mass of LPs is different for different people, but I’m sure you need more than 300 LPs for that to be possible. Today I was delving into a cabinet that houses LPs I’ve owned for 30 years or more, which therefore I tend to ignore, and I experienced that epiphany 3 times, with Joe Williams/ Count Basie, Blue Monk, and Phil Woods Quintet + Dizzy.

M, was joking.

Soko, If I have a particular LP in mind, I can usually recall when I bought it.  The upstairs LPs are ones I have owned longest.  Or there is some other temporal or musical association that tells me where to look.  For another example, I have a large cache of jazz vocals in one cabinet in our basement.  Anyway, however the mind works, I usually know where to look. There has been a bit of a problem with remembering what I own and where it is to be found since I acquired those 900 LPs at one go.  But those are all in the basement, in one cabinet specially built for them.

Mijo, Probably not a good idea to pipe "God Only Knows" into your examination room, when you are seeing a patient who is actually sick. (I know from my own limited experience in clinic that most aren't sick.)

It behooves me to have about half or more of my LP collection in our basement, because I have an entirely separate audio system also in the basement, which is finished like anyone’s living room. Generally, the LPs in the basement stay in the basement and are played on that system. LPs on the first floor are played on the first floor audio system, by and large. Of course, if I am listening to one of the two systems, and I develop a desire to listen to one particular LP that is on another level of our home, I use the stairs and get it.

I actually don’t think I qualify as a hoarder, by normal standards if not by your standards. About 6 years ago a dear friend of mine passed away. He had 6000 LPs, and his wife offered me my pick of his collection, or all of it if I wanted. I picked out about 900 of his LPs, and she gave the remainder away to a charity. A hoarder would have taken them all. I also don’t think I am much of a "collector", in the sense that a collector would want to accumulate "collectible" LPs. We know what those are. I rarely buy any LPs at all these days, but if I do it will only be for the music, regardless of the label, rarity, or codified collector value. That has always been my modus operandi.

Spreadsheet?  I don' need no stinkin' spreadsheet.  It's all in my head.  I have three record storage areas on the first floor of our house and 3-4 more racks in the basement.  In each location, LPs are arranged by alphabetical order according to musician, if jazz or R&B instrumental, or according to vocalist, if jazz or R&B vocal, or according to composer, if classical, or according to movie title, if movie soundtrack.  But in my head is the idea of where in what cabinet or shelf on which floor of the house, to look for a particular LP.  Making a spreadsheet would take much too much time.  Soko, you must be particularly anal (the opposite of a hoarder) if you both keep a spreadsheet AND bother to sell LPs not in your regular rotation.  That's perfectly OK by me, but you should accord the same tolerance to collectors or hoarders who hang on to thousands of LPs, if it makes them happy.  For me, I can say it does.

Define "big collection".

Soon you’ll fill your tent with LPs and you’ll have to move into a smaller satellite tent.

What’s wrong with living in a tent if it’s in your own back yard?

Of all these responses, I think only Jaret’s dad may be a true hoarder, in the pathological sense. Spent $24,000 on LPs over many years and has no turntable. The rest of us are fine.

big greg, You cannot be a real hoarder if you admit to being a hoarder.  This is a variation on Groucho's famous statement that he would not join any club that would have him as a member.  Knowing you are a hoarder and admitting it demonstrates some level of sanity, whereas hoarding is a mental illness.  So don't worry.