The not lost but hard to find art of vinyl records

Another vote for Discogs.  I started entering my 55+ year collection 2 years ago.  I don’t view my collection as an investment or part of my portfolio like many Discogs users, so I don’t care if I enter an album with the wrong pressing location or enter it as VG+ when it’s VG.  Once you learn how to enter the catalog number off the spine and select the album, entering becomes a breeze.  I started to create a spreadsheet so my heirs would know what was in my collection when my time comes.  But when I found Discogs I said, "Why reinvent the wheel??"

I do take the time to enter the condition of each album, mainly because Discogs keeps a running total of what your collection is worth based on their sales data.  If I’m unsure of the pressing location, I typically pick the most common entry.  That helped me tremendously when increasing the coverage on my Personal Articles insurance policy.

in my head. I don't have that many. 

My challenge is where to store them. If they aren't front row, easily neglected. And there are only so few front rows.

Outlier here. Memory  About three thousand or more, who knows. Once in awhile I buy a duplicate by mistake. Oh, I had that? Still, way more economical in time (money) than sitting down with discogs and cataloguing. If you've had records since a kid, you know what you have. Rock/soul/folk/BG/country in a closet w good light, by alphabet altogether. Jazz in a downstairs system, by alphabet--although once had it by instrument of the leader first then alphabet, much better. Classical in an upstairs listening room by composer--except multi composers, then by soloist, if there is one. Oddball, world music, ambient, electronic its own shelf same room as classical. Stuff migrates. SoI have one cubby each room for "re-filing." All 180g separate shelves in basement office system. Yes, I find separate 180g setup better. Don't want to mess with VTA, I swap out record mat instead. Better option is separate 180g TT in two of the rooms next to the regular. All modest TTs bought used. My SO cares nada about gear in rooms or decor. My issue w Discogs which I did put about four hundred in before stopping, is that I realized I didn't care what I had. It wasn't about the list. It is about the discovery (rediscovery) of browsing for stuff, and choosing something. The actual object is more appealing to do this with than list or streaming scrolling, although I do that to.

I would 2nd/3rd/4th using Discogs to catalog your collection. I started using it a few years ago to catalog my vinyl and CD collection. Primarily to keep track of what I own and see if I have any hidden (valuableish) gems. I find it very useful when I’m doing a cleaning session of vinyl I haven’t cataloged yet, as I’m halfway through my collection. The great thing is that I’ve discovered that some of the jazz and blues vinyl pressings that I inherited from my dad are valuable. And while I don’t plan on selling anything, knowing that information adds to my personal knowledge of the value of my collection, and if I am trying to decide if a reissue or remastered pressing is worth getting.  Another nice thing about Discogs is that I can pull up my collection on my phone while I’m out at the record store. As I’m flipping through crates, I can check to make sure I’m not accidentally buying duplicates of something I already have. I would also add another value of cataloguing in Discogs, based on condition and pressing, is that you have a running "value" that could be used for insurance purposes should you ever need it.  My collection isn't vast - about 2000 in vinyl and CDs. Modest by many of the folks on here, but it's invaluable to me. 

Good luck and have fun!

don't forget good lighting