It doesn’t matter what you are collecting, doing it requires discipline. It’s not enough to say that knowing when to buy, sell, keep, or trade a thing is necessary. You must act accordingly. Knowing when to buy is the most problematic because it’s the funds you lose to mistake, conjecture, folly, or maybe ego, that predicate action elsewhere. You can’t sell stuff you don’t have nor can you buy the right thing if you’re broke.
Whereas I never look at our **cough** MY **cough** collection in terms of profit, or, return on investment, this is a lie and I look at our collection exactly this way. Of course, I do, but it’s not for gain. I’ll explain.
I value every album I’ve gotten to in our collection manager database. This value justifies the expense of the hobby. Say I have to shell out $15 for a copy of The Works of Shakespeare Henry V (A-4424). Well, this album happens to be beautiful and awesome and it’s of significance to the total overall value of the collection – it being 100 years of history in vinyl – and worth more than the cost, so, I’m in. That’s it. It may only temporarily be worth more then the cost, though. As in value fluctuation. But, that’s cool, I don’t shiv-a-git, when I bought it it was worth more and adds value to the collection, so, ‘wise investment’. Discipline maintained. I don’t go buying crates of moldy albums for $40.
That’s where it ends, too, the whole value thing. Our collection is relatively small at less than 2000 albums, but it has approached that pruning phase where we have many that may not meet our collection’s philosophy; as in, I’m not spending 50-large to expand the house to accommodate album storage. Pffft, as it. Or, this album sucks dank, sweaty donkey balls, out it goes, or – DO NOT BUY. The whole storage factor is of great concern and an impetus for further discipline.
So, value, storage, and adhering to the whole spinemup 100 years of blah blah thing are the 3 immediate barriers of entry to our collection. If the album meets or exceeds these parameters then it’s in. Done deal, I can’t wait to listen to it.
Oh, yeah – there’s that, too. We play our records. There ain’t no way in hell we’re spending thousands to watch fackin’ grass grow. Dig? We spin ’em right up. Shake it…In fact, it requires more discipline to open albums up and play them as it does to store them forever and get fuck-all out of them. You can explain why 😉 Wait for it. So, taking all this discipline into consideration you can see how we approach growing the collection.
We’ve had 2 sell-offs already. A stack of at least VGs (with the bulk being EX) out the door in collection form, meaning a whole host of cool music buried in albums nobody thinks are great, but are. The collection that remains is a vast wasteland of echo chamber emptiness. I pull out a John Lee Hooker album and immediately realize that he is woefully under-represented within the collection. Bam! That smarts. I (you) begin to realize – all that loot on bullshit and we have like 4 John Lee albums. Pffft…we need to fix this.
Now you’re off on a real journey of building a collection worthy of building. You went through your periods of nostalgia and whatnot and sell-offs and arguments over where to keep all the records and you’re at a place of peace with it all. Cool. Because that’s where you need to be at when you come across that album you’ve been looking for for almost a year.
That gem of wicked just oozing with gotta-have-it. Ha ha, step off cowboy, look at the thing. Now, I wanna say right here that my partner in the collection has long since stopped buying crappy albums. Every one is scrutinized whether it’s a dime or $30. OK, back on…look at that album. Really? I can smell it from here.
PASS.
Seriously – that perfect copy of The Beatles with the low serial number on the cover, that’s great, it’s a good album. But, it’s shit. DO NOT BUY. Some people poo-poo that because ego – emotion. They gotta have it now and they shell out the seller’s asking price of $45 for a moldy, soggy, torn-up copy. Pffft. That’s nuts. You’re at the wrong place.
You can’t goto every neighbor’s crappy garage sale and expect to find anything decent anymore. You gotta stay away from those places and instead hit up the…wait. No, I’m not telling you. I got dibs. Anyway, you get it. Discipline is within and without this whole endeavor and without it the whole thing would fall apart.
But I didn’t come here to say any of that. Heh. I came here to say – WOOHOO!! Found it:
More importantly, woohoo, found a version that when tended to will be almost NM. Wait…what? Tended to? Didn’t I just write all that bullshit about having the discipline to only increase the collection if the album meets or exceeds all our criteria? Tended to? That means it’s in crappy shape? Nuh.
I have seen other copies of this album (I’m lying about this album in particular but using it as an example of many others) that I have passed on. Maybe one was too much loot, heh, silly seller, or one had mold or was too roughed-up. Whatever, maybe it was an obvious 19th repress, point is, I kept my loot in my pocket so I could use it toward something worthy, like more plastic outer sleeves or Guinness. You know, collection relevant stuff. Or, the actual version I didn’t even know I wanted, because when you happen to find it, and there it friggen is, all the pieces fall into place and you can smug look yourself right into your favorite listening spot and have at it.
All friggen night long.
