Are Vinyl Records an Investment or an Addiction?
Hi, my name is Scooter77 and I am a vinyl record addict. I have had this addiction since I was a kid and it hasn't abated 30+ years later. Why do I have this addiction you ask? Well it has to do mostly with my upbringing. The reasons of which I outline below:
In the beginning
During the 80's and 90's I remember heading down to the local record store as a kid to flick through the vinyl records, only to leave empty handed and head home to record songs from the radio on my cassette recorder. Sound familiar? If you are a child of the 70's, 80's or 90's (and of course earlier) before the arrival of that little plastic disc called a CD, you will know what I am talking about.
One of my fondest memories from my childhood was Christmas morning, 1987. My siblings and I were tearing open our presents from Santa like lions on a carcass when something caught my eye on the 'presents for the family' table. It was square in shape and not very thick. I begged to be the one to open it and within that raging red wrapping paper with reindeer on it lie my (well technically 'our') first record, Michael Jacksons - Bad (you know it, come on.....Who's Bad!). And so my addiction began.Addiction
To begin with, lets start with the root of this addiction and for that I blame (or thank) my parents. As the oldest child in the family, it was entrusted to me to operate the cherished Pioneer record player that took pride of place in our beige coloured lounge room. Underneath that record player lived a variety of records encompassing everything from The Beatles, Slade, Charley Pride, Lobo (which I still loath to this day), AbbA, Ripper '88 and everything in between.
From then on it was, "turn off that crap" or "turn down that music". After playing the record probably 1,000,000 times Dad finally caved and bought me a new record, guided by his rock music knowledge of course, AC/DC's - Back in Black.
It was here we discovered Neil Young, The Beastie Boys, Deep Purple and even scored some early Pearl Jam on white vinyl.
From that day we have collected and 'crate dived' whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Why Vinyl
So why vinyl records I hear you ask, well here are my reasons for collecting:
Nostalgia and Sentimentality - vinyl records are tactile objects. There is a ritual to pulling them from their covers, placing them on the turntable and gently dropping the needle down. Records are more substantial and beautiful than CD's or MP3's.
Analog vs. Digital - vinyl is a continuous analog signal and with it comes irregularities and every flaw in the vinyl is transferred directly through to the speakers, something that you just don't get with digital formats. You may say that this could be a flaw, but again, it comes back to the nostalgic and sentimental aspect of point 1.
Collectability - although much of the vinyl in our record collection is not worth more than the vinyl they are pressed upon, we buy them because we love the music. We do have some collectible records that are worth some money, but that is not the core reason for the collection addiction. (The most valuable in our collection is that original AC/DC - Back in Black record that Dad helped me buy when I was younger)
And so the addiction continues and we are now up to a collection of around 400+ records with a value of just over $5000 (definitely not what we put into the collection).
The most expensive vinyl album in our collection is currently Eddie Vedder: Into the Wild at around $200 (first pressing)
So the question remains, are Vinyl records an investment or an addiction.... For me, both. I am addicted, but like the idea of them appreciating in value too.
https://twitter.com/77scooter77/status/1349876495502569474
Got any ribs? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribs_(recordings)
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Like film has this special look for photography, vinyl has this really special sound XD
Such a cool story. Fully understand why you love vinyl's and I agree with you vinyl's have something magic compared to the CD and mp3, streaming services and what not.
I never owned any vinyl, though I come from the pre-CD era. Always used tapes and recorded quite a few of them. Initially only from radio, but when I gotmy first CD player (late 80's), I was fortunate a newly established CD rental service/shop was just around the corner where I lived. No vinyl like analogue stuff. But all the music released on CD was available at that shop to rent for a few bucks a week. And when they didn't had a album I liked to rent, they would purchase it. When I liked something a lot; I would purchase the CD. When I liked something enough, I would copy this to tape. For me this was the most perfect way to discover music. Today am mostly a streaming service listening guy: Spotify, Soundcloud and sometimes MixCloud. That said, I have a few friends having enormous amounts of vinyl! Most to all of them are artists and DJs so it makes much sense they have these vinyls in large quantities :) All of them are now using digital music, though some made the transition late, eg jumping from vinyl to mp3 in one step.
Am pretty sure vinyl will stay. Today the demand is increasing again, especially in the electronic music side of things. The expertise in the vinyl industry (pressing technics, machines etc) is slowly dried empty though. Apparently, the last super-specialist lives in Japan and plans to stop his work. Search for high-quality experts is on. When you came across one, let me know. Seems interesting to startup a vinyl factor these days :)