How many albums is enough albums in a collection?

Joe Mac said:
It is, and while I didn’t cull close to that much I did get rid of a big proportion of VMP records. The other positive there was that they, for some mad reason, hold and increase their value. I have found selling them on Discogs to be pretty easy and rewarding. That said me being me I did reinvest that money in more records, but they were at least better records and/or better pressings of records!
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That is good to hear regarding values.When I start working on the cull, what I’m focusing on is a mindset of what records do I really really want in my collection, as opposed to thinking about wanting to get rid of any particular record. I don’t particularly want to get rid of any, but do I really need it?

There are a lot of indie rock records in there from the VMP exclusives that I don’t need.
 
Im at around 1750 and have filled all the shelves and 2 wine boxes with a pile on the floor adjacent.

Seriously though my constraint is physical space over choosing a specific number to stick to. Similar to what @Poly-Rythmo said, I tend to drift in and out of phases depending upon how I'm feeling at the time. For the longest time, around 80% of my collection consisted of hip hop albums and now I can't even remember the last time I properly explored/listened to that genre. But I know there's likely to be a point when I want to dig through them and binge.

Equally, there are records that are my bread and butter, those that I play regularly and will likely always see more turntable time than others. Those are the ones which I would make the cut if I HAD to cull, but i cant see why that would ever happen.
 
I'm having around 650 records at the moment. The same way as @Poly-Rythmo I'm tending to listen to albums multiple times on Spotify before deciding to buy them, so I'm liking the vast amount of my records. That means it's rather hard for me to depart from records. Buying records out of FOMO is rare for me and I also try to avoid pre-orders unless I really love the artist.
I think it's basically space, time and financial means that would limit a record collection. Personally, given I had all of them in sufficient amounts I don't see me limiting the size of my collection. I absolutely love music, I love both to discover new releases as well as to grab out a record I haven't listened to in 2 or 3 years. I think the perfect size of your record collection is the one you feel comfortable with.
 
Our collection, and I say our because my wife buys just as much or sometimes more than I do. Before I met her, I had about 30 or 40 records that stayed in my collection even though I didn’t have a turntable anymore, and the majority of my collection consisted of cassettes and CDs. Around 2010-2011 is when I bought a new turntable. An AT-LP60. Nothing fancy. That’s when my new journey with vinyl began. Stopped buying CDs and focused on the records. Once I met my wife, digging became a normal activity for us. As I’m typing this, we are approaching 1,300 records. We haven’t discussed slowing down but because of Covid, we obviously haven’t been out to our locals as often as we would normally would. We have still been buying online but I’d have to say that we’ve been a little more selective over the last 2 years or so. Since last summer I’ve been focusing on tinkering with the main listening system so my money has been going to those projects and only buying what I truly love. Now that the system is where I want it to be, my goal is to continue my soft purge that I started last year. We have 32 Kallax cubes over 4 units and I don’t see us going past that amount if and when those cubes are full.
MY problem is that I haven’t allowed MYSELF to part with any of the music. I have CDs and cassettes from my high school and post high school years that I probably haven’t listened to in a looooooong time but I CAN’T get rid of it.
I am in no way a hoarder. I hate clutter and love to be organized. It’s part of my history but I know at some point I’m going to have to trim it down or possibly get rid of it all unless my daughter gets interested in the same music because when it’s my time, I don’t want to burden my family with my stuff, because it can be a burden.

Also, I’d love to take a moment to commend those who are keeping a nice and tidy 500 or so collection because that takes such restraint that I don’t have. 🍻
 
Bluecloud777 said:
I think it's basically space, time and financial means that would limit a record collection. Personally, given I had all of them in sufficient amounts I don't see me limiting the size of my collection. I absolutely love music, I love both to discover new releases as well as to grab out a record I haven't listened to in 2 or 3 years. I think the perfect size of your record collection is the one you feel comfortable with.
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Well said.
 
Bluecloud777 said:
I'm having around 650 records at the moment. The same way as @Poly-Rythmo I'm tending to listen to albums multiple times on Spotify before deciding to buy them, so I'm liking the vast amount of my records. That means it's rather hard for me to depart from records. Buying records out of FOMO is rare for me and I also try to avoid pre-orders unless I really love the artist.
I think it's basically space, time and financial means that would limit a record collection. Personally, given I had all of them in sufficient amounts I don't see me limiting the size of my collection. I absolutely love music, I love both to discover new releases as well as to grab out a record I haven't listened to in 2 or 3 years. I think the perfect size of your record collection is the one you feel comfortable with.
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A 100% this
 
I'm around 900 and have 5 kallax-esque squares open and can move box sets around to make that 6-7, and space on my Jazz specific rack.

I'm not quite sure what my end game is. I think a baseline is probably 1200? As a married man, it's a constant push pull with my significant other and it can be a conflict point (Ive always collected music, books, etc. and she never collected anything growing up partially due to moving fairly frequently). That's kind of the hesitation preventing me from just buying storage and letting it grow - space isn't a real issue.
 
I currently have 1882 give or take fifty.

I’m in the same boat as @Woob_woob , I could easily double it and not think I had enough. I have slowed down considerably.

I have around 36 cubes full with about five more to fill before I have to buy more shelves. It’s an odd number because I have a 1x2 that has the modem, router and alarm system on it in the record room.

the cubes don’t account for what’s currently in the flipbins plus the 7s and 10s are stored in crates.

the 4x4 is in the guest room - this is where the jazz collection resides to maintain my wife’s sanity by keeping me from spinning it more frequently. It kind of works. She is coming around to the ballad side of things.
 
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I have approx 1930. I pretty much have every album that I “want” that exists (within price reason - cmon - repress Midnite Vultures already).

The tough thing for me is when I get into a new genre, discover a new artist, or whatever and then I end up buying like 6 records at a time. And I can do that once or twice a month sometimes. So, it is impossible to put a hard cap on it… But I would like to think, for me, that there is no theoretical set number as long as I am enjoying what I have, trimming the fat every once in a while, being financially smart and mindful, and adhering to my space constraints.

P.S. Same goes for how many basses / guitars are too many :)
 
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Rip_City said:
For me, 500. Sticking to that number.

The way I'm compartmentalizing that number as partitions...

~300 locks. These albums never leave the collection.

~200 rotating. These are set to allow for offloading and trying out new records without going over the 500 threshold. As they (likely) fall out of rotation, they can be easily moved/offloaded.
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Love this tactic!
 
When I had 100 albums I said 250 was the upper end.

Then I had 250 and I said 300..

I'm at 400 now and literally "can't stop won't stop".

I've been through several purges along the way and what's left behind now is really stuff I love so that also makes it incrementally harder to purge again.

Kinda content with my record collecting at the moment and my wife has also made her peace with it (i.e. given up).
 
I started collecting vinyl with the intent of doing a boutique collection of not a whole lot of stuff.

Then I came here and the bug bit me. The deals and PIF threads helped me expand my collection in ways I didn't think I would. (One record I got for less than $12 through an Amazon deal is now going for $75 on Discogs.)

And I agree that what's too much is a space issue. I thought I had too much when my collection was nearing 200, but then I upgraded my storage from several crates to a 4-cube storage organizer. Then pushing 500 felt like too much. Upgraded again to a 6-cube storage organizer.

Now I'm wondering if 600 will be too much.
 
Really enjoying this thread and everyone's take on this. I can't remember who posted this so I apologize, but their comment was that things change, we change as time and priorities change. Couldn't agree more, when my kids were younger and I was a "Full Time" dad, me time was next to impossible. Now a days that I'm a "Dad on Call" so to speak, there's more me time so I dive into my hobby head first.

When I first got back into the hobby I think I bought 350ish albums the first year, which was a lot of knee jerk and FOMO. I don't think I've bought half of that over the past 2 years. I think in short, if you're content with what you have, aren't skipping bills to by vinyl and have the space, do as you like.

For me it seems more like it's ever evolving, enjoying, discovering and purging. I finished my first big purge a few months ago and it felt good to move along some of the "clutter" albums that were of no real interest to me, making room for more wanted albums. ;)
 
I have over 4,500 records. If I take my age, remaining life expectancy, time in a week available for listening - fact: I don't have enough time left to listen to them all.

Regardless, I take some comfort in having them all there. They are in some ways a guidepost for my life.

The pandemic has been great for my record collection. I have gone through 3 culls at least, and probably shifted out 500 or more records. Value was not a consideration. Whether the record has stood up, is one I really like, or will ever listen to again was the criterea. When I started looking through my collection, I was surprised at what I found. I had a fair number of duplicates - all gone now. I had some that, looking back, I think - why did I ever buy that? It was liberating.

At the same time, the pandemic brought me to reconsider my collection overall. I used the opportunity and the extensive cull to fill gaps and get into stuff I should have years or decades ago. I spent more time and money on Discogs in 2020 that I have in all the years before.

I have discovered more music in the past year than I had in ages, and rejected a fair bit as well. It has been a journey of evolution and revisiting - that I may not have taken had I not been stuck at home.

All in all, I now have a more diverse collection with the gaps mainly filled and the filler all gone.

At some point, I was collecting. Now, I am not. I am back to exploring. That is much more interesting.
 
Ginormousthumbs said:
Our collection, and I say our because my wife buys just as much or sometimes more than I do. Before I met her, I had about 30 or 40 records that stayed in my collection even though I didn’t have a turntable anymore, and the majority of my collection consisted of cassettes and CDs. Around 2010-2011 is when I bought a new turntable. An AT-LP60. Nothing fancy. That’s when my new journey with vinyl began. Stopped buying CDs and focused on the records. Once I met my wife, digging became a normal activity for us. As I’m typing this, we are approaching 1,300 records. We haven’t discussed slowing down but because of Covid, we obviously haven’t been out to our locals as often as we would normally would. We have still been buying online but I’d have to say that we’ve been a little more selective over the last 2 years or so. Since last summer I’ve been focusing on tinkering with the main listening system so my money has been going to those projects and only buying what I truly love. Now that the system is where I want it to be, my goal is to continue my soft purge that I started last year. We have 32 Kallax cubes over 4 units and I don’t see us going past that amount if and when those cubes are full.
MY problem is that I haven’t allowed MYSELF to part with any of the music. I have CDs and cassettes from my high school and post high school years that I probably haven’t listened to in a looooooong time but I CAN’T get rid of it.
I am in no way a hoarder. I hate clutter and love to be organized. It’s part of my history but I know at some point I’m going to have to trim it down or possibly get rid of it all unless my daughter gets interested in the same music because when it’s my time, I don’t want to burden my family with my stuff, because it can be a burden.

Also, I’d love to take a moment to commend those who are keeping a nice and tidy 500 or so collection because that takes such restraint that I don’t have. 🍻
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🤔🤔🤔
 
RHANDMJ said:
I have over 4,500 records. If I take my age, remaining life expectancy, time in a week available for listening - fact: I don't have enough time left to listen to them all.

Regardless, I take some comfort in having them all there. They are in some ways a guidepost for my life.

The pandemic has been great for my record collection. I have gone through 3 culls at least, and probably shifted out 500 or more records. Value was not a consideration. Whether the record has stood up, is one I really like, or will ever listen to again was the criterea. When I started looking through my collection, I was surprised at what I found. I had a fair number of duplicates - all gone now. I had some that, looking back, I think - why did I ever buy that? It was liberating.

At the same time, the pandemic brought me to reconsider my collection overall. I used the opportunity and the extensive cull to fill gaps and get into stuff I should have years or decades ago. I spent more time and money on Discogs in 2020 that I have in all the years before.

I have discovered more music in the past year than I had in ages, and rejected a fair bit as well. It has been a journey of evolution and revisiting - that I may not have taken had I not been stuck at home.

All in all, I now have a more diverse collection with the gaps mainly filled and the filler all gone.

At some point, I was collecting. Now, I am not. I am back to exploring. That is much more interesting.
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Nice. I'm curious about how you offloaded the records you got rid of. For me, culling isn't necessarily the hard part, it's getting rid of the stuff I've decided I can live without. If you're willing, I'd like to hear a bit more about that part of the process. Thanks!
 
Russ I said:
Nice. I'm curious about how you offloaded the records you got rid of. For me, culling isn't necessarily the hard part, it's getting rid of the stuff I've decided I can live without. If you're willing, I'd like to hear a bit more about that part of the process. Thanks!
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For the most part, I brought them in batches to a local store I know well and trust. They give usually 50% of Discogs median, sometimes more for very rare, occasionally less for very common. That is what you should look for from a used vinyl store.

I do a list of stuff in Excel before I take it to the store, listing the records and Discogs median, and give that to them as a reference. Saves them time, and with my stuff, they don't need to go through each record to check condition, as they already know mine will be NM.
 
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