So what got you into collecting records?

[mike]

I got my real start when I was 15-16 around 1994, I had records as a kid but didn't really collect them. I ordered a DIRT cassette from a punk mag and I guess they ran out so they just sent me a DIRT/MANKIND split 7" and I couldn't stop buying them! I would go to the record store like every week and spend my whole check on new records. Don't really have the money for that anymore with record prices the way they are but I still buy them when I can.

[Puck]

I've been buying them off and on since the late 80's, and have a pretty small amount in comparison to most of you here haha. Started getting them at yard sales in the late 80's as a kid, then here and there since (though lately I've been getting more and more thanks to OOP repressings, or duplicates from a collector friend). If it's an album that I REALLY like, I want to have it in vinyl format. I don't buy CDs anymore (and didn't care for them anyway), and since everything is digital these days, I still want to have something tangible.

[iron666monkey]

I got into vinyl because I had a few friends in high school who had turntables and listened to records which I thought was different and cool. I started buying records around 1998 and got heavy into buying stuff 3 or 4 years later. A good friend of mine worked at a local store for a number of years and would always call me when metal collections came in. Fast forward to now I have a collection of around 3,000 12" records. My collection is mostly metal but I do have a nice mix of other genres.

[Bill]

When I was a little kid I used to listen to records on an old stereo we had at our house. I've bought vinyl off and on over the years, but what really got me into it was a cool record store that I found out about when I moved to the Lehigh Valley area of PA. I fell in love with the format.

[ace2000man]

Records have always been apart of my life, as long I can remember. Everybody in my family listen to records everyday. My Grand Mother loved to wake everybody up by playing classical as loud as she could at 5 am when she got up. My Mom loved stuff like the moma's and the papa's, Peter, Paul and Marry. My Dad is big Sinatra fan. I didn't really pay attention to any of this untill one day my Aunt Toby came home with Black Sabbath Vol. 4 and Deep Purple made in japan. Wow, my life changed that day!. Then sometime in 1976 my Dad got a new Turn table and gave me his old one, along with 3 records. The Beatles Red and Blue, plus Chicago live at Carnegi Hall. Later that year I heard the Calling Dr. Love\Take me 45 from KISS and that was it, I started buying records. I like everything from blackflag to blackfoot, from AbbA to Anthrax.

[designeralbumart]

When I was a kid Mom and Dad would break out the record player one day a week and we (my sisters too) would all pick out something to hear. Seems Mom liked alot of Top 40 music of the time, I suspect that I probably learned my Herb Alpert and my Wilson Pickett cravings about this time. Dad force fed us Slim Whitman and Freddie Hart. Couldn’t stand it at the time, love that stuff now. My earliest favorite was a song about a railroad track running through the middle of the house. I wish I still knew what that was.



Not too long after that my uncle came from South America to finish high school. The Beatles and the “Summer of Love” moved right into my bedroom and that was that. By then it was Herman’s Hermits then The Ohio Express and The 1910 Fruitgum Co. Give me a break, I was 7 or 8 years old. Seems to me Beatles VI was the first one I knew every lyric from, but Sgt. Peppers and Magical Mystery Tour were right behind it. Mom bought me Abbey Road with her birthday money when it came out. I remember when Uncle Mark showed up with the brand new “White Album”.

[Bill]

….. you mentioned Herman's Hermits. This summer I bought a couple of Herman's Hermits albums at a flea market. The one with Mrs. Brown and Somthing Good - I must have played side one about 5 times in a row. I never realized how much I dug them.

[designeralbumart]

Dec 2, 2013 15:51:35 GMT -5 Bill said:

….. you mentioned Herman's Hermits. This summer I bought a couple of Herman's Hermits albums at a flea market. The one with Mrs. Brown and Somthing Good - I must have played side one about 5 times in a row. I never realized how much I dug them.

Funny thing is after that I remember what followed was Ohio Express, 1910 Fruitgum Co, Ding Dong the Witch is Dead phase, which I can't listen to much anymore, but Hermans Hermits still holds up well.

[lovedaddy]

When I was growing up (80's & 90's) my dad had a bunch of vinyl.  I used to listen to his Hendrix & Neil Young albums the most.  When my parents got divorced I acquired all of my dad's records.  I then went on to collect tapes and cd's.  Ever since everything went to mostly downloads and cd's fell off I went back to vinyl.  I shouldn't say went back to vinyl I just didn't collect it as much during the cd's phase.  I don't mind digital downloads for on the go but I want to have the hard copy and be able to listen to that at home.  I guess I'm old school like that.  Now I only buy cd's if I can't find the vinyl at a reasonable price.  I will eventually pass on my collection to my son.  He's currently only 5 months old so I'll be keeping it for a long time yet.  Long live Vinyl! 

[Dave]

My Grandad was about throw out his Acoustic Research table and I offered to take it. I was in my early teens at the time and was interested in the format but it didn't last too long. Fast forward a few years and I'm very much into my music, particularly favouring 'albums' as a listening format over singles or the iTunes shuffle. I move to Bristol, UK for university and in my third year I move close to Gloucester Road where there's a lovely little concentration of record shops. Suddenly I'm back into records and there's no looking back now.