What the hell do I DO with all of these records???

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

Ok...we're planning on moving inside of a year, and already, I'm worrying about the amount of music that needs to be transported and put away. Does anyone have any suggestions for thinning out the stacks? A friend of mine recently sold all of his "easy to get stuff" - everything - saying that "If (he) really needed a copy of Paranoid someday (he'd) know where to get it." I see his point, but what if I really, really need to hear Queen II? Am I expected to go and buy a copy for three bucks just to get rid of it again??

Another idea is to start by getting rid of useless 7"s...though to me, they aren't useless. I've always been a great defender of the 7" and I have 6 full milkcrates full of 'em.

I'm sure many of you have the same problem. Like many of you, I'm a veteran of record store clerkism (promos), radio station jobs (more promos), writing record reviews for over a decade (even more) and buying compulsively (at least three records / CDs a week and not likely to let up).

Don't get me wrong, I've sold stuff - a LOT of stuff - in fact, i kept a log on Microsoft Word (because I hated looking for something and not remembering if it was sold or not) for a while and just sorta gave up after a while (it got to about 15 pages, 12pt Times New Roman type). I literally made a living selling CDs on ebay one summer. But it just keeps piling up.

I don't really wanna get rid of anything, but we have an unusually large apartmnet in NY and wherever we go, with our financial situation in mind, it will most likely be a lot smaller. Right now it's just two of us and I have an entire "record room" where we live which is fantastic. But what if we can only afford a one-bedroom?? Where will the records all go??

I'm sick of ebay - the trip to the post office (and the money and time it takes to keep the feedback positive) is a huger hassle than having a proper job. I'd rather go to the DMV than the post office.

What do YOU all do with all your stuff? Is it worth it putting some things in storage? What about the totally uncool "CD Wallet" solution for the CDs?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 05:06 (twenty-two years ago)

i am in a similar predicament and can offer no useful advice

― electric sound of jim (electricsound), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

In my current case it's all about maximizing wallspace radically. The Raggettstacks take on the function of wallpaper. But if you've got a lot of vinyl that might not be as feasible...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 05:10 (twenty-two years ago)

keep it all.... thinning it out will only take time (too much time) and leave you feeling frustrated and your head swimming. Only sell when your livelihood literally depends on it.

I only own about 30 original cds (many cd-r's), but the CD wallet solution is a fine one in my mind. The case is only plastic, after all.

As for vinyl. Yes its heavy. But I operate by the rule that if I don't like more than half of it after a couple of listens then its not worth keeping. Copy the good stuff and sell it asap. Nip it in the bud.

― Nik (Nik), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 05:41 (twenty-two years ago)

''The Raggettstacks''?!

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 08:53 (twenty-two years ago)

in place of the wallet i've got friends who do the plastic sleeve in boxes thing. its almost like a mini-vinyl collection. if you're prepared to cut the cd covers a bit of course...

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 09:07 (twenty-two years ago)

''The Raggettstacks''?!

For one night only!!

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 09:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You could always sell the bits of your collection you don't want on eBay as a job lot, preferably themed e.g 50 heavy metal LP's, rather than individually.

Downside is you probably wouldn't get as much as if you were to sell stuff individually but then the upside is you'd be guaranteed to get rid of stuff which may not sell or would only get bottom dollar and fewer trips to the PO.

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 09:15 (twenty-two years ago)

or you could give them to me.

― gaz (gaz), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 09:16 (twenty-two years ago)

CD sleeves without butchering the slicks (except for the damn digipaks): www.jewelsleeve.com

― Jeff mai (jeffmai), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 11:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Does anyone have any suggestions for thinning out the stacks?
Donate them to the Custos Memorial Record Collection.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 11:05 (twenty-two years ago)

For CDs I buy plastic sleeves from SleeveCity.com 500 cds take up the space of 50 (keep the booklet throw away the jewel case and its like a wee album) and get a handtruck for the vinyl!

― SplendidMullet (iamamonkey), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Just make sure you don't try to move them all yourself. Not long after moving house I ended up in hospital with a hernia - I wasn't laughing I can tell you! I am pretty sure this was due to my record collection - and those 14 Harry Nilsson albums I just HAD to have.

― Dadaismus, Wednesday, 9 April 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

roger - the lot you'd rather not have anymore, just give to the best library in yer neighbourhood.
no irony here; serious advice.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 12:24 (twenty-two years ago)

i'm with you roger - i am in a similar predicament.

that's why i have been working through my vinyl in alphabetical order - trying to appraise what i want and don't want. i'm as far as Cherry, Don and i've already found maybe 10 out of 150 records i'll get rid of.

however, you really have to wonder just what makes a difference. if i packed up all of my vinyl into boxes of 50, i'd have say 15 boxes. if i got rid of 50 records, i'd still have 14 boxes. and for the effort of carry one more box through the moving van, i could have 50 more LP's.

it's really difficult and i don't know how to justify what i have. there are a lot of records i keep for just a few tracks. fleetwood mac's "tusk" i love but only for the lindsay buckingham songs. i really should just make a CDR of his songs and get rid of the vinyl.

― j fail (cenotaph), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

How many records you got? I made a rough count - using a tape measure, believe it or nay - I have around 3000, maybe more.

― Dadaismus, Wednesday, 9 April 2003 13:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I am in the process of moving, and can emphathize. I've actually done a LOT of thinning out over the past few years - my wife and I have finally sold off most of the doubles in our collection - but now I'm stuck with a core group of CDs and vinyl that I can't bring myself to sell. Only problem is, that "core" group numbers well over 1000 CDs, 500 vinyl albums and 500 7" singles. I cannot see a way around this.

It's times like this that I wish I'd gone into stamp collecting instead.

― mike a (mike a), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I move so much that I came up with this system (I too went through record store employee, record station accumulation years) : I have these postal crates for cds, anything that doesn't fit in the crates when I move, I have to make them fit by getting rid of stuff (Usually half.com which is less maintenance and more money I think, but ebay is getting rid of it this year). I put the stuff away for about a month and when I come back to the cds if I didn't miss them during that time I get rid of them. But I only take what will fit in the crates. As for records I keep them all.

The Buddhist way of record collecting: when you die you won't be able to take them with you so why not release some of them so that others may enjoy, allowing you to have less ties to the world.

― Carey (Carey), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 13:46 (twenty-two years ago)

roger - if you do end up selling any more CDs (particularly if you want to do it more informally - through ilm or a website other than ebay or something), *please* let me know [seriously]. your taste seems really in line with mine, and i'm still in the process of *accumulating* records, rather than trying to reduce things.

good luck with the crisis; i figure i'm going to have to go with some enormous wallets/binders when i move across the pond.

― Sean@tangmonkey (Sean M), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 20:17 (twenty-two years ago)

''The Raggettstacks''?!

As named by Clarke B. two years back.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

throw them to the air and hope for the best

― lucy, Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:23 (twenty-two years ago)

When I want to get rid of something I visit lots of goodwill shops and discretely place my unwanted records in their stacks of used LPs (these are the ones I can't hope to sell on eBay or elsewhere). I like that someone will come along who will be made very happy by a Judy Garland/Mickey Rooney bootleg LP on which he spent 50 cents.

― Amateurist (amateurist), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:26 (twenty-two years ago)

stick 'em up your ass.

― Savin All My Love 4 u (Savin 4ll my (heart) 4u), Wednesday, 9 April 2003 23:35 (twenty-two years ago)

I made a rough count - using a tape measure, believe it or nay

This reminded me of my favourite page in Stewart Lee and Richard Herring's Fist Of Fun book (BBC, 1995), where Stewart Lee introduces his Top Of Our Pops:

:: transcribed at http://www.freer-close.demon.co.uk/srk/fofbook.htm ::

:: QUOTE ::

I have been an obsessive music fan since about the age of eleven and now measure my record collection in terms of length rather than numbers. I have 20 feet of vinyl and 18 feet of CDs. These are kept in exact alphabetical and date order and act, not only as a complete record of all the important developments within American indie/West Coast/New York/Art Rock in the last 30 years, but also as a psychic balustrade against the world. And I can appear more interesting than I am by going, 'No, I don't like the Lightning Seeds like you, I like Ultimate Spinach, aaaaaaah!'

A woman once said to me that in being so obsessive about music I am reducing a beautiful art form to a simple commodity, but I think she was just jealous because I have more records than her.

:: UNQUOTE ::

The rest is good, too.

― Alan Connor, Jr (Alan Connor, Jr), Thursday, 10 April 2003 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

A friend of my parents died about a year ago - he had 7000 78s in his house. Can't find anyone to take them.

Sell now while there's a market. If you haven't listened to it in 3 years, get rid of it. Take them to a used record store - around here, you get about $4 per CD. Vinyl might get you $1 or $2 if it's something good. Auction the stuff that's worth more...

― dave225 (Dave225), Thursday, 10 April 2003 10:54 (twenty-two years ago)

dave225 - good point..... the 'while there's stilla market' is very true..... I have exactly the same problem as Roger....but all my vinyl - thousands of albums, 12"s and even more 7"s, is at my Mum's and I need to get it from there..... the sifting thru will take forever.... but there's no way I can get rid of all my old 4AD stuff, the old picture discs I have, signed stuff, white labels..... the price of vinyl second hand, apart from limited stuff and collectable artists, has slumped dramatically - so I'd say, heartbreaking as it may be, sell while you can..... no-one seems to have room in their lives, quite literally, for vinyl any more.....

― russ t, Thursday, 10 April 2003 11:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it how Saving All My Love 4 U can say the most profane things and they end up sounding charming because there's that user name below 'em.

''The Raggettstacks''?!

cue "Rolling Stone" headline- "Ned Is Back!"

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Thursday, 10 April 2003 11:47 (twenty-two years ago)

Leave them at yr parents' place? Rent one of those selfstorage things? Both until you get a bigger place... and while it's pretty crappy advice Savinallmylove4u's post is the funniest thing I've ever read on ILX. I really don't know why.

― Andrew Thames (Andrew Thames), Thursday, 10 April 2003 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Jeez. This is the real trick, isn't it? I've moved around so many times in the past 10 years that I had to put some stuff in storage. Recently I got rid of a bunch (like half!) of my vinyl and it was actually a lot less painful than I expected. To be honest half of that half was total crap or otherwise easy to part with, the rest had some tough decisions. I do miss some stuff, but I tried not get rid of anything that I really wouldn't be able to acquire again if need be, even if it's only at a WFMU record fair. Truth be told, I feel much lighter and sleeker, and my wife is impressed. But I still have all the same problems, and not enough space. Good luck! Let us know how it turns out, or what you decide to do.

― scott m (mcd), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:08 (twenty-two years ago)

A woman once said to me that in being so obsessive about music I am reducing a beautiful art form to a simple commodity

chicks. jeez.

― Jody Beth Rosen (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Carey: wait... half.com is getting phased out? Say it ain't so, I've sold so many cds thru that store that I thought I'd never be able to give away.

― original bgm, Thursday, 10 April 2003 13:43 (twenty-two years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.