swallowtales

This is a good strategy and I admire you for it. The things I like about vinyl are the way you interact with it, the tactility and physicality, and they do sound great when done well! I think cds sound really good too but they aren't quite the same. Ultimately I kind of miss the feeling where it was just about the music itself and there wasn't any worrying about the quality of the physical thing though. A lot to think about.

Pretty much agree with you on everything in principle. I don't dig habing multiple copies of stuff, I like having one copy that sounds great and if it looks cool too that's a bonus. And I am okay with some types of wear to the sleeve, it's just seam splits that really bug me. The perfectionist within me hates them so much even though I know it doesn't make a lot of sense logically (and then yeah there are the ones that come unplayable which is more and more common).

I buy from all over the place, all over Europe, USA, within NZ, sometimes elsewhere. Inside NZ is always reliable, but struggle to get the things I am into here. I have a covered porch that they get left in, and was basically always fine until COVID and then after that it's mostly been a shit show for warps on my end. Glad someone is having a better time of it though!

Absolutely, I want to think whatever I do through properly first. I've been here before, so it wouldn't be totally impulsive, but gotta take the time to think through big decisions.

Seems we are very similar haha. That probably is a good idea, as I feel exactly like you describe.

Will do, thanks!

Yeah I'm pretty aware of the selling being stressful part haha. If I did it would be bit by bit anyway cause otherwise it would be completely unmanageable. I can see your advice - I do have anxiety and depression and have seen people for it and it's generally pretty in hand, but this is a bit of a blind spot cause I never really know which way to swing with it at this point, so have just been meandering along for ages but am giving it some serious thought atm.

I've been in a weird place with my collection for quite a while now, and I really need some thoughts. I've been collecting for probably 10 years now (I'm 25), and I've been super, super passionate about it for the last few. I’m proud of what I’ve collected and I have both a lot of records (1500+) and a lot of music that’s really important to me. But recently it's causing me a lot of stress and anxiety, and I'm really considering trying to sell my collection and properly quitting. I live in New Zealand, and this means there is the situation where shipping is always super expensive and slow. This is alright on its own, but the rate of damage in the mail is astronomical - I routinely get warped records and sleeve damage, maybe as much as 1/3 of what I get. I have a vinylflat, but it only works so much to fix these. I also cannot stand poorly pressed records with noise, which I feel like there are so many of these days. I have an ultrasonic cleaner to address this, but again it only helps so much. These things are affecting my relationship with music, as I get stuff that is damaged or noisy and I associate negative feelings with the music itself, which makes me not want to listen to those albums at all anymore. The other problems along with this are just having a negative effect on my life. Collecting is really important to me and it’s hard to picture my life without it, but I just feel like this can’t go on like this anymore, but I also don’t want to look back and regret whatever I do. Has anyone else been in a similar situation and has any thoughts? This is me and my collection just for context - https://www.discogs.com/user/swallowtales/collection

Holy shit, didn't think this would happen. Awesome to finally get this.

I absolutely adored Empty Black, but I think the new single sucks. Sad times.

Well I can report that my copy of the orange w black smoke variant sounds awful. Tons of surface noise and pops/cracks - maybe good US got delayed haha.

I got through too, ungodly expensive but hopefully will be worth it.

Snagged Thursday - Kill the House Lights (third time I've bought this album, hopefully it actually comes playable this time......) and both the Strife records. Hope I get lucky and get coloured versions!

Finally got Crisis, been waiting on that one forever!

Real excited about this, though probably my copy is going to get heavily delayed because of USPS suspending shipments to New Zealand. But I can wait, more Number Twelve is always a good time.