swallowtales

Had a really great experience with Southern Lord. Managed to get one of the Engine Kid boxsets online, sent over to New Zealand, but found issues with two of the discs. Southern Lord as the label are sending me two new discs, with no charge, all the way over here - even refused me offering to help pay for shipping. So great, big recommendation for them.

For these past holidays, since we were not able to have a proper in-person holiday party and whatnot...we did have a Zoom/Teams thing happen...out Sup had us give them a list of stuff we'd be into to gift us. I gave him my Amazon wishlist and a bunch of books I'd been meaning to get. One of the books...which is conducive to this thread...is 'Doomed to Fail'...it's essentially a history and evolution of all things sludge, doom, and post-metal. 
I'm about halfway through it and it's been really good and eye-opening. Getting some great info on bands I didn't know about before and so far made appreciate more some others I did know about. The chapter on Eyehategod was pretty fuckin' great and now I have been on a huge EHG kick. 
Greatly recommend for anyone on this thread and fans of these heavy genres. 
Doomed to Fail: The Incredibly Loud History of Doom, Sludge, and Post-metal: Anselmi, J. J., Jones, Cat: 9781644280645: Amazon.com: Books
 
 

I had gotten to the point a few years ago where money was becoming an issue and I was forced to sit back and consider why I was collecting. I had complete variant collections for some bands and artists that I really didn't meed or care that much about. 
I had to think critically about what I wanted and why I wanted it. 
Was it for the sake of collecting or was it cause I actually liked the music or record. 
I had to turn both of those points from a venn diagram to a perfect circle and I still use that to guide how I collect now.

So many great points in all the posts above,@IndigoHollowprobably summed it up best.
From my own personal experience in collecting the past 15 years and becoming stressed out about many of the same things you are, here are some things that helped me more recently:
I try to keep my collection under 500 records, this is my own personal comfortability threshold, physically & financially. I don't want to deal with 20 Kallax units worth of records. As I approach the 500 number in order to justify buying more, I've got to sell 10-20 to make room. Usually by that point, its pretty easy to find a few to weed out as I get tired of them I used to be so worried about "resale value" and keeping them pristine. I had poly sleeves for every record and each time id take one out to play it was such a process. I threw them all out one day and said fuck it, if I'm gonna enjoy it I'm gonna enjoy it. If some asshole wants to buy one of my records down the line he'll get some wear, whatever. This decision has helped my personal enjoyment immensely Good luck, hope you find what you're looking for.

Also this thread really shows who is an asshole and who is a real one.

I know that feeling. Also live on the other side of the planet. Paying about 20$ for delivery of every single record and about 30% of them arriving with pretty badly bent corners or wrapped. After all that long waiting and crazy prices you expecting to receive something really special but that's almost never turns out this way. In the worst cases you feel just disappointment.
 
After catching myself on all that thoughts I just told myself "fuck it, that's just a beautiful piece of plastic and it's not worth my disappointment". 
 
Dudes out here already told everything, I'll just resume it:
1. Hobby is about fun. If you're not having fun - take a break. 
2. If during your break you will feel disappointment about missing records than that's just a circle of pain and you should visit specialist.
3. I think that selling your collection will make you feel worse. Don't do it. Also don't reply to these assholes who ask you to sell something from your collection after there saw that topic.
4. If you have other hobbies - try to focus on them. When something similar happened to me I started giving more time to my other hobby (skateboarding) and it helped.

I'd seriously consider the possibility that selling your collection will make you feel worse. Just press pause and revisit in six months.

I've been at a similar point with just about everything I've ever collected, including vinyl, and I totally get feeling like imperfections in your collection are holes in your soul. It drove me crazy. Not to mention the stress of trying to get everything you want in the first place, which is a whole other story. The thing that helped me was to just step away. Maybe for only a little while in some cases, maybe forever in others. But consider taking a break. It's all meant to be fun, but if it's causing you that much stress and worry, there's a problem. I dragged myself away from message boards and social media and news sites and the rest and just let whatever I was collecting go on without me for a while, and that let me cool down and get some perspective. It helped me go from feeling like my brain was on fire over every little thing to mild "Aw, darn"-grade disappointment. And I also asked myself why I was losing my mind over these things - like, was anyone considering me less of a person because some record cover had a minor corner bend, or something? (Answer: no, no they were not.)

Impulsively selling your collection doesn’t seem like it would help you- I can only imagine the remorse you’d feel. I would seriously just take a break and enjoy what you have or discover stuff you like that you can get your hands on easily. 
 
The past two years has sucked for collecting and the hobby in general. I relate to what you said about the frustration altering your relationship with music. Having to be selective (for many reasons)  about buying music sucks now. 

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

Will do, thanks!

I don’t think you need to sell your whole collection man. Just sell the stuff I want.

Seek assistance from a professional 
 
edit - selling records is stressful so if you are already stressed selling them isn’t going to help. Just stop buying new ones. If you can’t stop see my original statement 

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

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!

Lots of albums for sale. Mystery vinyl color.
https://victoryrecords.com/store/mystery-vault/

Yeah I really want this but 70 USD shipping ain't it sadly

Yeah I really want this but 70 USD shipping ain't it sadly

Is a box set confirmed? I haven't seen anything about that. (Would be amazing, though!)
 
Side note: I wrote to Numero months ago when the first digital versions were posted to Bandcamp. I had two questions: 
A, Would there be vinyl versions as well?
B, If so, would these releases be remastered at all from the original versions?
 
The initial reply back that I got was "I don't understand your questions." lol 
Eventually, I got a 'yes' and a 'yes', thankfully.

Amazon has this shipping November 12th from Smartpunk. No announcement for either LTJ or Smartpunk. 
 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09F14TF1D/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_VP2KN7NPX6XFJX696HYB
 
 

Grabbed one, hope Hello Rockview goes up too!

https://www.runforcoverrecords.com/products/709171-portrayal-of-guilt-christfucker
 
https://closedcasketactivities.com/collections/portrayal-of-guilt/products/portrayal-of-guilt-christfucker
 
https://evilgreed.net/collections/portrayal-of-guilt/products/portrayal-of-guilt-christfucker-lp
 
https://shop.brooklynvegan.com/products/portrayal-of-guilt-christfucker-limited-edition-clear-with-red-splatter-lp-only-300-made
 
https://www.newburycomics.com/products/portrayal_of_guilt-st_exclusive_lp?variant=40479052791988

Same here, I bought a test from Flenser last year but can’t get a regular copy for a decent price. Toby did say Prophecy was planning on pressing the back catalogue, we’ll see.

Sweeeeeeeeeet

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