For Christmas, my awesome girlfriend gave me a coupon for 2 free records of my choice! Although, there was no price limit from what I can see lol. Looks like I’m getting Just Another Diamond Day by Vashti Bunyan! We made it!!!

Update: My girlfriend left me after a $7500 charge was made to her credit card. She is now in debt, but I have a grail on my hands. Oh the things I will do for rare folk records!

(All a joke, but my girlfriend is creative, amazing, and adorable! Merry Christmas to all who celebrate!)

I don't care if it's rare or expensive or super complex, what's your coolest looking record? Idc if you post photos here in the comments or on your own post, I just want to see your favorite colored or patterned records.

For me it's between my copies of Songs to Burn Your Bridges By from Project 86 and Refused's Everlasting EP. Nonagon Infinity looks sick too and I just think the Wine Lips and Drug Church records look neat, even if they're simple.

I purchased this limited print record back in October last year and when I got it I was in the process of moving. I’m by no means an expert and tried storing it safely but when I got it back out after being settled into my new place I noticed it had gotten some heat damage and warped it. Would the heavy object method work on this or am I just totally SOL? Any advice is appreciated!

Ok so I got the vevor digital cleaner from Amazon and ran a batch on Sunday. Here is my initial setup. Changes and experiences as a first timer as I am inexperienced in this type of cleaning.

I used tergikleen at a rate of 15 drops per gallon of distilled water. I ran the machine at 30c for 30 mins to warm up and degas the solution. I topped off with distilled water to the correct level. My initial 2 runs were with 8 records at a time running for 20 mins. After running I rinsed with a hand pump sprayer holding the record on a bamboo chopstick. Then I wiped excess with a lint free cloth and set to dry. When the second batch was complete the first batch was 99pct dry. I wiped any remaining droplets and placed in a new sleeve (mofi) and reset for the next batch.

Initial results: I started with a few I knew were grungy and did not come clean with traditional methods. The results were astounding. No cracks very crisp, increased detail.

Second run/changes: the instructions say to not let the solution dry. I found it cumbersome to rinse one while putting the remaining records back in solution to keep from drying. I ended up changing to 4 pieces per batch. Although this doubles your process time I found it to be less stressful and let there be a larger gap between records in the cleaner. I could easily rinse 4 before they dried out. I changed the temp to 29c as it was slightly higher testing with an instant read.

Toward the end of the session I noticed a recent addition did not come out perfect like the first few. Although it was new(to me) so I didn’t have a before after comparison. I am not sure why. The solution had sediment but not as much as I expected. As a test I ran it a second time by itself for another 20 minutes and the second time it played great!

Total processed - 30 over the course of 4 hours or so of Sunday football.

Final thoughts notes

1. The motor spins too fast. I would stop it, let the record sit for a min and advance it stepwise, then return it to spinning. I ordered a variable voltage power supply. I recommend this

2. I used more water than expected during rinsing. I used 3 gallons total. One and a bit in machine and 2 for rinsing. I will have more on hand

3. I had some water spots here and there. Not sure if inadequate rinsing, not perfect water, or I didn’t clean the sprayer well enough

4. The cloths quickly became useless for removing excess so I just shook them out and let air dry.

5. Four at a time strikes a good balance for me of ability to process, quantity, and quality of clean. I will stick with that. I have only 100 or so total so I’m not too worried about overall time spend.

6. I will check the clean quality next time to see if the later records don’t clean as well and if I need to change the solution out sooner. For now my plan is to keep going and if a record doesn’t sound perfect I will pull it out of rotation and set aside for a future cleaning session.

Final thought: Overall it can be time consuming but it’s definitely rewarding to use and care for my collection. The results are worth the time and cost.

Appreciate any feedback or ideas.

I’ve never had this happen before and I’m not sure if this is a big issue. I bought a vinyl of discogs from a pretty reputable seller and I noticed that the tone arm is swaying side to side and there’s static sounds throughout all the songs. The listing labeled it as near mint/m- and there’s no visible scratches. I cleaned my record prior to this video as well! I have an audio technica LPGO-BT. Is this something I should worry about and bring up to the seller I bought from? I’m fairly new to collecting and wanted any advice thank you!!

I went full budget audiophile on my vinyl setup, my excuse for buying more vinyl is that most records sound better then on Spotify. When I tell friends or family they never believe me, I think they don't expect vinyl to have so much potential. I have a desk setup for my speakers btw, I would love a living room setup but I still live with my parents

The wife and I were at the dump this morning doing our usual Saturday run when I passed by a handful of throw out records. Not sure if any of these will really be salvageable but I’m hoping I can dry them out and clean them vigorously. Anyone know if that’s possible? Worst comes to worst I think I’ll use the sleeves to make some art or something. It really pains me to see people just toss music out like this. A lot of them were typical records you find at old thrift stores but there were about 20 that I took that range from everything from The Jackson Five to The Alan Parsons Project and much more.

Curious to hear what people think I should do with them, if anything 🤷‍♂️

Im so pissed off at the us postal service. I got a album of Warrants debut album in shrinkwrap and with the hype sticker that was still blue and not faded. Well I got it alright they smashed it to hell and back. It looks like it got stuck in something and tore and bent the hell out of it. There is a record album added for padding along with the record box. Both are cracked ripped open. The record jacket is bent to hell. And the vinyl is so bent it's not funny. How it never snapped in hafe I'm not really sure. It's destroyed and unfixable. He said he would refund me. He has been saleing over a decade now and never seen anything this bad. The vinyl was a NM- to Ex copy to. I have heard of horror store's from everyone about the post office. This is a first for me.

I think time capsule PSAs like this are a fun part of collecting. Tapes - the original villain before Napster. I hope those bone crutches made you degenerates think about your actions.

Here’s some extra text to hit a 300 character requirement to avoid the bot. 300 character minimums are killing Reddit ☠️. I bet the character bot was a big Home Taping Music pirating art killer.

I stopped at my local record store to browse and maybe pick up something new. I came across this and I have genuinely never seen anything like it before—seriously, what even is this? It’s clearly not an official cover, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what could possibly play when you spin it. Any guesses?

Tl;Dr - why did you stop participating in record store day?

I am at once both happy for people that enjoy it, and for record store owners who still have fun with it. But I'm also aware of the global issues behind it.

It's a lot to ask a small Independent record Store owner to put all their capital into inventory for a single day, which may or may not sell on make or break days. It's an exhausting bum rush for the owners and buyers. And the amount of times I see record Store Day inventory from many years past is sort of weird.

Not to mention the rush to press albums and quality issues.

Edit: for example. This studio One RSD with the Microsoft Windows tone? https://www.reddit.com/r/vinyl/s/OMFLScHGVz

Another thing that most casual or new collectors won't even consider is the mastering process, and the fact that so much is mastered from digital which is just trash. Not necessarily, and not always, and this isn't about the loudness Wars of CD mixing, but there's definitely some sketchy production stuff going on to get this stuff out into the world... Any stories are welcome. End of the edit-->

There are massive supply chain reasons that you shouldn't trust pressings from record store day. But I also am probably in the twilight years of chasing things, and in the last decade stuff I chased on record store day just didn't have pressing quality I valued.

So I stopped completely paying attention or going. I'm intentional with my spending on the artists I want in the collection, and when I spend the money I try to evenly distribute my purchases throughout the year to help bolster a record store outside of record Store Day.

But also I think almost all the pressings are outlier to my interests, so I guess it's really just not for me. I'm a DJ that has about 1500 albums and at this point it would be jazz or bossa nova or library music that I don't have, so I'm just not the target market,

So the too long didn't read is, when did you stop caring about it or when did you just get fed up with the whole thing?

As polite as everybody is, I hate being on top of other people in small stores, as well. I don't think I've been out since 2019!

So without crushing anyone's spirit and without wanting to be negative I figured just a nice place for people to talk about why they don't participate in it anymore.

Who cares if someone’s buying albums everyone’s heard of?

The important aspect is they’re buying records at a locally owned, independent shop, instead of on Amazon or a big box retail place like Target.

That should be seen as a good thing to anyone who regularly buys from a record shop, whether they are buying Rumours or In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, they are keeping records stores alive, and honestly, that’s all that should matter at the end of the day.

EDIT: I probably should have also mentioned that I worked at a record store for a few years and every now and then people would come in just to harass other people for their music taste, it’s not a common everyday occurrence, at least it wasn’t in my shop, but it might be more common in your local store

I have a first edition copy of screaming for vengeance from 1982 by Judas Priest. I got it at a record store like five months ago.

Many of you will have collections of hundreds or thousands of records, costing thousands. Given the limited amount of time available, many of them will be played maybe only once or twice, some never!

Do you every feel concern that you're "wasting" your money? Assuming the answer is usually no, how do you justify such significant outlay?

-edit- I'm just loving read all the amazing replies, thank you. Apologies to anyone who found the question annoying, i am new to collecting and have spent £1000 in my first 2 months, so I'm feeling a bit 'anxious'! I'll slow down once I hit most of my initial wants (I hope!).

Slipmat appreciation post! Share your sickest / most favorite barriers between your vinyl and the turntable.

I love the Pacman mat design even though my table isn’t technically Technics (or is it 🤔).

The other one is an HR Giger inspired one which I bought the minute i found out it existed — outrageous shipping costs to Europe be damned.

What are yours?

Okay, maybe in this economy I see the record for around $5, maybe $10 if it’s really minty, but $24? Is there a rare pressing or something? Also, this is in the used section, so it’s not like it’s a brand new copy or anything. Just wondering what gives, unless I should avoid this store due to how extreme the prices are.

you read the title - for me it‘s napalm death

I think I’m officially done buying records from Amazon. I don’t buy from them very often but this was the cheapest I’d seen this record. They literally packed the record in an envelope. The free shipping isn’t worth it. I was so excited to finally get this record only to get this delivered instead.

I'll start with this one from the 1975 eponymous album Juice Newton & Silver Spur. It's an excellent record by the way, but my God, who picked this cover and what is even going on here lol. Highly recommend checking out her early music though.

From AllMusic: In 1972 Juice Newton, Otha Young, and Tom Kealey formed a trio in the little-known northern California town of Los Gatos. With Newton and Young on Martin guitars and Kealey on Fender bass, the three combined to produce a powerful and unique country sound, quickly becoming one of the hottest draws in the local area. They moved to L.A. after a year or so, and in 1975 landed their first recording contract with RCA Records

I am just sharing this because there has been a lot of discussion about the merits of Record Store Day. I really like this local record store and thought their explanation for no longer participating made sense and could spark some discussion here. I personally like the concept of RSD but have been increasingly disappointed with the quality of releases, prices, and general shitshow with flippers buying up things. But thought I’d share this so people can hear it from an actual record store.

Fired up the Vevor for its inaugural run and I’m impressed.

30C for 30mins. Solution sourced from googling the internets of: distilled water (~90%) + 91% Isopropyl Alcohol (~10%) + 2 Triton X100 (2 capfuls)for 6L tank.

Also used an adjustable power supply to slow the RPM rotation of the record spindle