question for people who buy too many records
 

how do you stop yourself buying too many records? do you have rules you set yourself? or do you not think that it matters?

I suppose if you go negative in your bank account, you'll stop.

I've been trying to limit myself, but its hard. Really hard.

On a related note, that Gal Costa CD came in the mail yesterday!

It depends.I have matured a bit in that respect because i've learned to prioritize things a bit more.I think i've reached insane spending on records in the mid nineties when i wasn't even thinking that in order to live you have to eat and all that.

ahahaha thats the funniest thing i have ever heard, deez.

i would buybuybuy like crazy if i could afford it.

i've started taking shopping lists with me when i go record shopping and if it's not on the list i can't buy it.

I just buy when I have money. It's painfully obvious when I am not in the market for LPs.

do you find that your record buying has narrowed down as you've got older, or is the opposite true?

as soon as the money drys out...sometimes i even pick cheaper albums in order to get more stuff...bang for the buck, you know?

i really think i'm about to be all overdrawn from my savings account, i'm glad there are no good record stores here; if there were, i would be skinter then usual.

Well now that I'm a student (around here jobless people make more money than students or interns), I've had to cut down my record purchasing habits.
It's not that I can't possibly afford, I didn't buy that many records before either, but now I've just drank all my money.

It's about the same volume-wise. The only difference is a willingness to spend a lot more money on a single LP as I have gotten older.

if i havmt got the money then i wont.

I'd be interested in knowing what gmku's answer would be.

Have children.

I went through a stage in my early twenties of buying everything I fancied and sticking it on the credit card, and I ended up with a debt that took me three years to pay off. That's over 15 years ago now, but it still stops me from going overboard on the buying sprees.

i'm trying to train myself to want less

I've once spent a fortune on buying records that are deemed as 'classics'.I've hardly listened to them so i've sold them.Having a girlfriend helps,Toilet.

Of course Nefeli.Boyfriends should be there only for presents and compliments.hehe

There is a song on Quasimoto’s second album that goes:

"If I could, I’d buy records every day of the week / But then I’d have no money for when I’m with my freak"

An ex-girlfriend of mine used to make me feel bad about buying too many records. We would have conversations like this:

- Hey, where did you just go?
- Hmmm… to the record store…
- Again? Did you buy something?
- Erm… yes.
- What? How many records did you buy this time?
- Well… ok, three… but two of them were really cheap!... and the other one, it's quite rare and I was looking for it for a long time!
(she then looked at me sort of upset, and as if I am crazy)

I thought for a moment that i would start buying records secretly and lying to her...

I can understand why she became your ex. :)

A topic I find endlessly fascinating. I always want to know how people manage this, too. In fact, I started a thread a few days ago called "Your music collecting habits". Sorry, I don't know how to link to it, duh.

Anyway, I'll quote one of my posts to that thread. I found the link contained within very enlightening:

"This article is too funny! Maybe mostly cuz I've almost crossed that line... (How many freaking double copies do I think I can accumulate in one lifetime...?!)

I especially like the advice under #7 at the bottom of the page:

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articl...rd-licking.htm

'What seperates the freakish collector from the monster that is the Licker can be summed up in one word: proportion. Understand your place in this world, and understand the impossibility of ever comprehensively knowing all there is to know about even one genre of music, and you should make out OK. There is no need to panic, to paw, to obsess, or even to collect. Like what you like, love what you love, and track down one or two rare things if need be. But please, stay away from eBay. No piece of vinyl is worth getting in a bidding war over. Especially not with the Japanese—they will defeat you. And for Christ's sake, please put the records away once in a while and go outside. There's a whole world out there that has nothing to do with dusty old crates of secondhand records, or even shiny new CDs.' "

It floors me that so many girlfriends and wives don't understand there are priorities in life.

I find it's easier to get obsessed over LPs than CDs. I worry I'll never see that "rare" LP again, but I'm always sure there will be a CD copy around. This hasn't always been the case, of course. Impossible to find the Feelies catalog on CD or LP these days, for example.

wait till you have to shell out $1000.00 a month in mortgage payments and that will curb yr vinyl shopping! ha ha!

that's what happened to me!

I fucking love records.

Brilliant! Now, I truley understand what it's like to be a vinyl junkie "monster".
Nice read. Thanks.

Been there! Went for years and years without buying a thing due to tight finances. I still probably spend more than I should, but I put it in context: I spend a nominal amount of cash on one haircut every six weeks or so (talking around 15 bucks) whilst my loved one can spend a couple hundred in the same time period (it's insane!); I spend little on clothes whilst et cetera; and NOTHING gasp on my nails whilst et cetera... So by comparison my indulgence of a $15 LP every couple of weeks or so is pretty cheap...

Binge and purge here. I tend to limit myself to bands/ composers I don't know anything about, which means I'm very frugal with 'world' and classical stuff, but very limiting on myself when it comes to guitar/ Anglo-American stuff.

I use two tactics:

1. Try not to pass up that "rare" LP that magically shows up one day. (My definition of "rare" is really just anything on my list that I haven't seen on LP for a while--could be something as mundane as a nice reissue of Loaded or something as esoteric as an original vinyl pressing of Daydream Nation. Yes, I keep a list of these things.)

2. Focus on bands/artists I'm currently keen about.

3. Avoid new releases unless I've heard them.

One very good technique - Charity shop records are as cheap as words. If you don't like them, you feel good taking them back. If you do like them, you've made a killing.

I whish you could download alcohol and then burn it.

Might as well ask a junkie how to stop using junk.

The best I can do is control the habit by limiting when and where I go to look for records. I try not to walk into a record store more than twice a week. This is very difficult since I work just around the corner from a great independent record store. I also stick to one store. If they don't have what I'm looking for, don't go searching for it in other stores in the area or online--kind of with the philosophy that if it's not there, it's not meant to be. The flipside of this thinking--and one I fall prey to quickly--is, okay, so that's not meant to be, but oh, look, here's something else that looks really great, so this is what's meant to be.

Yeah. Addiction. It's a thorny subject.

that is exactly true. I despise paying too much. However I would surely pay $25 for something special today which I would not ahve done 10 years ago.

I lov evinyl records.
I try to limit it to bands I know already. I do not buy vinyl just to "check a band out"
for that I will buy a used CD.

I need to start buying more records.

have you stuck to your plan of only buying 7"s this year? or did you start veering off course any?

i veered off course buy now i'm back on again

Mr & B: You live with a record store clerk. As do I. And he keeps finding things for me. Which is detrimental to my wallet in some fashions, but also good because I tell him to get things and he gets them, rather than I wander in, get the record (at full price) and buy other things (at full price).

Luckily, there's a dearth of vinyl shops round here, but I did find a Sunday market with an absurd amount of stuff on Sunday. 20 quid, 11 LPs though, I'm quite pleased.

Edit: Urr, I meant to ask some asinine question about something. Insert bollocks here etc.

You guys are fucking lucky to live with a "record store clerk".

i worked in record stores for six years and i would spend all of my pay except for rent and food. now i spend all of my pay except for rent and food and $100 bucks to go out and party and $200 bucks for my savings to go overseas again and again and buy records in other countries.....

It's going to take considerable restraint when I open my store not to buy all my inventory myself. At the same time, maybe it will be like living with a really large collection that eventually somebody else will pay for--even though then I won't have it anymore. ah, the rub.

I haven't baughten a cd is so long.
I've been fixing my bike, plus I don't have any money so that doesn't help.