Gramsci wrote: Sun May 25, 2025 10:40 am How anal is everyone about their record collection? I'm talking about vinyl here, no one cares about your jewel cases or those funky digipaks.

I have all of my records in heavy PVC sleeves, with Spincare Audiophile inners, the ones with the layer of rice paper. I cut out any stickers from the cling wrap and slide in the back.

They're generally in alphabetical order then sub-ordered by release date.

Are other people this uptight or are you just slapping unsleeved records on the shelf and not thinking twice about it.

I basically do what you're doing, except I am not 100% consistent about it. Maybe only 60-75% consistent.

If the packaging is real tight (twts) and/or the album has special / printed inner sleeves, I will skip the fancy inner sleeves because I don't want to stretch it out (twts). I don't use the heavy PVC sleeves; I use the super thin ones. Almost everything goes in a PVC sleeve, though. I do generally save the hype stickers, but if the record isn't super important to me or the stickers themselves aren't novel or interesting in some way, I will occasionally chuck them. Things like Relapse Death reissues... meh. I did save the sticker that FM Justin Foley et al told me not to, though.

That same calculus (how important / novel the record is) dictates how careful I am with storing the record generally, I guess. I baby the Shellac records. $5 bin Bernstein/Mahler, I do none of this stuff.

I also keep an on-deck pile real close to the turntable that is completely unordered, just generally things I tend to play a lot, want handy in case people are over, or are new enough that I haven't shelved them elsewhere.

brephophagist wrote: Mon May 26, 2025 1:05 pm
I also keep an on-deck pile real close to the turntable that is completely unordered, just generally things I tend to play a lot, want handy in case people are over, or are new enough that I haven't shelved them elsewhere.

Oh this is a nice idea. We're about to move to a bigger place with a spare room (gold in London) I'll probably pu try records there and take up your on-deck pile idea.

spilling out into the frunchroom. need more cubes. alphabetically normally unless it gets complicated. and it's gotten complicated.

Most of it is upstairs in a couple of old Ikea Expedits (a 4x2 and two stacked 5x1s). I usually put stuff in plastic sleeves and I'm really glad I did since our toddler likes to run his sticky fingers all over the spines now.

There's a decent chunk that doesn't fit upstairs that's not in "essential" rotation, so those are downstairs right now mixed between another Expedit and a record cabinet. But that's kinda fine since the turntable is downstairs right now as well (see toddler above).

Relatively modest collection of 500 LPs. I alphabetize but I don’t further sort chronologically which makes the Stones section a bit of a free-for-all. I clean if there’s objectionable noise, so pretty much never. If a record came with an outer plastic sleeve I’ll keep using it, otherwise no. I don’t use any replacement inner sleeves either. Pretty much survival of the fittest on my shelf, I guess

Gramsci wrote: Mon May 26, 2025 2:38 pm

brephophagist wrote: Mon May 26, 2025 1:05 pm
I also keep an on-deck pile real close to the turntable that is completely unordered, just generally things I tend to play a lot, want handy in case people are over, or are new enough that I haven't shelved them elsewhere.

Oh this is a nice idea. We're about to move to a bigger place with a spare room (gold in London) I'll probably pu try records there and take up your on-deck pile idea.

Those Line Phono stands are overpriced, but they are very good for this, provided your table fits on the top.

twelvepoint wrote: Mon May 26, 2025 5:09 pm Relatively modest collection of 500 LPs.

I'm also around there; if you include 7" and 10" records, maybe 800.

The crazy thing is that this is probably like 99th percentile of the population, but on PRF it's middling at best. This place can be humbling.

I think I'm in the 600 range, and feel like I need to pair down a bit. My house isn't large enough for a 3000+ collection. I also have CD's and tapes taking up space.

With a 1 1/2 year old, my vinyl cabinet is taped shut, along with my record player and the front of the amp has brown paper on it. I caught her one day with one of the cabinets open, the records out all over the place, a broken cabinet door (they are made of plexiglass), and she loves to push buttons on anything.

So, unfortunately, not listening to records for about another 8-12 months.

jfv wrote: Mon May 26, 2025 8:26 pm The crazy thing is that this is probably like 99th percentile of the population, but on PRF it's middling at best. This place can be humbling.

Even as someone who played in bands and got hooked up with free records sometimes, our home collection is probably under 500. I have been selling a lot in recent years but that was probably no more than 50-75. I dunno! We've probably gone less nuts overall in the streaming era even though I got off Spotify after Neil Young's boycott (which he was right about).

But I was with a friend a few weeks ago who basically can't even walk by a record store without acquiring 2-3 new records, so I can see how it happens!