Sealed vinyl obsession - a disorder?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Jennifer Tomkins, Apr 12, 2016.

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  1. Spadeygrove

    Spadeygrove Senior Member

    Location:
    Charleston, WV
  2. Emil Zatopek

    Emil Zatopek Forum Resident

    Location:
    Almost there
    Easy. Keep your vinyl sealed and buy NM copies of the same run to listen to. Win-win situation.
     
    peter likes this.
  3. Dr. Mudd

    Dr. Mudd Audient

    Open them!
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  4. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    Buy a shrink wrap/sealing machine... problem solved.
     
    Fullbug and sixtiesstereo like this.
  5. eric777

    eric777 Astral Projectionist

    At some point in time, everything that exists now will cease to be. It is what it is. All we have is right here and now. Holding onto such things does you no good. Play them. Play them all!!!
     
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  6. izgoblin

    izgoblin Forum Resident

    I can certainly relate. Sometimes I buy a vintage sealed album with the intention of playing a "pristine" copy, but then it just looks so pretty in my collection still sealed like it first appeared in a record store, especially if it has stickers on it.
    So then I end up hunting for another affordable sealed copy so I can break that open and play that. For some reason, once I have a sealed copy, I tend to want another sealed one to play. I don't just settle for a NM copy.

    A sealed record for me is just as much about as the visual appeal and nostalgia for what it was like to buy a brand new record back in the '70s or '80s. Once you break the seal, you lose part of the fun of owning that record.

    The real bitch of it is when I find a very rare album sealed but at a very affordable price. Yes, this has happened several times. I drive myself crazy because, dammit, it's so rare and it's sealed, so how can I open that? But then again, I only paid $10 for it. No big deal, right?

    In two of the three cases I can think of, I opened the seal and played the record not too long after buying it. In a third case, even though I have a VG player copy, I just can't bring myself to open the sealed one and play the "upgrade" I bought solely for that purpose.
     
    mrjinks likes this.
  7. raveoned

    raveoned Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ambler, PA
    This is like an ongoing debate I have with my Dad, as we both collect trains. When I get one that's never been opened and run, that is the ultimate thrill: I'm the first one to open this and run it! It's truly mine! After all, they have motors and were made to be run!

    I feel the same with music. Those grooves have some great music in them, no matter the pressing or mastering of that particular issue. The music is there and needs to come alive. Open them and let that music out! Enjoy those records for what their purpose was: to be listened to, debated, discussed, enjoyed.

    You could even have a gathering of friends over, some food and all, and play these treasures for the first time. That way the opening has a great meaning and memory with them.
     
  8. Sternodox

    Sternodox SubGenius Pope of Arkansas

    Dude, I have been doing some research and I have discovered that every single album you bought and kept sealed actually contains a copy of Browning Bryant's Greatest Hits! I'm really sorry.
     
    Bigbudukks likes this.
  9. jmpatrick

    jmpatrick Forum Resident

    Location:
    Detroit, MI
    If I already have a play copy then I keep vintage stuff sealed. I've opened several 20+ year-old sealed records and it's always been disappointing. You expect a perfect copy and you never get one.
     
  10. B. Bu Po

    B. Bu Po Senior Member

    Don't be a weakling, keep 'em sealed. To Hell with these people who cry "disorder", you're obviously not that interested in listening to them anyway. It's OK to own records with no intention of listening to them. Maybe a person just likes plastic and paper with pretty pictures on them (except you'll never get to look directly at the label. On second thought, open them but don't play them).
     
  11. agaraffa

    agaraffa Senior Member

    You should do whatever you want to do with them, whatever makes you happy. I know people who collect records and don't even have a turntable, they just like records. Simple as that. Do whatever floats your boat and enjoy. :D
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  12. B. Bu Po

    B. Bu Po Senior Member

    Is this the Not Opening David Bowie Records thread? Yeah, I know what you mean. I bought that stupid Man Who Sold The World picture disc on Record Store Day just because everyone else wanted it. Then I thought Why the hell did I buy this? I don't like picture discs (and they really should have just released that album in the full jacket), don't think they sound good, it looks kinda lame, plus I already have three copies of that album. Really sort of kicking myself for buying it as the money ain't exactly flowing for me right now and I'm already buried under heaps of records and CDs. But you know what? I'm probably going to play it.
     
  13. fredblue

    fredblue Surrounded by Music

    Location:
    London, England
    When I was buying records as a kid in the 80's and early 90's I seem to remember it being less common for LPs to be sealed (as in shrink-wrapped) here in the UK and I wasn't buying imported LPs at that point, so it's really only become more of a dilemma "to open or not to open!" since I got back into vinyl more recently and now its pretty much all sealed or so it seems..!? :shh:
     
  14. Take one of them, if possible a duplicate. Quickly slit the shrink down the opening with the extended pinkie nail you surely have grown out for just such purposes. Inhale deeply of the authentic period air that's been preserved inside since the '60s or '70s, full of that smell of vintage PVC and paper. Better than heroin, or even new book smell.
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  15. Capzark

    Capzark Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ink, Missouri
    Sounds like you just like collecting sealed records just like some collect sealed beer and wine. Personally, I like to quickly open both and enjoy the ride.:pineapple:
     
    Last edited: May 4, 2016
    Fullbug likes this.
  16. vinylbuff

    vinylbuff Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Port Florida
    I voted "seek therapy"
    I have hundreds of sealed lps sitting in boxes and crates with reservations about opening them. I had a sealed lp that looked very suspicious, (shrink wrapped with a seam that looked "burned" on the very edge). This lp has eaten at me for years until one day I walked over, pulled it out of the box and quickly slit the shrink. What did I find, you ask??? I found a new unplayed (looking) lp in a perfectly clean unwrinkled inner sleeve.
    This lp had what looked like a light haze on it....... sort of like mildew or mold..... (but no odor). Over to the VPI for a cleaning and onto the Rega for a playing. It sounded very very nice, exceptionally quiet and very glossy looking. I was and am very pleased with my copy of Days Of Future Passed. That, in itself has cured me from seeking therapy. :laugh:
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  17. gregorya

    gregorya I approve of this message

    Are you also obsessive about the actual record's condition (even of records that you have opened)? Is it warped? Is it scratched? Lots of surface noise, etc.?

    If so, this adds another layer. Until you open it, you won't know if it's in good shape or not. Or, if it's even the correct album (there are cases of the wrong album in the jacket).

    Until it is opened, it both scratched and not scratched. Both warped and not warped. Both the correct record and the incorrect record... it's like Schrödinger's vinyl... ;)
     
  18. sixtiesstereo

    sixtiesstereo Senior Member

    Location:
    Wisconsin
    You have no idea how common this was. In the 70's, a record store chain I worked for resealed LP's
    using their shrink wrap machine on returns, DJ copies, etc, and sold them at full retail. I wasn't involved
    in this, but they would put a small red dot sticker on them, and if it was sold, we made a note of it.
    My point is, just because a record is sealed, it doesn't mean it's mint.
    Also, there are record collectors and there are music collectors. I'm a music collector, so I've opened and
    played whatever I've bought over the last 50 years. You can't listen to the music if you don't open it......
     
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  19. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    That's just silly. The OP should do whatever he wants with his sealed records, including opening them. I recently purchased a sealed album from 1970 and couldn't wait to get it open and on the turntable.
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  20. agundy

    agundy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lock Haven, PA
    THIS.
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  21. agundy

    agundy Forum Resident

    Location:
    Lock Haven, PA
    ....And then seek therapy;)
     
    eric777 likes this.
  22. I say open them, sooner or later they'll be opened anyway so it may as well be you that has that pleasure. Once you shuffle off this mortal coil your records will likely be sold and then someone will undoubtedly open them.
     
    Fullbug likes this.
  23. coniferouspine

    coniferouspine Forum Resident

    Ha! I did this on air, too! The "New Music Show." I would also open the mail, live on the air...sometimes literally rip open the envelopes live while holding them up to the microphone, especially if I knew the label on the package was a good one.

    There was one episode where I generally knew what the new releases would be coming out that week, and I had a friend guesting with me in the studio...so I did a clairvoyant bit. I'd hold the cardboard 12" mailer up to my forehead, I'd see it was from Elektra Records, pretend to close my eyes and meditate..."I sense this will be the new 12" single from 10,000 Manaics." Open it up and I'd be right. They'd hold up the next one, across the room, and tell me the return address was from Def-Jam, Warner Brothers. "That will be one alternative rock record, and one West Coast hip-hop record we've never heard of. Open it and you shall see!" And so on. A few of them slipped through my radar, but that particular day I was generally right more often than I was wrong, just because I was an avid reader of the back pages of CMJ and Gavin in those days.
     
    Thesmellofvinyl likes this.
  24. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    Maybe the OP could do this with his records. Hold one up to his forehead and say, "This one will be warped as hell", etc.
     
    Thesmellofvinyl likes this.
  25. B. Bu Po

    B. Bu Po Senior Member

    This is why you shouldn't open them. Let someone else find a nice sealed record to open and enjoy, or to not open and enjoy as an ever-sealed artifact.
     
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