Your record collecting "quirks"...

What are some aspects of your record collecting or storage that you feel are unique or exhibit personal preference?

For example, these are some of mine:

- I store all my 45 singles by peak position they reached on the Billboard Hot 100. I have a drawer for records that peaked at #100, a drawer for records that peaked at #99, etc.

- I store all my vinyl with the inner sleeve openings matching the jacket openings (for ease of access). I realize this isn't wise but then again my love of music has never been about wisdom.

- I store my Faces lp's with my Rod Stewart lp's.

- I actually have a "Top 200" vinyl section that I store separate of the "overall collection". It is basically those records that I play the most or that I find most seamless. That way, I can pull out any of my top favorites quickly, when the mood strikes.

 

-I only collect pressings of the country of origin of the artists, except for rarities only available elsewhere.
For the Beatles it's the UK pressings, for Frank Zappa it's the US pressings, etc...

- I collect many complete discographies by many artists, but I never collect compilations or reissues, except the ones that bring at least one previously unreleased track.
So there is A collection of Beatles Oldies but no Hey Jude/Again.
So, no Wings Greatest or The best of George Harrison or Pure McCartney in my collection.
Neither any room for Echoes the best of Pink Floyd, but there is one for Relics.

-I try and collect the very first occurence of a title in a given discography.
So instead of collecting Past Masters, I have the original UK 45s and the "Nothing's gonna change our world" charity British Lp.
I also have the original Pink Floyd 45s from the 60s. (UK).

etc...

 

I store my LPs in bookcase-like interlocking storage units, sorted alphabetically by artist, and the A's start top shelf extreme right and move to the left. When my brother saw it and I explained to him where the A's start, he said, "What, is your record collection in Hebrew or something?" (Because you move from right to left when scanning artists and titles)

I never realized that this was odd, it just made sense at the time.

 

You have 100 drawers of 45 singles? At least?

 

I store my Faces albums separate from my Rod Stewart albums, but I store my Janis Joplin albums with my Big Brother and the Holding Company albums!

 

Oh yes!

Even more than 100 actually because I have to account for singles that hit the Bubbling Under The Hot 100 charts as well.

 

Alan Turing couldn't decipher my CD filing system. To anyone but me, it appears to be completely random, but I know where everything is.

 

...some very cool ways of doing it there. My main quiek is to have them in near-perfect chronological order...my solo beatle albums follow the beatle albums but the current pressing/reissues s of all bands are stored in separate sections from my "regular/old" albums. One very obsessive quirk I have ias that I have to replace the protective sleeves once they get "misty". Crazy. Also, My Beatles singles are stored in separate cases from my non-Beatles...and all singles are stored chronologically as well. but your thing about Billboard-order really blew me away. Quite unique!!

 

I buy any Flying Dutchman LP releases I see because of the polka dots on the spines.

 

No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no.

If I'm looking through second-hand records and find one that's been stored like this, I probably wouldn't even bother taking the record out to check it, I'd just assume it's trashed.

 

Yes, most do I suppose.

In my case, it's just about access to the record itself rather than the positioning of the sleeve that holds it. I actually play all my records, rather than sell them, so it's just a matter of practical convenience.

Indeed, I would not sell a record to someone that way, storage-wise.

 

not really a quirk, but I make sure any inserts (booklets, hype sticker cut out of the shrinkwrap to save, lyric sheet, etc) are inside the jacket and in front of the inner sleeve. Ticket stubs from having seen a band live, go in the poly sleeve, outside the album jacket and in the back. This is the way.
Also, alphabetical by first name unless their surname is how I think of them (ie Eno is under E) or they seem inextricably related to their main band (ie Jerry Garcia lps are with Grateful Dead but Bob Mould is under B and Grant Hart under G ‘cause they’d Never want to be back in Husker Du again). No quirks here though..

 

Love & Rockets gets filed under “B” right behind Bauhaus, but Peter Murphy gets filed under “M”.

 

I almost always remove the shrink wrap from records I buy and put them in Sleeve City Ultimate Outers, but there are a few exceptions like this one because I like having the "loser edition" sticker on the shrink:

 

And people wonder why the world is in such sorry shape nowadays.

 

Just the usual. Can't put one away until I've listened to it straight through over the office compyooter, under headphones. Even SACD, which I won't put away until I listen straight through on the downstairs system, gets a tracking of the redbook layer up here; same with all listenable layers of DVD-A over Foobar2000 (and,t eh surrounds sit on the right side of the shelf until I get to them, before filing them on the left side). Still-unlistened LP's I may have chanced upon at record shows, wait their turn in a short stack in a cabinet, before filing away with the others.

Solo acts more-affiliated with group or duos, filed with those. When the group/duo is more recognizable for the solo artist, it's the other way around. This is a fungible rule, of course (I have more Sting than Police, for instance, but, who's gonna want one if you want the other...).

 

9/10 of my items very well organized...

1/10 of them wander off, apparently deep in the night, to some hiding places in my abode

 

My late 1960's mono albums, I shelve separately, sorted by record company name and record number sequentially. Nerdy, I know.

 

I store my primary CD (sorry, I'm no audiophile ; ) collection alphabetically, chronologically. By last name, always (i.e. Bruce Springsteen is an "S," not a "B"). Studio albums only; live albums (and compilations that were necessary to obtain certain songs) are stored separately (by the same methodology, of course). Offshoots are sorted separately (i.e. Mark Knopfler solo is in the Ks, not with Dire Straits).

Probably not too unusual there, but a bit quirkier perhaps, I store A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell in the David Gilmour section, because I don't consider them Floyd albums. I even created new inserts for the CD boxes using the same color and font as the original replacing Pink Floyd with David Gilmour, so they wouldn't "look weird" being stored there (yet no other human has ever noticed, very few have even looked, and no one will ever know but me. Yes, odd!)

I also have a separate "ghetto" CD rack in a dark corner of the office (the "main" one is prominently displayed, where I can gaze at it lovingly and reach for it from my office chair). The "ghetto" has albums by artists I have in my main collection that are too embarrassing to be seen there (again - probably no one will ever see ; ) but aren't so awful that I wanted to get rid of them - for example, Aerosmith's Permanent Vacation and Pump, which have some good songs and, more importantly, a lot of sentimental value. Whereas I actually got rid of the awful Get A Grip and whatever the one was that came out in 1997, when I finally stopped being a fan because they had so jumped the shark.

This section also contains bands or albums I once liked but no longer consider legitimate nor do I listen very often, but still kind of like and more importantly have sentimental value such as the Cult, Ozzy solo albums, the Scorpions, Tesla.

And now I wish I hadn't referred to this section as the "ghetto," because I didn't intend any racial connotation, but it also contains the rap albums that I really liked during the brief period (roughly 1986 to 1992) that I was into it, i.e. Geto Boys, Public Enemy, N.W.A. and its offshoots, Ice-T. But also the Beastie Boys!

Also, when some albums first started being released only digitally (mainly Izzy Stradlin, who started doing so in the mid-2000s) I would burn a CD, print out the cover art and stick it in a jewel case, label the spine...but eventually I stopped doing that, i.e. Alberta Cross put out a digital album this June that I just have in my iTunes (and on my Excel spreadsheet that I have of the "official" collection, but that's another story!) But now that I think about it, I don't know why I stopped that! Not only did it provide some OCD satisfaction, but it was also a form of insurance if the digital files ever disappeared...now I've got a fun mini-project to tackle, thanks for the inspiration!

There are probably other quirks, but those are the main ones...

 

Alphabetically by artist, but within the artist, chronologically by album release date, with the exception of archive releases. For example the RSD Who at Monterey Pop is slipped in between A QUICK ONE and SELL OUT....

 

I used to do this, but then I had a copy of Hunky Dory crash to the floor. I’ve realized it’s pretty easy to just take the sleeve out of the jacket, adds about one second to the process.

 

I use a random method of categorization. I mix genres , old with new and seem to constantly move records from one location to another. In addition I store records and cds in 4 storage cabinets, 2 closets and several built shelves. It’s actually a game I play with myself to keep my memory sharp depending on my intuition. It’s funny I know where everything is. It reminds me of the thing your Brain does where you naturally know what is the next track that will play.
I’ve said enough.

 

Oh my GOD.....

 

True.