What percentage of your vinyl collection is in perfect condition

Not Counting any used records...half my collection...the ones I bought are all in perfect condition, like the day I bought them. For the last 45 years.

I took really good care early on and just never stopped.

 

99.9% for me. When I buy second hand records, I always audition them before as best as I can. All reputable record stores have turntables on which you can audition them before purchasing.

 

Probably less than "I have no idea", but honestly, I really have NO idea. Condition was NEVER a value/factor to me. It has ALWAYS been about the music. The way I hear the music is MY choice, so I can't complain. I love my records, faults, skips, scratches and all. I clean em up, then I play em.

 

Every album is near mint.

 

I am exactly the same way, condition trumps everything for me (jacket and vinyl). I’m paying $100+ for the NM example rather than $10 for the VG+ album equivalent, I’ll save that for the next guy who would appreciate it more. I would sooner go without entirely then have a lesser condition item in my collection.

 

80-90% is NM.

 

I guess my definition of perfect is much different from many on this thread.

 

Always on the hunt for a cleaner vintage copy. I'd say 90% of my LPs are VG+ or better.

 

I only own about 25 records majority were used and cheap.

I would say 3%

 

No. It's ring wear. If you don't put them in outer sleeves, this is entirely unavoidable. Edge wear is also a problem.

I buy mostly new records. I would say 75% of my records are NM. The ones in less than perfect condition were bought used or purchased very early in my collecting, before I started using outer sleeves. I do have a few records that have seem splits from shipping, but, these are pretty rare. Well under 1% of the about 2000 albums I own have seam splits.

In contrast, I recently inherited a bunch of records from my parents. 90% of them have ring wear and a lot of edge wear. I haven't got chance to do much about preserving them. The ones in better condition are VG+. Most of them I would grade G.

 

How do you store your records? I have a cube but used to store records really tight but now I have about 80 to 85 percent of each cube filled.

Maybe I should put a book in or something, but I think if they are too tight that for sure would add to ring.

 

No record is perfect (maybe a few). Most will have a little surface noise or at least inaudible marks (usually from new). In the old days even sleeves were often imperfect plus minor mailing damage that didn't warrant hassle of return (incl slice throughs) and cut outs. I would say 99% of my records would be given a nr mint grading by most sellers and over 90% if you graded accurately. 'Perfect' cover and vinyl I would think less than 25%. I have tried to upgrade anything with serious flaws so few fall into that category, mostly sleeves. I rarely receive new vinyl that doesn't have minor flaws though covers are usually pristine.

 

I have tightly packed records always, to max shelf or box space, though not over tight. Have few instances of ring wear (mostly already present on used discs). Tight packing can flatten some warps and dishes over time. Some covers are prone to ring wear and display start when new. Seems to be pressure of vinyl disc from inside rather than rubbing against another sleeve.

 

I would say maybe 60 percent of my records have a crease here and there, it annoys me to no end but I don't the funds to replace my whole collection.

Vinyl wise, most play perfectly.

Tho, I did put on Beach Boys- Today vinyl that was put out a few years ago and the noise was awful. Maybe it was my disk I don't know.

 

How can anyone claim that they have many perfect vinyl records? Back in the day, OUT OF THE BOX, by far most of the disks that I would purchase are what I'd call 'not good vinyl.' Of course, I live in the US. I'd have to say that the Sheffield labs an MFSL records (from the '80's) were also 'not perfect', even though they were pretty good. I was a stickler for absolutely perfect quality, however. I could keep my vinyl in good shape even after many playings, but I eventually lost interest in music recordings when CDs came out, and they often sounded terrible (often due to bad pre-emphasis, directly using recordings meant for vinyl, or leaving DolbyA encoding enabled -- because the DolbyA would be decoded at the vinyl mastering stage.) So, we ended up with CDs inferior to what technology could be provide, and that just about killed it for me. I loved my music, but the distortions/etc just ruined it for me. (I couldn't -- and still cant -- ignore distractions in the music.) This intolerance for distractions is one reason why I can develop tricky audio processing software, and mostly not totally flub the sound quality -- I cannot tolerate nonsense in the sound.

 

I buy little new vinyl and generally do not leave things sealed.
Perfect?
Almost nil as I am anal and very fussy with gradings.
Maybe a more revealing question for CD collections?

 

I like to think around 80%? Whatever I bought new looks like the day I bought it - and, no, in 2018 that's not necessarily a compliment - and with 2nd hand stuff, I more or less try to get quality copies. Or get rid of accidently bought garbage.

 

Life's too short to wait on perfect mint copies of vintage records. In my case they're not museum pieces, they're meant to be played.

Every flaw of the the jacket and imperfection of the disc tells a story. maybe not my story, but somebody's.

If the imperfections aren't too distracting and the price is right...I'm in.

 

0% for me. I have zero click free records.

 

“Perfect?” None. But I’d argue that once it’s been played once it’s no longer “perfect.”

Most of what I own is used and while I look for the best quality I can find at a price I am willing to pay- I buy vinyl to play it, and By nature it wears.

 

Pretty much all of them. I always played records with care from about age 12 onwards. I am happiest for this about my Original WLP of my RL Led Zep II when I read all the stories of folks looking for this LP but usually finding trashed ones.

 

I think it is all down to how strictly you grade them? Anything that I have bought new is in the exact same condition as it was, when new. I am very fastidious about record handling and have been since my teenage years, a bit of OCD going on there probably but so what! Basically, I have no time for less than NM/M- records and if I see marks, hairlines, scuffs or a lot of spindle hole marks, I will pass.

But how many records are perfect anyway? Since the mid 1970s, record companies have been using printed card inner sleeves on almost all pop/rock releases. These are harsh and can cause scuff damage and hairlines on the record surface when they are bagged, in my experience. The record might play perfectly well but you cannot offer it for sale as a M or NM/M- with hairlines, scuffs etc. Perfect means Perfect! NM/M- means almost new or like new! You'll find many sellers on the likes of Ebay and Discogs etc. who don't understand the meaning of any of these words/phrases in the context of vinyl records. In my experience, I would say that the only country that produced 'perfect records' consistently, was Japan, for its own domestic market.

In spite of what I have said above though, I would say that 99% of my vinyl collection is NM/M- as to the actual records but probably a significantly less percentage when it comes to sleeves/jackets. Access to State of Art record cleaning (Wet/Vacuum RCM, Enzyme Cleaning Agents/Ultrasonic RCM) is an enormous factor too in keeping records in top condition. An 'imperfect' record even when brand new, can very often be restored to perfect playing condition by professional cleaning. Storing jackets/sleeves in plastic outer sleeves will also help in keeping the record collection in top condition.

I have had to rely on mail order for most of my record collecting life and invariably the postal process introduces problems such as crushed corners to sleeves/jackets in the worst cases and creases in very many. Acoustic Sounds in Kansas, U.S.A., to its credit, is the most 'clued in' mail order concern there is when it comes to providing proper 'oversized' packaging for the protection of record sleeves/jackets in the postal process! Esprit International (eil.com) in the U.K. and jpc in Germany use similar packaging for their vinyl shipments but their packaging is not not up the quality that Chad uses. The Japanese, strangely, have not adopted this type of package design. So unless you can pick up all of your records, including rare and audiophile issues, locally it is highly likely that you will have minor issues with regard to sleeve damage.

So I will go with 99% for the records and maybe 70% for sleeves using the NM/M- grading standard. Can we really use the word 'perfect' in the context of a vinyl record that has been played?

 

I wait on mint copies precisely because I enjoy playing records, and I like playing records that don’t skip or pop. And I have 95% of the records I want. Last year I finally found that elusive mint copy of the Velvet Underground’s third album that I’d been waiting for. There aren’t many more records like that that I want that I don’t have a good copy of. I’ve pretty much given up on new vinyl, and I basically have the classic vinyl collection that I want.

 

I would say most of the problems for me are minor creases in jackets.
Vinyl tho, like yourself 99% are perfect. The ones jacket wise that are ****e, are because of shipping.

 

90% of mine are in NM condition. Almost all of my LP's were bought new (been buying since the late 60's) and were never played on any cheap tables or cartridges. My friends used to think I was nuts in the handling and care of my records but it has sure paid off. The very few LP's that I buy used must be in NM condition or I won't bother.