Your record collecting "quirks"...

Mine is a bit of a hodge podge mess that makes sense to me. Genre based sections but within each no real order other than albums by artist are together. A lot of it ends up being path dependent... I don't do a complete tear down and reorganization as the collection gets larger. Just shifting and sometimes creating new sections away from where they'd logically go. I know where everything is and that's pretty much all that matters.

I do, though, have a designated crate filled with high value albums---I told my wife that if I'm ever kidnapped and she needs to scare up some quick ransom money, this is where she should go. So, Beatles UK mono pressings, AYE mono, LZII RLs, etc.

 

It's not so much the number of singles that amazed me. I know people have huge collections. It's the number of drawers. It boggles the mind!

 

Yes, it definitely requires an entire room. A beautiful sight to behold if one is a singles/charts lover, but I definitely don't make any claim on it being a normal organizational option.

 

At least some of you realize how wacky you are.

 

I always put the record back in the jacket with side 1 facing up.

 

My music files are all alphabetized by first name (Elton John) or the band name (Beatles...with no "The" on any band names except The The...). If my LPs were organized in any fashion, I suppose I would do it the same way but they are currently on many shelves, mixed and jumbled. My CDs are in boxes except the most frequent played ones are stacked in a bedstand, in no order though I 'know' pretty much what is there and where in the pile it is.

 

I'm a CD collector. My big thing is consistency. For example---I have to have ALL the same original mastered CD's or remastered CD's in a series. For instance, I own all the 90's Genesis remastered CD's in the Definitive Edition series. I had an old Atco CD of "Trick of the Tail" and it drove me crazy. I had to hunt down the DE remaster to keep my collection consistent. Another example---all my Doors CD's are the original 80's CD's. My Pink Floyd collection is all the Discovery and Experience editions. I probably would drive audiophiles who go for the best sounding versions crazy!

 

I don’t categorize by genre, which maybe counts as a quirk? Other than keeping the small number of Christmas LPs separate, everything just goes alphabetical by artist. If I had any classical LPs, I’d likely separate those, but what jazz I have just goes with everything else.

 

My albums are all organized by day of week purchased and subordinated by matrix code. It's an odd system but it works for me.

 

I’ve bought albums I don’t care for all that much just to fill in gaps in a collection. I’m looking at you, Sally Can’t Dance. I only do this with vinyl.

 

I love If I Can Dream's OP and this thread but I HAVE to go with you on this one!! Any opening that allows anything to make it's way into the album needs to be "closed off" good as possible. But there's a secondary reason as to why I wouldn't find this practical..it may only happen on rare occasion but if the opening of the sleeve is facing inward while the album is in storage, you may go to pull the album out and only end up pulling out the outer sleeve while the album cover itself slides out. Again, this would be a rarity but I'm just sayin'....

 

I also do this. It's the only way that feels logical to me. I actually know of a store in Nijmegen who have it ordered like that as well, starting with the A on the top hand right of the store to the z at the left bottom end.

 

I love you guys. I don't have anyone in my life that understands this stuff!

 

Nowadays, I collect albums mostly by year, with a limit of about 20-25 favorites per decade, 1948-2020. All early or first U.S. pressings to the extent possible. The only duplicates I keep of a given title are mono & stereo pressings from 1965 to 1968.

 

Groups leaning against furniture/floor things, chronologically arranged by purchase date, so that the most recent group is in the most accessible pile (vertical, of course: I'm no slob).

 

I’m very curious... do you happen to be left handed?

I ask because my wife and my father are both left handed, and there are seemingly random things that make sense to them backwards from what seems typical and natural to me.

 

Fair points to be sure but in my case it is so unlikely and minor a concern, relative to the ease of removal, that it is just something that I've never had an issue with after decades of collecting and handling.

It would kinda be like being hesitant to not take the record out at all because you "could" accidentally drop it. It just has never happened before in my storage experience.

(Picking up my new copy of Goats Head Soup vinyl that just rolled onto the floor while typing)...

 

My biggest collecting quirk: I often buy records without checking to see if they're from a digital or analog source, or where they were pressed. It's crazy, I know.

No genres in my collection either. It's an unnessesary step between what you want to listen to and where to find it.

• My classical LPs are in with the rest, by composer name. Classical Lps with multiple composers go to the Various Artists section (see below)
• Soundtrack LPs are in with the rest, sorted by film name.

• Various LPs start after "Z", sorted roughly by era/genre: (non-music > early/ romantic classical > modern classical > early folk & blues > Jazz > country > rockabilly > '50s~'60s pop > garage > psych > punk > post-punk)

I was right-to left for decades, a quirk I learned from my brother who sorted his books that way. I switched to the common way just last year - just to throw myself off!

 

Vocal (Rock, R&B, etc.) alphabetical by artist and instrumental (Jazz and Classical mostly) alphabetical by artist or composer.

 

I have my catalog albums in my “main collection”, which usually but not always includes rarities LPs. Over the other side of the room, we have Compilations in their own section, both single and various artists. Then soundtracks. Then cast recordings. Then live albums. Then catalog albums I don’t ‘need’ but don’t want to shift (ones my friends like etc). I also have picture discs and odds and sods here.

Then finally, at the bottom of the CD bookcase, we have a few “oversized” LPs, a couple of box sets (but only 3 of many, which are elsewhere), then 12” singles, and then alternates. This includes stereo versions of mono albums in the main collection/comps/live (and vice versa), originals where a reissue has superceeded, but aren’t worth enough to resell, and a couple of slightly too tall comps that don’t fit in the tighter highted comps section.

 

I have a weird thing for 1989-92-ish albums on vinyl. Like, when I stumble on one by a famous artist I feel obligated to buy it if it's cheap, so I have Cheap Trick's Busted and Fleetwood Mac's Behind The Mask on vinyl even though they're pretty weak albums. I don't know why, other than just the "oh, i had no idea this even existed on LP" factor.

 

My reason for thinking classical might be kept separate is that I’m not sure how I would order them among everything else, but by composer may be the simplest way (especially since my level of familiarity with classical music is mainly by composer, not really specific orchestras, conductors, musicians, etc.).

As for soundtracks and V/A stuff, I have so few that I can afford for them to just be kind of a random mess at the end.

 

Whatever is simplest is best - the shortest point between a whim and locating the item in question.

There's no advantage to a complicated system if you can't find something because you can't remember how it charted / when you bought it / what year it was released / genre is vague to define (are the Everly Brothers country or pop?).

 

My LP-section is spread over 6x6 Expedit cases.
Seperate columns for US / UK / EU/ ROW / Classical.
Alphabetical by last name and within the EU / ROW sections also by genre (mainly Folk/Folk-rock/Rock/Jazz/Other)
No chronology within an artist's discography, I rarely have problems finding a specific record.
My Zappa/Beefheart and Fairport/Thompson/Denny collections have their own shelves.

My CD's are organised more or less in the same fashion, be it that they're not on Expedit-shelves but in large drawers.
Seperate drawer for FZ/MOI and one for the Dead and, again, FC/RT.

Then I also have a book case with doors for my Stiff Records, 45's and LP's, collection.
And a similar storing for my other 45's.

Oh and for my personal Quirk:
I've made sure that no Xmas record ever enters my home. With one exception: Graham Parkers' Christmas Cracker EP.

Cheers, Sq.