Time for a little LP organization

I have been thinking over the past couple years that I need to go through my record collection and figure out what I have.  I need to determine what needs to be replaced, what I no longer like, need or want and clean it out.

The time is today when I start listening to most every single record in my collection without a quality rating first off.  I will determine the quality and if I am going to keep it by listening to the record in its' entirety, both sides.  I will then rate it and determine if I want to keep it, or rip a good song or two and sell it on Discogs, give it to Salvation Army or offer it up to friends that I know that still have turntables.  If it has a high quality rating and I like the record, it will stay.  Seems pretty simple!

I have started with the Oldies box.  These are the records that I have in my collection the longest.  I started collecting albums when I was about 16, and at the time I liked oldies, British invasion and psychedelic songs of the 1960s.  That is what a good portion of my collection consisted of when I was a kid.  I have listened to two LPs this morning, Paul Revere and the Raiders - Just Like Us, and Van Morrison - Moondance.  Both great albums, however I find that the 'Raiders LP is in terrible condition, so this copy will go to the thrift store and I will be searching for a new, clean version in either Stereo or Mono. This copy was stereo, but I think the mono records of the early 1960s were what the records were mixed to and re-channeled and re-mixed to become stereo.

I have tons of records in my collection.  I have three oldies boxes with approximately 70 records in each.  To make it easier to determine what I have done and what records I have looked at I am taking notes on my listening, dating and scoring the condition of the record.  If the record is in bad shape, I have a section of my notebook dedicated to records that I need to re-purchase and the LP will be put aside in a special bin. When I originally purchased most of these records, I used a visual grading method, which did not always result in clean sounding records.  This process of listening to most of my records will take quite a long time to accomplish, possibly a couple years.   I have decided there are certain records that I have already rated for quality that are must-keep records, so I may not listen to those except for pleasure listening during this project.

I have decided that certain types of records are out of scope for this project. First, box sets are not going to be included, nor will my 78-RPM collection.  Most of my box-sets are in excellent condition, most appear to have been played once and put on a shelf for the next 20 years.  Also not up for consideration will be my historic, comedy, patriotic and old-time-radio LP collections.  My daughter's records, my Disney records, anything unusual or sealed will remain in the collection too. 

I have been cleaning up and digitizing my CD collection for quite some time now and have sold off quite a few of the ones that I no longer listen to.  I have digitized the rest and have quite a musical library.  I have stored the original CDs in appropriate CD storage boxes that I have acquired at Bags Unlimited. 

I do not collect for the value of the records.  There are quite a few in my collection with messed up sleeves and that is fine with me.  Just as long as there is a nice, clean record in there somewhere.  Collectors would think I am nuts for how my collection is full of these awesome LPs in crappy sleeves.  I have to like a record to keep it, which is why it is time to go through the collection and weed-out those records that I have purchased as an experiment, or to try and find something different out there.  I have dozens of those in my collection; therefore it is time to take a listen and see if I really need to keep all my albums.  I expect to find that I have kept quite a few records that are OK, but I am not crazy about, these will be gone. 

Bottom line is I want a collection of hardly anything in it that is in any but excellent condition and sounds great when played.  Since I have started collecting records as an adult, and over the last 10 years or so I have gravitated toward the VG+, NM-, NM and sealed records for my collection of LPs.  As for 78s I try to acquire Es, which are in excellent condition.  If I like the record, and the quality is poor, I will add to my list the title and watch for it whenever I am scouting for records.  If I find a VG+ or NM copy I will re-acquire it, clean it and add it back into my collection.  I will also be looking for first pressings to replace even my quality records.

I also expect to be getting rid of approximately ten percent of my collection through the changing of my tastes over the years.  There are quite a few albums that I have passed by over and over in the box and may have not played since I was a kid.  Those will be gone!  This seems like quite a bit of work to undertake, and it is.  I expect to enjoy the process quite a bit.  I am sure I will find LPs that I can no longer tolerate in my collection too.  This will take a long time but if I am consistent I should be able to get rid of a couple hundred LPs.  Probably replace a hundred or so in the process as well.

I hope you can get some listening time in and remember to enjoy the music, not just collect the records, which is what I want to remedy.

Peace Out and keep listening,

Jeff