Record collecting world switching from vinyl to CD?

Khnud · Post by **Khnud** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:21 pm

I'm not sure if you've witnessed the same thing, but more and more of the discussions on this forum seem to concern CDs rather than vinyl, whereas the situation was quite the opposite a few years ago. Everything from "now playing"-threads to "insane e-bay auctions" to most of the trading threads mostly concern CDs nowadays.

Just curious, has the entire collecting business switched towards CDs recently, or is it just here? I had a feeling some time ago that vinyl had some form of revival and the CD was "dead", but now CDs seem hotter than ever in the collecting circuit. Would you agree? I have no idea about the availability of collectable CDs on ebay, for instance, but it sure feels like there are way less good vinyl albums up for sale now compared to a few years back.

Am I way off on this?

roihlem · Post by **roihlem** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:37 pm

I`ve noticed the same thing, for me it is unbelievable to see all those old CDs going for such incredible prices, while a year or two ago you could get them for peanuts....For me vinyl is still the number one, although I have bought some more old CD only releases recently, just to avoid that I have to pay a much higher price soon.
Congrats to Sovdat and Avenger for being the trendsetters in collecting CDs!

Just curious, is it true that a CD lasts 30 years?

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:27 pm

I think its more a matter of new generation of collectors entering the market. Those young people have no affection to vinyls whatsoever so they are collecting CDs.

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 5:36 pm

I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.

dford · Post by **dford** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:01 pm

doomedplanet wrote:I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.

This is so true about being more interested in vinyl than ever Rob, I can't seem to stop finding great new releases and re-releases on vinyl. The re-releases are what really has be going, so much that I missed out on because I couldn't afford it at the time now available, it's great. I always preferred originals but these re-releases are welcome over high priced originals lately.

Khnud · Post by **Khnud** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:07 pm

doomedplanet wrote:I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.

So what you're saying is that this forum is becoming less interesting for vinyl collectors? I must admit, I never bother looking in many of my old favourite threads, knowing they're just about CDs nowadays.

Sgt. Kuntz · Post by **Sgt. Kuntz** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 9:17 pm

I don't think that you have to be grown up with vinyl to become a vinyl-junkie. There are many 18 years olds who collect 80s LPs as if it's the most common thing on earth to do.

If there is a problem, then it's because there are already too many crapy vinyl-releases on the market. Many albums that no one cares about are beeing re-issued or labels like "Night of the Vinyl Dead" who ripp people off with their price policy. Apart from that i think the CD collectors are very present here, that's true, but i wouldn't draw that many conclusions from that to the real collectors world.

The Sentinel · Post by **The Sentinel** » Tue Jan 12, 2010 11:20 pm

doomedplanet wrote:I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.

+1

I also notice a slight drop in prices for US metal/Euro metal etc, especially on ebay. It seems rare Black/Death vinyls are becoming far more expensive. Getting an original Nifelheim LP is becoming far more difficult then for instance getting a Ray Gunn or Matakopas LP.

sovdat · Post by **sovdat** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:26 am

The Sentinel wrote:
doomedplanet wrote:I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.
+1

I also notice a slight drop in prices for US metal/Euro metal etc, especially on ebay. It seems rare Black/Death vinyls are becoming far more expensive. Getting an original Nifelheim LP is becoming far more difficult then for instance getting a Ray Gunn or Matakopas LP.

+ many of old CDs were sold for huge amounts in the past few months, basically you can find a $200-$300 ebay auction every few days. That might be one reason that there's more talk about CDs. But the reason why there's less talk about vinyls is not in people who are more or only into CDs, but in people who're into vinyls - hey. it's up to you to keep the discussions interesting, not us. Maybe there's been too much said in the past and you'll find some new things to discuss in the near future

MassOfKthulu · Post by **MassOfKthulu** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 6:44 pm

Yes plus its 'stupid' vinyl getting all the attention,like these slayer boots all going for 1 gazillion dollars each,there are way too many stupid people on the planet but this is no reason for me to initiate discussion.
Plus us vinyl collectros are very sneaky

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Wed Jan 13, 2010 7:32 pm

MassOfKthulu wrote:there are way too many stupid people on the planet but this is no reason for me to initiate discussion.

+1

There are any number of folks (that I'll not name) on this forum that many times I won't make a single comment because of their behavior, they always have to be 'right' and have the last 'word' on any subject so they make it quite easy to not get involved. Luckily a couple of those members seem to have disappeared.

MEXDefenderOfSteel · Post by **MEXDefenderOfSteel** » Sat Jan 16, 2010 7:09 am

The Sentinel wrote:
doomedplanet wrote:I just think on this forum recently the cd collectors are 'louder"" than the rest. Since $300 cds don't interest me why would I even consider getting in on the discussion?
I'm more interested in records than ever, especially with the recent few years trend of great new vinyl releases. The amount of them never seems to slow down.
+1

I also notice a slight drop in prices for US metal/Euro metal etc, especially on ebay. It seems rare Black/Death vinyls are becoming far more expensive. Getting an original Nifelheim LP is becoming far more difficult then for instance getting a Ray Gunn or Matakopas LP.

and thats fine with me

i have always said it, i appreciate both formats, and like it was mentioned above, its great that lots of "official" re-issues are coming out more and more often

nightsblood · Post by **nightsblood** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 2:20 am

Hmmm, I think the forum goes back and forth a bit, depending on who is actively posting. Threads run for awhile, then go dormant, then get bumped up again months later.

Some metal CDs have definitely been getting more collectable it seems. I enjoy CDs for listening, but I usually don't have any interest in getting rare or expensive ones. I doubt i have a dozen cds that would sell for > $50.

Metal vinyl prices fluctuate. I think the economy is helping push prices down a little bit. There's also been a LOT of stuff on the market in the last year, probably in part b/c some folks were hurt by the economy and needed to sell. Some items have also been turning up very regularly lately (e.g., Medieval Steel, Matakopas, Rated X) and that drives the price down of course.

Prices may also have been pushed a bit too high in some cases during the 'rattlehead14 era'; folks were paying Jim very generous prices for many of his items, but other sellers don't get as much for the same items. Thus, the perceived 'lowering of price' may actually be a return to 'normal' price in some cases. (Note this is not a complaint about Jim; super-nice guy and he started every auction dirt-cheap, so he wasn't price-gouging or anything of the sort). That's the catch to using auctions and Popsike as a price guide; you have to look closely to account for things like slle ID, and it's not easy to determine whether one of Jim's old listings represents a price that many other people are willing to pay, or if he was lucky and had a Bid War going on, driving the item up to a price it is very unlikely to reach a second time.

It seems that I'm a bit different from other vinyl collectors in that I'm not very interested in vinyl reissues or vinyl releases by new bands. There are some exceptions, but I'm usually content with CDs for these types of releases. Mostly a matter of convenience: CDs are easier to handle, clean, play, store, and move. My vinyl collection is small, and 99.5% of the records are > 20 years old

Shadow Kingdom · Post by **Shadow Kingdom** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 3:20 am

Interesting discussion everyone.

From my perspective the pace really hasn't changed in the last (almost) 6 years I've been doing this.

Basically I think people like getting both formats and more people seem to be getting into vinyl since it's becoming more available.

Personally I'd like to press more vinyl this year than last, but that depends on a lot of things... I'm trying, but I'll never catch up to HHR. He's doing a hellava job getting all that wax out, I don't know how he does it.

dford · Post by **dford** » Sun Jan 17, 2010 4:23 am

I think you're right about about vinyl becoming more popular, the amount of new and re-released lp's seem to be escalating. I was speaking to a local record store owner here recently and he said a few years ago he was worried about shutting down(I'd say 98% of his stock is new/used vinyl), now he can't keep up the demand, and it was due to kids "20 and under" switching to lp.
It would be nice to see you release more vinyl Tim, and as for HHR, you're right again, how the fuck does he do it!