WIP - LP deaccessioning

[jserraglio]

Classical vinyl, not roots music or jazz

What vinyl and vinyl accouterments am I keeping? That surprised even me.

1. All Lyrita and MHS sourced from Lyrita. - about 20.
2. All Albany and Reference (Prof Johnson) - less than 10.
3. All direct-to-disc recordings - 5
4. All Franklin Mint recordings. (Less than 50 twofers)
5. Two Rings — Boulez and Solti (c/w the Culshaw book)
6. All opera, oratorio and sung text librettos plus whichever of Landon Robbins notes to the Haydn symphony sets survived a water leak.

All the rest, thousands of items, have been or soon will be given away or tossed.

[maestrob]

Classical vinyl, not roots music or jazz

What vinyl and vinyl accouterments am I keeping? That surprised even me.

1. All Lyrita and MHS sourced from Lyrita. - about 20.
2. All Albany and Reference (Prof Johnson) - less than 10.
3. All direct-to-disc recordings - 5
4. All Franklin Mint recordings. (Less than 50 twofers)
5. Two Rings — Boulez and Solti (c/w the Culshaw book)
6. All opera, oratorio and sung text librettos plus whichever of Landon Robbins notes to the Haydn symphony sets survived a water leak.

All the rest, thousands of items, have been or soon will be given away or tossed.

Wow! Good move, I think, having done that myself recently. What surprised me most about the process was that, even given the new popularity of vinyl, I could only find a home for about half of what I owned; the rest had to be tossed. C'est la vie. Don't even have a turntable any more, and frankly don't miss the pops and clicks of vinyl. I've replaced the better recordings with CD copies: the rest will not be missed.

[jserraglio]

There are still vinyl enthusiasts out and about in the wild. The M.D. son-in-law of my current remodeler had them haul away about 1,000 classical albums sight unseen from my basement plus about 500 OB cast shows, film recordings, etc.

Hope they come back for more. That hardly made a dent. Meantime I have been filling two large garbage bins a week for the past 2 months. Still no end in sight.

[jserraglio]

Also keeping two LPs or covers signed by Rosa Ponselle and Ljuba Welitsch.

[Lance]

I am still having a difficult time even thinking about unloading hoards of classical LPs. I hate to even tell you how many. A lifetime of collecting vinyl from age 16 or 17 until about 1984 when CDs became available. I look at these racks and racks of beautifully-stored LPs, many of which have not been played in decades and still, thinking of putting them in a dumpster - after careful collecting and, in the early years, saving school lunch money to buy yet another LP - might be a heart-breaker. I would still like to sell the entire collection - no cherry picking - but it is likely that, after my demise, family members will probably do just that - put it all in a dumpster. It may not be fair to them, but they are aware of the situation. I suppose, too, that I could probably reduce by 50-65% or more the LPs because of the digitization to CDs. And, like Brian, I do not miss the pops and clicks of LPs. I still have turntables, but they are not used much these days. It has now been several years since I have even purchased vinyl. The last was some rare material by bass-baritone Owen Brannigan on 45s and/or LPs that were never transferred to CD. As for the LPs, such is life … however, che sara, sara!

[maestrob]

Also keeping two LPs or covers signed by Rosa Ponselle and Ljuba Welitsch.

I still have LP covers signed by Eugene Ormandy and Kurt Baum, and a program from the afternoon performance of the MET's 100th Anniversary Gala, signed by Alvary, Kurt Baum and Rose Bampton. Treasures I will never part with! Also a framed picture of yours truly with Lucine Amara and Albanese.

[absinthe]

I've recently returned to vinyl where possible. I vowed to buy no more CDs and consider downloading digital as a very last resort. I bought a Rega turntable - nice job but overall, flawed design if wanting to fit certain cartridges. I use a Shibata tipped stylus.

Canned music is canned music whichever way you look at it and "putting on a record" is more of an occasion that slapping a CD in the draw. I'm more likely to sit back and relax to listen.


However, I'm forced to buy some CDs like the recent Lyrita releases of a handful of Daniel Jones Symphonies.

I have no big collection, always keeping it under review. A few of my LPs (about 12) are from the Louisville series and I still have about 30 Quadraphonic discs.

We get by!

[maestrob]

Hi, absinthe! You've been missed. Always glad to hear from you! Are things getting better for you in PR?

[jserraglio]

I am tempted to keep my Louisville LPs - 6 box sets plus 4-5 single issues.

But I'm gonna resist and stick to the original plan — to dump all except D to D material and the Franklin Mint, Lyrita and Albany labels.

Meantime I am playing a lot of vinyl — more in the past six weeks than in the last ten years — but they are rock and folk, not classical.

[maestrob]

I am tempted to keep my Louisville LPs - 6 box sets plus 4-5 single issues.

But I'm gonna resist and stick to the original plan — to dump all except D to D material and the Franklin Mint, Lyrita and Albany labels.

Meantime I am playing a lot of vinyl — more in the past six weeks than in the last ten years — but they are rock and folk, not classical.

I'm still holding on to a small collection of rock, folk and jazz LPs acquired when I was in my teens and early twenties. Don't even have a turntable to play them on, but they represent good memories that I don't want to give up on just yet. I imagine my heirs will sell them for a few $$$.

[jserraglio]

I'm still holding on to a small collection of rock, folk and jazz LPs acquired when I was in my teens and early twenties.

I just gave away 9 huge boxes of rock, folk and jazz (about 120 records/box). Keeping one big box of LPs for myself to to actually play, including this rarity just today. I bought it within months of its issue.

Boz Skaggs: Boz Skaggs (1968)

[jserraglio]

I'm still holding on to a small collection of rock, folk and jazz LPs

Apparently so is Alex Trebek.