I treated myself to a turntable for my 60th birthday. I didn’t want a cheap, terrible-sounding standalone turntable, but also didn’t want the huge faff of an amplifier and all the cables like I used to have. My compromise was a Sony Bluetooth turntable that I could connect to a BT speaker, headphones or the TV soundbar wirelessly. Obviously not up to the quality of the Linn Sondek I used to have, but acceptable.

Having disposed of a collection of several hundred albums and boxes of singles twenty+ years ago, I started again in 2022, aiming to have a much smaller but more selective collection of vinyl, possibly limited to no more than 50 albums, and I didn’t intend to re-buy anything that I used to have on vinyl or already have on CD – though I was prepared to make an exception if I ever saw a copy of the 4-track 12″ single of Paul Hardcastle remixes of Ian Dury & the Blockheads tracks.

To start with I only had my old Spizzenergi/Spizzoil LPs and singles, plus a couple of 12″ singles from the band I used to share a house with in the 80s. I immediately went online and bought Gary Numan’s Intruders and Anna Calvi’s Hunter so I could hear some fresh new vinyl. I soon realised that buying new records would cripple me financially, so started to explore the second-hand options and it all took off from there.

Thanks to the temptations of car boot sales and record fairs I broke the 50 LP barrier within about 6 months. So much for my original intentions of a small, carefully-curated collection.

This is where I got to after about a year:

After a visit to the East Grinstead record fair, early in 2024, I reached the 200-album mark. Oops. I also started picking up a few records that I used to have when I saw them going cheap.

After moving to Scotland I have somehow ended up with all my records up in my home office upstairs, while the turntable is downstairs. It does make the living room look tidier. I keep all the singles downstairs but the LPs upstairs, and will probably keep a dozen or so of them downstairs on rotation.

A few stats about the LPs I now have (as at June 2026)

• 49% are from the 1970s (finally getting to below half!)
• 37% are from the 1980s (and most of them are from the first half of the decade)
• 7% are from the 2020s
• The 1960s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s together make up the remaining 7%

To be fair, after the 80s vinyl production was down so there are not many second-hand copies of albums from the 90s onwards. Unsurprisingly, the peak years are 1976 to 1982

• 89% of LPs are second-hand/pre-loved
• 11% were bought new (includes some birthday and xmas presents)

• 46% of the second-hand LPs came from record fairs
• 43% were from shops
• The other 11% were from market stalls, charity shops, car boots, or flea markets

What is interesting is to see what artists I have been getting. My original vinyl collection was very heavy on Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, early Depeche Mode and Bowie. I have resisted just re-buying them. Mostly. Second-hand Genesis and Yes can be had cheaply, but Bowie, Floyd and Depeche Mode… not so much. If I see something I used to own and like, that is not too expensive I will get it, but I have prioritised things I did not have before. In the new collection there are 150+ artists where I only have one LP. If I look at the artists where I now have the most LPs, it is not a list I would have predicted:

1. Bob Dylan (19)
2. Genesis/Mike Oldfield(17)
3. Yes (16)
4. Elton John (15)
5. Status Quo (14)
6. Al Stewart (12)
7. Jean-Michel Jarre/Jethro Tull (11)
8. Robert Palmer/Rod Stewart/Alan Parsons Project (9)
9. Bruce Springsteen (8)
10. Elvis Costello/The Temptations/Toyah/Van Morrison (7)

OK. Yes and Genesis were not a great surprise but before I foolishly got rid of all my records 20+ years ago I didn’t have a single Al Stewart, Status Quo or Bruce Springsteen album, only one Bob Dylan and Alan Parsons Project album and only a couple of Mike Oldfields.

I may not have gone hard on Genesis and Yes LPs (Initially, though I am getting there now!) but I do have nearly 40 LPs by, or featuring, members and ex-members of Genesis and Yes, most of which I had not heard before and many of which I really like.

(Yes I have a spreadsheet. Of course I have a spreadsheet. With macros. I like spreadsheets! I really like macros!)

Places to buy records

Back in the day records were mostly only available in shops and the only choice was whether to go to a generic high street shop like Our Price or WH Smiths, a massive shop like Tower Records, Virgin Megastore or the HMV in Oxford Street, or a local independent if you had one. There is less choice of shops now (though it is getting better thanks to the young hipsters) but more variety of other choices.

Here are a few of the places I have tried looking for vinyl

• Online Stores
  The big one is obviously Amazon. It has nearly everything but apart from a few special deals it isn’t cheap. I have found things on the HMV store that I couldn’t find on Amazon.
  It is also worth looking at more specialist stores that are associated with labels for things on that label, especially Cherry Red, Burning Shed and Soul Jazz Records and sometimes you can do well looking at artists’ own websites or Bandcamp.
  There are a couple of Twitter accounts that point out good deals but you need to be quick to snap them up. I did manage to get the Beatles’ white album and Abbey Road as a bundle for £20 thanks to a tip-off from them.
• HMV
  After closing lots of shops, HMV has been expanding again and with a much larger vinyl section. Can be some (relative) bargains if what you want is in the in the 3 for £55 or similar deals. The selection is not what it was back in the 70s or 80s shops but getting better.
• Charity Shops
  Some people keep posting on Twitter about the brilliant bargains they have found in the chazzas, but I have not been so lucky. I have looked in all the shops in Heathfield, Crawley, Coulsdon, Wickford, Haywards Heath, Purley, and Horsham and only picked up one Robert Palmer LP and a couple of classical LPs. There is a lot of 70s easy listening out there, and just about every shop has a copy of the Shadows 20 Golden Greats.
• Car Boot Sales
  These can be a bit hit and miss, and you probably need to get there early for any real goodies but I have still found a few things of interest. Certainly more chance of finding something than at a charity shop. Also: some markets are very similar to car boot sales and can be fruitful.
• Record Fairs
  There are a lot of these now. We have regular ones in Crawley, Horsham and East Grinstead that are convenient for me. I am not interested in the expensive limited editions, rare Japanese imports with obi strips and similar because I’m collecting to listen to the records not for the sake of collecting or as an investment but there are plenty of expensive rarities if that floats your boat. Of more interest to me is the wide choice of records in the £5 to £10 range, usually with some discount for buying multiples – like £5 each or 5 for £20.
  I will usually leave a record fair having spent £20 to £40 and with between 4 and 10 records.
  It looks like there are not so many fairs in Scotland and I have not been to any yet.
• Brighton (and Hove)
  There are shops selling a mixture of new and second-hand records popping up in lots of places now, unfortunately not in Crawley though. Where they do exist they tend to be the only one in the town or village but in Brighton there are loads of vinyl shops in a small area, so great for a spree.
  Resident Records is great if you want new vinyl and are prepared to pay full whack for it. Bella Union is obviously the place to go for anything on that label. Otherwise there are plenty of shops with various specialities and some bargains to be had in the street markets and the indoor market.
  On my first shopping trip to the Lanes I spent £40 and came home with a dozen LPs.
• Other shops
  Specifically, Wow & Flutter in Hastings, Spin Sounds in Dorking (my local!), Tonbridge Record Exchange, and Kontrapunkt and Early Bird in Cologne. Also the huge choice of shops along the South coast in Bexhill, Eastbourne, Worthing, Shoreham, etc.
  Sadly, there are far fewer shops up in Scotland. There is one in Ayrshire (I think), a few in Glasgow, and one in Stirling that I have found so far.
• Online Markets
  I have yet to try buying anything from eBay, Discogs or Facebook Marketplace. Discogs looks good for when you want something very specific but I prefer browsing.
• Bandcamp
  I only realised in 2025 that you can buy vinyl and CDs from Bandcamp. having previously assumed it was just for buying downloads. I understand that a lot more of the cost goes to the artists than if you buy from ‘normal’ shops.

In order of preference, I think I like the Surrey/Sussex shops and the Cologne shops best, then record fairs, then car boots/markets for browsing. For specific new releases I like sites like Cherry Red and Burning Shed or artist websites/Bandcamp as a first choice.