A Rough Guide To: Starting Your Vinyl Collection
Looking to start a new record collection? Limited by budget, time and space or a universe of ten dimensions?
Maybe you bought your first record today. Maybe you are rebuilding an old collection after years out of the game. Maybe the musical voids on your shelf are staring back at you.
Whatever the reason, here’s a simple guide of ten top tips for vinyl record collecting starting from square one, including where to buy vinyl records, whether that’s used, new or collectable records, and how to find the best vinyl deals out there.
Expand your knowledge and follow your nose
There are endless ways to keep your musical knowledge growing organically from listening to DJs, mixes, radio shows, reading books, blogs, magazines, sharing playlists, following recommendations, uncovering samples and soundtracks and just staying tuned in, open to any sound or suggestion but always true to your own tastes.
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If you need a place of recommendations to start with, check out the Rough Trade Essential range, our list of the most influential records ever made, and you can get 10% off when you buy 4 or more with the discount code: ESSENTIAL10.
Make a shopping list
Grab a pencil and some paper. Grab your phone and open your notes app. However, you choose to do it, having a list of titles that you keep handy and add to regularly will make your searches easier and your collection truer to what you want. It also stops you from buying a scratched copy of Garth Brooks & The Magic of Christmas, because you felt compelled by his hypnotic stare on the cover.
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Go through your list and check on our site. We try to stock the most available titles at all times but you can also click ‘Notify Me’ on any out-of-stock titles on our site to get notified instantly when they come back in stock.
Shop locally
Find the shops in your area that stock the records you love, old and new. Get chatting to the people in there, they might have what you’re looking for or turn you on to something new. Here’s an insider secret - people who work in record shops love recommending customers new music, so be kind and let them recommend something to you.
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Check out recordstores.love - the global record store map to find a record shop near you, whether you’re in Tottenham or Tokyo.
Get travelling - ignore your list
In a new city? Get online and find the best record shops, antique halls and market stalls around, or ask locals for the best advice. This is where you find those diamonds in the rough, and although you should have your list on you at all points in your life, this is the moment to ignore the confines of the ink and dive into the wax. With a simple drop of a needle, you will forever be taken back to the dusty and racks woody air of record shops from across the globe.
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Journalist Marcus Barnes has written the definitive guide to the best vinyl emporiums on God’s green Earth, revealing the best places on the planet to buy records.
Play fair
Oh yeah, record fairs and garage sales the place where you can find those hidden gems, and haggle for 2 hours to save £1 on a first edition copy of Mr Blobby The Album. Make sure you bring your pen because you’re gonna start crossing items off your list.
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You can find out when the next Record Fair will roll into your town here at Record Fairs UK. You can also look out for local Rough Trade Garage sales to shop with hundreds of quality used vinyl titles at great prices.
Do your research
Want the best deals out there? Records vary in price massively based on the availability and demand of a record. Same albums on different editions could be hundreds of pounds apart.
Take your list and head online to look at the average prices paid for the record you want. Get an idea of which edition you want or can afford. Sites like Discogs are great for seeing the average and last price paid for pretty much every edition available, and even eBay can be useful if you are looking for the price of a particularly special edition (i.e. one off records like signed editions).
If you know what other punters are paying, you will know what is, and what isn’t, a good deal when you see it.
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If you’re confused by the jargon used by record collectors when researching editions or speaking to someone at a store, fair or market, then check out our Vinyl Glossary which will help you crack the codes, vinyl collectors and merchants use daily.
Find your community
Beyond your local store are communities of people online sharing information on announcements of special editions, sales, buying and selling their own collection and other in-the-know tips. Below are some of the best online communities to discuss the finest, most exclusive, most in-demand vinyl from around the world.
- Reddit - r/vinyl, r/vinylreleases, r/vinylcollectors, r/vinyldeals
- Discord - Vinyl Chat
- Discogs - Groups
- Steve Hoffman Music Forums
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Be careful, just like any community out there (online and offline), there is a small subsection of gatekeepers, trolls, snobs and plain-as-day prats. The overwhelming majority are friendly, welcoming, helpful and happy to see their community growing.
Listen to the places that have what you love
You could follow all your favourite artists across social media, making sure you keep up to date with their latest releases, making sure you remember to follow the right artists at the right time and all the right accounts - but we find it to be much simpler and more manageable to find the curators (record stores, journalists, publications) that just get you, that have the latest pre-order announcements, releases, reviews and recommendations that speak to you.
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If you think that’s us, get following us via Email, X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, Spotify (and you’ll even get 10% off your first purchase when you sign up to our emails.)
Keep your vinyl in good condition
Once you have copped vinyl from your local stores and across the globe, it is now your dutiful responsibility to keep them in the best condition possible. Vinyl cleaners and restorers can be expensive so preventative care is better than restorative care. Cleaning vinyl deserves its own scientific thesis - and there is actually one available to download here - but to learn more about vinyl cleaning and restoration tips, without the need to comprehend particle physics or see the impact of organic compounds on vinyl under electro-microscopes, then follow our beginner’s guide here.
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Check out our range of vinyl care kits and tools to maintain the sound of your vinyl for a long period. At the very minimum, make sure you pick up vinyl by the edge, remember to put the vinyl back after you use it and store your vinyl correctly.
Store your vinyl correctly
Storing your vinyl correctly also helps maintain its condition and sorting your vinyl in a way that is easily accessible and understandable means you will continue to listen to the whole collection and not find yourself putting on the same records again and again and again. It’s also super convenient when friends are having a browse through your impeccable range. It is also an exhilarating past-time for the compulsive record collectors out there. Here are a few ideas of how best to sort your vinyl.
- Alphabetically
- Chronologically
- Chromatically
- Thematically (By genre)
- Emotionally
- Aromatically
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Having a box of outer sleeves on hand is always advised in order to protect the album sleeves from getting damaged.