For people like DJ Rama the new attraction which so many people have to vinyl records has not come at a great time, the reason for this is that prices have surged and long time collectors who enjoyed great prices in the 90s and early 00s, are now having to pay that little extra for their favorite albums. With this being said however the slightly raised price has not perturbed collectors like DJ Rama, but it has meant that there has been a strategy change. Rama shared with us how he goes about buying his vinyls, and perhaps you can learn from this strategy.
When to Buy Online
When it comes to buying records we are all different of course but Rama has a great strategy when it comes to buying online and that is to only use this to get records which he already knows and loves. The thing is that if you have all the money in the world, you could easily get online buy up every vinyl that you want and then have a great collection, in doing this however, so much of the fun of collecting and buying records is removed. This is why Rama will use online options to only buy the records which he knows well, or if he finds a killer bargain.
Supporting
Whilst this is not always the case for the most part those who sell online are private individuals and collectors. It is important of course to give these people business, but without record stores things would be very different indeed and they rely on a great deal of our support. Buying online often looks cheaper than buying in record stores but that is because those sellers don’t have the overheads that a store does. If we don’t have record stores then we will lose a real part of the vinyl collecting community which is why it is always a good idea to keep supporting them.
Digging Fun
People collect vinyl for different reasons, some believe it to sound better, many love the practice of placing the vinyl on the turntable, and for others it is about finding those pots of gold. This is one of the most compelling reasons to continue to go to record stores, record fairs and also charity shops, because it is through this digging process where you will really fall in love with buying records. This is about finding those long sought after albums, discovering those hidden gems and maybe even finding a few bits and pieces that you didn’t know existed. Buying online makes sense in many regards but there is far much more joy to be had when you dig through the records and in truth there are some things which you can find like this that you may never have come across when looking online.
How do you like to buy your records? Do you like to shop online or dig, or something in-between like DJ Rama?
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