I've only had one problem with people shipping records, and that was Mr. Kevin Shields and his wife who sent the new MBV album in a cardboard sleeve that was way too lose, and people have actually gotten their records warped and damaged because of it.

I would recommend buying vinyl on discogs, and ebay. Discogs is a bit shotty with the ratings, as people don't always rate buying and selling experiences, but I've yet to have a problem purchasing vinyl from people on their marketplace. Discogs listings stay up forever too, and it makes it easier to find rare, less known releases for sale. I've purchased at least 20-25 records and discogs, mainly because they automatically tell me when someone has listed something on the marketplace that is on my wantlist. The inner music fan will thank you, your wallet will hate you.

^Do you prefer promos or commercial releases for vinyls?

I much prefer collecting vinyls. I don't know what it is, but there is something very impersonal about a CD. The analog quality of the record is really what appeals to me I think. the fact that music is being made by a needle running across perfectly formed grooves and tracks and ridges to give us the complex sound of the music we love seems much more naturalistic and pure, as apposed to a laser simply reading a digital file.

Also with the limited amount of space for music on a record as opposed to a CD I feel the artists had to be more selective and careful with what they decided went on any certain album, whereas with the ever increasing size of CDs artists can now just throw every song they made in the last year on it. Couple that fact with easy reverse and skipping and fast forwarding of the CD as opposed to the vinyl I feel the artists were also more cognitive of how one track flowed and worked with the one before and after it resulting in the earlier albums being much more of a structured story and experience as apposed to simply 10-15 songs on a disk.

But at the same time, the CD allows ambitious artists who actually NEED that extra time to formulate their whole vision.

You've never heard of a double album then?

I hear they were popular in the 70s with prog bands.

I've been collecting and handling vinyl for so long that CDs feel cold and foreign to me. They don't feel "right" in my hands. While vinyl takes up a lot more space (we're having to buy special shelving units for all of these blasted things) there's just something a lot more fulfilling about the handling. The way the vinyl feels, the way the jackets smell, the magnified album art, the deeper sound, the surface noise .... sigh. :love:

Neil Young kicked it up a notch. Oh and George Harrison i guess.

not to mention all the greatest hits and other compilation albums. and live albums

Oh yeah, definitely, but the CD made it much easier, let's be honest, no one really wants 8 sides of records to switch through to listen to an album. (ala 2pac's "All Eyez on Me")

if it's a good enough album nobody should complain about it tho