Vinyl V's Plastic

I have hundreds of 7" and 12" vinyl records, I even have far more than my fair share of 10" vinyl.I have picture discs and shaped discs and discs made from paper and recycled bottles. I have a big collection of CD's and tapes (tapes, for goodness sake, the kids would think we were insane).

I used to work 3 part time jobs when I was at College, and if I didn't spend it on booze and fags, I spent it on music.
I used to buy a new CD each time I did the weekly shopping, now I order online for delivery and rarely even venture into music shops in town.

I'm actually quite annoyed at myself for the lack of interest I pay in the new music. Maybe it's just the natural way of things, but I'd rather fancied myself as still giving more of a damn about the charts when I'm 60 than most people do when they're 30 and I am beginning to realise that just isn't going to be. In some ways I've 'passed the baton', my older kids all grew up going to Glastonbury and other festivals and have really eclectic musical taste, my eldest now works part time at a big music venue and hopes to do Event Management at University. The children have all dabbled with instruments and we have a budding bass player in my 15 year old. There is music played in my house all of the time, but it's usually not my choice!

Sadly I haven't had anything that plays vinyl out where it can be used for the last 6 years, I only play CD's, so mostly I don't play any of my old favourite music. I may not be using it, but it's occurred to me several times that maybe I'm storing my pension in the loft (or maybe I'm fooling myself and it only has sentimental value). I know there are a few rare ones in there but I wouldn't ever sell any of them unless I had to. Vinyl really does have a special something, it's sexy and sleek and it's huge, so the cover artwork is poster-sized. You have to care for it or you break it. It has a special feel and the ritual of removal from the sleeve and putting it onto the turntable is one that CD's have never managed to replicate.

I do play CD's though, and when I came to live with my partner we had a lot of musical taste in common, so we have a few duplicate copies of albums, mainly from the last 15 years. We also have a lot of CD's that were bought on a whim and we've played once and won't play again. I do not have the same sentimental attachment to CD's as I do to vinyl at all, so I've been meaning to have a look through and sell some on for the last 6 years, it's just one of those things you never get around to - until today. I had a look on Music Magpie to see what my haul might be worth. It was really easy and took seconds, it even totals it up so that you can see at a glance what reward your unwanted duplicate or rashly bought CD's can realise in total. It's not going to make me rich in a hurry, but I'm not doing anything else with these discs and they're just sitting gathering dust, so it really is better to clear it out a bit - everyone keeps telling me that if you haven't used it for over a year then you don't need it, and while I wouldn't ever agree about vinyl, I think they may be right about CD's!


Come to think of it, I can also trade in some of those old Wii games.....

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