Hello from England

[danielrickard]

Been a lover of metal since I was a kid back in 1986. You don’t grow up just outside of east London in the 80s and not know about Maiden!

I had a record player, inherited from my big sister (who only used it for Madonna records) but as soon as I was buying my own music instead of playing Mum and Dads old 60s and 70s rock I went the way of the CD.
After years of collecting over a thousand metal and rock CDs I was overawed by the convenience of MP3. Once my MP3 player was on my hifi I sold all but my Maiden and Wildhearts CDs (something I now begin to regret, but I digress).

Somethings been bubbling away in the background and a chat with a guy at work a few months ago tipped me over the edge.
I need a record player.
I need a small collection of just my very favourite, and the most important records of different genres.

I have a record player and a massive collection of 5 LPs! Brand new live albums, 25th anniversary special editions (Paradise Lost), reissues of Black Sabbath and Led Zeppeln.
I want all these lovely records (I have a list) so I can enjoy the vinyl experience, with a glass of fine rum, or even a hot chocolate (getting old) when listening to my old favourites. That’s why I started.
But now I have a dilemma...
As I started trawling the internet I find vinylOM on YouTube.
Now I feel like I should be buying the first pressings, by way of investment, rather than the latest reissue as I have done so far. For many records on my list this isn’t actually financially a problem but... I want to play them. I want to enjoy them regularly - hence keeping the collection relatively small - but I wouldn’t be doing that with a near mint Number Of The Beast.

What are your thoughts and practices?
Do you buy two copies, an original and a new for regular playing?
Or do you just keep the precious ones in proper storage? Do they ever get played, other than a first spin to ensure they play through ok?

Thanks for your thoughts and ideas.
Time to put the records on...