[78-L] REcord "collectors"? Record (and more) "hoarders"?

[Dave at Audio Tech Transfer]

Now here's a subject I can relate to.

When my Grandpa moved from his house to an assisted living facility twenty years ago, I drove to Pittsburgh to help clean out the house.  I remember one bedroom filled floor to ceiling with empty cardboard boxes.  Never know when you'll need a box!  The entire house was packed with decades of clutter.  One of my uncles has totally filled three houses with "antiques."  He still has his 1958 Oldsmobile convertible, under a tarp outdoors.  It is a worthless pile of rust, ravaged by decades of moisture in the Pennsylvania mountains.

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From: eugene hayhoe Here are some criteria?I would use to distinguish the difference between 'hoarding' and collecting:
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Are things organized, accessible, easy to find?and 'clean' ? Are they alphabetized, or otherwise in a coherent, easily discerned & used system? Are the objects?stored?in a way that allows for their easy utilization? 
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I think Eugene has got it right.

I have a sizeable record collection, but most of the 20,000+ records I own are clean, in protective sleeves, organized, documented on a spreadsheet, and most importantly, listened to and enjoyed.

I look at my collection, which I take great pride in, and compare it to a batch of 10,000 records which I acquired two years ago.  In that case, it was truly an accumulation of records by a compulsive hoarder.  When I 'rescued' those records, they were sitting in a garage with a leaky roof and missing door, covered with layers of dust and mouse turds.  The fellow who sold them to me (and they were very cheap) admitted that he did not and had not listened to them.  One third of those records have gone straight to the landfill.  I'm still in the process of cleaning, listening to, and cataloging the rest.  There were about 5,000 78s in the lot, with at least 2,000 being white label promos.  So it's been a lot of fun going through them all.  But seeing those records for the first time in that guy's garage two years ago was an eye-opener.  I realized there's a definite line between a pointless accumulation (hoarding) and maintaining a fine collection.

Dave aka Cactus Cowboy
Powell, Wyoming