But, Ward, I don't even have a record player!

Don't worry. The record player is the easy part. The hard part of collecting records isn't having the technology to play these beauties, the hard part is stopping. Check here for quick and easy ways to own a record player.

Why collect?
There are very few art forms that regular guys can afford. How many people can buy an original Da Vinci? For paintings, sculpture, drawings you have to be the Louvre to own a really nice work of art. But with records you can own an original. You hold in your hands one of the original pressings of a song, not a digital copy, but the original sound pressed into the grooves of a piece of vinyl.

One of the thrills of collecting is finding that rare thing, that one-of-a-kind record that everybody else overlooked. I've heard some really good collecting stories. Maybe you've got a couple of your own. Here are some good ones.