Discogs Memories

Posted on by J. Hubner

I don’t know what it is about putting my vinyl purchases into Discogs that makes me tingle all over. Could be the OCD side of me. Or the anal retentive that likes things in order, collected, and neat and tidy. I love having a place to go to that gives me instant information about my obsession(addiction.) Seeing all of my vinyl acquisitions over the last 9 years listed neatly for me to browse at my heart’s content satisfies something in me that I can’t describe.

I’ve always been this way. Even as a kid I loved having cases to put my “things” into. First I had a couple carrying cases for Hot Wheels. One in the shape of a wheel and the other more like the size of a lunch box. Within those I could easily access several muscle cars, Chrysler vans, European sports cars, and even my favorite, a blue van with Marvel’s “The Thing” on the side of it. I quickly moved from Hot Wheels to Star Wars action figures and then GI Joe figures. Each obsession had its own special case to carry them in. This allowed for easy access and also a way to display my collections of various Kenner, Hasbro, and Mattel toys.

By middle school the toys turned to cassettes which turned into cassette cases in my room. Swanky faux wood-looking things that pulled out awkwardly to reveal various guitar shredders, glam rockers, and Rush’ entire discography by 10th grade. When my wife(then girlfriend) and I moved out on our own we bought a Sauder CD tower which housed three years worth of CD purchases. It was heavy as hell and awkward in general, but was way cool in that it gave me plenty of room to grow a collection of shiny discs and wasted clear plastic with color inserts in them.

In 2008 I began my vinyl journey. After years of contemplating whether I should start a hobby of collecting a near dead means of listening to music I said the hell with it and bought a couple vinyl records at the Jazz Record Mart on a Chicago trip with my wife(before I’d even purchased a player to listen to them on.) A month later my Audio Technica was purchased and the rest, as they say, is history. The collection was slow going, but I was determined to fill my house with a clunky form of music consumption. No one would get in my way, dammit.

I didn’t start cataloging my albums till the spring of 2013. I had maybe 100 albums by then. I’d heard stories about a place online where you could catalog your record collection for free(as well as buy albums, too.) One weekend, after I built my first vinyl cabinet, I decided the hell with it and opened an account and began cataloging my records on Discogs. I remember staying up till 2 am that first Friday night. By noon the next day I was fully cataloged and ready to roll. I haven’t looked back since(well maybe a couple times over my shoulder to make sure my wife didn’t see me ordering vinyl.)

I was inputting some recent purchases when I decided to go back to the first entries. Seeing them put me into that weekend. Sitting at the kitchen table typing in bands and selecting the right pressing and color variant. Not really getting why this was so important to me, but I knew it was. My kids were so much younger then. I wasn’t as beat up and sore as I am now. Looking back things seemed simpler. My biggest project was sitting in a dark dining room typing in band names into a dated website and adding their records into my collection. That was important? That was relevant?

Yes it was. And yes it is.

Maybe it’s an OCD thing like I said. Maybe I just like things orderly and easily accessed. There’s some comfort for me in knowing I have a digital “Dewey Decimal System” of sorts available to access whenever I want to look up my collection. There’s really a right brain/left brain thing going on here. The methodical and the pure pleasure. I had a pretty big week of record buying and loaded up quite a few records this week. I happily opened a beer and sat down to do some inputting.

It felt good. It felt like home.

20 thoughts on “Discogs Memories”

  1. Ooohhhhhh man. This is me. Holy crap this is me. Except I’ve been trying to (glacially slowly) add my collection into Discogs and I’m just finished “A” in my alphabetization and I’ve already found several that Discgogs doesn’t list. I tried adding one in and got blowback from the Discogs people for doing it wrong (they weren’t polite). Plus, then there’s no record of previous prices or what the thing might be worth. Which is mostly why I’m doing it – we just renewed our insurance policies and our rep said that was a great way to back up potential costs in case of loss. So I’ve kind of gotten stopped in the process because I don’t want to have a half-complete list.

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    1. Adding records not listed has been difficult for me as well. I just decided to it mess with it. As far as the insurance goes, I need to do that. Figured the Discogs would be a good reference point in case of some detrimental loss.

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      1. Adding can go well, or it can bring the ire of the all-knowing Discogs people. Tread carefully!

        Have you tried the phone application? Did you find it awkward and randomly unable to scan bar codes?

        1537 says he doesn’t feel that Discogs’ pricings are accurate given it’s all seller-driven. But I don’t know of another site that even does what this one does for free – 1537 mentioned Collectorz.com but it’s a pay site (desktop version is $70!) and I balk at that. I can make my own spreadsheet and buy $70 worth of records!

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      2. I did download the app and I used it at first but stopped due to the clunkiness. I just input them the old fashioned way.

        I’m sure it’s not completely accurate, but So much of record pricing(used that is) is subjective. What I may find a VG rating someone else may find Fair. At least Discogs is a reasonably close estimate. And it’s free.

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      3. Yeah, free is good. It is daunting, though, looks at the few records I have here and there, haha you know. A few…

        I go back and forth between it and making my own. With that much work involved either way, I’d better decide before I get too far into it!

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  2. I have not begun the disco’s journey. I look at the collection and know it should be done and then I get intimidated at starting as I know I will become obsessed by it. We are moving soon so it would be a natural thing to do as I pack but then do I want to pack my treasures this soon before the move. Damnit now I have to do it.

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    1. I didn’t start with overwhelming amount, so it wasn’t bad. I can totally understand your intimidation. You do get obsessed with it.

      Good luck on the cataloging and move!

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  4. R.I.P. Walter Becker – Co-founder of Steely Dan (67).

    ‘Lol. Quote: “Could be the OCD side of me. Or the anal retentive that makes things in order.” unquote.

    ‘Lol. If I wrote down a list of all my Conditions, Phobias, and character characteristics aka oddities. Toss them into 3 – D printer, I then come out with a goofy looking bipedal Yoda kind of Barn Gnome with 18 tattoos, freckles and a bad back.’

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    1. Congratulations. I’ve thought about putting my CDs in as well. As of right now, it’s just a couple CD box sets I have listed, as well as the vinyl. The CDs might be a winter project.

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  7. I do it too, although the valuations are far too high – not indicative of what stuff goes for elsewhere. I tend to sell on Discogs and buy elsewhere when I can.

    It is a great way to discover records you didn’t know you needed though.

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      1. There isn’t. I still trawl eBay, because you get the odd person selling at the right price. I keep an eye on several dealers sites and sometimes if I’ve bought a few times from someone I’ll ask them if they’ll sell off the books on Discogs. Saves the price of the Discogs fee for them too.

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  8. I need to do this but I also want to properly clean my entire collection which I’ve never really done and I’ve had a lot of this stuff for over 20 years! Also, I’m looking at logging in over 6000 records which just stresses me out. Hahahaha! Really, I just waited too long but I’ll be happy to have it all organized like that.
    Good stuff!
    Cheers!

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Published by J. Hubner

Complex Distractions is a little corner of the universe where music and conversation reign supreme. Intellectual discussions and essays written about heady records, both big and small, that despite what you might think can truly change your life. Spinning the records for the good of mankind.