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36 Things Vinyl Collectors Love

Face it, you don't get any of this with Spotify.

1. That sound when the needle first hits the record.

2. Finding the perfect record player for your room.

3. Getting an amazing set of speakers to really complete the experience.

4. Randomly stumbling upon a sign like this and suddenly changing your plans for the next hour or two.

5. Supporting independent record stores.

6. Searching on eBay for deals on rare and out-of-print records.

7. Colored vinyl.

8. When the vinyl color is matchy-matchy with the record sleeve.

9. Picture discs.

10. White label singles.

11. Rare test pressings.

12. 45 rpm singles.

13. Especially soul 45s.

14. Crate digging.

15. Flipping through records in a used bin and having no idea what the next thing you see will be.

16. A lot of wonderful albums can be found for just a dollar.

17. Or hey, a 50-cent bin! You can really luck out by digging through these things.

18. Meeting someone cute while browsing through records. This really does happen; it's not just in movies!

19. Those big plastic dividers in record stores, and the super-specific genre names the clerks write on them.

20. Finding truly bizarre old album covers.

21. Arranging albums in alphabetical order.

22. A perfectly sequenced album side.

23. Surface noise.

24. Inheriting your family's old records.

25. Separating stems and seeds from weed on gatefold sleeves.

26. Sleeveface photos.

27. When new albums come with free download coupons.

28. Framing album art.

29. Being a DJ.

30. Record fairs.

31. Record bags.

32. 45 adapters, in all their forms.

33. Those cute little boxes for 45s.

34. Just watching the record spin and being sorta amazed that you're hearing music stored on tiny little grooves.

35. Having a huge wall of nothing but records.

36. And, of course, this feeling.