Not everything I buy is new, Im happy trawling various sites and record shops to get the CDs & Vinyl to complete the collections. I’ve invested in Vinyl flattening and CD grinding machines which helps overcome some of the issues buying second hand, so the costs don’t necessarily become prohibitive.
I agree with that but I can’t help wanting to have all the output if possible. A few years ago I worked out that it would take 9 years 24 hrs a day for me to listen to every single album I own, so there are many that I won’t ever hear again and I’ve bought many more since 
For the two artists/bands that I adored throughout all my adult life, yes. And I don’t care if a given release is “weaker” because I’m interested in their development and how they got from A to B. And anyway often it turns out that these transitory releases (occasionally also in different guises / under different names / side projects) that I don’t like so much on first glance are actual pretty good after I drop my preconceptions.
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So clearly you buy recordings for the enjoyment and satisfaction of collecting rather than for the enjoyment of playing the music. In the hobbies thread you could lust collecting!
No - dont want to end up with largely unplayed albums that I might not be that keen on
Its also not good for the wallet
No that’s not correct IB. I spend four hours a night listening to music the collecting is an extension of my enjoyment of music.
Cheers Pete
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Yes and no…
I have a small number of artists / bands from who I have bought many albums and when I was young would have bought everything.
I also like buying different versions of some music - not always the same artists, it can be nice to know music can be played in different interpretations.
In some areas I quite like listening to different artists on the same label, so have at times collected that way as well.
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I didn’t mean you do not listen to music! You have two hobbies here, one, as you’ve made clear, is listening to music, but your obsession with having all the work of every (or even some) artists that you like seems to me to be very much a hobby of collecting, even if you haven’t recognised it as such. Perhaps if you do, you won’t feel subconscious guilt about your urges!
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Think I need a trip to collectors anonymous!!
Is it really any more extravagant than spending on designer shoes/handbags/clothes etc., or on beer in the local hostelry (to name but a few alternatives)? I worked out that in the 22 years that we have been in our current house, we (well, my wife) has spent more on birdseed, peanuts and fatballs and their dispensing equipment than I have on HiFi equipment. However, I’m assured that my expenditure is wasteful, but hers is entirely reasonable.
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I tend to favour the argument of it depends what you get out of it, for me music is a huge escape and enriches my life, which I am sure is the same for most on this forum, yes to get that intimacy and realism does tend to cost, but like you I think the payback is worth it.
Currently listening to Nick Cave’s Ghosteen and it sounds stunning and is emotionally involving and actually helping me write some material for the marketing team, I wouldn’t be as productive without it.
I’m sure the local wildlife appreciate your wife’s kind natured efforts.
Oh, I have no objections to her feeding the birds - quite the opposite. But I do feel a tad upset that my spending is regarded as wasteful or bad.
I’ve been fortunate that whilst my wife quite often might think I’m mad, or the music I listen to is absolutely insufferable (Miles Davis along with other Jazz can’t get a look in whilst she is in earshot) she has very often been the litmus test on if an addition or change is a good thing.
Having that independent viewpoint quite often she has been the blind listening test. Decades ago I was home demo’ing 3 CD players and no matter how many times I tried to catch her out she picked the same preference, this being the Densen CD player still performing occasionally in the cabin. I was predisposed to buying a well reputed Copland of the time and the third one was a Marantz Ki17.
Of course when it comes to discussing the costs of equipment my purchases tend to have a favourable dealer discount with the same regularity that she manages to get clothes in a sale, strange we both seem to be so lucky that everything we buy is alot cheaper than one might reasonably expect …
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No, because generally there are few artists with consistently good output throughout their careers.
I’m sure however that most of us have a couple of artists where we do own the full catalogue.
Bob Dylan would be quite a stockpile.
Or Neil Young
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I have most of the recordings of harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt. The old analog LPs are the most difficult to collect, since some never were transferred to CD and are not available on streaming services. I admit to having paid outrageous prices for a few rare ones, my excuses being that he was a friend, and that he played my harpsichord twice in concert back in the '70s.
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The Grateful Dead. I have all the studio,
albums however live albums…….
I’ve two artists I’m a bit obsessed with Paul Weller and Chet Baker but would I buy a record I really didn’t like to complete my collection? I don’t think I would just this week Weller and Suggs released a single which I could have got but it’s really mediocre so I didn’t buy it.