I think of this quite often as I get older: what am I going to do with all these records when I’m gone or I’ve had enough. Will my daughter really want thousands of my records? Unlikely. And won’t she just sell most of them for buttons to a (possibly unscrupulous) record dealer? Do I just get rid myself a some point? Open a pop up shop? I remember Bill Brewster telling me he felt sort of relieved when he sold his collection a couple of years ago. Who needs thousands of records really? Who has the time? Questions, questions … 
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About to do exactly this (sell up) when I get made redundant end of the month.
Our best friends have just moved to the far-east with nothing but a small rucksack, sold almost everything. They have never felt so liberated.
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I’ve been gradually reducing mine over the last 10 years. I will be living a pretty nomadic life for the foreseeable and I’m now at the stage that I can fit everything I own in my van.
I only have around 500-700 now, split between LP’s and 7” singles. Sold some, but mostly just gave them away to friends and family. Same with my book collection.
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Did Bill sell it all in one go? Friend of mine did it as well and the first thing he got was a new room.
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I released a couple of crates of charity shop records back into their natural habitat at the weekend.
It’s the circle of life…
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My plan is to keep them for as long as it feels like fun, the way it’s always been. When/if i don’t like to browse and listen and read the on the back and DJ and have friends over for record nights then it’s time, if that ever happens. Records has always been the most fun i could ever think of, if that changes there’s no need to keep them. Hopefully i will sell them myself before i die, my daughters need money more than records although i hope they will keep a few.
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Yeah. I think he kept a small number with sentimental value but the rest went in one go
im doing a pretty good job at keeping the current stash down by gifting some. usually in the wee hours of the morning😅 there could be a pattern here…
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I’ve just shifted all of mine this morning. They are now residing at Love Vinyl 
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I think he said he got rid of everything except ones that were related to him… his own compilations etc.
But you’d know better than me, Jolyon!
Did you get rid of the turntables as well? That seems like the thing that drags people back in.
You may be right Spider! Basically he got rid of almost everything 
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No. But they have been packed away for over a year.
Just in case one of the kids suddely decides they’d like to learn how to dj ‘like in the olden days’
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i don’t know that i’d call it a plan but i do have an agreement of sorts with a pal of mine who been a record dealer forever.
it’s almost like an informal will - if all of a sudden i died and my wife and daughter wanted a major life change, I know that the records can go to a friend of mine who’ll store them in his stash and pay them out a little here and there as stuff sells. if i die tomorrow, i have a couple of friends who’d get first crack and would help move stuff into the stash.
but assuming i live for a while longer, my daughter and i can have further conversations about what she’d want to do with them. she’s only 7 so she’ll probably change her mind a dozen times in the next 20 or so years.
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Heard “veteran” music journalists Mark Ellen and David Hepworth discuss exactly this in their podcast last week (believe that Hepworth alone has over 20,000 records). Ellen said that years ago he allocated 20 random records of sentimental value to 20 friends or members of his family in his will. He was sniggering at the thought of somebody ending up with a copy of Camembert Electrique by Gong, that they didn’t want, couldn’t play but felt obliged to keep.
Danny Baker is also in the process of selling his vast collection to a dealer (he says he will keep 100 that have special meaning). Described it as liberating, and like “unchaining himself from a monster.”
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This made me think of an Instagram post I saw last week which was a picture of some guy’s listening room with 40k records. I mean I have around 3k and the space that takes up is annoying, but 40k?! People were replying saying “wow amazing collection” and “the dream!” and all I could think was: you’ve got a serious hoarding issue and probably OCD, you need help, plus you will never listen to at least 3/4 of these records, they are just ornaments.
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None whatsoever. In fact, the only time i ever DJ at home nowadays is to record my radio show, so have also been contemplating downsizing further, i.e., do I really need a £3.5k mixer that gets used once a fortnight at most?
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I’ve whittled my collection down to about 2k and that seems manageable in terms of house moves etc. I lost interest a while back, only to experience a bit of a resurgence quite recently. Not sure how many will fit in the coffin, but I’m taking them to the crematorium with me.
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Got another (shite) job soon after so put the big cull on hold for now, although selling a pair of unused Grado carts on eBay (plug not plug) so sort of started in earnest!
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