Personal preferences

£3.99 is what one of my mid 70s LPs cost. Nearly 7% of my weekly pay.

Prices do double every 10 years in real terms (try comparing food prices!) and so counting on... 80s, 90s, 00s, and now, so £3.99 became £8, then £16, then £32, and now £64!

But by subsidising imports from you know where - by going back on Wilberforce and encouraging slave labour (NIMBY style!) - UK PLC managed wage deflation almost to the point of almost making the country's mid-earners pay 40% tax! (and we all know who wanted to keep it like that!)

So that's why £30 sounds expensive for a vinyl LP! Long live vinyl! Boo to UK PLC managers (the idiots at Westminster).

Graham's point about inflation is well made. I would venture than the shrinkage in confectionery items was paralled with cheaper and recycled materials in mass produced records.

I still buy new records but usually remasters like the Kate Bush LP's that came out this month. The vast majority of my LP purchasing is from charity shops rather than car boot sales but Ash's earlier point is a good one. Aside from the record handling in place of pressing a play button, the record sleeves and reading material are a lot easier to read than those in CD's. In fact I just rip my CD's nowadays but still have a CD player that is connected to the Majestic's DAC.

There are limits to what I will pay for any LP and condition is paramount for me. I get around this by going against what is trendy. I've focused more on less popular bands and artists, or under-appreciated records from well-known artists. 

For example, 50s and 60s hard bop is really hot right now here, especially certain artists and labels. Early pressings of the most desirable records have reached insane pricing levels and the less desirable pressings are inflated as a result, not to mention the ever present condition issues. So what do I do? I focus on 70s jazz, especially less appreciated artists and titles. To me this stuff highly undervalued outside of a handful of artists and labels. Same thing with select titles from the 80s - everyone assumes there was only Kenny G style smooth jazz in the 80s so hardly anyone is buying it.