Meet Peder, a Swedish vinyl collector who never abandoned his records, still believes in the thrill of the hunt, and wonders whether the vinyl revival has made collecting too expensive.

Peder once sold a record that he believes could now be worth as much as $3,000. He got $2 for it.

It was a copy of an album by Bathory, the influential Swedish black metal band, featuring the now-famous yellow goat on its cover. Back in the 1990s, it was just another second-hand record changing hands for a couple of dollars.

He doesn't regret selling it. He wasn't particularly fond of the music, and $2 was what records like that were selling for at the time.

It's a story that says a lot about how vinyl collecting has changed.

For more than three decades, Peder has watched records go from everyday objects to unwanted leftovers and, eventually, desirable collectibles. Through it all, he's held onto his collection.
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But while vinyl has become more valuable, he wonders whether something has been lost along the way.

Three thousand records. A two-bedroom apartment. And the possibility of a vinyl avalanche.

Ben Riggin jokes about that last part, but there came a point when his growing collection raised a serious question. How much music could one person realistically listen to?

He did the math. At three albums a day, every day of the year, it would take nearly three years to hear everything he owned. And that was without buying another record or returning to an old favourite.

For someone who had spent years digging through bins, it was enough to make him reconsider what collecting meant. Not because he'd lost interest in music, but because he wanted to spend more time enjoying what he already had.
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And much of that passion could be traced back to one Alice Coltrane album.

A few years ago, a friend of Zack’s sold his record collection to a record store in Toronto for a substantial amount of money.
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Naturally, Zack wondered what his own collection might be worth. But then he started thinking about what selling it would actually mean.

That's the problem.

Zack has been buying records since he was young. These days, collectors may know him through Zack’s Records on Instagram or as one of the voices behind Groove Daddies, a new project coming soon where five dads talk about records, music and everything that tends to come with it.

He buys less than he used to. Partly because he already has a lot.

Then something catches his attention and he's off again.

“So why am I still buying more? I don’t know if I have a great answer. I hear something I really like, and I want the record.”
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Fair enough.

The Specials started it.

Robyn, originally from Liverpool, was 12 when she got her first turntable for Christmas, along with the band's self-titled debut. The Smiths' Louder Than Bombs, purchased with Christmas money, followed soon after.

“I was so excited to get home and play it on my new record player,” she remembered. “I can still remember being that excited!”

Like most collectors, plenty more records followed. But some of the ones that matter most to Robyn today have little to do with rarity or value. One takes her back to two hours spent outside a concert on a cold October night with her nan.
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It happens to be signed by Elkie Brooks, but the signature isn't the reason it means so much.

I first came across Robyn through The Record Collectors Club, where she appeared as Collector No. 15. The project looked beyond photographs of vinyl collections to tell the stories of the collectors themselves.

A few years later, I was interested in what had changed.

“Collecting records has definitely expanded my music taste,” she says. “I feel like I’m more open to all kinds of different genres and recommendations than I would have been had I not started. I’ve discovered so many new artists and styles of music that have definitely changed my life!”

At 12, Robyn generally bought records she already knew she liked. Today, she's more willing to take a chance.
“I suppose I used to just collect records that I knew I liked at the time, but now I find myself picking up music that shop owners tell me to try or buying albums on a whim.”
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She still goes back to the classic albums and artists she loved at that age, but record collecting has taken her well beyond them.

What are you going to do when you retire?

Stacey Agecoutay has been getting that question a lot lately.

His 36-year career in financial advisory comes to an end on December 31, 2026, and he already knows the answer.