Nobody Needs Another Record. Hamilton Collectors Told Us Why They Still Matter.

The Hamilton Record Show returns to Bridgeworks on September 27. Last time we asked why vinyl still matters. The answers went far beyond the records.

Last time the Hamilton Record Show came around, I asked what seemed like a fairly simple question:
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Nobody needs vinyl anymore. So why does it still matter so much?

We can carry millions of songs in our pockets. We don't need to drive across Hamilton, flip through crates, inspect sleeves or wonder whether the record we've just found is the pressing we think it is.
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And yet on Sunday, September 27, collectors will once again walk into Bridgeworks and do exactly that.
Since writing that original story, I think I've started to understand why.

Not because I came up with a better answer.

Because collectors started giving me theirs.

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The Comments Became Part of the Story

After the original article went live, I asked readers a question: What's the one record you'd never part with?

One of the answers came from Hamilton Record Show organizer Rob Sweeney.

His was End of the Century by the Ramones, signed by the band at Star Records in Hamilton in May 1980.
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Think about that for a moment.

A record bought in Hamilton more than four decades ago had become more than something to play. It carried a band, a record store, a city and a specific moment in someone's life with it.

That comment eventually became another Vinyl Vibes story of its own.

Another reader talked about returning to record shows after roughly 20 years. This time, he was bringing his kids.

The conversation moved from punk and metal to jazz, The Cure, The Smiths and the simple pleasure of continuing to discover music as you get older.

That may have answered my original question better than anything I wrote.

The record matters. But so does where you found it, who you were with and what was happening in your life when you brought it home.

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Something Else Has Changed

I recently went back to Rob and asked what we might have missed the first time.
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His answer was interesting.

Ownership.

Physical media gives us something fundamentally different from a streaming subscription.

Streaming gives us extraordinary access to music. I use it. Most of us do.

But access and ownership aren't quite the same thing.

A record on your shelf is yours. You can lend it to someone. Give it to your kids. Sell it. Keep it for 40 years.
Pull it out one day and remember exactly where you bought it.

Perhaps that's becoming part of vinyl's appeal too.

When almost everything around us can be accessed instantly, there is something strangely satisfying about owning something physical.
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And there may be no better place to experience that than a record show.

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The Hamilton Record Show Returns

The Hamilton Record Show returns to Bridgeworks, 200 Caroline St. N., on Sunday, September 27, 2026.

Once inside, the usual rules apply.

You can arrive with a list.

You can tell yourself you're only looking for one record.

You can even tell yourself you're not buying anything.

Good luck with that.

The better approach might be to leave some room for the record you didn't know you wanted.

Because that's still something record stores and record shows do remarkably well.
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They let us stumble into music.

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The Hunt Doesn't End at Bridgeworks

There's something else I've noticed since writing the original story.

The records I remember most aren't necessarily the rarest or most valuable ones.

They're often the ones with a story attached.

The $10 Kinks record I found in Niagara. A used jazz record that sent me down another musical rabbit hole. An album I wasn't looking for until somebody suggested I hear it.

That's the unpredictable part of collecting that is difficult to recreate online.

You can arrive at Bridgeworks with a carefully prepared list, but the best thing you find might be sitting three crates away from everything you came looking for.

Or someone standing beside you might point you toward something you've never heard.

That's the fun of digging. You don't completely control where it takes you.

And if the show sends you looking for more, I've brought together many of the places, shops and tools I've discovered along the way in Find Your Next Record.

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Then You Bring It Home

There's another part of the ritual I enjoy almost as much.

You get home.

Put the records on the table.

And go through what you found.

Maybe there's something you've been chasing for years. Maybe there's a $10 record you bought on instinct. Maybe there's something you know almost nothing about.

I've become more particular about what happens next.

A used record doesn't automatically go onto my turntable anymore. An old Miles Davis LP changed how I thought about cleaning. Even a brand-new John Coltrane pressing reminded me that "new" doesn't necessarily mean ready to play.

Those experiences eventually became stories themselves.

And they've changed the way I look after my collection.

Find it. Clean it. Protect it.

Not because every record needs to be treated like a museum piece.

Because when you find something you want to keep, you want to be able to pull it from the shelf years from now and still enjoy it.

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Maybe We Do Need This After All

Last year I went into this story wondering why vinyl still mattered.

Since then, I've heard about a Ramones record signed in a Hamilton record store in 1980.

I've heard from someone returning to record shows after two decades, now bringing his kids.

I've watched conversations about one record lead to completely different music.

And I've continued doing the same thing myself.

Maybe there isn't one answer to the question I asked last year.

For Rob, part of it is ownership.

For someone else, it's a record that takes them back to a particular moment.

For another collector, it's sharing something with their kids.

And sometimes it's much simpler than that.

You flip through a crate and find something you weren't expecting to find.

Streaming gives us almost unlimited access to music.

A record gives us an experience around it.

The hunt. The discovery. The people. The object itself. And eventually, the memories attached to it.

Nobody walking into Bridgeworks on Sunday really needs another record.
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Maybe that's precisely why finding one can still mean so much.

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What Are You Looking For?

If you're heading to the Hamilton Record Show, what record are you hoping to find?

And here's the question that started all of this:

What's the one record you already own that you'd never sell?

Tell me in the comments.
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Your answer might become the next story.

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Keep Digging

If this story has you thinking about why we still collect records, there’s plenty more to explore on Vinyl Vibes.

Why Does Vinyl Still Matter So Much?
This is where the conversation started - a look at why physical records continue to matter when virtually all the music we could want is already available instantly.
→ Read the original story

From the Ramones to Record Shows
A signed copy of End of the Century, a Hamilton record store in 1980 and the story that grew out of Rob Sweeney’s comment on the original article.
→ Read the story

Find Your Next Record
Explore independent record stores, record shows and other ways to discover the record you didn’t know you were looking for.
→ Start digging
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Record Store Stories
Meet the owners, collectors and communities keeping independent record-store culture alive in Hamilton, across Canada and around the world.
→ Explore Record Store Stories