Completist

[Paul-K]

do you have to own everything by an artist you like?

I feel I have to buy everything, but do I really need to?

is it a collector trait that makes you want to own everything? or is it a hoarder mentality?

[Big Youth]

I managed to nip that particular habit in the bud when I was a Who obsessed teen. I ventured into the murky world of Roger Daltrey solo albums and quickly realised you really don't need EVERYTHING. Thanks Rog.

[Paul-K]

I think its a habit I need to get out of. I think it comes from when I was younger when owning the record was the only way to hear the song.

[Yr Ynys]

nope, certainly not a completist

Even as a nipper, I was able to see that whilst I had most Jam albums, I didn't need that last piece of repackaged crud they issued 'dig the new breed', or later 'snap'. Once I was able to resist these, not having a complete set of anything felt strangely liberating. Especially when friends would worry for me and not be able to get their heads around those missing pieces.

More recently, I'd similarly have almost complete collections of Super Furries, Primal Scream, Alabama 3 etc.. Almost...but not complete.

Even down to deliberately numbered up collections. I've got most of the recent Johnny Cash american set, I've got 3,4,5 and 6. There was nothing I 'needed' on 1 and 2 so I've spent my limited budget on other stuff.

The thrill of finding something new has a greater pull on my pocket money than the need to complete.

[Ken Ward]

complete the set

As a Zappa nut I found out that was going to be very difficult. I tried with the Dandelion lp's and nearly got there before finances got in the way. Is there a complete London collection somewhere out there? Going back to 1949 on 78's? I would like to hope so.

[Big Youth]

nope, certainly not a completist

Even as a nipper, I was able to see that whilst I had most Jam albums, I didn't need that last piece of repackaged crud they issued 'dig the new breed', or later 'snap'.

The version of Set the House Ablaze on DTNB was much better than Sound Effects version.

[Yr Ynys]

Issuing 'best of' albums at the end of the band was a kick in the nuts for little kids that thought they were different. It was me making a stand. I think I had Polydor on the ropes for a while.

I contented myself with persuading the sister of one of my mates to buy Snap! and let me have the free EP that I persuaded her she wouldn't enjoy.

[amidar]

Happy to have all the albums and any b side/unreleased/live comps that might get released. No interest in buying bootlegs, best of's, singles or remastered editions of things I already own although there are exceptions eg: the can remasters from a few years ago which I thought were superb. I was a huge stranglers fan as a kid, probably the first band I decided I should buy everything by but I really shouldn't have bothered buying anything by them post 1981.

[bradx]

Not a completist by any means. Offhand, I think that perhaps the only band/artist I have everything by is Pearls Before Swine/Tom Rapp.
I don't like to clog up my shelves with sub-standard drek like Squeeze by the Velvet Underground / or Bluejeans by Capt Beefheart

[Yr Ynys]

I did at one stage start picking up any Small Faces compilation album I could find. It didn't matter if the listing on the back was just the usual 16 tracks in a different order, because what I'd noticed was that for some reason, they were often luck dip.
Invariably, those rushed out / cash in regurgitated albums were so sloppily put together they would often have different tracks on the actual record to those listed on the cover. So it was a way of picking up that one random track your mates didn't have.
Then, once you had them accepting that you could unearth SF rarities, you could slip in other stuff and claim it to be an SF find!

Am I a bad person? Surely if they liked that track by John's Children or The Creation or whoever, then they liked it. No harm done on that SF mixtape.

[Paul-K]

I have a tendency to pick up anything by artists I like, if it has a slightly different cover, or track listing, or different colour vinyl etc.
I have lately started to be less like this, and its starting to feel good not having to buy 4 versions of an album to own all the colours. I have also tried to buy the plain black version of most albums lately, they tend to be cheaper and sound better, especially over the new gold vinyl pressings.

I have also stopped buying the 7"s of bands, mainly as I never ever play them.

[bradx]

I knew this VU nut who had over 100 different issues of the VU & Nico. Even though I thought it was weird ... it was actually impressive.
There was some guy on ebay selling over 60 copies of the Please Please Me album (in one lot), all different matrixs.

[Grim Lounge Cowboy]

Lesson learned early collecting Buzzcocks singles. Diminishing returns.

Without delving into a dictionary, the two ideas are related. “Collector” suggests someone who has some guiding principles, whereas “hoarder” suggests someone who is indiscriminate (or seems that way to everyone else).

[dukowski83]

Like some others it seems, when I was younger I had grand ideas about getting everything by particular bands but this often went by the wayside when a then current release was disappointing. Now I am often tempted to try and find runs of labels if there are only a couple that may not be of that much interest "for completion's sake" but I think I'm getting better (ish) at convincing myself that I don't need everything.

Certainly, coming from a punk background, there is a contemporary push for different coloured vinyl pressings, tour covers, record release covers and test pressings particularly surrounding particular labels and I've always found it difficult to comprehend that particular mindset. I still follow one or two blogs of such collectors who will occasionally take a 'group photo' of up to 20 variants on a 2 track 7". Each to their own I guess.

[Paul-K]

so, I suppose this leads to another thing. if you did collect everything, and now don't see the point having 5 separate versions of the same album. how do you decide which one to keep. the recent remastered reissue? or the original? I guess the in between versions can all go.
or keep the remaster and original and get rid of everything else?