Hello everyone. Just writing to inform everyone on the value of records nowadays, how to collect them and build your collection, and what are some of the best albums so far this year for me!

First off, Records are back! My reason for being interested in records besides the sound quality is the preserve the music I love in a cloud driven society. I found my Ipod from 2006 like 3 years back and it kickstarted my record collecting after realizing I forgot at least 10-15 albums because I haven't used that specific Ipod in years. Now I buy any of my new favorite albums on vinyl and I will always have it.

My favorite way to find new records is to sign up to every bands' social media that I like. Bands tend to tweet or instagram their newest limited record releases days before they go on sale so you can be prepared. Some bands now are offering limited versions including hand-numbered, colored, or even signed copies to an average of 500-5000 copies depending on different factors. Some groups even go through smaller independent pressing companies that offer artistic qualities to the records like putting liquid in them or have multiple different colors swirling together to make unique art. Some records come in picture disc form or even glow in the dark(try and stay clear of these if you want sound quality).

Flipping records IS SMART! Don't be deterred to do a little reselling if someone is willing to pay for a record you had to refresh a website for 10 mintues to get! This will give you more money to shell out $25 for shipping when a favorite band of yours offers a limited record from Australia! Also, bands are getting smart and realize this is a great way to profit. So now a record that should cost about $20 are now going for $35-$50 like those concert tee's that fall apart after 3 washes! It's only fair you buy one and then get double on ebay or discogs to fund your hobby. To flip, be very cautious of what you are buying and how popular or rare the album will be be compared to the amount released and the popularity of the artist. Don't be scared to buy 5-10 copies of something if you really have faith and see it selling on ebay or discogs in the past. If an artist comes out with something, check their last couple releases and see what they went for and how many were available(be careful how you judge this). Sometimes a groups last album was limited to 500 and now goes for $200. If they come out with their next album and it is still limited to 500 again, buy as many as you can and resell them. Like I said though, be careful, because sometimes they will release a different version or multiple versions through other retailers and the value wont be the same as the stand alone version from their last album of ONLY 500 copies. The best way to research album sales is Discogs.com. You can also catalog all your collection there as well and get an idea of how much your albums sell for.

In future I will come and say some of the best deals or limited albums that are coming up! Right now for instance, there are still copies of the newest King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to be released in June and copies of the new Murlocs album available on Flightlessrecords.com from Australia. This is one group who has tried to stay ahead of the flippers and now create more copies of their album, and even though they made 3 versions limited to 2,000 each, they are still down to under 400 copies total from the original 6,000 available. Worth jumping on, considering every other one of their albums sell for $100+.

In conclusion, 2017 has so far been rather slow with great releases, but there are plenty of new albums to come including Arcade Fire, King Gizzard, Portugal. The Man, The War on Drugs(go to their site for limited box set preorder), Mgmt, and maybe even Tool! My favorite albums of the year so far are:

- The Black Angels "Death Song"

- King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard "Flying Microtonal Banana"

- Temples "Volcano"

- Spoon "Hot Thoughts"

- Sonic Jesus "Grace"

- TW Walsh "Terrible Freedom"

Bye for now... Time to go listen to the new Alt-J. Got my signed copy in the mail!