These are my bits of wisdom from years of hunting down new wave vinyl; I hope others will share theirs as well. If it inspires you to start a record collection, well...God help you.
(1) I find that a great deal of the new wave lps I pick up are marked 'for promotional use only' or have the call-letters for some radio station scrawled over them. What kind of radio station would just cast aside that copy of the 2nd Gary Myrick lp??
(2) When you have ALOT of records (like I do) you HAVE to alphabetize them, no matter what John Cusak tells you in "High Infidelity". Otherwise you'll never find them. NEVER get drunk and decide to re-organize your record collection (you'll only need to be told this once).
(3) When your record collection gets ridiculously over-sized (like mine) you forget which records you have and which you don't. I must've bought three copies of the Del Fuegos 'the longest day' because I just wasn't sure and it was only a buck.....
(4) I've never regretted paying too much for an lp. However, I have spent years regretting not picking up that copy of X's "Wild Gift" that just seemed too expensive at the time. If you see it and you've been wanting it, take my advice and grab it. Don't worry if you might find it $3 cheaper somewhere else. You can worry about justifying it to yourself later; you only live once.
(5) In fact, Never Hesitate! Never take it for granted that it will be there the next time. I must have eyed that Strawberry Switchblade lp six times and then one day I went back looking for it and it was gone! I went back through that pile of records for months with a forlorn look on my face, not believing my eyes! Who else in the world wanted that thing???
(6) I've never bought a record with the intention of selling it to someone else; I don't understand how the record dealers can do it. It'd be like parting with a kidney; I think I'm more likely to sell you my kidney than my copy of 'Meat is Murder'.
(7) I never bother to haggle the price with a record dealer. I figure, if he wants $5 for the Depeche Mode lp, then I can either pay it or skip it (note rule #4). These guys are just making a living and doing me a favor by bothering with records. I never haggle with McDonalds over the price of the Quarter Pounder with cheese....
(8) I never bring a record guide (like the Trouser Press guide) with me to a record store, but I always wish I had it with me.
(9) I recently started entering my collection into a Quattro/Excel-style spreadsheet, listng artist, title, and genre. Genre is a nightmare. I finding myself constantly wondering what genre to put the Cure, Madonna or Fugazi into.
(10) I've never bought a CD copy of a release I had on vinyl, but I've bought the vinyl copy of a CD I had. Every CD jewel case I've ever owned has snapped hinges.
(11) I've never been institutionalized. I was almost hospitalized when I moved my entire record collection from my 2nd story apartment to a house. Records are very heavy. Put some in a banana box and try to load them into a Honda Civic in the pouring rain..you'll get the idea.