I've seen most people's collections and, frankly, I'm too much of a snob to want them. All too often, record "collections" are an amassing of of top forty radio classics like Journey, Huey Lewis, Chicago's two-hundred-eighty-seven records, and a variety of other undesirable drek.
Copy dat...
I have yet to bump into a personal collection I would drool over...sure there are some that contain many desirables, but overall most I have seen made me go...urgh.
Except for Rich's...
Imagine if you had the wherewithal to buy and properly store any and all of the records you ever desired, and had the chops to pick the stuff that would make other collectors jealous.
I had the chance to walk amongst that collection. The co-owner of the Asbury Park Press, the largest newspaper on the Jersey Shore (which sold for $65 million in '95), had a 25 x 20 room stacked to the ceiling with a meticulously accumulated and maintained collection of LPs. Nearly all of them were hard bop, although there was music of all types and ilks. Each record was poly bagged and stored firmly upright. It was like a museum.
I was at Mr Lass' home when I worked under the table at a TV repair shop while I was between jobs. I was in my 20's at the time and dressed like a van driver. Still, when Mr Lass saw my jaw drop, he led me into the room. I think he relaxed a bit when I complimented him on the poly bags and organization. When he realized that I knew about the artists, the labels and the records themselves, he lingered a bit to talk. He was proud of the collection, as he should have been. It was spectacular.