I think the answer depends on why you want the record, to some degree; is it all time top want, label filler, ‘current must have’ for a busy DJ, one of those you’ve meaning to buy for the last 20 years but never got around to, etc, etc.
Personally my wants list consists of about half a dozen records I must have before I pop my clogs, and then several thousand “would like to have” but not that really bothered one way or the other. If it’s one of the few ‘must haves’, then I must have been looking for them for decades, and would go well over the odds to get it in the end. However, so would a few other hundred vinyl junkies too!
The ‘would like to have’ ones are the real problem in recent times; basically they all fall into the same scenario, i.e. in my mind it’s a £10 record, with inflation and current demand for vinyl I’d expect it to be £10-£15 (would consider paying that for it), but they’re all at sale at £100! (Interesting to know the true turn over rate of record now days.) Then you see it for sale at £50 and I think ah!, that’s half price, but really I know it’s 3 to 5 times what it’s worth to me, and so I think sod it I ain’t forking out over the odds for a record that’s just gonna sit on a shelf because from a nostalgic point of view over the last 20 + years, I’ve convinced myself that I really need one. They’re the ones that have made me a bit jaded with collecting over the last couple of years.
Always thought if a won a few million on the lottery that I would go out and buy thousand and thousands regardless of their asking price, fill the SUV with £50 notes and head of to ‘Pork Pie Land’, but in reality I’d now probably come back with a few ridiculously over-priced bits of plastic and play them till they were worn out and would have thoroughly enjoyed owning them at long last. (Plus every known copy of Joanne Courcey and a sledge hammer )