I agree with a lot of what's been already said.
As for me personally, i just have always bought what I liked (if I could afford it) and a lot of what I didn't particularly like sometimes, if I thought that I could sell it/ trade it on.
I foresook "normal" holidays for most of the 80's and 90's, instead going to the US whenever I could to search out vinyl. That meant that I could always get hold of records at relatively, and sometimes ludicrously, cheap prices. I could then sell these on at the prevailing price at the time to buy the sounds I couldn't find in the US.
That said, I have spent far too much money on records in my time. And now I've got the bug again
Phil