I've been a record collector for most of my life. Even as a child, I loved buying records. But as an adult, it's turned into what can only be described as an obsession.

When I was a kid, I was given a weekly allowance. More often than not, I took that allowance and rode my bike to Fox Hole Records, a record store a few miles from my house. I would buy a 7" record (often called a '45'), usually of a top-40 song I had heard on the radio, bike back home, and play that record over and over and over.

By the time I was a teenager, I had hundreds of 45's and the beginnings of what was to become a life-long obsession: record collecting. I continued buying records through junior-high and high-school, ignoring the newly emerging format of compact discs. But it wasn't until I got to college that things really began to change and I began to build my record collection.

A number of aspects contributed to my increased interest in collecting records in college. The first was the amount of disposable income I had from part-time jobs I held while in school. It became very easy for me, once again, to go to a record store once a week and buy something I'd heard on the radio or at a club. Around this time, I had started going to bars and nightclubs that played types of music I wasn't familiar with, but that I liked quite a bit. This, in turn, led me to new record stores specializing in different styles of music, which stoked my interest further. Finally, many of the records I began to collect were produced by labels that went to great lengths to produce records with interesting graphic design, photography, and packaging. Much of this music was available on CD, but to me it wasn't the same. With CD's, the artwork was reduced or eliminated, the lyrics more difficult to read, and the discs seemed small and sterile.

While in graduate school, my collecting habits waned, in part because I did not have the same amount of disposable income, and also because record labels began phasing out vinyl from their catalogs, focusing almost exclusively on producing CD's. But once I was out of school and working, much to my surprise, there seemed to be a resurgence in the production of vinyl records, especially of dance music. Little by little, I began to buy vinyl records again, this time mostly 12" singles and EP's.

As my interest in dance music grew, and I began to once again buy records, I discovered record stores that specialized in stocking them. One of those record stores was Gramaphone Records in Chicago. I don't often admit this because it might seem strange or impulsive to some, but one of the main reasons I moved to Chicago was to be closer to Gramaphone Records. And once I moved to Chicago, I began going to Gramaphone weekly and buying records. Since I most often went on Saturday, I soon earned the nickname "Saturday Mike", which the staff still call me to this day.

One other aspect contributed greatly to the building of my record collection, and that was access to a local record distributor called Groove Distribution. Groove began in 1999 as one of the sole distributors of dance music in Chicago, and it was their VIP program that would, for good or bad, lead to the exponential growth of my collection. The VIP program offered by Groove was quite simple. For a flat, yearly fee, I received a 30% discount on all titles, as well as priority access to titles limited in number. The combination of weekly trips to both Gramaphone and Groove Distribution, with almost certain purchases, caused my collection to grow quite rapidly in only a few years.

Building a collection like mine takes time, effort, and money. And while I am still adding to my collection, I have been considering taking a step back and trying to get a "big picture" view. I see this site as a place where I can do just that... where I can reflect on my collecting activities over the past couple decades, as well as share my collection with others. I will include sample mixes for those interested in the types of music I collect. I will also offer advice to other record collectors, sharing tips on how and where I buy my records, how I care for and store them, how they are organized and how I've begun cataloging the collection.