Nancy Bunin wrote:

>Third- I'm amazed at the breadth of some respondents' collections.  How do
>they finance this?? And after financing their collections, how do they have
>the time to really listen to it all? Surely not all can be independently
>wealthy- or made a killing in the market.  Please let me in on the secret,
>if only regarding time management for music listening!

I will echo those who have said that having a CD player in the car has
increased my listening time.  Also, I listen more or less constantly when
I'm at the computer.  Six years ago my wife and I had about 300 CDs.  Today
we have about 2200.  That represents the addition of about 300 CDs per
year.  I stack new CDs by the computer and don't play anything else until
I have listened to all the new ones.  After I have listened, my wife
usually takes about one in three and plays them on her computer.

I would guess that that the average price per CD that we pay is around
$10.00 including taxes and shipping.  (We buy about two-thirds of our CDs
from BMG, Berkshire and Naxos.  The other third is usually bought online at
varying discounts.  We used to buy quite a bit from Classical Choice, but
between their now poor customer service, their increasingly higher prices
and my incresingly arcane repertoire selections, I haven't bought anything
from them in at least six months.

$3000.00 a year is quite a bit of money, but we have no children and live
in a cultural backwater (the Modesto, CA area).  In the end of course, it's
a matter of priorities.

Mike Cole