I’ll go ahead and say it. I might ask for a record player for my next birthday.

A few weeks ago, I was in Urban Outfitters, the home of overpriced clothing that always walks the line of making you look put together or making you look homeless, and I approached their record player section. I was amazed. They had multiples colors, from Tiffany Blue to neon orange, multiple sizes, but that’s not what sold me.

Not all vinyl records are available in black. One of my favorite bands has a record that is bright pink. My best friend owns a Fall Out Boy record that is red. It’s beautiful. It’s gorgeous. I immediately saw the appeal. I wanted one. I really did.

It is a hobby that would not only give into my slight hoarder-esque tendencies but also would help prove how much of a music snob I am. It would cost a lot, and I know that tons of people are getting into it, so I wanted in on the trend. It reminds me a lot of when I collected Pokémon cards in early elementary school.

Here’s the thing though. Plenty of people exclusively buy old, dusty records from thrift stores. Others only buy shiny and new records from stores like Urban Outfitters and even a few from Target. I imagined trying both. I would never say I could stop syncing all of my music onto my phone. When purchasing my latest iPhone, I definitely wanted to make sure I had at least 32GB to leave room for all of my music.

That being said, I also tend to go out and buy a CD instead of downloading it on iTunes. I could never imagine buying a brand new album on vinyl for at least fifteen dollars and only being able to listen to it at home. I just couldn’t spend the money on that and then have to download the album a second time. Thankfully some albums now come with a free download but it still isn’t common.

I don’t care about being some special snowflake all because I think “everything sounds better on vinyl” and yadayadayada. That’s not the point. Maybe I just like collecting things and I just really like flipping through records and applauding my own music taste. Maybe it’s just something else I have an excuse to alphabetize because gosh, I love alphabetizing.

I think it could be a fun hobby. But I don’t think that it is the smartest way to listen to music, old or new, because even though plenty of record players come looking like cute suitcases in various colors, I can’t listen to a record in class or on long family road trips or at the gym with my headphones in unless I want some strange looks.