I still have the more than 600 albums i purchased from the ealry 70’s till the mid 80’s. Some are in great shape. Of course i’ve got nothing to play them on!!!
I still use my 1968 turntable.
I have Herb Alpert and Star Wars from when I was five.
I still a 350 45s. I have a Rowe jukebox that I can fit 100 on.
There are lots of places that have turntables now. Just look around. I bet you a place that sells vinyl now can put you in touch with so one who has working turntables at a reasonable price range.
Look around for a used/ recycled record store in your town. Chances are they will have a used equipment section filled with old analog stereo gear. I.e. Akai, Roberts, pioneer, Technique,etc. you can assemble a good quality stereo system for a few hundred dollars. But don’t delay, that stuff is going up in value every day!Also be sure to get the old speakers to go with it. The new digital stuff does not pair well with analog equipment. Get a set of Pioneer speakers or Altec Lansing’s something along those lines and then sit back and enjoy those albums the way they were meant to be played!
We lost nearly everything in a flood in 2018, when we had a raging river over five feet high inside our house. The only things that we could salvage were on the top shelves of our closets. Just about all we kept on the top shelves of our closets were empty boxes and clothes that no longer fit. All of our books, records, DVDs and CDs were gone.
Since then, the only media we have purchased have been digital. If it has DRM, I remove it. I have all of our digital media backed up to multiple locations. I am old enough that I can no longer hear the difference between an MP3 and a vinyl album. I miss the books the most. I had a large library going back 50 years, including many first editions.
We try to look at it as an opportunity to declutter. Many people our age are upset that their kids do not want any of their family heirlooms. We don’t have that problem.