"I realised one day that vinyl could be replaced"

Music Due to a mix-up at US customs, Ed Vulliamy's entire vinyl collection, some sixteen hundred albums, a life's work was destroyed. He's now trying rebuild the memories:

"The fightback began when I realised one day that vinyl could be replaced. Over coffee, my friend Paul Gilroy handed me six albums by Neil Young, Sly Stone, the Beatles, Mike Bloomfield's Electric Flag, Stoneground and Poco from his own collection. The restoration had begun. My partner Victoria sought out Polly on the Shore by Trees for a birthday treat. An Italian friend, Allegra Donn, presented me with Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, signed for her by Steve Winwood. With people like Paul, Vic and Allegra reacting like this, I already started to feel a richer man than before."

Not quite the same, but I inflicted a similar disaster on myself at the turn of the last decade when I junked a large percentage of my self-recorded VHS collection, years worth of diligently usually setting the video while I was out.

I needed to make room, but on reflection, I really should have been more careful about what I was losing.  When I do find the odd thing, a drama is released on dvd or documentary turns up again on television, I think I probably cherish it more than when it was simply sitting on tape in boxes gathering dust.