Things you skip when collecting artist discographies?

Oh, and I don't really care for DVDs, either.

Cost is king.

I buy everything exclusively second hand so if I can find (and I don't mean Ebay or Amazon) it I will buy it...

I've come to the conclusion that there is too much good music and too many great albums to obsessively collect everything a band releases (and too many douche labels releasing an album in 54 different colours etc).

Apart from anything Tom Fischer related, that's different!!

I'll only buy compilations if I feel there are enough songs that I don't already have to make it worthwhile. That'll generally happen if I'm still missing a large portion of their discography or the compilation has a lot of stuff not available on their studio albums.

I don't bother with live albums, although I do pick up live DVDs from time to time. The chances of me seeing most of the bands I like like are almost zero, so while DVDs aren't nearly the same thing, they make up for that a little.

A bulk of my collection came from BMG and Columbia House CD clubs. I used to order stuff from them all the time. Around the time they went under I had stopped buying a lot of music. I still buy CD's but it has to be something I really want or see very cheap ($5 bin). While in those CD clubs I used to order things just "because". Not that I really wanted it, I just bought stuff because I was to the point of "Buy ONE get TWO FREE!".

I mostly do studio albums, but I get live albums of my favorite bands. I only have compilations that people gave me as gifts or something, which is cool too, but I just wouldn't spend more money than I have to.