On Oct. 23, 2001, Apple released its very own digital music player, called the iPod. The device was the first of its kind to feature the capacity to hold close to 1,000 songs with a 10-hour battery life, all encased in a sleek futuristic design that weighed only 6.5 ounces. Upon its release, music industry executives declared that the age of physical media was over and recording artists would no longer release music in physical form. Until this point, the compact disc reigned supreme. Unpredictably, however, fate would intervene, and on May 10, 2022, Apple discontinued the iPod product line, and today, consumers can buy vinyl records of most of their favorite recording artists at Target, Wal*Mart, and Barnes & Noble. As often is the case with most technological revolutions, consumers eventually tire of the advancement and clamor for a return to simpler times. This is evident by various news reports that have circulated stating that just in the year 2022 alone, 41 million vinyl records were sold compared to just 33 million compact discs. Consumers are not just clamoring to go back to the state of the art technology of the 1980s, but actually to the 1950s and 60s! And this resurgence of popularity in vinyl records is not coming from older generations either. It is actually younger music enthusiasts under the age of 40 who have adapted to listening to their current favorite artists on vinyl only. Record companies have responded in kind to this growing trend. Much like the limited-edition holo-foil comic books and special edition sports cards that came out of the 1980s and 90s speculative booms, today, vinyl record enthusiasts can purchase limited-edition remasters of their favorite albums from yesteryear as well, with a lot of popular musicians from the 1980s and 90s re-releasing special-edition recordings in limited quantities. This has created a massive secondary market for not only these new contemporary records, but also the vintage originals that graced the likes of Sam Goody and Tower Records back when every mall in America had a record store. With the advent and revolution of third-party grading taking the antiques and collectibles trade by storm, first appearing in coin grading back in the mid-1980s, it was only a matter of time before it started to affect other collecting marketsl. In the early 2000s, comic books started to become professionally graded, and this trend would spread to toys, video games, and even VHS movies. Now all forms of physical media are being targeted by both established and up and coming grading companies who wish to encase your favorite collectibles in some form of plastic tamper-evident acrylic. Some of the collecting categories being affected by third-party grading at present time are faring better than others. VHS movie grading is still seen as a niche collectors market and has not been met with the same success as that of video game or toy grading. It took toy grading many years to gain acceptance among collectors, and prices have only started to climb exponentially within the last few years. Today, toy grading by the likes of AFA (Action Figure Authority) is seen as being almost required if you happen to have an item valued in the thousands of dollars. Still, most third-party grading companies have their fair share of critics. Personally, I consider third party grading a necessary evil in the trade and almost a necessity in a world where even common items can command four to five figures at auction. There is something to be said about taking an item and encasing it in tamper-evident plastic while turning it into nothing more than a commodity to be bought and sold. I personally know of no one that buys a graded comic book and cracks open the plastic enclosure just so they can read it, just like I know of no one who opens a graded vintage Star Wars figure to play with the toy. That said, the push to grade and encapsulate everything hit a fever pitch in the collectibles trade during the pandemic when prices for most collectibles started to soar to historic levels. Auction companies, grading companies, and even Wall Street private equity firms realized that the collectibles market was a bonafide way to make easy money, and a lot of these firms figured out early on that it is better to sell shovels to would-be gold prospectors than to be prospectors themselves. This is why billion dollar companies now control a lot of high-profile auction companies and professional grading companies at present time. Today, there are already plans to grade vinyl records, but also compact discs and cassette tapes as well. Will laser discs be far behind? Will anyone care about graded laser disc movies is a much better question. This begs the question as to whether or not vinyl record grading can achieve mass-market penetration like video games and toys. The answer is yes simply because the market for vintage vinyl records is already organic and has been around for decades. Unlike other forms of physical media that are new to the collectibles scene like VHS movies, cassette tapes, and compact discs, hardcore record collectors have been paying a premium for vintage vinyl for decades, and the market cap for vintage vinyl is much higher than the other forms of physical media I just mentioned. The only question left to answer is will collectors care and can the auction companies and grading companies convince these collectors to care enough? If so, then this could very well be a large untapped market that catches fire, and this could then become the next big thing. Only time will tell, as it always does in the antiques and collectibles trade. Until that time, however, it may be worth holding onto that original first pressing of The Beatles 1966 release of Yesterday and Today complete with its original controversial album cover if you are lucky enough to own one! Shawn Surmick has been an avid collector since the age of 12. He currently resides in his hometown of Boyertown, Pa., and is a passionate collector of antiques and collectibles. His articles focus on various topics affecting the marketplace.