Yep - when I was at RIT i used to lug around over 2,000 albums, moving every year in/out of the dorms (I was an RA all the years past freshman year).
Then CDs came and I (stoopidly) sold them all and bought CDs.
Then streaming came and I sold all my CDs.
Now, back at the vinyl game and LOVE IT.
I come to Rochester a lot for work and you sir, live in the single best place for record shopping that ever was, even today with so many places gone. Bop Shop is best quality and great selection. Record Archive to me is #2, but, you can have a beer while you shop, so there is that. They tend to sell great quality as well as crap, so you have to be more careful. The HOG is a big friggin mess for vinyl but if you have an afternoon and are patient, can be an adventure. There is a good store in Syracuse too, Sound Garden. These alone will keep you busy. My old favorite, Lakeshore Record Exchange (based on your music tastes you have shared, you would have loved) is long gone sadly. I buy a lot of stuff when I come up there.
Hard to find stuff is best found for sale on Discogs.com, where all vinyl is graded etc and sellers are generally really good. You can buy from around the world on Discogs. The only downside is you don’t have the thrill of the ‘hunt’.
Discogs also lets you set up want lists so you can get notified when things come up for sale, and you can keep your catalog up there to and share with others.
Note - CD era stuff (a lot of late 80s era alt and new wave stuff) is not readily available on vinyl in US but can be found in Europe. These also tend to get released as new pressings now and quality now is outstanding.
We have a thread here for folks who share their own collections, check it out here:
Hi-Fi lounge on Monroe near 12-corners is a great turntable store with vinyl. I have known Mark (owner) for over 30 years, he is a great guy and a good place to start on the turntable journey (yet another rabbit hole).
Stop in and he will give you an education on where to start.
I have a Pro-ject Debut Carbon turntable and got an upgraded cartridge from Mark.
The cartridge upgrade was a very noticable improvement. He can guide you into the craziness. Most turntable places online are not the best for asking questions. Drives me nuts as once you are past the first few price points, prices get insane very fast.
I have mine connected to my Sonos system so can’t say much for amps/speakers.
The Sonos Play 5 system (pair with a turntable and preamp) is a great way to keep things simple and not go down the amp/speaker (yet even more) rabbit holes.
If you do dive in, invest in a good vinyl cleaning system.
They are not cheap but really worth it.