Huh. Where are you buying your records from? There's a couple of good stores in the city where my college is where I can buy almost all of the new stuff for $20 or less. Usually between $15-$20. Used is a crapshoot depending on what exactly it is. Same goes for buying online, with standard shipping I can usually get at least one record for around $20. But when I buy online I usually just buy things that are on sale which makes it even better. Meanwhile 7-inch and 10-inch records are even cheaper, around $5-$10 unless there's something special about them, super-limited pressing, etc. Last night, for instance, I bought an LP for $11 w/ $3 shipping and handling. That 1% figure could also be because of the used records market (which I would guess doesn't report) which is a very big part of the market.