I'm pretty new to vinyl and I just don't really understand picture discs. Everything I've read about vinyl says the sound quality of them is awful and you can even ruin the record by wearing a hole through the plastic into the paper in the middle. I recently started to collect stuff by some of my favorite bands, and so far I only have one picture disc because it's by a band I'm collecting and I got it in a lot on ebay. I see it as nothing more than a decorative piece for my collection (I got it still sealed and haven't even opened it) and I just don't get the price some of these albums go for. I've seen them go for over $100, when you could easily get a non-picture disc version of the same album for cheaper. I also don't get why some bands release b-sides exclusively on picture disc variations of singles, why release an exclusive track on such a terrible format?

Are they really as near unplayable as I've heard or are they basically strictly for collection purposes only? I get that some of them look really cool and they're good to have as decoration, but I don't get spending $100 for one, or being taunted with exclusive tracks that you can't really listen to very often for fear of ruining the album. Maybe I'm still just too practical for vinyl.

The only real difference with picture discs is that the image pressed onto the disc itself goes into the grooves of where the gramophone player's needle sits. Aside from that, they're just a vinyl disc.

As for sound quality, I've never run into a problem with that when it comes to a vinyl disc.

At least in the 80's and 90's, picture discs were made pretty much only for being collectors items and not for listening. Picture discs are today better but still there is a notable amount of hiss and other noise present when played, that is not present if you listen the same on regular black vinyl.

It depends on how well they're made. I only have three but they all play fine and I don't notice any annoying extra noise.

I've heard this notion before, but I'm uncertain as to whether or not it's true. I have maybe 5-6 picture vinyls, but they all sound finde to me even if some of them are really underground and therefore probably cheaply made. Then again, my record player is really cheap and so is my stereo, so I'm not certain you'd be able to hear any difference anyway.