Tom Dunne: Boxsets can be brilliant but expensive items to collect 

Paul McCartney's singles collection cost about €740 but sold out almost instantly. That's just one example from a lucrative market where the music itself is often secondary 

Paul McCartney singles' box set.

They used to say, in crass social circles a million miles away from ours, that “Cocaine was God’s way of letting you know you had too much money”. This was a Harry Enfield “loadsa money” type world. It’s gone now, unless you are 17 but yet own a French Mastiff and a Canada Goose coat, but it has been replaced.

Today, God’s way of telling you that you have too much money is the vinyl boxed set. It’s showy and brash, is sometimes of dubious quality, but will lighten any wallet. You’ll probably buy it in a rash moment for the weekend and you may well regret it, but you will buy it, worse fool you.