Congrats on getting something special, it's always nice to have a rarity. ;D
On the vinyl is dead front, nowadays vinyl has it's biggest market in the club dj sector and as you have noticed the production of regular 'vanilla' editions is indeed dying out. It now takes a special picture disc edition to get people interested. Here in the uk, as you may know, alot of top djs are switching to cd with the advent of really usable tools. A friend of mine brought over a Pioneer CDJ100mkII which he
had to buy in order for Judge Jules (relatively big DJ) to play in his club. I have to say I was blown away. So much so in fact that I bought one myself the very next day! For hip-hop, scratching is a form of creative expression and they/we use the turntable as an instrument, atriculating phrases and passages by manipulation of the record. Previously when working with bands I would get certain Vox and fx cut to disc so that I could scratch them, now tho I'll just burn to a cdrw!
So I guess it really is dying, djs like Sanchez and Jules using only cds is a concern and if the dj world follow suit (which they usuallly do) I wonder how much longer vinyl has to go!
Just my 2p (and hijack of your thread! Sorry
)
Scoobz