“It’s been massively important,” the 35-year-old from Bracknell in Berkshire told the BBC.
“It’s always there, always accessible when you need it. That’s why I like having physical copies.”
Paul’s collection actually straddles two continents at the moment – he has about 100 albums in the UK, but the rest are in Portland, Oregon.
That’s because, after living in the US since 2015, he moved back last year, at the height of the pandemic, following the breakdown of his marriage to an American woman.
“We’re still in touch, but it didn’t work out,” he says, adding that his ex-wife is still taking good care of his records.
Paul is one of many BBC News website readers who got in touch with us following the news that supermarket giant Sainsbury’s has decided to stop selling CDs and DVDs.
Although streaming has replaced buying records for many people, others would never part with their collections and are still adding to them whenever they can.