Thanks for your thoughts, Don.
I tend to agree about reissues vs. originals, especially since originals are almost always going to be AAA.
When clean playable copies of originals are hard to find or expensive, I'm happy that a reissue gives us the chance to experience the performance - even if it is slightly less than the experience from the original. The original series from RCA Living Stereo, Mercury Living Presence and many great Deccas would likely be unobtainable in top condition. The classical music vinyl market and enthusiasm for classical music on LP would be far less today without reissues; in their absence prices for originals would be even higher than they are. But given the choice with comparable condition, I often prefer the original because they generally sound better in most sonic attributes.
Happily tons of records were made in '50s - '80s and there is a viable marketplace for originals. Here's but one place to find Vanguard originals of Abravanel conducting Mahler:
https://www.discogs.com/search/?q=Ab...ahler&type=all