I bought my first single in 1992 as I had $1.99, but not the $12 or whatever a tape cost back then.
Fast forward to 1996 or so and I’m a budding record collector. I’m still fascinated by singles as 45s are A)Cheaper and B) Space saving. I focus on songs I like or ones with interesting cover art. It’s a great time in the history of record buying as nearly everyone is dumping their collections in favor of CDs. Sure, I had some CD singles, but I was that girl who wasn’t really interested in popular music or music from the past ten years for that matter.