starting a vinyl/cd/cassette collection

so yeah

i've been wanting to start collecting some kind of analog music for quite a while now, but this idea was always being put away, because as a teen i don't have much money to spend on such stuff. but i just got given a vinyl record by my bestie (it's some soviet EP from the 70's, which contains two poems with music over them if i understood correctly) and now i really wanna try to start getting into vinyls or some other analog stuff. but! i have some problems and that's why i'm writing this entry!

overall i just wanted to complain a little lol but any help and feedback would be REALLY appreciated!!!!!

1. turntables are expensive

as i've said already, i'm a teen so i don't have as much money to spend on such stuff. though i'm not worried as much about amps (could solder one myself if i really wanted to) or speakers, but TURNTABLES... the only I can afford are the suitcase ones and i've heard that they have a reaaally bad sound quality and could even damage my records so they aren't really an option

though there are a lot of soviet players at the thrift market. they are usually even cheaper and i've heard that some of them are pretty good, but they have built-in amps and it would probably be hard to find new needles for them, so i'm not sure about that

also i've seen some pretty solid diy projects but well. that would be really hard to do

2. bootleg cds

i also thought about collecting cds (and there even must be a cd player somewhere in the attic) but i'm kinda scared of buying some and them turning out to be bootleg. like, what's the point of spending money on these if they're not original, i can make such cds myself

is there any way to tell the original ones from the fakes?

3. i don't have a clue where to get a nice cassette player

i've tried to look for them at online thrift markets but i only ever find either broken ones or working but like all rusty already and stuff. though i've seen some new chinese players but are they actually any good?

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so that's probably it. this entry might have had a lot of mistakes because i didn't really edit it, sorry if it's hard to read :( please let me know in the comments if you have any suggestions xx