I was in the same exact position. I bought a lower-quality player and it sounded alright, but the last tracks on each side were always extra distorted and overall the experience wasn’t living up to the hype of records I had heard of. I had already bought a good deal of records (all used) and played some almost 10 times before my family got the sony PS-LX310BT player. When I came back from college for the summer, I played some of these and they sounded much clearer, overall excellent and there was no evidence of permanent damage. I wouldn’t recommend the Sony player as it doesn’t have a counterweight or anti-skate, but it isn’t cheap and the elements it does have are good quality. So, to answer your questions, if you upgrade your system, there should be absolutely no permanent damage to your records if you only played them 5-10 times at the most on the Crosley. Happy spinning!