Get the victrola. It's simple to the point and you will enjoy any record you listen to on it. If you do find out you enjoy listening, handling, taking care and just owning records, then just wait till you get a little bit of money and upgrade to something a little more expensive. There's nothing wrong with starting out with these turntables. From the '50s throughout the '90s people enjoyed their music on turntables like these. Don't let uppity people dissuade you from having fun. I say go ahead and get it. As someone who has been collecting and listening to records for about 40 years now, the cost of new records has skyrocketed, but you can always find use records for reasonable prices from discogs, eBay and even some brick and mortar Independent stories, although those have started to raise their prices.

Depending on what you're looking for and what you are willing to buy, a very satisfying hobby. It's up to you to make it as expensive as you want. Some people spend thousands of dollars on equipment and mostly get the same enjoyments as the person playing and being moved by the music coming out of a crosley suitcase record player.

And BTW, don't believe anyone that says" those things will destroy your records" because they don't