LP's... Do they sound better now than 30 yrs ago?

Truth is...It’ll never be as good as it was. Your equipment might be better but your ears are 30-40 years older. Sorry : (

Well, it's not too bad. More reason to get the best equipment possible. May be unable to fully compensate but hopefully enough.

Having bought a couple of thousand lp's over the last 5 years, vintage, new, a few audiophile releases too. For a general new vinyl re-release, non-audiophile 1 in 3 has a problem, usually warped, pre-scratched at the factory, surface inclusions etc, like a previous poster mentioned, some of the US plants are problematic, no QC.
(Best to buy these through Amazon, for ease of return/replacement).
 
I even try to buy the occasional expensive Audiophile release through Amazon if I can, for the same reason, the Doors 45rpm Analogue Productions series spring to mind, as i live far from the US, (returning a damaged Lp to Acoustic Sounds was not cheap).

For vintage vinyl, Discogs is a better bet than ebay  for general condition, but for me Germany is the country to buy from, cheap overseas postage and usually premium condition. On the other hand you get buyer protection on ebay which is good.

My experience,
All things been equal ie. good condition and played on the same good system for comparison with best set up.
1. many 60's 70;s  1st - 2nd pressings - excellent
2. a few 70's repressings of 60's vinyl - excellent and surpass no1
3. some modern first pressings - good
4. mostly modern repressings - terrible
5. some 60's amd 70's 1xt-2nd pressings and repressings - terrible

If you would like to have a comparison then we might be able to have aget together with a few Lp's we have in common. I'm in Melbourne Australia

Harold re: Doobies’ LP. Could not agree with you more. Another great sounding one in their canon is Toulouse Street...particularly the title cut.  Spectacular sound on my first pressing.  Those olive green label WB LPs are hard to beat.