Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

Absolutely, just search for "vinyl" in the music section of any major torrent site.

I'm old enough to remember when owning record players was the norm, but I don't remember anyone pirating anything - they weren't considered expensive. Cassette piracy in the 80s and early 90s - now that I do remember.

However, it certainly was a thing. In the USSR they figured out how to do it on discarded x-rays - which, I have to admit, is the most punk thing ever.

I doubt that process would've been cheaper than buying discs unless you were distributing. Very time consuming too.

Even today LPs aren't that expensive if it's not a rare release. ~20€ is a very reasonable price for an album, especially if it's an independent release or a small label. And you can find a ton of good condition second-hand discs for 5-10€

Glue method was a thing

Yes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribs_(recordings)

At least some of my blues collection would have been ripped from record in the late 90s and early 2000s. much of the great music of the early 20th centry never offically made it digital until very, late if ever

but I've never heard of wax discs being used en-mass

Bootleg records were a thing in Europe in the days of reel to reel tape as the only alternative. It wasn't so much that people did it privately but people would try to make a buck through re-sale and especially on flea markets where oversight by the law was virtually nonexistent. Rare records have always been a thing. Bootleggers tried to profit off it.

I was bequeathed my parents' record collection of about 200 LPs. One was a bootleg they kept, some rare Beatles stuff. Other ones were thrown away because the quality was bad or would have been deteriorating to a point where it became unlistenable.

The Teenage Engineering vinyl cutter goes for something like $150 for a little portable home machine that makes 5" discs.

I suppose if your all absolute moron anything is possible. But what a stupid waste of fucking time. Let's burn some more dinos so I can steal this take collectible.

At that point it's an addiction to pointless petty theft.

I don't remember ever hearing of anyone copying vinyl records by direct impressioning like that. People made tape cassette copies all the time, and you could buy illicit cassettes from street vendors in lots of places. I think if someone wanted to make illicit vinyl records, they'd playback the original one the normal way, use the playback to cut a new acetate master on a cutting machine, and press copies from that.

LP cutting machines were professional studio equipment, bigger and more expensive than a typical hobbyist would have at home, but not THAT expensive in the world of other studio gear. The actual presses were industrial equipment and maybe you'd need a special relationship to get a legitimate one to press your pirate LP's in volume. I expect that a suitable envelope of cash could create such a relationship quickly, but I was never anywhere near anything like that.