Janice Simonsen

Ikea thought it could discontinue a shelf popular with record collectors without causing much commotion. Now it has to face the music. Ikea plans to stop selling its iconic "EXPEDIT" shelf and replace it with a different wall unit, company Spokesperson Janice Simonsen told the Huffington Post. That news, first mentioned on Ikea Germany's Facebook page, has set off an internet cacophony, fueled mostly by vinyl record collectors, who say that the EXPEDIT has been the perfect shelf for storing records (among other things) for over a generation.

For some, it’s the Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. For others, the catalog-drop event of the year comes courtesy of IKEA, the Swedish seller of furniture and home decor. It’s a big enough deal that IKEA hosted a press event Thursday in New York to unveil the 2012 edition — all 374 pages of it. An iPhone app version and IKEA's first catalog for the iPad will be available on iTunes in August.