As mentioned, the laser TT has problems. The records have to be clean room clean. They can only play black vinyl (I know, big woo). It's also reported that they really don't sound better than a nice sub $1k standard TT.
Someone invented a similar device to play cylindar records. It has allowed the capture of cylinders too fragile or damaged to play with a stylus. See:
http://www.christerhamp.se/phono/nakamura.html
I've got ~3k LP's, ~4k 78's and ~2k 45's. I use two TT's to play them, a Technics SP-15 with an Audio Technika arm (not the radio arm) and a Technics SL-1500 Mk 2 I bought from Goodwill for $15.00. I also built a DIY vacuum record cleaning machine that's made all the difference in sound quality.
Doug