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I have been thinking about this a lot recently, probably because at the music shop I'm working at this summer there is A LOT of vinyl, and almost every one of my co-workers still hordes vinyl. So: what's the big deal???

PROS:
-Supposedly there is better sound quality.
My response: Back in November I bought 6 brand new LPs (not used LPs) and listened to them on my dad's phonograph. They did not sound "warmer," as everyone says. I did not notice any difference at all! And actually there was quite a bit of crackling, which was quite annoying. And yes I was listening with a nice set of speakers, not tinny little iPod headphones.
-Lots of rare obscure and weird LPs from long long ago have not been reissued on CD, so if you like to listen to weirdo obscure rare music from long long ago I guess LPs are for you. I guess also this has to do with the "culture" of "crate digging" at thrift stores, garage sales, and independent records stores. Which admittedly has lead to some great artists:
-Without Vinyl there would be no DJ Shadow, Mix Master Mike, DJ QBert, Rob Swift, Cut Chemist, X-Ecutioners, and related turntablists.
-If you're living on a budget vinyl is usually cheaper. Especially used vinyl. Usually it's only 1 or 2 bucks at a thrift store or a record store. The one I work at, for example, recently had used vinyl by these artists for under 2 bucks: The Beatles, Elton John, Steve Martin, Stevie Wonder, The Carrs, John Denver, Talking Heads, and tons of other well-known (and obscure) artists.
-If you like rare b-sides and like to collect them, lots of artists sell vinyl with exclusive bonus tracks on them.

CONS:
-As above, Crackling.
-It is not easy to get vinyl onto your ipod. You have to buy some fancy equipment and software, or find a shop in your city that will digitize vinyl, usually at a fee.
-Environmentally unfriendly. Due to the largeness of a new vinyl record, there's much more shrink wrap on a new LP than a new CD.
-Easily damaged by water and mold and environmental pests. (CDs can be washed with soap and water to clean them)
-DJs (like party DJs not ones like DJ Shadow) have a much slimmer selection of what they can take with them to a party. I was reading an interview with Peanut Butter Wolf and he said that in order to really cater to the feel of a room of people you need to have a much wider selection of songs to play to get them having a good time, and that's where laptops and MP3s come in.

So although there are 5 pros and 5 cons up there, I am still anti-vinyl because I love my iPod and I love being able to have tens of thousands of songs at my convenience. If you encode your MP3s with Apple's AAC and import at a higher bit rate like 256 or 320 I swear to god the quality is just as good as what I heard from the vinyl I bought in November, and there's no crackling! Also, a lot of the so-called sound quality drawbacks of MP3 are caused by the shitty quality of iPod headphones and even shittier cheapo 5 dollar headphones sold by Walgreens. Buy a nice pair of headphones and you really won't be able to tell the difference between vinyl and CDs/MP3s.