My first 'Walkman' was a Sanyo as well. Bright red & black, and very plasticky, but lasted for ages and I loved it. It must have been Christmas 1986, as I remember getting The Whole Story and Writing On The Wall and listening to those two albums particularly as I walked the dog every evening.
Back (slightly) on topic, we also had Now 7 on vinyl at home - I remember I bought it as my mum was obsessed with Sly Fox's Let’s Go All The Way. It's also a really 80s parent friendly tracklist, and had New Beginning on it as well. That record got played LOADS at home.
I think I bought every Now album until they got to the mid teens or so. By that time I was working at least part time, and could afford more artist albums and singles. Then compilations lost their appeal a little, when I had nearly all the tracks on them I really wanted already anyway - I was just left with hits I wasn't that bothered about on the whole.
The Hits albums I bought until the same sort of time, but I wasn't a completist of those. I probably had about half of them, though.