SUPER RARE! THE BEATLES Hits SOLID CENTRE 1968 Pressing! SIUK Sold In UK WOW!
Hello there,and welcome to my auctions! For information about this specific record please scroll down to the blue text below! Thanks!
During
this national lockdown, I started to sort through some of my
mountains of rare records, at first pulling out ones I didn't play as
much as I should, or else ones that I've since upgraded from. However as
time has gone on I have done some soul searching.
Anyway, if you don't already follow me, please consider it, as ebay will keep you updated whenever I list new items. PLEASE READ...
A
word about postage, I have lost out on postage quite signifficantly on
some international sales, so if the item goes over £100 please wait for
me to get an accurate postage quote, apologies in advance if this adds
alittle time to the turnaround speed, but it's necessary to avoid huge
fees! If it goes significantly over the postage stated, I ask that the
buyer pay the excess. All items must be fully insured for their value.
Most countries I haven't had problems with the excess postage costs,
but have found that sending expensive items to Korea and a few other
countries very expensive,so if the buyer is not willing to pay the
excess,I reserve the right to cancel the sale.
I am willing to
combine postage as best I can, but as I mentioned before, if postage
goes over the stated price, I ask that the buyer cover the excess, and
as such be aware that often if the weight goes over 1kg (about 3 LPs)
it's often cheaper to send in two seperate parcels,please bear this in
mind when combined purchases!
My background: I
have collected records since the 80s, and although I have had a few
cut-downs, I still seem to have mountains of records in my collection! I
have sold records both online an in person for about 20 years,and have
many repeat customers from all over the world. I pride myself on being
fair both in gradings and communications,adn I please ask that buyers do
the same. I will not be held feedback hostage, though should,heaven
forbid anyone be unhappy with their purchase, I will work with the buyer
as best I can to find a solution. I have written detailed descriptions
of each of these records,and so please don't bid purely off the photos.
Grading: I
grade using the Record Collector Rare Record Grading system with the
addition of NM, by which I mean a non-sealed but to my eyes
perfect, possibly unplayed, or played incredibly carefully once or
twice!
I will not use the term M (Mint) unless the record is sealed, or there
is some other demonstrable way of proving it is unplayed. Please bear in
mind that in my gradings EX+ for example are incredibly good records,
that you almost never see! I feel that I grade down if
anything, please check my feedback for proof of this! I have sold many
records (some incredibly rare ones in the 4 figures) over the years, so
please rest assured that my gradings have been satisfactory so far!
Though, if you have any concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me
before leaving negative feedback. I haven't had negative feedback so
far, and don't intend to start now if I can at all help it!
SUPER RARE! THE BEATLES Hits SOLID CENTRE 1968 Pressing! SIUK Sold In UK WOW!
Here we have an incredibly rare version of THE BEATLES' HITS EP (Parlophone GEP 8880),originally released in 1963, this copy comes from some time in 1966 or 1967.
I have devoted a lot of time and expense to amassing some of the very rarest ones. It is therefore easy for me to forget that some people reading through this listing may not know the signifficance of the "Solid Centre", whilst I appreciate that those reader may not be the ones who are likely to invest this kind of money into this record, allow me to explain their signifficance!
In the early 1960s EMI soully pressed records with removable centres for use on jukeboxes, or certain large centre record players. These were all they produced until the mid 60s when a minority of records started being produced with "solid centres", that is centres that could not be removed, by 1967 they started producing these in signifficantly larger numbers. As such, certain titles are rather more common in solid centre such as Eleanor Rigby,Strawberry Fields Forever, and many of their later titles. Some however are so very rare, that even if you spend years searching and waiting for one to turn up (as I and a select few others have!) there is no guarantee you'll ever see one! This is one such title! And this is in incredible condition! It contains the upper-case perimeter "PARLOPHONE CO." text.
I would have dated this extremely rare copy at late 1966/ 1967 due to the fact that it has the centrally embossed KT tax code on the side 2 label, and as these were phased outduring '68 due to the change in pricings rules that dates it before then. Ordinarily that would date it at 1966,as in 1967 the rim text was changed to "GRAMMOPHONE" rather than "PARLOPHONE", but I've seen EMI use older labels for these very rare special order prints before.However, this particular copy comes in it's original sleeve where the previous owner has very helpfully for us Beatles pressing historians both her name and the date which she purchased it! "4/22/68", so that makes it early 1968. I can say that I also have both this version (TimesNew Roman Text), and a Sans Serif copy (which could even be rarer than this copy, as there has never been another copy come up for sale!) which I would also date at 1968, but perhaps a few months later?. Who would be making a special trip to a shop in late 1968,and asking for a Beatles record that sold in the millions 5 years prior, but now was yesterday's news? When everybody and his dog had a copy,and few wanted yesterdays hits,many of them would still be in "as new" condition,so the market was flooded and you could pick up a near perfect second hand copy for peanuts?! Then if this hypothetical person has ignored allof these options,what self respecting record shop wouldn't still carry the old unsold stock of previous Beatles records? Well in this case,and to date a handful like it that have come up for sale over the last 20 odd years, the record shop didn't, and had to make a special order with EMI to send them a newly pressed copy. All of these factors had to be in place in order for this record to be available to you now! Even of these special orders copies at that time, that included the very rare central "Sold In UK..." text (which are all rare) almost none have ever surfaced with solid centres too! Check popsike or other auction history sites to see just how rare this record is! Discounting the much more common (but increasingly desirable) early 70s solid centres without the "Sold In UK" text,I count ONLY 3 SOLD OF THIS VERSION EVER! If you wait to try and find another, you might be waiting years!Or you may very well just never see another one!
Record Condition: EX- Really wonderful record, well looked after,with just a few very light surface marks visible when angled into strong, direct light in an otherwise darkened room! Great audio!
Labels: EX+/NM honestly incredible labels, I mean look for yourself! Just literally the faintest spindle trails only visible when you really make it your mission under strong direct light, save from finding an untouched copy,I can't really see how you'd find better labels!
Sleeve Condition: EX- Pretty perfect apart from the helpful previous owner naming and dating when she purchased it! Apart from that ever so slight age yellowing, and very subtle handling. The 2 flip-back tabs hold strongand crisp, the edges are perfect with absolutely zero wear-throughs or splits, and the opening mouth edges are great! Only marked down so signifficantly due to the graffiti (helpful though it was!).
DEADWAX INFO:
SIDE 1:
KT
1
4 GHD
7TCE 760 - 2N
SIDE 2:
KMT
1
4 GHP
7TCE 761 - 1N
PLEASE
NOTE THAT AS THE CURRENT PANDEMIC SITUATION EVOLVES, IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO
PREDICT EXACTLY WHAT RESTRICTIONS MAY BE ENFORCED FROM ONE WEEK TO THE
NEXT, THEREFORE I CAN'T RULE OUT UNPREDICTED DELAYS ETC, BUT AS THE
WINNING BIDDER, I WILL WORK TO MAKE ANY UNFORSEEN OBSTICLES AS
NON-DISRUPTIVE AS POSSIBLE! THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING!
Please
check out my other items and if you like what you see, please consider
adding me to your watched sellers, as I have many more records to list
over the next months ranging from standard to extremely rare! Many
thanks!
Any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask, I will answer as fully as I can! Thanks for looking, happy bidding, and the very best of luck!
