Sold Date: November 19, 2020
Start Date: November 19, 2020
Final Price: £130.00 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 3323
Buyer Feedback: 86

Ok, so DON'T make the mistake of thinking this is the very 1st iteration. It is not! The earliest copies were probably pressed early autumn 1971. This copy would have been pressed in December 1971 for the Xmas market [within 6 weeks of 1st release]. Matrix A3/B4. Label design is one of the last label variations on Red & Plum. By this point they'd managed to correct 'Mountain Top' - back to the correct 'Hop'. But on these late copies they managed to replicate an error they made on the very 1st copies. Of the four rune symbols they managed to, again, invert the feather on side 2. The vinyl comes housed in an original gatefold cover with Kinney/Atlantic sticker on the rear. Kinney re-catalogued the numbers Xmas-1971. So, this is cast-iron proof that the cover is genuine Xmas1971. Also included is the original grey textured inner sleeve. Again, this is not a swap-out later version. This is the genuine original copy with the exposed flipbacks and five credits. So, 100% genuine and 100% complete. We'll ship in a Decca 1971 poly-lined inner sleeve for maximum protection.
Vinyl (Ex) A beautiful copy for sure and has only seen light use. Under close inspection I'm struggling to make out anything more than a couple of lightest marks per side - nothing remotely troublesome. A thorough testing from beginning to end reveals an, at least, EXCELLENT level of playback. Intros and inbetweens are beautifully quiet and the audio comes across with superb clarity. All the hype around the red & plum copies is true. You just will never beat this rendition - it's nigh on perfect. It is the IDEAL way to take in Zep IV. The audio quality is absolutely top-level bringing warmth and accuracy into those fine acoustic passages. And importantly, and I can't over emphasise the importance, it plays really clean. On a record like Zep IV it is highly likely many copies will have been played to death...a track like Stairway is so popular finding a copy that plays it properly clean is not an easy task. It's acoustic and very low-key in parts. But the acoustic tracks, here, play superbly and clean. You might detect just a few low-level crackles in a couple of isolated spots [in total] [e.g. briefly in California]. But very little at all. Absolutely nothing noticeable or annoying. Just finding a copy to equal this one would be a tall order..
Cover (Ex-) Well preserved with back and front surfaces clean and uncreased. Don't miss the official sticker on the rear which has a slight tear on it. The tear is surface level within the sticker - i.e. it doesn't tear into the cover. The interior is pretty much immaculate. There's a touch of edge wear, but nothing that noticeable and the openings are still sharpish. The spine is in excellent order with very little wear at all. Overall the cover retains excellent rigidity.
Inner (Vg+) Please note there are a few surface creases observable. These were not caused by the user. They would have occurred when the inner was originally printed and came off the rollers. Lightly aged. A three inch bottom edge split. And a 1 inch side split.


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