Sold Date: December 12, 2020
Start Date: November 7, 2020
Final Price: $69.99 (USD)
Seller Feedback: 1373
Buyer Feedback: 10

Vinyl:  EX+ Play Graded. Sounds Excellent!  Nice glossy vinyl.  Superb Fidelity!  A&M Labels are Clean and Bright.   This is the Auto-Coupled (Side 1 with 4, Side 2 with 3) Original 1976 A&M 1st Pressing! SP-3703.   No barcode!  This is the audiophile acclaimed Hybrid Columbia Club pressing, with sides 1, 2 & 3 indicating that Columbia's renowned Santa Maria, CA facility and The Mastering Lab of Los Angeles, CA collaborated in the Mastering process and was pressed by Monarch Records Mfg. Corp. of Los Angeles, CA, while side 4 was pressed at Columbia's equally renowned Terre Haute, IN Pressing Plant!  Listen for silkier vocals, warmer, deeper bass and drums. Peter Frampton's finest hour and a half! Bob Mayo on the keyboards, Bob Mayo!   allmusic gives it 4 1/2 stars!! 
See Review Below!

In the Dead Wax:  Side 1:  SP 3709  TML-S  ((Stampers--The Mastering Lab))  M4-EX  MR with a circle around it  ((Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, CA))  "delta" 20307  Santa Maria (etched, in cursive)  ((Columbia's Santa Maria, CA facility))
Side 2:  SP 3710  TML-M  ((Stampers--The Mastering Lab)) M4-EX  MR with a circle around it  ((Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, CA))  "delta" 20307-X   Santa Maria (etched, in cursive)  ((Columbia's Santa Maria, CA facility)) 
Side 3:   SP 3711  TML-M  ((Stampers--The Mastering Lab)) M5-EX   MR with a circle around it  ((Monarch Record Mfg. Co., Los Angeles, CA))  "delta" 20308  Santa Maria (etched, in cursive)  ((Columbia's Santa Maria, CA facility)) 
Side 4:  SP 3712 - T3  C  TML-S  ((Stampers--The Mastering Lab)) T3  ((pressed at Columbia's Terre Haute, IN Pressing Plant))
Cover:  VG+  (see photos)  Gatefold.  Dig Peter's look!  Rock the '70s, baby!  Nice high gloss on cover. Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with some ring wear and sticker residue on the front cover.  Seams, corners and spine are solid and clean, with some wear.  No splits.  No writing. Minor bumps on corners.  No creases.  Spine print is mostly clear with minimal wear. 
Goldmine Standards.   I play grade every record that I sell on eBay as I have found you can't rate a record accurately by just visually inspecting it.  I wipe the dust off of every cover with clean, unscented baby wipes.  I professionally clean the vinyl.  (I also operate a Vinyl Record Cleaning business for your dusty/dirty records--if interested, send me a message).
U.S. Shipping:  $4.50 Media Mail.  Tracking included.   50 cents additional shipping per additional item, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your items by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout. Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more! 
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl outside the jacket (to avoid seam split in transit). The vinyl and jacket are sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS!  I CAN COMBINE SHIP FOR YOU AND MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS!!!  IF YOU TELL ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WANT TO BUY, I CAN WEIGH THEM AND THE PACKAGING TOGETHER AND THEN GO IN AND ADJUST THE LISTINGS ACCORDINGLY TO REFLECT THE EXACT WEIGHT OF THE COMBINED SHIPMENT!  THIS WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY!!!  IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS, SEND ME A MESSAGE TELLING ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AND WE'LL GO FROM THERE.
I ship internationally through EBay's Global Shipping Program.  Check to be sure that they ship to your country. Feel free to ask any questions and happy shopping! 
Once you're satisfied with your purchase, please leave positive feedback and I will do the same for you.  If you're unsatisfied, please let me know so we can resolve it.  I do not give partial refunds.  Take a look at my previous feedback and buy with confidence.   I've qualified for the "Top Rated Plus" seal from eBay, awarded to the most reputable sellers who consistently deliver outstanding customer service.  Check my other items this week, check back often &  CLICK ON "SAVE THIS SELLER" at the top of my listings page to be notified of New Listings as I will be adding more Rare items in the coming weeks!  Thanks!
Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm. 

First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.  

 On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.    

At the time of its release,  was an anomaly, a multi-million-selling (mid-priced) double LP by an artist who had previously never burned up the charts with his long-players in any spectacular way. The biggest-selling live album of all time, it made  a household word and generated a monster hit single in "Show Me the Way." And the reason why is easy to hear: the / graduate packed one hell of a punch on-stage -- where he was obviously the most comfortable -- and, in fact, the live versions of "Show Me the Way," "Do You Feel Like I Do," "Something's Happening," "Shine On," and other album rock staples are much more inspired, confident, and hard-hitting than the studio versions -- the highs are significantly more lustrous, the guitars crunch and soar, and the bottom end really thunders, and so you get a genuine sense of the power of 's live set, at least the heavier parts of his set.   and the band sound significantly closer as well, even on the softer songs such as "Wind of Change," and the record is impressive listening even a quarter century later. Of course, one must take this all with a grain of salt as a concert document -- as was later revealed, there was considerable studio doctoring of the raw live tapes, a phenomenon that set the stage for such unofficial hybrid works as 's  and countless others.]