Vinyl:  VG+ Play Graded. Sounds Great!  Reprise Labels are Clean and Bright.   This is the Original 1972 Reprise 1ST PRESS!  MS 2032. This is the audiophile acclaimed pressing, Mastered by Lee Hulko at Sterling Sound, NYC and Pressed at Columbia's Santa Maria, CA Pressing Plant!  This is Neil's Moment in the Spotlight, Top of the Pops...With help from CSN, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Neil says this is where he hit the "Middle of The Road"... ...allmusic gives it 5 stars!   See Review Below!
In The Dead Wax:  Side 1: S  ((Santa Maria, CA)) MS 2032-A 31176-IV  T16  STERLING 2  LH  ((Lee Hulko, Sterling Sound, NYC))   A34
Side 2:  S  ((Santa Maria, CA))  MS 2032 B  31177-IK  T16  STERLING 3 4  LH  ((Lee Hulko, Sterling Sound, NYC))   S22
Cover: VG+ (see photos)  Gatefold.  Front and back of cover artwork and text are rich, clear and bright, with minimal shelf wear and a crease at the the bottom of the cover . Seams, spine and corners are solid and clean with some minor wear.  There are a couple of splits in the slick but the seams themselves are solid, no splits.  No writing.  Spine print is clear.   
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 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.
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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.    AllMusic Review by William Ruhlmann 

's most popular album,  benefited from the delay in its release (it took 18 months to complete due to 's back injury), which whetted his audience's appetite, the disintegration of  ('s three erstwhile partners sang on the album, along with  and ), and most of all, a hit single. "Heart of Gold," released a month before , was already in the Top 40 when the LP hit the stores, and it soon topped the charts. It's fair to say, too, that  simply was all-pervasive by this time: "Heart of Gold" was succeeded at number one by "A Horse with No Name" by , which was a  soundalike record. But successful as  was (and it was the best-selling album of 1972), it has suffered critically from reviewers who see it as an uneven album on which  repeats himself. Certainly,  employs a number of jarringly different styles. Much of it is country-tinged, with  backed by a new group dubbed  who prominently feature steel guitarist , though there is also an acoustic track, a couple of electric guitar-drenched rock performances, and two songs on which  is accompanied by . But the album does have an overall mood and an overall lyric content, and they conflict with each other: The mood is melancholic, but the songs mostly describe the longing for and fulfillment of new love.  is perhaps most explicit about this on the controversial "A Man Needs a Maid," which is often condemned as sexist by people judging it on the basis of its title. In fact, the song contrasts the fears of committing to a relationship with simply living alone and hiring help, and it contains some of 's most autobiographical writing. Unfortunately, like "There's a World," the song is engulfed in a portentous orchestration. Over and over,  sings of the need for love in such songs as "Out on the Weekend," "Heart of Gold," and "Old Man" (a Top 40 hit), and the songs are unusually melodic and accessible. The rock numbers, "Are You Ready for the Country" and "Alabama," are in 's familiar style and unremarkable, and "There's a World" and "Words (Between the Lines of Age)" are the most ponderous and overdone  songs since "The Last Trip to Tulsa." But the love songs and the harrowing portrait of a friend's descent into heroin addiction, "The Needle and the Damage Done," remain among 's most affecting and memorable songs.