Sold Date: December 20, 2021
Start Date: September 25, 2021
Final Price: £26.99 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 109
Buyer Feedback: 6

The Beatles
Help!
Original UK First Mono Pressing
Sans Serif Font Labels
PARLOPHONE PMC 1255: MATRIX NOs XEX-549-2/XEX-550-2

Visually the vinyl has quite a bit of wear to it. It doesn't show up so well in the photos but there are scratches, scuff marks, sleeve removal marks and thin hairline marks all over the record's surfaces. The spindle wear indicates the same amount of play. That said, it plays better than it looks. It luckily plays through on my turntable without skipping anywhere. Side 1 plays a little bit better and the audio is arguably VG through and through but on side two there are some scratches that cause rotational pops / ticking. There's a few of those in "Act Naturally" and starting in "Tell Me What You See" there's a scratch that causes a rotating pop / tick until about 1/3 through "I've Just Seen A Face". Other than that the record manages to play nicely, just with crackle and low level ticks in places, mainly the quieter tracks. The record has clearly seen better days and overall I'm only going to grade it as Good +, which I feel is conservative but accurate. Help isn't the best sounding album to begin with but the wear certainly doesn't help. Luckily this record seems to have been played on decent equipment because there's no inner groove wear to speak of, it just sounds mediocre throughout like the album always has.
The original mono Garrod & Lofthouse flipback cover is surprisingly in Very Good + condition. Holding up great, just has some minor wear and some spots of dirt / yellowing with age. No major demerits to it and it's a very clean presentation overall. It actually is original to this record but I believe the covers were kept very safely in protective sleeves all their lives which would explain how the covers have survived but some of the records are showing more wear to them.
The inner sleeve is a generic paper inner sleeve from the era, holding up okay.

I'm willing to combine postage on multiple purchases. Any questions, please give me a shout! Thank you