Fabulous 'Holy Grail' virtually unplayed 2003 1st pressing of The White Stripes "Elephant".  Near Mint vinyl (played just a couple of times). Mint inner sleeve and near mint cover. This record is absolutely as new despite being 18 years old.
Owned by me from new. Note this is the original 2003 pressing it is not a re-issue.  Condition is "used" as it has played just a couple of times but has been sitting on my shelf for nearly 18 years. This has only ever caressed by a Koetsu rosewood cartridge. This is one of four of the White Stripes albums I have for sale: The White Stripes (2001); De Stijl (2001); White Blood Cells (2001) and Elephant (2003). Only Elephant has been played and that is only a couple of times.

I realise that these descriptions may sound like exaggeration but the first records I've sold are starting to get feedback so you check for yourself - I believe in pointing out all defects I can detect. I'm not a record dealer - I realise in hindsight that I went from being an audiophile record listener to a record buyer in the late 80s and most of my collection from then got very little if any plays. These are the first albums I'm selling off before downsizing and I've currently listed and sold about 38 of the 60 or so 'holy grail' albums from this era - when they've gone, they've gone. 

I've taken photos of all sides of the sleeves and vinyl in high resolution - the reflections are of my camera and conservatory roof but hopefully you can see clearly the fabulous condition of the media. 
Using the Goldmine standard  and working on the principle that no played record can be mint I've rated the vinyl as:
Vinyl Side A: Mint- Side B: Mint- Side C: Mint- Side D: Mint-


The album sleeve is very near mint - just minor marking on the bottom and top edges.  The original full colour lyric inner sleeves are mint. You are most unlikely to find a better copy. 
From a pet and smoke-free home.

A respectful note about offers

I've done my research on pricing. Of course a record is only worth what someone is prepared to pay but records are collectable and original pressings are like first editions of books - people are prepared to pay more for them than re-issues. I set the starting price based below the typical selling prices on eBay and another well know discography seller. I allow offers for those purchasers who are really keen to get a much sort after copy, don't want to wait 10 days to the end of the auction and don't want to risk being 'sniped' in the last seconds of bidding. I set the offer level close to typical selling price for records of a similar grade (which for most of my 'Holy Grail' albums is near the maximum. Please don't make offers below the starting price or ask for combined prices for multiple records that attempt a similar thing. They will be automatically rejected without me knowing it and, if this happens three times, you cannot make an offer for rest of the time of the auction (eBay's rules, not mine). 

 

Special packaging and delivery

The record will be packaged in a Defendapack MusicMax TWISTS mailer. For plain inner sleeves I will leave the vinyl in the inner sleeve. For printed sleeves, I take the vinyl out though it is still protected by its plastic record bag. I will also use additional internal stiffeners and supplementary bubble wrap for the open edges and four corners in the mailing box and the sleeve and record will also be protected by a PVC sleeve. The records will be removed from the outer sleeve and travel in its plastic record bag inside the PVC sleeve to avoid damage to any card or paper in transit. This has worked really well so far according to my buyers. 

As a valuable item this will be dispatched with Royal Mail 1st Class Special Delivery Next Day before 1pm for the base Royal Mail price of £8.85. If you prefer, I will also send 

Royal Mail Tracked 48 with Signature (Normally arrives in 2-3 business days, tracked & requires a signature) for the base price of £5.10 .            

As lock down eases, I can now drop off records at my local post office so that you should (Royal Mail being compliant) be in receipt of the record either one or two mornings after payment (if you are in the UK). Bear in mind there is no Royal Mail service on a Sunday.

I make nothing on shipping and the packaging is done at my own cost.

 You can also pick up for free from East Grinstead, West Sussex and I will also post worldwide using using Royal Mail.

For multiple purchases, I will combine postage where possible (there is a limit with Royal Mail weights but I'll do my best to save you money - for comparison; below a kilo Special Delivery Next Day before 1pm costs £8.85 and this will normally do about 2 to 3 single albums albums. Between 1 and 2 Kilos it costs £11.05, which is up to about 6 single albums). 

Following a number of requests, I'm now using Royal Mail International Tracked and Signed for overseas delivery. This promises reliable delivery to Europe in 3-5 business days and the rest of the world in 6-7 business days - I'm not sure why eBay suggests the delivery may be a month or more. It is tracked end-to-end with online confirmation and signature of delivery. Note this means your delivery address can't be a PO Box as a signature would not be possible. The prices quoted in the table are the direct Royal Mail costs up to 1kg and providing cover up to £250. Again, I make absolutely nothing on the postage. I have to make customs declarations on any overseas packages and I will list the value as the selling price of the album(s). For multiple purchases I will try to combine postage costs but this can sometimes take the weight from below 1kg to above which typically adds about £4 to the cost (but is still much cheaper than two separate packages). 

Some people prefer to use onward shipping companies based in the UK and I know I've had items forwarded to China and Eastern Europe from UK-based addresses. I'm not sure if there is a similar solution for USA and Canada.

If you have any questions please let me know and I'll try to answer them.

 

A  little more about me:

I'm also listing original pressings from the Coldplay; Nirvana; Gomez; Joe Strummer, Radiohead etc etc, so please check my other listings if you are interested in mint or near mint original vinyl from this era.

These all comes from my personal record collection of over 1500 vinyl albums put together over 50years. As I need to downsize I am starting to advertise around a 100 rarities starting with 90's vinyl, which I was still buying (but rarely playing!) while the world had moved to CDs. I have Jingles independent record shop in East Grinstead to thank for this as they continued to stock an albeit limited number of vinyl records and I felt obliged (as a vinyl aficionado) to keep buying them even though they were by artists I wouldn't normally consider (eg the Prodigy, Massive Attack etc). Un/fortunately this meant that a fair amount of these records never got played but just sat on my record shelf for 20 years.

I have been an audiophile for as long as I could afford it and moved up from a Thorens TD150record deck, via Linn Sondek and Pink Triangle to my current SME10, which I've been running with an SMEV arm and Koetsu Rosewood cartridge for over 20 years. If that means nothing to you, suffice to say I take extreme care of my vinyl to the extent that I invested in a Loricraft PRCII professional record cleaner nearly 20 years ago and all of my vinyl immediately goes into protective plastic sleeves. Almost all of my rock/pop collection has been bought from new and I will always make this clear on the listing.