In this auction is a RARE ONE, for sure! Here are the details:

“INTRODUCING THE BEATLES” LP by The Beatles

This is Vee Jay Records VJLP 1062.

It is a MONO (monaural) pressing that was issued January 10, 1964.

This is a VERY RARE VERSION 1 ISSUE of this LP with vinyl that includes the cuts “Love Me Do” and “P.S. I Love You”. (Version 2 replaced these 2 songs with “Ask Me Why” and “Please Please Me”)

This is Vee Jay’s SECOND COVER for the “Introducing The Beatles” LP, because the REAR COVER HAS A SEMI-GLOSS WHITE PAPER SLICK THAT IS COMPLETELY BLANK.

There have been much speculation about how this second variation (“Blank Back”) Vee Jay cover came to be. THE PREVAILING BELIEF IS THAT “BLANK BACK” COVERS WERE A VERY LIMITED TRANSITIONAL RUN SUBSTITUTED AFTER ALL “AD-BACK” SLICKS HAD BEEN USED BUT PRIOR TO RECEIPT OF THE THIRD BACK COVER VARIATION THAT LISTED THE SONG TITLES VERTICALLY (KNOWN AS THE “COLUMN-BACK” COVER). (Thanks to the web site “A History on the ‘Ad Back’ and other early Versions of ‘INTRODUCING THE BEATLES” for this information.)

BOTH COVER and VINYL are ABSOLUTELY AUTHENTIC!

*The cover has George’s shadow.

*The cover has the spine printing.

*The rear cover has a semi-gloss blank white paper slick firmly attached to the cover’s cardboard shell.

*The labels have “THE BEATLES” printed above the spindle hole.

* The vinyl has the Monarch Records logo (MR in a circle) AND Audio Matrix pressed in the trail-off on both sides.

So you can bid with confidence that you are receiving the real deal and not a counterfeit.

The COVER is in VG CONDITION with moderate overall wear. The images on the FRONT COVER slick are nice. There are two areas at the top where masking tape was once applied and now removed that caused some discoloration. The removal of the masking tape took with it some of the color on the slicks, but not the actual surface paper of the slick. (I really don’t see why the tape was even applied, because there are no seam splits on the top seam.) There are pushes and some “rounding” on two corners. All four corners have “balding”. There is NO flaking and NO splits on the seams or spine which are strong.

The REAR COVER (“Blank Back”) has a semi-gloss blank white paper slick. The top of the blank rear slick has two areas of discoloration left behind by the masking tape removal. Again, as with the front cover, the removal of the tape left discoloration behind (less than on the front) corners but did not remove the actual surface paper of the slick. The semi-gloss rear cover slick, the “blank back”, shows moderate aging/foxing and a few very small stains/spots.

The VERSION 1 DISC with OVAL VEE JAY LOGO is the CORRECT VINYL that was issued for BLANK BACK COVERS.

The VINYL is in VERY STRONG VG to WEAK VG+ CONDITION with some very light/slight surface hairlines/scuffs. None of these are “feel-able” at all on the song tracks and really not even close to being “feel-able”. (There is a feel-able scratch on Side 1, but it is in the trail-off/dead wax after the last song track.) There is a very tiny bump in the vinyl on track 5 ( “Boys”) of Side 1. This tiny “vinyl fault” or “vinyl flaw” occurred in the pressing plant at the time of the LP’s production. I played this track on my Technics direct-drive turntable tracking at ½ gram. There was a slight popping for 2 or 3 revolutions only as the stylus passed over this tiny bump. The STYLUS DID NOT SKIP (even while tracking at just ½ gram.) The vinyl has LOTS OF GLOSS and the LABELS are NICE and CLEAN without wear.

This is a VERY RARE ISSUE of VEE JAY’S “Introducing The Beatles” Version 1 LP with BLANK BACK COVER for your Beatles vinyl collection! This is a VERY ELUSIVE VEE JAY ISSUE! It very seldom comes available for purchase, so think twice before you pass this one by! Who knows when another will come available?

Thanks to the Price Guide for the Beatles American Records, 6th Edition by Perry Cox and Frank Daniels (except where noted) for some information about this record.

FYI: I used the COVER/SLEEVE GRADES and RECORD GRADES listed and described on page 8 of the Price Guide for the Beatles American Records, 6th Ed. These are Poor (P), Fair (F), Good Minus (G-), Good (G), Good Plus (G+), Very Good Minus (VG-), Very Good (VG), Very Good+ (VG+), Near Mint Minus (NM-), Near Mint (NM), Mint Minus (M-), and Mint (M) to VISUALLY GRADE this LP, so please know the descriptions of these grades before bidding. Please ask any questions BEFORE bidding. NOTE: I very rarely have a reserve price in my auctions, but I have placed what I think is a low reserve price on this RARE ITEM. And please check my other auctions for more Beatles and Beatles-related vinyl you may want to add to your collection. Be high bidder on several and combine shipping on auction items that finish the same day. (NOTE: If more than 1 item is won by the same bidder, please do NOT make payment until I send an invoice with combined shipping cost.) Winning bidder must remit payment within 5 days of auction close. Add $5.50 for shipping to a U.S. address via USPS Media Mail with tracking. Expedited shipping is available at additional cost.

On Mar-18-24 at 10:37:56 PDT, seller added the following information:

As you can see, there, in fact, is NO RESERVE, on this LP as I wrote that there would be in the description.. I almost never put reserve prices in my auctions, so after putting that reserve info in the description, I forgot to activate the reserve in Ebay. But rather than cancel the auction and all bids, which is never a good thing to do, I'll just let the auction run as is anticipating that my intended reserve will be met. So, GOOD LUCK BIDDING!