eBay and vinyl

SPAM ALERT

I've just listed a batch of my Vinyl on there..they are el minto no worries.

There are some good articles on this site, about how records are pressed, history and general maintenance:  http://www.recordcollectorsguild.org/ 

I was interested to read that some people (with very keen ears) can hear quality in degradation on vinyl after a mere 5 plays.

One article I'd like to see is on physical reasons why first pressings are best. I know the general outline:

A laquer disc is cut on a lathe, and a negative made (the father). Mothers (positive images) and acetates (same thing?) are made from the father, coated in metal plate, and Stampers made from each mother.

Stampers are then used to create the actual shipping discs, and each has a code identifying itself and the mother, e.g. EMI records use the code GRAMOPHNE C LTD for their stampers, and numerics for the mothers, so a very first press would carry the code 1 G.

As you make each copy, some degradation occurs - so the 2nd mother carries slightly less sound quality than the first, due to wear on the father. Similarly with the stampers.

But, to compound that, around 1,000 pressings are made from each stamper - and you've no way of knowing whether yours is #1 or #1000, to the best of my knowledge. Theoretically, pressing #1 from stamper 2 G would be better than pressing #1000 from stamper 1 G - or would it?

Er... I digress as usual

The second pressing is made from fresh mothers - so it doesn't take much to work out that #1 of the second press will be lower in quality than #1 from the first stamper made from the last mother of the first press.

When a recording is remastered - in the case of the MFSL series, the tape is played and a new father (master) cut at half speed - which significantly improves sound quality. Hence MFSL discs are highly valued.

Please note that this information comes from my personal research, and could be inaccurate (as hard as I try to learn the facts, the principle of GIGO stands firm!) - I welcome any corrections or additional detail

Cert:

My ITCOTCK record has an atlantic label/logo on it, like this kind:

What does it mean? Moreover, is there some sort of book that lists the values of old records?

Pink Floyd collectables (First Presses);

The MONO seems to crop up very regularly, yet I've seen a copy go in excess of £1,000. Typically it fetches £150. The STEREO tends to appear far less, but the most I've seen it go for is £600

The MONO Saucerful fluctuates wildly between £50 - £400, but the STEREO is more consistent at around £150-250.

UMMAGUMMA is an odd one - I've seen FPs go for £10. I've also seen them go for £200!!

(Note that the EMI logo is missing from the label. The correct Harvest advertising inners should also be present for top dollar). The cover should be printed by E. J. Day.

Atom Heart also defies all expectations - FPs regularly go for less than £10 - but have been known to fetch in excess of £350.

The MFSL editions are reliably worth £50-£100, depending on whether they're still sealed or not.

Meddle, again, is totally unpredictable, but £200 isn't unusual.

NOTE: Matrix numbers MUST end -1, and sleeve must be textured. I've seen evil sellers on eBay get a large sum of money for matrix numbers ending -7... Inner should be the advertising one.

Dark Side: (Normally £150, if both posters and stickers are present, along with the black inner, and the half-sealed sleeve).

First presses of More, Obscured by Clouds, Wish You Were Here, Animals and even The Wall can fetch £50 - but that's unusual, and you need all the detail you can give and all the "bits" - e.g. WYWH was sealed in black cellophane and came with a postcard and The Wall came with a sticker and rounded edged inners.

Happy collecting!

Radioactive Toy wrote: Cert.. give some information about that for pink floyd - dark side, camel - camel, camel - mirage,  camel - moonmadness, yes - close to the edge... sorry for asking so much.. I don't have that knowledge.. and I am very interested...!

Are there any websites with this sort of thing in a large scale? If not maybe we could add "collectors information" to albums on progarchives?