BLACK SABBATH Vol 4 Scarce Orig UK 72 Vertigo Spiral LP

	£		77
	$		102

Hi, I am Mike, now 50 – yes the big FIVE-O! Old enough to remember the golden era of original, high quality music, bands, artists.

Also records from the 1960s and 70s bought from the shops from new, I have been a music collector and enthusiast for over 37 years now. We all wish we could turn back the clock and buy those wonderful brand new records from the 60s and 70s, but alas, this is not possible; so I always try to offer the finest and most accurately described and graded records I can find. No vinyl/music lover really would choose to buy second-hand, but this is only way now to own these valuable, prized and elusive items now. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty as I can all items I offer for sale with all the relevant information I can think of to help any potential bidder and collector. You may notice I only submit records sparingly on Ebay - on average ONEADAY, a couple more at weekends if time permits, hence the name - time rarely allows for more as I Play-Grade virtually every record I offer in their entirety, not just bits to guess a grade - visuals alone do not always tell a true or full story. I will mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested reader – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same - just because an item is rare does not always mean its good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in stunning near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are taken with a digital camera or scanned - they are NOT improved, cleaned-up or made better looking than they are with camera trickery or enhancing with digital programmes. What you see is what you get and scanned labels will give a more accurate representation of the genuine colour than flash photography where light is variable. I cannot guarantee one hundred percent is exact colour matching for covers - this depends on the lighting at the time and that is out of my control, but I feel sure most items will be very close to the actual real item. If any picture I take looks more flattering than the actual item for any reason, I will clearly state the fact in the advert and vice-versa. I hope the item below is to your liking - any questions can be emailed and I will do my very best to answer you. I am enthusiastic , and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items - bid with confidence - excellence comes as standard and so does Near Mint regularly. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12 with Ittok Mk IV arm and Ortophon 520 Mk II cartridge (tracks at 1.75 grams). Amps: Arcam 2 x 125W Pre-Power. Speakers: B&W 704 Floorstanding 3-way Monitors (bi-wired). All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Moth vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too.

First-time, zero-rated bidders, who do not ask permission to bid, will be cancelled immediately and blocked – NO exceptions. For winning bidders who I consider excessively slow to make contact or submit payment, I will use my right to block future bids. If any bidder who wins in the final seconds is present to do so, surely they can at least email me to inform of intention and payment method? If swift or promp payment is a problem, please do not bid.

POSTING & PACKING: What You Get: All records are posted in professional boxes (NOT mailers) with the record(s) REMOVED from their main cover to avoid edge splits and placed within a brand new polylined inner. The record’s original inner will be included if available. The boxes are then reinforced with TWO massively thick stiffners for even extra protection and bubble wrap if deemed necessary. These stiffners are the thickest possible and custom supplied for ‘Oneadayrecords’ – these are NOT commercially available and you will not have seen thicker protection anywhere. The cover will be placed within a BRAND NEW heavy duty soft protective sleeve and the actual record will be professionally cleaned on my Moth Pro vacuum system to give ultimate clean grooves and playing surfaces and the best possible looks and ultimate sound quality. Printed address labels are used as well as ‘Fragile’ tape for that extra professional touch for the packet. You will NOT get tired, dull looking, dust infested records inside worn and foggy covers with tatty inners from this seller and that’s a promise and guarantee. Customers requests or special needs for P&P will be respected if at all possible but NOT surface mail abroad. I never make profit on posting and offer probably the cheapest and safest shipping possible. I will invoice any winning bidder as soon as possible after the auction ends, with the total costs including ‘standard’ or ‘optional extra insurance’ P&P – ALL UK and Russian packets go out non-negotiable Recorded Delivery. My ‘loss’ or ‘damage rate’ is less than 0.1 per percent based on over 3,500+ items sold in over 5 years of Ebay trading (I am now one of most established sellers via Ebay) and I consider that pretty exceptional.

PLEASE NOTE: I will now only send packets to Russia with Recorded Delivery at a cost of £7 per single LP. If this is unacceptable to Russian collectors, please do not bid. I only want my records to arrive safely and this gives packets a better chance to do so. Also ALL UK packets will be sent with either Recorded or Special Delivery as standard (both have to be signed for). All shipping costs and rules can be found after my description. If they are not acceptable, please do not bid.

Album Title: Vol 4.

Producer(s): Black Sabbath and Patrick Meehan.

Engineer(s): Colin Caldwell and Vic Smith.

Track Listing:

Side 1: Wheels of Confusion; Tomorrow’s Dream; Changes; FX; Supernaut.

Side 2: Snowblind; Cornucopia; Laguna Sunrise; St Vitus Dance; Under the Sun.

Label/Format: Vertigo – Spiral format. Large label size spiral on side one and small spiral logo above outline Vertigo on side two.

Label Conditions: Both very clean and highly attractive with only light/light+ and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area. Side two is incredibly white and looks superb, so often found ‘greyed’ and grubby, any Spiral Black Sabbath album with so few marks and blemishes is unusual.

Cat Number: 6360 071.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Assume all records I offer have no warping of any significance and all tracking is easy and effortless and should play on all turntables and even ‘budget’ decks.

Weight of this Record: 112 grams. [These days, many modern Audiophile reissues are pressed on super-heavyweight 180 gram vinyl. Only a small percentage of ‘vintage vinyl’ was ever pressed this heavy. Records pressed in the 1960s averaged around 135 to 145 grams. Records pressed in the 1970s were usually lighter and averaged more around 115 – 125 grams. Some records pressed around 1973 were very thin and light due an oil crisis and shortage around this time. Some records were even issued on recycled vinyl from this period and sounded poor with crackle and surface noise evident from the very first play. If any record I buy is deemed ‘recycled’, I will never offer it, I have a very simple test to detect these records if I suspect this to be the case other than audible imperfection. Some records from this period were even pressed on other materials the most notable was ‘Dynaflex’, used by RCA around this time. Although inferior to vinyl, this at least mostly sounded reasonably acceptable but pressings on this material were wafer thin and flimsy. Beyond the 70s, many records often became thinner and lighter still but most played fine but were never quite the quality as from the ‘Golden Era’]. (This was based on ‘average’ weights for 50 records from these eras.

Country of Manufacture: England.

Rarity: Scarce, and getting harder to find all the time. Although a popular Spiral album, this is never easy to find in anything like decent condition. The cover especially is highly elusive devoid of ringwear and heavy rubbing and this one includes the fixed inner gatefold book which again is often ripped, sometimes even missing. This example has only light traces of wear or blemishing and is certainly one of the best I have seen for quite some time. The record is fantastic and plays beautifully but has no inner. The original owner decided to place all his albums inside Decca polylined inners. However, I do have a less than perfect spare one in stock and the correct later format style. It has one edge taped and has a couple of tears and is somewhat out of context for the rest of this set but happy to include it should the winning bidder wants it.

Original Year of Release: 1972

Matrix Nos: 6360071 1Y 1 1 1 1 1 / 6360071 2Y 1 1 2 1 [one of the earliest ever pressings ever]

Etchings: ‘PORKY’ and ‘PECKO’

Musicians: Ozzy Osbourne - Vocals; Geezer Butler - Bass; Tony Iommi - Guitars; Bill Ward - Drums.

Brief Info: As the title suggests, the fourth Black Sabbath album and all issued on the legendary Vertigo spiral swirl label. This is real heavy metal with massive power riffs and deep grinding doom-laden basslines. Fronted by the legendary Ozzy Osbourne, this set must be a contender for their best and heaviest album ever – but I usually say that for any of the Sabbath Spiral titles I offer – I love them all and all four are essential. A fantastic record that must rank as the earliest, cleanest and best sounding copy of this immensely powerful album I have ever had and this is not an easy album to find like this. Although predominately heavy, this does have a few quiet songs notably ‘FX’ which is a minimalist instrumental that sounds like percussion through an echo box and the very difficult and challenging ‘Changes’. This so often has distortion and clipping from the intensely recorded mellotron, few copies escape but this one plays this difficult song superbly and the whole album plays with clean focused sound which must never be taken for granted. The cover is way, way above average also and has little wear or blemishing. This one also is not dead smooth like most found and feels heavier with softer and slightly thicker card used. This super-early-made example looks and feels ever-so-slightly textured but only very lightly so, but enough to make it look and feel different the the very smooth version this will always make this even more prone to wear. Black Sabbath fans will really enjoy this unusually high-grading all round Spiral copy, it will prove difficult to find much better.

Cover Grade and Format: EX+ and I feel this is undergraded at even this, an incredibly difficult cover as all black covers are. It’s an unlaminated gatefold format with finish as described above, it was printed and made in the UK by Howards Printers. It has the booklet attached to the inside of the gatefold which is pristine perfect.

Cover Front: Superb and with very little traces of any rubbing for a change. As stated above, this is a heavier-made example with a surface slightly less-than smooth. The only blemish of note is a light price sticker residue mark near the top right corner but NO pulling to the cover’s surface (or touch-ins), this shows very little. The non-black areas are very clean and attractive looking and this has avoided any creasing and remains intense black. This one sets a very high standard and will prove hard to beat.

Cover Back: Very similar to the front with just a mild thumb semi-crease near the right edge, towards the bottom. Slightly more in the way of rub traces but nothing even remotely heavy or really noteworthy. The lack of ringwear is a huge bonus on this one and again barely any creasing.

Cover Inner Gatefold: Practically perfect, the book is mint and fully and securely attached. Truly superb.

Top Edges: Light and faint rub traces only.

Bottom Edges: Very light and patchy rubbing only.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, very sharp with practically no wear or feathering. Record entered on this right outside back edge.

Spine and Text: The very best spine I have ever seen on this cover which to say the least, is difficult. Solid and very robust, straight, uncompressed and square, both right edges meet up perfectly together. Barely a trace of any wear which again is unusual on a black unprotected spine. All text is pristine perfect, totally unworn, clear and very sharp.

Corners: Small tip rubs only and retaining great, neat shape, again unusual like this.

Cover Summary: A very strong all round example of this very fragile and highly uncompromising cover, one that will prove very difficult to find much better. This strong and eye-pleasing item should please many, if not most collectors. Sorry, the original inner was missing from this copy but they really are not too hard to find but I can include a less than perfect spare I have in stock as mentioned above.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: Mint(-) – what a beauty! A superb visual copy that is super clean, shiny, intense black and solidly pressed. A copy with minimal plays on all the evidence and this truly is a class-copy. Immaculate playing surfaces with barely a mark or blemishes to be seen. Visually a super record that should please all collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippetts or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing B&W speakers that include the legendary tweeter from their awesome Nautilus range that reveals every blemish or miniscule sound present on any record.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This fantastic Spiral album plays up to its high visual grading with practically nothing to fault – do not underestimate just how hard this title is to play really well. This has powerfully strong, totally distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear - sound quality is astonishing with a massive dynamic range and fine detail too – but play it LOUD! An intensely heavy album at times with grinding basslines, classic power-riffs, awesome drumming and of course Ozzy sounding young and fresh – this guy in his younger days was awesome. His charasmatic doom-laden vocal style was never bettered as much as others tried. For a change, any surface sounds on the quieter passages are minimal and very light and I feel silence is near impossible being honest. The track ‘Changes’ is very difficult and many copies will disort and crackle badly – Ozzy’s vocal with loudly mixed mellotron is a huge test for vinyl and many clip with groove-wear or inground debris. The short echo laden ‘FX’ is just as difficult and here this minimalist instrumental sounds fine. I noted no pops or clicks and the lack of any distortion was refreshing, few copies will play better than this overall. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this metal maasterpiece. This copy will prove very difficult indeed to find significantly better. An album to be played loud, as loud as possible. The Spiral four are often critised for not being terribly well produced, all I can say to that is these listeners haven’t heard them on decent kit. These have an inbuilt power and quality brings it out (as well as volume). Total silence on the quiet songs is almost unrealistic but this is almost as good as it gets. The bass grinds and rattles with awesome power, even testing out larger systems - it can shake the foundations. The drums pound and the cymbals crash, the guitars soar into sheer manic nirvana and of course Ozzy’s blood curdling screams speak for themselves - oh yeah!!! Forget your lightweight soundalikes, nobody does it better than vintage Sabbath. This stunning lesson in gloom was rarely bettered, even by them, Ozzy was, and still is – Lord of the metal World.

NOTE: First Time Bidders: I will cancel ALL first-time bidders with no feedbacks or excessive negatives who do not ask me if its OK to bid first – NO EXCEPTIONS.

Please Note: I will now offer any item to the runner-up after the mandatory Ebay 3 days if no contact is made by the winning bidder unless prior notice of any delay is given beforehand. The same applies if no payment is received within the mandatory 7 days so any bidder who has just lost out can still email me to reserve the item as priority second chance – it’s always worth asking.

SHIPPING COSTS & OPTIONS:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (First Class Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4 (OPTIONAL).

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7 (OPTIONAL).

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA (NOT RUSSIA, see below) (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet Standard with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) = £5.

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with included Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, £500* Maximum) = £9 (OPTIONAL).

Posting & Packing: RUSSIA (Recorded Only, if this is unacceptable, please do not bid):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ only £7) = £9 (OPTIONAL extra insurance as above).

Posting & Packing: OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. US; Australia; Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet Standard with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) = £8.

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with included Insurance to Item’s ‘Sold’ Value, £500* Maximum) = £13 (OPTIONAL).

* If Rules allow for that country.

PLEASE NOTE: I always get a Royal Mail ‘Proof-of-Posting’ receipt for ALL packets that are sent out and I am happy to prove this to any customer who wishes to see it via email.

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I can accept PayPal from overseas bidders.

The customer can choose their method of shipping with the exception of second class or surface mail overseas – these I will NOT use. The winner bidder chooses his/her posting method and if uninsured is chosen, its their decision and they have to stick with it, I can accept no responsibility if an item is lost in the post. I can only try to claim at standard levels if no enhancement is chosen (£35).

Potential Bidders: Please do not bid if you have negative feedback unless checking first, I will cancel any bids I feel are timewasters. A maximum 3 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive - if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up. Fast deals get great feedback from me. Any questions - please ask and thanks for looking.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund minus the Posting and All Ebay costs as long as the item detail has been read and understood. I will not refund if any defect detail is clearly stated on the advert and missed by the buyer. If any overseas collector does not understand anything in my listing, please email and ask me to help.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT neccessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, actually a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.

The Argument for Vinyl Original sound and mix (mono mixes are rarely available on CD), high quality sound on clean copies (played on a hi-end dedicated analogue system – breathtaking sound!), beautiful, large format covers, artwork, inserts and even full size posters etc; huge investment potential, and the pleasure of owning ‘the real thing’.