Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath Vertigo Swirl LP - VERY Early Pressing

	£		74
	$		98

I am selling my long loved and cherished copy of the self-titled debut album by Black Sabbath on the Vertigo label. This is not a Philips first press, but it is extremely early 2nd or 3rd, but definitely 1970 (see associated web links at bottom for research).

There are other sellers on here advertising first press copies which quite obviously are not, I will try to be as honest as possible in my descriptions, and am always available to answer questions.

As an explanation, I am not a record collector as such, just a child of the seventies who grow up knowing the joy of vinyl and the reverence it brought out of us.

I was a fan of Black Sabbath from my early teens and already had my collection of LP’s (the early Sabbath LP’s on the NEMS label) when I saw this in my local record store and just knew it needed to be with me.

However, time moves on. I no longer have a turntable set up, and have a wife with a significant birthday on the way so I thought I would sell this on to someone who knows what they are doing and will treat this with the love it deserves.

I have owned this copy for at least 26 years, and it has been played by me only twice. Once on purchase and then when preparing for this listing.

The Album

Having read the various guides available I would grade this as Excellent verging on near mint. The sound quality is still crisp and enthralling, I truly enjoyed myself whilst listening to the album through again on my headphones. Slight crackle on the front and back end of the vinyl, but each track was still as stunning as ever. I have visually examined the vinyl, and it still has a wonderful lustre with no scratches or scuffs apart from some extremely minor sleeve marks. There are a couple of spindle marks on the label, with a tiny discoloured spot on the A side label. The B side label shows the large Vertigo swirl above the spindle with Vertigo in large print below the band name. There is the Dunbar credit on Warning.

Matrix numbers are;

Side A -  VO 6  1Y * 1  420

Side B -  VO 6  2Y * 1  420

Outer Sleeve

I would grade the outer sleeve as VG+ to VG++. A very nice example of this iconic Keef cover.  There are a couple of areas of wear which is to be expected on a 50 year old piece of printed cardboard, the worst issue is a crease on the top corner of the album, obviously from an impact. However, that said the sleeve is fully intact with no tears of rips. There are some slight marks inside.

The sleeve shows all the correct print details for a very early pressing such as the front ‘pink’ Vertigo emblem, VO 6 on rear, mis-spelt OSSIE OSBORNE inside, no writing credits and of course, lovely and matt, not shiny laminate!

Inner sleeve

Lovely genuine white inner sleeve, poly lined, there are no splits or tears, even on the seams which are fully intact. There is some creasing and discolouration but this does not distract from the overall high standard of the sleeve. There is also a small round paper sticky label on the front, stating VO 6.

I have tried to take as many good photos as possible. I was not able to get any photos of the matrix number, no matter how hard I tried. Where possible, I have taken pictures of the slight imperfections so that you can see for yourself.

I am torn to put this album up for sale, but will be happy in the knowledge that it will go to someone who truly appreciates it. Any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

As I can I will update the listing as required.

For information, please use the following links which I have found very useful.

http://reviews.ebay.co.uk/How-To-Identify-UK-Vertigo-Swirl-1st-Pressings-part1?ugid=10000000010655205

http://www.vertigoswirl.com/vertigouk.html