LED ZEPPELIN III Orig UK 1970 Atlantic Plum Rare Label Error EX+ LP SUPERB SOUND

	£		167
	$		221

PLEASE NOTE: I am no longer a professional record seller, I am selling a few albums from my own personal collection. The service I offer will of the standard I used successfully for over 20 years on Ebay.
 

The pictures are of the actual item I am selling. I would never, and have never used stock images. What you see, is always what you get.
 

Artist or Band: LED ZEPPELIN

Album Title: Led Zeppelin III.

Producers: Jimmy Page [Executive Producer: Peter Grant].

TRACK LIST:  

Side 1: Immigrant Song; Friends; Celebration; Since I’ve Been Loving You; Out on the Tiles..

Side 2: Gallows Pole; Tangerine; That’s the Way; Bron-y-aur Stomp; Hats Off to (Roy) Harper.

Rarity: Moderate, but superb hardly played copies on the ‘Plum’ format are harder to find in hardly played condition. This early copy also has the scarcer ‘Celebration’ song title on the label, where it should be ‘Celebration Day’. This is clearly seen on my label close-up picture.

Label/Format: Atlantic – Red and Maroon (‘Plum’) format that have a lovely fresh gentle sheen to their surfaces with quite a smooth finish. As stated, this has the song error of ‘Celebration’ on side one.

Label Conditions:  Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only a tiny few gentle, light and faint spindle marks. All evidence strongly suggests this beautiful record has hardly been played.

Catalogue Number: 2401-002.

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Warps: Few vintage records are ever perfectly ‘flat’, so some slight or very gentle arm movement is normal. If any record I offer has more than that, I will mention it, and it can be assumed all I offer will track without issues, even on budget turntables.

Record Weight:  123 grams.

Country of Manufacture:  England.

Musicians:  Jimmy Page – Robert Plant – John Bonham – John Paul Jones..

Original Year of Release:  1970

Matrix and Stamper Codes: 2401002 A-5 1 2 7 & 2401002 B 7 420 1 2 (any other details are unclear and not going to guess)

Run-Out Groove Etched Messages: ‘Do what thou wilt’ / ‘So mote it be’ <p>

Brief Artist & Album Info:  Most reading this listing will know all about the band and album. Suffice to say, the very first issue had Jimmy Page and Peter Grant production credits on the labels. On this second pressing, the Peter Grant credit was removed, and for a brief time, the label had ‘Celebration’ listed for the third song on side one – it should have read ‘Celebration Day’. Subsequent Plum label pressings had this error corrected. Hence this is quite a scarce ‘first’ second issue prior to that correction. This is a really superb record with a very fine clean cover. It sounds absolutely fantastic as well.

Cover Grade and Format:  EXCELLENT:  A fully laminated gatefold format with the moving wheel feature, and 11 die-cut windows on front. Printed and made in England by the E. J. Day Group, includes the Philips-style date-coded inner sleeve.

Cover Front: A very clean and attractive front with all the die-cut window circles sharp and pristine. Under angled viewing, some lightish press marks are seen, but with normal full-on viewing, these barely register. Unusually, the laminate has no adhesion issues or lifting lines – these are very common on this quite complex cover, and the lack darkening of the white artwork beneath the laminate is quite unusual too. There is the merest trace on the spine end on the left, it being minimal and very faint. Indeed this front remains one of the finest I have seen in some time. The moving wheel feature rotates with ease totally to reveal different pictures in those window cut outs. Overall, this has fared better than most and still remains highly attractive.

Cover Back: The solid back is close to exceptional, and totally devoid of laminate issues, lifting or lifting lines that this seldom avoids totally. Very slight darkening hints on the edges, but barely any away from. This really is impressive.

Cover Inside: Again really lovely, no laminate issues and the artwork still mainly clean and white. Slight darkening hints near the very edges, to date, I do not think I have seen one without a trace of this. Predominately white covers, even under laminate, are still very prone to age darkening and especially nicotine staining from smoking. Just look at most examples of The Beatles White album for instance. This has none of the latter as I have never smoked in my life. This centrefold is very fine indeed as I hope my picture shows.

Top & Bottom Edges: The top edge neat, crisp and straight, still solidly adhered as well. The central area was always open to make sure the wheel can rotate. The bottom edges are largely the same again, any thickening light, this being the traditional storage edge. These semi-opened edges often fair badly and can even get damaged without due care.

Right Edge(s), and Type: The back opening edge has only quite light patchy thickening here and there. The front semi-close edge is recessed with the wheel rim exposed for moving. Again impressive and straight with barely hint of wear. As stated, the wheel itself revolves with ease.

Spine and Text:  Very solid, straight with all laminate intact, as is the lettering which shows minimal hint of sinkage, hence still very easy to read. For those covers that have been opened and closed many times, a recessed central crease will occur, making the text sink, often obscuring the text altogether. This can also lead to laminate peeling and loss. This has escaped these common traits as seen in the spine picture.

Corners: All crisp, sharp and neat with barely a trace of any tip creasing. The lack of significant knocks on all is a major positive.

Cover Summary:  With only light and gentle hints of its considerable age, this classic gimmick cover still looks very attractive and it could prove difficult to find significantly better and should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: VERY GOOD+:  a white polylined inner with blue text. Both window circles are crisp and untorn and the linings still quite clear, only really marked down for creasing, mostly near the bottom corner areas. All edges naturally intact with the white paper only gently darkened. This is British patented with ‘No. 800513 & 973939’ details. Also ‘Made in England 37 0970’ – Meaning September 1970.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT+ (and arguably better still). An outstanding example that has received very few played on all evidence. Very clean, with very fine shine and freshness. Any blemishes very few, super fine and faint, there are barely any usage traces at all. Simply compare to most seen these days. Visually one to please many, if not most collectors again.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [Equipment used: Pro-Ject X2 B Turntable, Ortofon MC X30 moving coil cartridge, Pro-Ject DS3 B Phono Preamp, Naim SuperNait 2 and Spendor A7 floorstanding speakers.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading:  This classic album plays up to and beyond its very fine visual grading, it was a joy to hear this again. Quite honestly, I heard nothing of any note unwanted. With an excellent production and full-on sound, only the earliest ‘Plum’ label examples can sound this good. It will also prove beyond difficult to find better and merits my highest recommendation.


The record has been professionally cleaned on my German-made Nessie vinyl record cleaning machine.

The record will always be removed from the main cover and placed inside a soft-lined white inner to avoid edge splits in transit. Then put inside a protective plastic sleeve.

It will be posted for UK delivery via a Royal Mail tracked service. More expensive albums will be posted Special Delivery. The price will be £4.50.

The price to Europe will be £14 and overseas £24 using a tracked DPD courier service. I will NOT send to Russia or Belarus.

Payment required within 4 days of sale or will be cancelled with no exceptions. Payment via Paypal is preferred.