Rare 1968 - The Free Design "The Now Sound Of Christmas"/Sandler & Young

$

76

I'm a sucker for Christmas albums and 45s and have collected many over the years.  The season is too short for me to play everything I've got, so I'll be selling a great selection of Christmas vinyl during the month of November.  I hope you end up with one (or more) to make your holidays brighter!

Super rare Christmas album produced by the U.S. Air Force Recruiting Service in 1968.  Sandler & Young "A Christmas Party" on the A side and The Free Design "The Now Sound Of Christmas" on the B side.  The Free Design had a jazzy psych-pop style that, while popular at the time, is most notable for the influence it had on later artists such as Stereolab and Beck.  The Now Sound Of Christmas contains some standards as well as new original material from The free Design.

Visual Grading:

Media - VG: Visually toward the lower end of the VG range with some hairlines and light scratches and light foxing on the labels.  Side 2, "The Now Sound of Christmas", plays much better than it looks with a light pop for several rotations at the beginning of the side, some light crackle toward the middle of the side and one more set of light pops for several rotations toward the end of the side at the beginning of Winter Wonderland. Side 1, Sandler & Young "A Christmas Party", plays even better.

Sleeve - VG-:  Light wear on front, rear, corners and seams.  10" split on top seam. Small paper tear (about 1.5"x.5") on rear upper left corner.  See detailed photos.

I do my best to grade all items fairly and objectively using the following guidelines:

Media grading:

M (Mint) - Only used for sealed records that are "assumed" to be in mint condition. 

NM (Near Mint) - Records with no visible signs of wear.  No scratches on media (hairline or otherwise).  Clean, vibrant labels with no spindle marks. 

EX (Excellent) - Records with only the slightest signs of wear.  Could almost pass for NM, but may include up to several hairlines, paper scuffs and/or spindle marks, but nothing that detracts from the visual or sound quality of the record.

VG+ (Very Good Plus) - Records that still look and sound fantastic but may have a few more hairlines or very light scratches (that don't affect play) and/or may have slight wear on the label.  No records with drill holes or other similar blemishes will ever be graded higher than VG+, even if they are otherwise in NM condition.

VG (Very Good) - Records that contain a larger number of the imperfections found in VG+ records.  They will most likely contain more hairlines and light scratches, although typically not deep enough to be felt with a fingernail, and possibly more label wear.  The surface marks on a VG record will most likely cause some background noise during playback.

VG- (Very Good Minus) - Records similar to VG, but with even more hairlines/scratches and/or label wear.  A scratch may occasionally be deep enough to be felt with a fingernail, but typically that would bump the grading down to G+ or lower.   The marks on a VG- record would definitely cause some background noise during playback.

G+ (Good Plus) - More and/or deeper scratches than a VG-record.  May contain multiple scratches deep enough to be felt with a fingernail, but should still play through without skipping, although with background noise.

G/F/P (Good/Fair/Poor) - I don't expect to be listing many records that would be graded as G or below.  However, if I do, I will attempt to carefully document all of the condition issues leading to the low grade.

Sleeve Grading:

M (Mint) - Only used for sealed records, and only if there are no blemishes, rubbing, creasing, etc. to the sleeve under the original shrink wrap.

NM (Near Mint) - Sleeves in NM condition show no signs of wear and look like they were just removed from their original shrink wrap (and in many cases still retain their original shrink wrap).  Colors are vibrant with no bends, creases, rubbing, etc.

EX (Excellent) - Sleeves with only the slightest hint of wear, possibly a very small corner bend or light rubbing on a corner or seam.  An EX sleeve will not have visible wear on the front or back of the sleeve.

VG+ (Very Good Plus) - Sleeves in this condition still look great, but may have a few minor issues such as minor creasing or corner "bumps", very light seam wear, slight beginnings of ring wear, or small/light writing.  Any sleeve with a cut corner, saw cut or hole punch will never be graded higher than VG+.

VG (Very Good) - Sleeves in this condition have a greater number of issues such as moderate seam wear or ring wear, more pronounced creasing, more visible writing or small seam splits.

VG- (Very Good Minus) - Sleeves in this condition have all of the issues of a VG sleeve, but to a greater degree. 

G+ (Good Plus) - Sleeves in this condition are not much to look at.  They may have extensive wear, splitting, and/or writing that make them visually unappealing.

G/F/P (Good/Fair/Poor) - I don't expect to be listing many records with sleeves that would be graded as G or below.  However, if I do I will attempt to carefully document all of the condition issues leading to the low grade.