THE BEATLES MONO COLLECTION BOXSET VINYL UK 1981

	£		411
	$		545

ATTN: UK BIDDERS - POSTAGE IS NOT 4.00
THIS ITEM WILL BE SHIPPED FROM AUSTRALIA VIA REGISTERED (TRACKABLE) INTERNATIONAL AIRMAIL
THE SHIPPING COST TO UK BUYERS IS GBP30.00 (LESS THAN 50% OF THE ACTUAL SHIPPING COST - I WILL PAY THE REMAINDER)

OVER 100 ADDITIONAL PICTURES OF THIS SET ARE AVAILABLE HERE:

www.beatlesaustralia.com/aubeatlesvinyl/uk1981monomicrosite/index.html

The Beatles Mono Collection vinyl boxset was produced by EMI (UK) in 1981 and limited to 1000 numbered units. A numbered sticker was attached to the outside of the box, on the spine, and a certificate with a corresponding number was included inside the box. The number of the boxset offered in this auction is '433'.

The boxset contains ten vinyl Beatles LP's i.e. the number of Beatles original studio albums which had been purpose-mixed for issue in mono. The ten albums are, Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (aka The White Album), and, Yellow Submarine (although the mono version of this album was actually a 'fold-down' of the stereo mix because a mono mix was never produced for YS).

This 1981 release was the first time, since 1969, that all the original mono versions were officially made available again for purchase.

There were two editions of this boxset, one issued in a black box and the other in a red box. Each edition was limited to 1000 units. One edition was produced for distribution in the UK, the other was exported.

Although there were subsequent, individual, releases of Beatles mono LP's, the black and red boxset records exclusively reproduced the 'Yellow/Black' Parlophone label design from the 1960's - only this time with word, MONO, printed above the yellow PARLOPHONE text (original 60's mono pressings did not carry the 'mono' notation). Only the first eight albums utilised the Y/B Parlophone reproduction labels; The Beatles and Yellow Submarine retained the Apple style mono labels. Later mono reissue pressings reverted to the Boxed-EMI labels.

The 1981 LP's were produced from original 1960's mother/stamper configurations - as opposed to the new recuts that characterised later mono reissues.

In 1982, EMI (UK) issued each of the ten albums from the set for individual sale, again in limited numbers. These individual LP's come up for auction from time to time and it has been established that some of these individual LP's have originally come from boxsets (the sellers believing that there would be greater profit from selling the albums separately rather than as a boxset). As only 1000 units of the black sets were issued, there is no way of knowing how many remain fully intact in the hands of collector's.



CONDITION OF ITEM

As evidenced by all the pictures provided both in this listing and the microsite this set is not a minter by any stretch of even the most limited imagination; nor will the condition of any of the elements of this set improve during shipping.

RECORDS:
All the records (LP's) in this set are of a VG grade (grading reference is the Record Collector Rare Record Price Guide grades). If there was such a thing as a 'VG+' grade, it would be applicable to most the records. Under halogen light (significantly brighter than 'ordinary' household fluorescent or incandescent lighting), the surfaces of the records have light surface scoring in abundance, indicating that the records have been removed from the paper inner sleeve many times since 1981. However, there are no scratches of the type which would compromise linear playback - such scratches, by the way, are always visible to the naked eye under standard household lighting conditions, and none are evident on any of the records.

There is the occasional fingerprint, plenty of dust particles, and other surface marks on some of the records which can be removed by cleaning.

The records all play well and without groove jump or sticking.

OTHER ELEMENTS:
The remaining elements comprising this boxset (box, sleeves, labels, certificate) vary in quality from VG to EX.

The 12-picture limit of ebay listings is inadequate for an item of this scope. To redress the picture limitation issue, I have provided a 'microsite' where over a hundred pictures of the various elements of the boxset can be viewed. The microsite allows a far greater appreciation of the condition of the box, sleeves and labels than textual descriptions could ever convey. The site can be found at:

www.beatlesaustralia.com/aubeatlesvinyl/uk1981monomicrosite/index.html

For those who would prefer to view the microsite offline, I can provide a zip archive (15mb) that contains the entire site. To get a copy of the archive, please contact me via the Ebay message system, advising of the email address to which the zip file can be sent. Please ensure that your email facility allows reception of a 15mb attachment.

For answers to all questions pertaining to this item, please contact me and I will answer within 24 hours.