THE ROLLING STONES Big Hits (High Tide…) SCARCE ORIG UK 1968 UNBOXED EX MONO LP.

	£		19
	$		25

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: THE ROLLING STONES

Album Title: Big Hits (High Tide and Green Grass)

Producer(s): Andrew Loog Oldham

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?; Paint It Black; It’s All Over Now; The Last Time; Heart of Stone; Not Fade Away; Come On.

Side 2: (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction; Get Off of My Cloud; As Tears Go By; 19th Nervous Breakdown; Lady Jane; Time Is on My Side; Little Red Rooster.

Label/Format: Decca, original turquoise unboxed mono format with matt, gently textured surfaces.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only a relative few light, fine and faint spindle marks and no wear around the hole area. An album more often seen played to destruction and in very poor condition. This copy appears only modestly played, and with due care and still offers mostly clean and impressive sound.

Catalogue Number: TXL 101

Mode / Speed: Mono / 33.3 rpm.

Up and Down Movement: A gentle trace. Few vintage records will ever be perfectly flat, any issues with significant movement or tracking will be mentioned in detail if applicable.

Lateral Movement (Side-to-Side): Barely a Trace.

Weight of this Record: 157 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: Moderate in terms of sales, but earlier copies in mono that appear lightly played and clean are much harder to find. Like early mono Beatles albums, this popular set was often played many times on the most basic of record players and trashed.

Original Year of Release: 1966 [this copy from 1968 from evidence of the JT tax code on the dead wax area and the inner sleeve date-code]

Matrix Nos: XARL-7503-2A / XARL-7504-3A

Mothers / Stampers: 1 NC / 11 2 B 1 G [a couple of letters are unclear, and these my best opinions]

Tax Code Etchings: JT / JT [at the 12 o’clock positions of the labels on the dead wax areas]

Musicians: Mick Jagger – lead vocals, harmonica, percussion; Brian Jones – rhythm guitar, lead guitar, slide guitar, sitar, harmonica, electric piano, dulcimer, backing vocals; Keith Richards – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals; Charlie Watts – drums, percussion; Bill Wyman – bass guitar, organ, backing vocals. With: Jack Nitzsche – piano, percussion; Phil Spector – percussion; Ian Stewart – piano, organ.

Brief Info: The first Rolling Stones compilation that includes 14 classic singles all here in superb mono, the mode of choice at the time these gems were issued. Also issued in the United States, but with only 12 songs, three of which are different to the UK version. This an impressive unboxed copy from 1968 and appearing only modestly played – certainly compared to most that surface. This Decca record plays very well with scant clues of popularity, age and the equipment most copies were subjected to. Very well packaged, the first format cover in very fine condition and has the correct solid back without the peep-hole mono/stereo indicate, those came later in 1969, and the inside book attached to the centerfold – later ones were loose as an insert. No better way to enjoy these vintage classics than a clean long playing album, few original singles will match the sound these days.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT: a gatefold format with front and back Clarifoil lamination. The inside is matt and smooth with a 6 page colour booklet attached inside (two original staples hold the pages together, these were not punched into the spine), hence the pages are attached to the main cover with adhesive. The back cover correctly has no mono/stereo peep-hole, those came in 1969, this the original dedicated mono TXL 101 cover as seen on the spine edge. The front is made with single thickness card, hence fragile. Printed and made in England by Robert Stace, includes the vintage 1968 date-coded Decca inner sleeve.

Lamination – Front & Back: Both sides retain fine shine, freshness and clarity with minimal dulling or creasing. There is some lifting mainly on the back on the left corners, but this has not cracked or peeled and has only modest visibility, the lifting being gentle. Any lifting on the front confined to the spine edge and only relatively fine and light. The graphics to both sides remain clean and attractive as-seen, and given the format and age of this classic cover, it has survived in very fine condition.

Cover Inner Gatefold & Booklet: All surface again impressive with minimal creasing, rubing and any handling traces gentle and light to the revealing surfaces. The book still solidly attached to the main cover, the pages still firmly held together with the original two staples. All pages seen in my pictures, and all very nice indeed with classic pictures of the original young band. Clearly the book in particular fragile and more often seen detached, torn and damaged which this has totally avoided.

Top Edges: The fold solidly intact and barely worn. Any thickening to the cover edges very gentle and light, all booklet edges are crisp and sharp.

Bottom Edges: All edges on this area are superb, crisp and sharp.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Gentle, fairly patchy thickening to the back entrance edges, the front and booklet edges again crisp and neat. All edges are guaranteed untrimmed or enhanced. Also, all lie perfectly flat with no bowing or curling, for extra good measure, all are parallel being folded little short of perfectly in manufacture – that so often, not the case.

Spine and Text: A superb spine, solid, straight with minimal hint of compression, folded square as mentioned above, so the edges meet up very closely together and parallel. All text is perfect and unworn under the solid and uncracked laminate. The surface still very white, unaged or toned, note the mono catalogue number near the bottom.

Corners: Any tip rubs, wear or creasing tiny and light, very fine to excellent shape retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A strong all-round example of this very fragile, classic 1960’s cover, one that will prove difficult to find much better as a pre-1969 example. The politely mild laminate lifting on the back the most significant issue for the more discerning, but this attractive item has far more positives than negatives and should please many collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: EXCELLENT: or very close to, the text very gently faded, but still quite strong as-seen. This Decca polylined inner has few creases – a little crinkle on the back near the top – two crisp undamaged window circles and all edges naturally intact with no repairs. The white paper modestly darkened near the edge seam adhesive areas that few will ever avoid. This inner date-coded 058, so manufactured in May 1968 which dates this copy perfectly.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: EXCELLENT: or very close to, especially given the age, mode and popularity of this brilliant singles compilation. A very fine visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and quite heavily pressed on typically high-quality robust Decca vinyl. A copy with only modest, and quite careful plays on all the evidence with any surface marks very light and faint as seen critically under bright light. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, few even register. Visually a lovely record that should please many 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 snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This classic album plays mostly even above it’s high visual grading with little to fault. Offering strong, clean sound without the usual crackle and clicks many early copies suffer, simply from being played a vast amount of times on the most basic records players that tracked at massive weights. Sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed, warm and punchy mono sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. Any degrading in sound is negligible with virtually all songs offering impressive, if slightly raw sound from the Andrew Loog Oldham production. Few available copies will outperform this early first unboxed label pressing I feel sure. I am certain this record has been played modestly lightly and has been generally well stored and carefully handled, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment for its 50+ years. Little of any note at all spoilt my pleasure when play-grading these superb vintage songs. It could prove very difficult to find significantly better, especially in early mono and can be strongly recommended.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest records I can find. 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 all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – 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 it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

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

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I only accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

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 necessarily 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, 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.