The Beatles Mono Collection BM1 Box Set #0613 of 1000

$

2,600

This is a gorgeous condition 1982 Beatles Mono Collection limited edition boxed set, which included the 1981 mono repressings of the Beatles' UK catalog.  The records in this box were pressed between November 1980 thru September 1981.  The outer box is in Pristine/Mint condition.  This box didn't have the limited edition certificate, but I've included a reproduction of one.  Please see the photos and detailed information below for condition:

  BM1 Box #0613   Box Grading: Mint

  Please Please Me (PMC-1202)   (9th Pressing - September 1981 - Inner Sleeve dated 9/81)         XEX 421-3 2 12 HTM  [solid-state cut]         XEX 422-2N 6 7  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The record is near mint.   Sleeve Grading: EXC  The cover is EXC but does have some small brown discoloration spots.

  With the Beatles (PMC-1206)   (4th pressing - November 1980 - Inner Sleeve dated 1180)         XEX 447-7N 3 10 10 5  [tube cut]         XEX 448-7N 8 17 5  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The record is near mint.   Sleeve Grading: VG++  Cover has some slight creasing and minor wear along the bottom.

  A Hard Day's Night (PMC-1230)   (4th pressing - March 1981 - Inner Sleeve 3/81)         XEX 481-3N 8 5  [tube cut]         XEX 482-3N 10 3  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The record is near mint.   Sleeve Grading: EXC+  Cover is almost purple instead of blue!  Barely noticeable split at bottom of cover.

  Beatles for Sale (PMC-1240)   (2nd pressing - February 1981 - Inner Sleeve 2/81)          XEX 503-4N 39 4  [tube cut]          XEX 504-3N 25 70  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM-   Sleeve Grading: EX+

  Help! (PMC-1255)    (5th pressing - September 1981 - Inner Sleeve dated 9/81)         XEX 549-3 1 8 HTM  [solid-state cut]         XEX 550-2 16 8  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The vinyl is GORGEOUS   Sleeve Grading: NM or M-  Stunner - Sleeve is in NM condition

  Rubber Soul (PMC-1267)   (4th pressing - inner sleeve dated 4/81)         XEX 579-6 1 4 HTM  [solid-state cut]         XEX 580-5 34 5  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  Record is near mint   Sleeve Grading: EXC+  Cover slight crease bottom left corner.  Otherwise beautiful.

  Revolver (PMC-7009)   (4th pressing - November 1980 - inner sleeve dated 11/80)         XEX 605-2 13? 5  [tube cut]         XEX 606-3 5 3  [tube cut]   Record Grading: VG  Visible hairline marks - mark on song 1 side 1   Sleeve Grading: EXC+  Slight perimeter creases

  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (PMC-7027)   (5th pressing - July 1981 - inner sleeve dated 7/81)         XEX 637-1 6 2  [tube cut]         XEX 638-1 19 3  [tube cut]   Record Grading: EX+  hardly visible small scratches etc.   Sleeve Grading: EX  slight corner bump

  The Beatles (PMC-7067/8)   (3rd pressing - May 1981 - Inner Sleeves 11/80 and 5/81)   (3rd pressing said to run summer 1981 - August 1982)          XEX 709-2 3 9  [tube cut]          XEX 710-2 2 0  [tube cut]          XEX 711-4 2 8  [solid-state cut]          XEX 712-2 4 2  [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The records are near mint.   Sleeve Grading: NM or M-  Sleeve, poster and glossies are gorgeous

  Yellow Submarine (PMC-7070)   (2nd pressing - November 1980 - inner sleeve dated 11/80)          XEX 715-1 3 5  [tube cut]          XEX 716-1 33 0   [tube cut]   Record Grading: NM or M-  The record is near mint.   Sleeve Grading: NM or M-  Has a JEM Records Imports sticker directly on the cover


The story behind this boxed set:
EMI re-issued the Beatles' mono catalog in July 27, 1981 (except Beatles For Sale and Yellow Submarine which were not available until a few weeks later) with a reported 10,000 copies of each being pressed and made available individually for sale.  The pressings Please Please me through Sgt Pepper received a retro-variation of the yellow and black Parlophone label and The Beatles [White Album] and Yellow Submarine were on slightly varied Apple labels. These 1981 pressings were all pressed on lighter vinyl than the 1960's originals and the outer sleeves are not laminated and do not have the cover flaps glued to the back.
Realizing collectors would want a mono set to match the BC-13 blue stereo box, Barry Tenenbaum contracted with EMI's export division to produce 1000 black limited edition Mono Collection boxed sets which were given the designation "BM1".  A U.K. EMI sales associate [referred to as 'EMI associate' from here on] stated in 2023 - "In 1982 I worked in the export sales department at EMI. We were asked by the president of the US Beatles fan club to make them a numbered limited edition of 1000 box sets."  While not a fan club, Barry was the owner of record importer/seller LSR Records (Lord Sitar Records) and distributer Dutch East India Trading Co.  Barry, now living in Florida, stated in 2026 "I wasn’t the president of the Beatles fan club and I made the order and imported all of the black boxes.  We were importers of records and in those days the EMI companies in various countries would open accounts to sell into the US (but Capitol records got that stopped around the middle of the '80's).  We had accounts with EMI in: UK, Holland, Germany and Australia.  In the early 1980's EMI UK reissued the Beatles LP's. I think a few years prior they did the BC13 boxes so I asked about EMI making a box set of the mono boxes and they agreed.  While LSR and DEI were the same corporation, technically all purchases were made by LSR."  EMI reserved 1,000 complete sets of mono LP's for his BM1 release.  (Reports of Ticket To Ryde Ltd. also being involved are inaccurate, although they may have distributed some red boxed sets.)
Original BC-13 blue Stereo box manufacturer, The London Fancy Box Company, was contracted to produce the black Mono boxes.  Barry stated "I have the prototype from LFB. It’s the box as was produced but has no printing, just the black box."  After approving the prototype, pallets stacked with containers holding 15 each of the empty numbered BM1 boxes were shipped to Barry in Long Island, New York.  Interestingly, the 'EMI associate' revealed - "My boss suggested that we should make an extra two number 1s, one for him and one for me. My boss's was stolen when his daughter had a party at his house. The other was shipped to the USA with the other 999 numbered boxes."  Norman Bates was EMI imports manager, and became controller of finished products sales, responsible for imports and exports.  The 'EMI associate's' was sold for $3,201 - November 14, 2023.  Barry has indicated he still has the box #1 that was sent to the U.S. "I am planning to sell the prototype with box 1000. Or with #1 if I can find it in the near future. It makes way more sense to sell the prototype with #1".
The boxes contained a numbered certificate of authenticity, although there have been confirmed boxes without the cards.  I personally acquired a "blank" certificate on eBay without any number printed on it, which I've long since sold.  It has also been reported that an order blank for additional sets was included in the box, however I have never seen one.  When asked about the limited edition certificates, Barry stated "I can't recall if we printed them or EMI did. Unless something happened to the numbered cards every box set should have had one; it's possible we sold some empty boxes 20 or 30 years ago and they could have gotten filled.  I do have at least one certificate that’s in box 1000 and I’ll take a look to see if it’s possible there could have been any blanks. I do not think so."
Within the boxed sets, 10 of the Beatles' mono LP's, Please Please Me through Yellow Submarine were assembled, using the 1981 pressings. A Collection of Beatles Oldies was not repressed in 1981/1982. The Yellow Submarine album, included in the set, is the only original UK mono Beatles LP without a dedicated mono mix. The mono album is simply a fold-down (two stereo channels combined into one) of the stereo mix. Magical Mystery Tour was not included in the set as it was not originally issued as an LP in the UK. The last two Beatles albums Abbey Road, and Let It Be were also not included as they never received a mono LP release in the UK.
Beginning somewhere around August 1982 (and possibly even as late as October 3, 1982), the sets were sold by LSR Records... boxes #11-50 were $250, #51-100 were $200 and the remainder were $150.  Unable to purchase all 1,000 sets of EMI's reserved LP's at one time, Barry bought and assembled them as demand dictated.  Barry "but since I couldn't afford to buy all the records, we bought a certain quantity, filled up and then ordered as we needed."  He confirmed that eventually demand dried up and less than 500 sets were ultimately sold, leaving many pallets of empty boxes in his warehouse.  Barry - "originally limited to 1000 sets, less than 500 were sold so we had unused boxes from 43 years ago.  It's a mystery where all the empties ended up.  It's possible our last landlord threw them out.  We had a 3 year deal to store pallets there and when it ended we hadn't gotten a new place so he threw out dozens of pallets."  Barry did keep a small quantity of the empty boxes and has sold them throughout the years, possibly being the reason some did not contain limited edition certificates.
As sales slowed, EMI still had at least 500 sets of the LP's reserved for Barry so they decided to offload the remaining stock by creating another box... the RED Mono Collection box with the designation "BMC-10".  Barry Tenenbaum reckoned "The red box... I suppose they [EMI] did that to help us keep ours unique.  We had hit the limit of demand and they [EMI] were holding 500 sets worth of records and decided to sell them to other customers."  As with the Blue and Black boxes, this Red box was manufactured by The London Fancy Box Company, however this time as needed and in quantities fewer than their minimum requirement.  The 'EMI associate' that sold his #1 copy of the black box also sold a red box in October 2023.  At the time, he stated "when sales started to slow down we decided to create this box to 'mop up' most of the remaining stock. Therefore, the quantity manufactured was equal to the album with the least stock available.  I wish I could recall the exact figure but I can say it was not an exact amount which dispels the stories you read like '1000' or '2000' copies. From my memory it may even been as low as in the 700's.  I'm pretty sure The London Fancy Box Company that made the box did us a favour (in view of the business EMI gave them) as the number of boxes made did not meet their minimum quantity requirement."  This box did not have a limited edition number and was initially sold in the U.K., but were eventually exported to other U.S. sellers as well.
All sides in these boxed sets are not original 1960's tube cuts. A big clue to later cuts is that Harry Moss did not initial lacquers "HTM" until around the mid 1970s, which would be solid-state cuts. He also didn't necessarily initial all sides when cutting an entire album.
It is estimated a combined total of approximately 1,200 of the Mono Collection boxed sets were produced:  BM1 Black less than 500 & BMC-10 Red 700-some.
Sgt Pepper has the mono matrices on both sides of the LP, and The Beatles and Yellow Submarine have the mono disc labels.  There was no limited edition card in this box.  I've read reports that some black boxes didn't include the certificate, which may have been the case with my #613 (as opposed to the certificate being lost).  Example: Michael Hockinson February 22, 2013 at 7:58 pm  "My copy of the (black) mono box is #616. It did not come with a certificate. Did this happen to anyone else? Is there a picture out there of what the certificate looks like?"  Also: Calarts September 16, 2016 at 5:27 am  "I own a 1982 The Beatles collection in mono — black box set. My set did not come with a certificate."