The Beatles - Please Please Me (GOLD mono) – first press, ridged label

	£		311
	$		412

See my other listings for lots of ‘gear’ Fabs stuff. Chrimble is coming.

What is it?
Here we have an original mono pressing of the first Beatles album, which has been in a private collection ever since it was bought. I have only ever seen a couple of these, and they tend to be absolutely knackered – this one is pretty good. Read on.
So as you can see from the photos we have…
1) a ridged side 2 label and a flat side one.
2) Dick James music credits, rather than Northern Songs
3) matrix numbers: XEX-421-1 N (stampers: LI), XEX-422-1 N (stampers:  HI)  
4) Angus McBean printed extreme right on the front cover
5) EJ Day and Co sleeve
6) The cover is heavy – heavier than later 60s ones – and feels waxier.
… which all adds up to a proper first pressing and no mistake

The record: GOOD PLUS/VG MINUS - Read carefully. Condition is consistent with being played quite a lot by a careful teenager: light surface scuffs only (when viewed under pretty unforgiving torchlight). Plays absolutely fine – no jumps or anything nasty sounding on my funky Thorens deck. On a lot of eBay listings, good/very good ends up being something which looks utterly pulverised and just about plays: for me  ‘good’ and ‘very good’ mean records which have been looked after well enough by people who are not as nerdy as me and you. This is a nice record. Promise.

The sleeve: VG PLUS – Young love. This has been kept in an old fashioned PVC sleeve for most of its life and is really nice and bright – even the matt bits on the back. There are occasional dings to the top of the sleeve and the corners which have broken the laminate, very slight feathering to the opening of the sleeve. The spine is nice and clean with no ugly cracks – and no obvious bends. The only minor issue is that there are three tiny marks to the back of the sleeve consistent with something having been stuck to it and removed - the worst of these has seen a 8mm x 8mm piece of the sleevenotes removed. I am being a super fusspot about this, but trust me: it’s a nice sleeve.

Just so you know, all of these records belong to an original Fabs fan – and a fan club member. You can see a picture of her and her girlfriends dressed up like the Beatles which featured in the Beatles Monthly back in 1963 in the gallery above. She saw the Beatles a fair bit around London and was also at the filming of the ‘Around The Beatles’ TV special – she went to the rehearsals and (to my amazement since she is not that kind of person) forged a ticket so she could go back and watch the filming in person the following day.

Trust my gradings! I worked in the rarities department of a famous London record shop chain and I grade old school. If I say something is VG I am speaking Old School Record Collector grading - i.e. a record that has been very well looked after, not (as you see all the time on eBay) something that has been found in a lake. And I don't grade anything MINT unless I know it is unplayed.

I post everywhere, and my rates are fair. I will endeavour to send expensive things signed-for, and will provide proof of postage if necessary and help you hound the postal service if anything goes missing (hasn't happened to me yet - touch wood). People with less than ten transactions, crap or private feedback, or people from countries with problem postal services - understand that you will make me nervous.

NB: I recycle packaging - it's cheap and (in environmental terms) it's the right thing to do.