Led Zeppelin "Whole Lotta Love" Aussie EP Holy Grail ?

	£		87
	$		115

ARTISTE/TITLE : LED ZEPPELIN "WHOLE LOTTA LOVE

RECORD LABEL / CAT.NO: AUSTRALIAN ATLANTIC (Green Label) / AX-11695 Mono

TRACK LISTING: SIDE 1: i) Whole Lotta Love ii) Black Mountain Side

SIDE 2: i) Good Times Bad Times ii) Communication Breakdown

BACKGROUND : This is the extremely rare Australian mono EP by Led Zep. The last time it was put on offer was in 2003 (closed on 29/7/2003) and it closed at 208 pounds!. A search on the Popsike web page which lists various albums sold on Ebay indicated that it was described as the Holy Grail of Led Zep Australian collectables by the seller and that it was extremely hard to find in Excellent condtion. After taking my grading into account, I have decided to start the bid at 30% of it with no reserve at 60 pounds.

GRADING SYSTEM: I follow the Record Collector and Goldmine grading system and usually play grade them. When in doubt I tend to give a lower grading.In this respect, I rarely give a Mint grading as I never believed that any record cover especially from the 50s or 60s can be in Mint condition. Even if it is sealed, I would not say its Mint,except in very rare cases, as I found even sealed albums can have some minor flaws like edges being affected etc.

CLEANING: It was cleaned on a Clearaudio cleaning machine using Loricraft's L'Art Du Son cleaning compound (which was favourably reviewed in Record Collector magazine some months ago).

PLAY GRADING: I play grade them on a Linn Sondek LP12 with a Naim ARO arm and a Lyra Helikon SL cartridge through an active 3 pack Linn/Naim DBL system. Without trying to sound like a snob, I would like to highlight that the cartridge (or needle as some might term it) is in the US$2000 range. This is to indicate the care I put into my records by using high quality equipment/accessories for playback. Though it may not be an extremely high end system, it does allow the music to flow and is revealing and transparent.

RESULTS AND GRADING:

Cover: I would rate the front cover as only Excellent. Altough it is clean with no tears or writing on it, there is some creasing caused by ringwear on the laminate and it does look its age. There is some slight scuffing at the top and bottom right hand corners . The back cover, also laminated, is also clean and free of tears. However, there is a slight crease on the top left hand corner.I would rate the back cover as Very Good.

Record: The record itself looked a Strong Very Good on visual examination. There were no spindle marks and some slight visible scratches and scuff marks on both sides but nothing serious. The shine and lustre was still excellent.On playing, there was some  surface noise, more so on the opening grooves, but it did not affect play too badly. There was one slight pop half way into  Whole Lotta Love but it was for a split second. I would rate the play grading as a strong Very Good though I think that prospective bidders are more keen on the extrinsic aspects of this record rather than its sonics!

DELIVERY: I have indicated a shipping charge of 4 pounds but this is with registration. I strongly suggest registration as the postal authorities tend to be more cautious with such modes of postage. I do not impose handling charges, just cost of postage and packing materials.Winners of more than one item will have their postage costs adjusted accordingly to cost.I use brand new custom made plastic inner and outer sleeves and I usually place them between 2 very strong corrugated boards and wrap them with several layers of shrink wrap. They are then placed in a special padded envelope which Singapore Post sells for fragile items. So far, the people who bought from me generally gave me private feedbacks showing appreciation for the packing, including a 190 pound Black Sabbath single I sold recently. Usually I make it a point to post them the morning following payment if such payment is effected within a few hours of bids closing. As we are 8 hours ahead of GMT so successful bidders dont fret if I dont reply for a few hours as your E mail might have been sent during our nights.

AFTER SALES SERVICE /FEEDBACK: Generally, I believe that the sale is concluded only when the buyer has the record in his hands and in this respect will inform them of the postage registration details etc. Futhermore I tend to drop Emails after a week to see if they received it.

MODE OF PAYMENT:I prefer Paypal but would consider other modes of payment. I used to advertise in Record Collector 2 years ago as "Sreedharan" and used to accept even cash in a registered envelope though IMOs might be a lot safer..