MARTINEQUES, ME-O 1002 rare northern soul 45 vg

$

1,075

 Rare northern soul 45. Auction that begins with a buy-it-now option. Please read the description carefully before bidding or buying.

MARTINEQUES, If You Want to Call Me / My Baby She Can’t Dance. ME-O 1002. Very rare 45. “If You Can Call Me” is a good song with an excellent performance. It could perhaps be classified as a ballad with a relaxed beat. The “B” side is more uptempo. From all indications, this is a very rare item. Only one has been sold on eBay recently, and that ended with a price significantly higher than my buy-it-now price of $1075 (although that was in somewhat better condition).

LABEL CONDITION: The small red spot that shows on the “A” side was some tape or something and it has been removed. The other wear remains and is quite visible in the pictures.

VINYL CONDITION:  By my grading standards, this record will barely pass for a vg, but cannot conceivably be rated any higher. I could perhaps slide this down to my “weak vg” category, but that is a tough call. In any case, I will try to describe the flaws the best I can. There is obvious use, and some abuse, and it shows in the form of general wear, numerous scuffs, and a some scratches. Most of the scratches are light , and can barely be felt, but there is a deeper scratch that extends from the lead-in vinyl over about 1/3 of the playing surface of the “A“ side. The vinyl retains a good percentage or its luster, in spite of the mishandling. I have played both sides, and on my stereo, they play all the way through with no skips. The “A” side has the aforementioned scratch, along with some other flaws, so there are irritating tics through the first third of the song along with some noticeable light surface noise. As the song progresses the quality improves. The “B”side plays perhaps a little better., although it looks a little worse overall.  The white spot that appears on both pictures, is, of course, the result of a reflection.
While this record is certainly not a near-mint, or even vg+ copy, it is far from hopeless listening. The music comes through fine, although the distractions are there. I would say it plays at about vg quality on my stereo. 
I gave this record a quick cleaning between listenings and that improved the quality  noticeably. I suspect a professional cleaning would further improve things, but do not know for sure. In any case, there are some noises here that no cleaning will remove.

I will not send this record to Italy, Germany or France. If you are a customer from one of those countries and have a U.S. address I can send it to, that would be fine.

Records have not been spot played unless the description states that they have.

I have sold records through the mail for over twenty years and I try to be a strict and accurate grader (please see my grading standards below). I have no desire to misrepresent anything but, like all dealers, I can make mistakes. Occasionally my eyes and/or my judgement may fail me. If you are not satisfied with your record, please contact me and I will try to make things right.

GRADING STANDARDS:

m- = like new

vg++ = almost indistinguishable from m-, but perhaps a few plays.

nice vg+ = more use, but still very high quality

vg+ = inspection shows obvious signs of use, but it has been well-treated and looks like it should satisfy most listeners. May have some scuffs, but should have no scratches that can be felt, unless specified in the description.

weak vg+ = usually a record that is mostly vg+ or better, but which has flaws on a track or two. Sometimes just a few too many scuffs to qualify for a vg+

nice vg = some obvious abuse, but looks like it will play with only light distractions

vg = more abuse, but looks like it will be decent, if flawed, listening weak vg, vg-, g+, g = increasingly worn and apt to be quite noisy. Please do not expect too much from records with these grades.

END OF AUCTION: I will send you an invoice within a day or so after the auctions end. I am a one person operation, so if I have a lot of sales it may take awhile to get to you. If you wish to email me or pay through paypal before you hear from me, that is fine.

U.S POSTAGE: U.S postage is $4.00. At my discretion I will add insurance at my own expense for this item/

OVERSEAS POSTAGE: will be quoted. Depending on the end price, I may send this priority mail at my own expense.