OINGO BOINGO (LP/33) Only A Lad. 1981 A&M SP-4863 (I.R.S.) VG+

$

20

OINGO BOINGO with their full-length debut album (just after their debut EP) in 1981.  A&M SP-4863 label. (Also I.R.S. is on the label, too.) Etched matrix reads:  AMSP 04863-A RE-2-M1  NR A 25416.  Next to the A&M Logo at the bottom of the label is a "C".     Made in USA.  This has the song by the Kinks, "You Really Got Me"  on it and that made me chuckle a bit.  I'm a huge Kinks fan and this version definitely is not an exact copy of Ray and Dave Davies!  It's funny!  Danny Elfman is the singer and he wrote all the songs (except for the Kinks one), engineered by Steve Brown.  Produced by Pete Solley and Oingo Boingo. 

Side 1:  Little Girls; Perfect System; On the Outside.
Side 2:  Only A Lad; What You See; Controller; Imposter; Nasty Habits.

Cover is in great condition except for owner's name penned in blue ink at the upper right side (Mari).  There is shrink wrap still on it, but opened at the side.  Unfortunately, the penned-in name is on the actual cover, underneath the shrink wrap.  The little ringwear I see is only on the shrink wrap, not the cover.  The corners are in great shape, no tears anywhere.  Inside cover sleeve is cool in that it has all the lyrics and the other side are several b/w photos of the band in action.  A&M label is okay, but I can see a couple of spindle marks. 

The vinyl:   Side 1 has a mix of about 10 scuffs and light surface scratches, long and short.  Side 2 has less, about 4 light surface scratches.  Side 1 played through very crisp and clear.  But Side 2 caught me off guard with a slight situation.  Second track has a very tiny little bubble on it near the end of the song.  I noticed when my needle went over that area, it did jump to the next line/groove 2-3 times really fast.  But then back to normal.  But the last track also had something similar, but I could find no bubble or scratch in that area that would cause a slight jump ahead.  Since it only happened really briefly for a a second on each of those tracks, it wasn't that detrimental to the whole sound.  But I do have a brand new needle on my Technics turntable, so it may be really sensitive to old LPs like this!  But needed to tell you this.  That's why it's only getting a Very Good Plus instead of Excellent.

I rate the cover sleeve as Excellent (EX) only because of owner's name penned in.  The vinyl gets a Very Good Plus (VG+) only because of the couple of mini-skips I heard on 2 tracks. 
___________________________________________________________________________________________

SHIPPING:  Will ship within one-two days of receiving payment via Paypal and will ship between Monday and Friday. Will ship in 45 rpm and LP mailers with inserts and bubblewrap for protection. Will provide tracking number also within the USA. Ships out of the Cleveland, Ohio area. I will ship via First Class mail to Great Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands, and Japan for $13.00 shipping charges on one to two 7-inch 45 rpm records (under 8 oz.) and $21.00 for 12-inch albums (over 9 oz.). Canada shipments are $10.00 for one or two 7-inch 45 rpm records (under 8 oz) and $15.00 for a 12" LP or two (over 9 oz).  (Postage rates increased in 2016 for non-USA countries, unfortunately!)  For overseas countries, Ebay will email you the invoice which includes this shipping charge over and above the winning bid. You are responsible for customs' duties charges, if any.

Feel free to email me for more information on an item.  If you end up buying more than 2 records at once, I can combine postage and send you a bit of money back via Paypal.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Guidelines I use to rate the quality of these records (based on the Goldmine Grading Guide):

NM:Near Mint - Vinyl, still shiny, as if opened for the first time. No writing or stickers on the vinyl. No obvious scratches. Label: No writing or stickers and no fading of the label.

NM-: Near Mint Minus - Similar to NM but will have some very light scratches on the vinyl not affecting the sound quality. No writing or stickers on label and no fading (or ringwear) on cover or label.

EX: Excellent - Not quite a Goldmine Standard Listing, but being used by many now. Cover: No ink wear, minor creases to corners, no seam tears. Vinyl can have scratches, but not felt by your fingers. Sound quality must be mint. No more than 15% of the surface should have wear or scuffs on it. To me, EX is like a VG++.

VG+: Very Good Plus - Similar to NM- except that on the label, there may be a sticker or writing, but it shows very little wear. There may be only a couple light surface scratches on the grooves, but do not affect the playback with noise or skips. You may only see these scratches if you put them under a bright light and really look for them. The cover might have light creasing or minor seam or corner wear, but still in great condition to show off.

VG to VG-: Very Good to Very Good Minus - May not be that shiny anymore and you will see scratches without putting it under a bright light, but they still would not affect the quality of the playback. The sound quality is still pretty good, maybe a little noise, but not enough to detract from the listening experience. The label might have some fading around it, besides having stickers or writing. The cover may have obvious ringwear in the middle or around the perimeter of where the record was, maybe some side seam splits, or little tears at the top or side where the record goes back into. If less defects, then it's a VG. If it has all this just mentioned, then a VG-.

G, G+: Good or Good Plus - It doesn't mean the vinyl is trashed. It plays though without skipping, but may have heavy noise or fuzz sound because of age, quality, or worn-down grooves. Heavy writing or stickers on the label, ringwear is very obvious on label and cover probably has seam splits. But, amazingly, if you have special audio LP recording software, you could probably clean up those crackles and fuzzes, if you want to create a CD of it for yourself.

P: Poor - This is when the vinyl is warped to the point it warps the playback also. Or it's cracked, but it may or may not still play without a skip. If a picture sleeve is with it, this is torn or marked up bigtime. But someone may want to have it for nostalgia or even attempt to fix it.