THE BEATLES Help SCARCE UK 1969 ONE EMI BOX LABEL NEAR MINT LP, SUPERB EXAMPLE.

	£		41
	$		54

ONEADAYRECORDS – Simply Delivering Quality Music to the World in Quality, Safe Packing.

Postage: UK £4.75 (£1 per extra record). Europe (including Russia) £12.50 (£2 per extra record). Rest of World (including ALL parts of the USA) £16.50 (£3 per extra record). All boxes signed for in quality, safe packaging – I NEVER use mailing envelopes that offer virtually no protection at all, and records WILL arrive damaged in them at some time as most record buyers will already know. Here, you get what you pay for – SAFE PACKING in BOXES using 7mm DOUBLE-WALL STIFFENERS including full side protection and bubble wrap, the records removed from the covers of course. All this very safe packing means I lose money on every box I post, but safe delivery is, and will always be paramount. You WILL see the difference when my packet arrives. Also, I will pay for insurance on any record that sells for over £100 at NO extra cost – that is UK and abroad. Also I aim to post the very same day after payment is received if possible. PLEASE NOTE: I will NOT send any item, no matter what its value without a Royal Mail or courier tracking number. ALL my items must be signed and trackable to comply with Ebay delivery rules. Please do NOT ask me to make any exceptions to this rule as no country offers 100% reliable service without it.

Posting to Russia: Yes, I do post to Russia. But delivery can take longer from the UK. So please be patient. I will submit a tracking number to the winning bidder, and when the packet arrives there it can be followed online using the Russian post website.

ALSO: I now apply the Ebay ‘2-day’ rule for non-payment to keep things moving – cash-flow is important for any small business.

ANY ITEM or ITEMS TO BE PAID WITHIN A MAXIMUM OF 6 DAYS or they will be cancelled – NO EXCEPTIONS.

FINALLY: Late payers, non-payers and ‘0’ bidders will now be blocked or cancelled at my discretion, as will any bidder who cancels a bid. Please only bid on my items if you want them.

Artist or Band: THE BEATLES

Album Title: Help!

Producer(s): George Martin

TRACK LIST:

Side 1: Help!; The Night Before; You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away; I Need You; Another Girl; You’re Going to Lose That Girl; Ticket to Ride.

Side 2: Act Naturally; It’s Only Love; You Like Me Too Much; Tell Me What You See; I’ve Just Seen a Face; Yesterday; Dizzy Miss Lizzy.

Label/Format: Parlophone with matt, quite smooth surfaces. This a scarce – and arguably the rarest label for this record. Issued in 1969 on the one box format, quickly replaced to the two box version, this still included the flipbacked laminated cover and the sepia inner sleeve.

Label Conditions: Both very clean, fresh and attractive with only a tiny few ultra light, fine and faint spindle traces and no wear around the hole area. The beauty of a slightly later copy, these were less likely to have been played on the most basic of record players from the 1960s, and indeed this copy appears hardly played at all. Superbly pressed with wonderful clean sound for all the songs, including the difficult ‘Yesterday’ that so often crackles on the earlier versions.

Catalogue Number: PCS 3071

Mode / Speed: Stereo / 33.3 rpm.

Up and Down Movement: A gentle trace. Few vintage records will ever be perfectly flat, any issues with significant movement or tracking will be mentioned in detail if applicable.

Lateral Movement (Side-to-Side): Barely a Trace.

Weight of this Record: 139 grams.

Country of Manufacture: England

Rarity: The album itself is common, like all standard Beatles albums, this sold in vast numbers. But most found will be the original first or second pressings, usually in mono, and so often trashed. This is a beautiful hardly played example, superbly pressed with sound to match. Also on the one box label that is far more elusive as it was quickly changed to the two box format.

Original Year of Release: 1965. This ‘fourth’ pressed version is from 1969.

Matrix Nos: YEX 168-1 / YEX 169-1

Mothers / Stampers: 3 H0 / 3 LR

Musicians: John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; electric piano, organ; tambourine; snare drum; Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; bass, acoustic and lead guitars; piano, electric piano; George Harrison – harmony and background vocals; lead, acoustic and rhythm guitars; lead vocals; guiro; Ringo Starr – drums and percussion; claves; lead vocal. With: George Martin – piano; John Scott – tenor and alto flutes.

Brief Info: Album number five for the Fab Four, half the songs featured in the film of the same name. Most will know about this superb album, just to say, it’s a lovely clean copy from 1969 and appears hardly played.

Cover Grade and Format: EXCELLENT(++): a single format with front laminate, this covers all folds and ends on three rear flipbacks. The main back panel is matt and smooth. Printed and made in England by Garrod & Lofthouse and still including the ‘Patents pending’ text. The original sepia inner sleeve is also included.

Lamination & Front: The laminate retains excellent shine, freshness and clarity with any dulling or marks little, few and light. No lifting and only a little light surface creasing near the edges here-and-there. An impressive looking fron for a fifty-year-old cover.

Cover Back: The main back panel is superb and hardly aged at all, any blemishes minimal, few and faint with barely a crease to be seen. All three flipbacks are very close to as-made, solid and crisp, also lacking the usual ugly darkening of the laminate ends.

Top & Bottom Edges: Both very straight, smoothly laminated and unworn.

Right Edge(s), and Type: Clean, mostly sharp with any thickening light as seen viewed end-on. Record enters on this edge.

Spine and Text: A very attractive spine as well. Solid, straight with minimal compression, the ends are deeply pinched in manufacture. All text is perfect and unworn under the solid and uncracked laminate.

Corners: Any tip rubs or creasing tiny and light, excellent or better shape retained with no knocks.

Cover Summary: A very strong all-round example of this lovely late 1960’s cover, one that will prove very difficult to find much better. This beautiful item should please many, if not most collectors.

The Inner Sleeve: NEAR MINT: the unlined EMI sepia promotional inner is practically as-made with no edge splits, creasing, and hardly even aged.

Vinyl Condition/Visual Grading: MINT(–): arguably better. A superb visual copy that is very clean with equally fine shine and very solidly pressed on very pure quality vinyl. A copy appearing hardly even on all the evidence with any surface traces minuscule. No penetrating stylus scratches, viewed in average room light, hardly anything even registers. Compare this to the majority of earlier copies found these days, few will come close. Visually a super record that should please many, if not most collectors.

Album Played For Grading: Yes. [I play ALL records I offer before submitting to Ebay, also the record is played in its entirety unless clearly stated otherwise. I do NOT play snippets or joining grooves to check for sound quality and quietness – I play from the beginning to end via clinically revealing equipment, all listed further down.]

Sound Quality and Audio Grading: This Beatles classic album – their second soundtrack set – plays up to it’s high visual grading with barely anything to fault. Offering strong, distortion-free sound, all frequencies are sharp and clear – sound quality is very high with a wide dynamic range and very detailed sound. Any surface sounds are minimal indeed and this is a very clean pressing with no tracking issues* or inherent pressing noises. Few available copies will outperform this still vintage pressing I feel sure. Both channels are clean and sharp, I am certain this record has been played very lightly and has been very well stored and carefully handled, almost certainly in a non-smoking environment. Cover protection makes a considerable difference of course. Nothing spoilt my pleasure when play-grading this lovely record. It will prove very difficult to find significantly better and can be strongly recommended.

* As played-graded on a high-end Linn LP12 Sondek turntable with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge tracking at 2 grams. Records are a ‘contact’ format, and few will avoid the odd minor sound blemish.

I am one of the most established sellers on Ebay, trading since 2001 and offering the finest records I can find. I pride myself on offering a variety of genres to keep my site as interesting as possible. I will rarely offer any record that falls below a true Excellent grading, unless its of a certain rarity which will justify offering a lesser grade. I try, to the best of my ability to describe as accurately and as honesty all elements of the items I offer for sale. You may notice I only submit records quite sparingly on Ebay as I Play-Grade every record I offer in their entirety – also on higher-end equipment – not just bits to guess a grade – visuals alone do not always tell a true story. I will try to mention any defects or flaws no matter how small that I notice to be fair as possible to any interested collector – I am very fussy and my buyers have the right to be too. Every record I offer, whether it be a common or rare item deserves the same respect as far as I am concerned and will be treated the same – just because an item is rare does not always mean it’s good. I get just as much pleasure offering a relatively common record in near mint condition as the real rare items. All the pictures I use for your guidance are the item being offered with no digital enhancements. Room light factors can make things vary sometimes, that is hard to control, especially in winter. I hope the item below is to your liking – any questions can be emailed and I will do my best to answer you. I am enthusiastic, and have a fair degree of knowledge about many genres and I promise quality items. Please assume all records I offer have NO jumps, sticks, major warps or writing on covers or labels unless clearly stated to the contrary. Thanks for your interest and Good luck – MIKE.

Deck: Linn LP12/Hercules/Cirkus with Ittok Mk II arm and Ortofon Quintet Black moving coil cartridge (tracks at 2 grams). Amps: Naim Supernait 2 with Project USB phono stage and Tellerium Black interconnects. Speakers: B&W 805 Nautilus (bi-wired with Tellurium Black terminated cable) with REL subwoofer. All records I offer on Ebay are cleaned on a professional Nessie vacuum machine before play-grading for the cleanest and best possible sound and will include a brand new lined inner and protective cover too. Pictures taken with a Nikon D7500 DSLR Camera.

PACKING – THIS IS WHAT YOU GET.

What You Get: To confirm to the strict Ebay rules on shipping, I must now send ALL my packets ‘Signed-For’ with NO exceptions. Both buyers and sellers want their packets to have a safer journey and this is not a bad thing.

PLEASE NOTE: I now exercise my right to open a dispute after the Ebay rule of TWO days if no payment is received. I will then cancel the dispute to end the bid, again after the mandatory FOUR days and then offer the item to the runner-up or relist. The non-payer will also be blocked from my Ebay site as will any suspicious bids or bid bid retractions. Small businesses need prompt payment to trade and these strict rules WILL be applied.

SHIPPING COSTS & CONDITIONS – THESE comply with EBAY’S RULES - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY:

Posting & Packing: UK & CHANNEL ISLANDS all now sent via Recorded Delivery:

1 LP (FIRST-CLASS Recorded Delivery with Standard Royal Mail Insurance) [Signed For] = £4.75

1 LP (Special Delivery with Standard £500 Maximum Insurance) [Signed For, Next Day] = £7.50. (this includes insurance of £500). Add £1 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: EUROPE & SCANDINAVIA. (Airmail Only):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £12.50 (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3). Add £2 per extra LP.

Posting & Packing: ALL OVERSEAS (non-European) e.g. USA (ANY PART OF); South America; New Zealand; Australia; Canada; Japan and other Far East; (Airmail Only: I NEVER use Surface Mail):

1 LP (Small Packet ‘Signed For’ with Standard Royal Mail Insurance [£50 maximum]) = £16.50 (£17.50 for double sets). Add £3 per extra LP. (enhanced Royal Mail insurance is an optional extra £3)

Payment Conditions:

I prefer PayPal or cheque from UK winning bidders. I only accept PayPal from overseas bidders or direct payment into my bank account.

Potential Bidders: I will cancel any bids I feel are time-wasters. A maximum 2 days for communication and 7 days for payment to arrive – if not I will relist the item or offer to the runner-up.

My Guarantee: If any winning bidder is not satisfied with their purchase I will offer a complete refund if the item is returned in the same condition is was sent e.g. as per the listing pictures.

SOME GENERAL GUIDES TO WEAR AND CONDITIONS TO HELP YOU DECIDE

My Use of Description Terminology: Surface Marks = Superficial, usually light marks, hairlines or light scuffs that rarely sound. Scratch = a needle mark that goes below the record’s surface, some will sound, some will not, my play-grade will inform. Original = a record that has been pressed with the first label design which does NOT necessarily mean a very first pressed record. First Pressing = A record that I believe or know to be a genuine very first pressed record. I do not claim to always know for sure, and that’s why I state the stamper and matrix numbers if at all possible, for those who claim to know what they all mean, the information is there for the collector to decide. I prefer to use terms like ‘Early Copy’ rather than ‘First Pressing’ if I am not totally sure. Surface Sound = Mild, light sound, usually light crackle or similar. Distortion = Break up of the actual sound caused by groove wear or damage from a chipped stylus – the most undesirable form of unwanted sound, vintage mono records were the most prone to this happening but not exclusively so. The symptoms of distortion are high frequency clipping, moderate constant crackle or an echo type sound quality. Violin, piano and vocals are most prone to groove-wear distortion. Feathering = Fraying or softening of the entry edge of a cover. Covers with feathered entrance edges are more likely to have had the actual record inserted and removed more than a non-feathered, sharp-edged cover which are always far more attractive. Set Off, a printer’s term for dark ink leaving mild residue on pale or white ink when rested upon. e.g. when a gatefold cover has black ink closed against white, this can leave some black residue on the pale area – this is mostly unavoidable or course.