Columbia 2266-2268, Barber of Seville, Callas, Gobbi

	£		119
	$		158

Hello and thank you for choosing to read this advert.

A word of introduction about myself first of all. My name is James and I’m 44 years old living in the North East of England. I’ve been collecting records for the best part of 30 years now and have amassed a vast amount of music of all genres during that time. Now however, it’s time for a bit of clear out. I’m not selling all of my collection but there are some titles I have duplicate copies of and others that I just can’t find time to listen to as much as I’d like to so these are the things that will be offered for sale here.

As I’m quite new to E-Bay I’d like to assure you that you have no need to worry about anything when dealing with me. I have been buying and selling records by mail order for over twenty years now and have satisfied customers and trading partners all over the world. At least 3 well known e-bay dealers, (all with 4 figure feedback figures) buy their stock from me regularly and I have had no complaints from any of them in fact all of them regularly grade the records with a higher grade than I gave them!. All records which I offer here are play graded all the way through on top class equipment and any faults I find no matter how small will be mentioned. Sleeves will be graded to the same exacting standards with any faults or anything else I think you need to know mentioned, remember that I am primarily a collector myself and I know what it’s like when that eagerly awaited parcel containing the record you’ve just paid a lot of money for arrives and when you open it the record looks and sounds like something the dog’s been eating his dinner off, I’ve been there too many times and I try my best to avoid that happening with anything I sell. Obviously though I’m only human so if I do make a mistake then any disputes will be settled to your satisfaction and I will give a full refund to anyone who buys anything and isn’t one hundred per cent happy with their purchase (although this obviously applies to condition only - I can’t guarantee that you’ll like the music!).

Postage:

UK: 1 LP £4.00

Europe: 1 LP £6.00

Rest of the World :1LP £8.00

Payment:

UK: Cheque, Postal Orders or cash sent at your own risk by registered mail.

Rest of The World: I really don’t like to do this but I’m afraid that the only payments which I’ll accept from outside the UK are by paypal

Registered (insured) Postage is an extra £3 per package and is recommended for valuable packages. If an item is not sent by insured mail and does not arrive at it’s destination or is damaged en-route then I can’t be held accountable.

Any record which sells for more than £60 will be sent post free in the UK, any record which sells for more than £80 will be sent post free anywhere in the world. Any record which sells for more than £100 will be sent post free by registered mail in the UK, any record which sells for more than £125 will be sent post free by registered mail anywhere in the world.

The Item For Sale Is:

Composer: Rossini

Title: The Barber Of Seville

Performed By: The Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Alceo Galliera with Tito Gobbi, Maria Callas, Luigi Alva, Nicola Zaccaria & Fritz Ollendorff

Release info: Columbia (SAX 2266-2268) Stereo 3 LP box set with insert, no year of manufacture given but it’s the light blue label with a silver lattice overlay which would indicate early sixties.

Condition (Sleeve 1st) : EX/EX

OK look, I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the right person to comment on the merits or otherwise of classical (or in this case opera) music. To be totally honest classical music does nothing for me, actually that’s not strictly true I do enjoy some classical music but I don’t know enough to write confidently about it, opera on the other hand I really struggle with. I can appreciate opera from a technical point of view (I did work for an opera company for a couple of years) but I just find it a real struggle to listen to, in fact I find it virtually impossible to listen to. On the whole I’m more of a Hawkwind loving Northern Soul sort of chap but I do have a whole bunch of good quality classical and opera albums to dispose of which if I remember correctly came from a large record collection I bought about a decade ago and have been sitting in boxes ever since and if I don’t put them on Ebay then they’re going to continue to sit around in boxes for ever more. So I’m listing them sporadically in amongst some other albums which my usual customers will be more interested in.

So, if you’re reading this then I assume that you are a opera fan and I’ll ask you to please forgive my ignorance and also the fact that I’m not going to say anything about either the music or performances contained on this album other than to say that if you have any questions please get in touch and I’ll try to the best of my ability to answer them.

Condition: Very good for it’s age. Like a lot of the classical LPs I’m advertising at the moment this one came from a large collection which had been extremely well cared for.

The box is made of a fake red leather type material pasted onto cardboard, there is a laminated glossy picture on the front which is in generally good condition with no tears or writing anywhere but there is the odd little dirty mark on the white parts, nothing serious though. The back of the box is plain red so shows up the slightest little mark but really that’s all there is to show, the odd little marks where something has rubbed against the back. There’s one very very small more serious mark at the top of the back of the box where something has been bumped against the box but this is very very small and not really that serious (if you could find a red marker that matches the colour of the box then it could be coloured so that it’s almost invisible. The edges of the box are also plain red so also show up the slightest mark but again these are in good condition with only the minimum of wear mostly near the corners. One corner of the box has a small piece of clear tape on it so I’m assuming that this is hiding some slight damage. The tape is only about an inch (2-3cm) long in total with half of that being on the top edge and half on the right hand edge. The tape could be removable but I don’t think I would recommend trying. The spine is covered by a red cloth hinge which holds the front and back of the box together, this is in fine condition and has all of the writing on the spine clearly readable. The package also includes an A5 insert with track and personnel details, this is in good condition with no crease or writing.. Also included are 2 pieces of plain card which separate the records, whether these were part of the original package or not I have no idea but they’re doing a fine job so can stay there. There’s also a piece of rice paper which certainly looks old enough to have been part of the original package so that is also staying in the box.

The records themselves are also in very good condition. They are very clean and still have their original black sheen. Held under a harsh light there are no marks to speak of and they play as they look, very nicely with only some very occasional and very minor background crackles in some of the quiet parts, this is only very minor background noise which wouldn’t be noticeable on a louder record and there are certainly no loud annoying noises to spoil your enjoyment. The labels are very clean with no marks or writing on any of them.

A few weeks ago when I first pulled the boxes of classical albums out of the record room this one was actually in the front of the first box so should have been dealt with first however I’ll admit that I couldn’t face listening to it. Finally I admitted it had to be done so settled down to an evening of torture which is exactly what I got (so bad in fact that my partner went out after ten minutes), I think this is a truly dreadful record and I have to admit I had to listen to it over three evenings retreating to the sanity of an Acid Mothers Temple or Dr Z album after each one of these albums. But just because I don’t enjoy this record doesn’t mean that you won’t (in fact it’s good for you because if I did enjoy this then I would be keeping it). We all like different things which is good, you know, it would be a very boring world if we all only liked only one genre of music. So, I’ll give you the opportunity to buy this one off me even though I think it should be binned in the name of good taste (but then I bet you think the same about some of the music which I like don’t you??).

I have had a copy of this record before and sold it to a well known classical dealer who gave me quiet a big price so I know it’s a rare one but I’ll keep the start price low and there’s no reserve so if you fancy it go on, have a bid, it could be a while before you see another good copy of this one.

If you decide to bid for this item I wish you luck and if not, well, thanks for looking and remember to look at my other items for sale you may find something more to your taste there.