NM Play LES MISERABLES Original London Cast Album Vinyl 2LP FirstNight/Encore1

$

30

Alain Boublil & Claude Michel Schonberg: Les Miserables Original London Cast Album Starring Colm Wilkinson, Michael Ball & Patti LuPone
First Night Records, Encore 1 1985 2-LP Record Album Gatefold jacket
This is the original UK issue of the seminal Cameron Mackintosh/Royal Shakespeare Company production, that first opened in London in 1985, and would go on to become the longest running musical in West End history. There are a few variations seen in the classic jacket design: this one's noted for the cover's title "l" extending into the RSC logo box. Another design of the RSC logo appears in another UK version, as well as the later US issue, released by Relativity. This version also has no bar code, as later issues do.
The following is an assessment of the album's condition:
Vinyl  Aural, not visual assessment. Record 1--Sides A & B--plays near mint, virtually noise-free. Minor flaws on Record 2: a couple of blips in "A Little Fall of Rain" (Record 2, Side C). And a blip at the outset of "Bring Him Home" (Record 2, Side D). Everything else is clean & clear. NM-
Inner Sleeves  Custom, printed with lyrics and stage directions. One is mint; the other has a 1" slit at the bottom edge. NM
Jacket  Perfect structurally, with minimal signs of surface wear. The only pronounced "flaw" is an irregular pencil-line marking above the cover title "M". A crease mark? A scratch to the surface? I'd guess the latter. Pristine inner gatefold. Rear jacket has a sticker at top left indicating the album's importer, Musicrama Record & Tape Dist., along with the words EUROPEAN PRESSING--HIGH QUALITY NM-
Deadwax runout Side A: DM-B-3772 A-1/85 S l l Side B: DM-B-3772 B-1/85 S l l Side C: DM-B-3773 A-1/85S l l Side D: DM-B-3773 B-1/85 S l l
*Cleaned with Spin-Clean Record Washer MKII. Record will be housed in a new Mobile Fidelity inner sleeve, and shipped outside of its jacket* __________

About grading, and my priorities:

I’m using the well-known Goldmine standard, for rating vinyl records. But with this caveat: In rating the vinyl itself, only one thing matters to me: how it “plays”. The aural experience. I don’t care what it looks like. I’m not even sure how one can extrapolate how a record will play, based solely on a visual inspection of the vinyl. I’ve experienced shiny, pristine-looking vinyl, that proved to be intolerably noisy upon listening. And vice versa, vinyl that looked well worn, but played beautifully. I’m not even sure of what some of these descriptives mean, like “sleeve marks”. 

So basically, a vinyl rating of NM, near-mint, will indicate that the record, though used, plays cleanly, with an absence of extraneous noise--clicks, pops, ticks, crackle & crunch, static blips, etc. It implies nothing about the vinyl's appearance, because that is rendered irrelevant, moot. It is not a decorative object. And more to the point: it won't give me an accurate read on its sonics. Who can be sure, whether or not a scratch will affect play? And who goes around “feeling” scratches, to see how deep they are? I can only see visual grading playing a role of last resort, when neither buyer nor seller can give an accounting of the aural experience.

The upshot is, I will not list any used, unsealed records, without listening to them in their entirety. And my vinyl ratings will be based solely on the sound emanating from the grooves. I'm not talking about the quality of the audio engineering of the original vinyl (though I may make a remark when a record stands out for its sheer sound). I'm talking about the extraneous noises that come from usage, wear & tear. 

That said, there’s a certain amount of subjectivity in all this, the assigning of a grade. And you may become aware of something that passed by me somehow. Also, how a record sounds will vary from system to system. I want buyers to be pleased with their purchase. Everything I sell can be returned for a refund, minus shipping costs, for any reason at all, within 30 days. Provided it’s returned to me in the exact condition in which it was received. If you believe that I significantly misrepresented an album’s condition, please let me know. I’m a reasonable person, and will accept responsibility, assume shipping costs...if I’m dealing with a reasonable person, with a reasonable claim. We like to believe that such is always the case, but unfortunately experience proves otherwise. I won't be played. So don't even think about it.

If you're unhappy with a record you receive, please notify me so we can resolve the issue. Please take into account that I expend a lot of time & effort, in order to be as conscientious a seller as I can be. There's no need to assume a hostile or abusive stance.

About shipping:

Happy to combine purchases, to minimize the cost of shipping. Records will be shipped in a cardboard mailer specifically designed for records, capable of carrying 1-5 LPs. Base postage price will go up in small increments, only when USPS weight thresholds are crossed. 

It's not an immutable thing set in stone; an objective reality that will be experienced the same way across multiple playing platforms. I used to think surface noise reflected vinyl damage...and there's not much one could do about it. Well, sometimes, that is the case. But I didn't realize how often noise is a by-product of dirty grooves that can be cleaned up, or a static charge that can be neutralized. I also wasn't aware of the role that equipment can play, in highlighting or bypassing the vinyl's potentially vulnerable spots. Turntable, stylus, cartridge--and how they're set up, aligned, calibrated--all play a role here. I don't have any expertise in the science of audio production. But I am a musician. So all I can do is relate, as accurately as I can, my experience & findings, in listening to these records on my own system: a vintage Technics Direct Drive Automatic SL-D500. My cartridge is an Audio Technica AT 3482P, and I recently replaced the stylus with the ATN81CP from the same company. 

It is time consuming, to audit all these records in their entirety. But I'm not comfortable putting used albums up for sale, when it remains a mystery to both the public and me as to what is contained within those vinyl grooves.