


I finally had the chance to buy an original Velvet Underground debut LP on Sat at the market. I've had an early 1970's US press forever which is knackered. So the dealer had what looked like a nice clean UK stereo for £120 (it's £200 in the latest price guide btw). Initially I wasn't going to bother as I'm trying to be more thrifty this year but I knew all I would do would be to complain to myself and everyone else in the coming weeks that I should have just bought it. It's a genre classic, you don't see it about and I'd rather spend good money on one LP than £120 on a load of shelf fillers.
As you can see the sleeve is EX or VG+ if you're being conservative (or US grading) and the vinyl is visually the same. Played the first side and absolutely spot on, very little background noise and no clicks/pops etc. I flip it over and a minute into Heroin a click starts that then jumps. All in all it clicks around 10 times and jumps about 5 times. Not massive jumps but literally jumping into the next groove. It's only then I noticed the scratch (and only under bright light) running parallel with the grooves...the worst kind of scratch! Rest of the LP plays like the A side, trouble free.
1) So, do I cut my losses and take it back to the dealer for my money back (which will be no problem).
2) See if I can get some money off for the damage. I doubt this may happen because I'm pretty sure he'll be able to sell it to other local grippers, scratch or no scratch.
3) Just ignore the damage and be grateful I've finally got a copy that plays great for the most part b/w file it and just continue listening to my CD!
I'm guessing most will say don't be such a daft git and get your money back but I'm finding that pretty much every record I buy these days has condition issues, whether sold as NM or not. You have to pay absolute premium for proper NM copies and they're only online. I never spend £100 type money online because I've become so disillusioned with receiving overgraded records. Unfortunately it seems to be happening with most things I buy in the real world, even though most of the time visually they look OK. One from Utrecht has particularly pained me and cost me proper money so I'm on a downer with records in general at the moment.
Anyway, sorry about the long ramble. Opinions appreciated.
Comment