You love crate digging, and one Sunday every month you make it a point to visit local estate sales, yard sales, or thrift stores to search for something rare and expensive.
Unfortunately, lately you’re not having much luck. And you wonder, “What should I do now?”
Well, to help you out, in this post we’re sharing 5 insanely rare LPs and information on how you can easily identify them.
Have a look.
The BEATLES: YESTERDAY AND TODAY (THE BUTCHER COVER)
Ranked among the most controversial and notorious alternate versions, this album has been a prized collector’s item since 1966.
The record is famous—or rather infamous—for its sanguinary cover. The four members of the band are shown wrapped in cut-up dolls and raw meat.
Because of moral outrage, Capitol relented and destroyed majority of these covers prior to release. However, some promotional albums got out and a few also got sold. Also rather than scrapping the stock completely, Capitol pasted a benign-looking cover over the original and brought out a new edition.
As per the collectors, the notorious butcher cover has three states.
- First-state covers – These albums have the original butcher cover intact. These were either promotional copies or those that were bought before the covers were switched.
- Second-state covers – These feature glued covers.
- Third-state covers – These are those in which the glued-on cover has been removed.
Although the prices of these three states vary, they are much in demand, thanks to innumerable die-hard Beatles fans out there.
BOB DYLAN: FREEWHEELIN’ (THE WITHDRAWN VERSION)
Columbia was about to release the second album from Bob Dylan in 1963, when, just prior to release, it decided to take off four tracks from the list and add newer tracks instead.
One pressing plant, however, didn’t receive the message. As a result, it pressed some rare copies of this album featuring the original tracks, including those which were withdrawn.
The misprint copies, which are very rare and so worth a fortune, have matrix markings ending with -1A on the either side. Some, along with a matrix number ending with -1A, list these tracks on their back cover:
- Talkin’ John Birch Blues
- Let Me Die In My Footsteps
- Rocks and Gravel
- Gamblin’ Willie’s Dead Man’s Hand
PINK FLOYD: DARK SIDE OF THE MOON (THE BLUE TRIANGLE COPY)
Identifying the first pressing of this album is not hard at all. It has a solid blue triangular prism on the cover while all the latter ones featured a hollow/translucent triangle.
While this version is not as rare as other versions in the list, you can expect to get about $200, if not more, for an old and battered “blue triangle” copy. If you can get your hands on one in mint condition, you can easily earn several thousand.
NIRVAVAN: BLEACH (THE GLACIAL WHITE VERSION)
During the 2nd pressing of Bleach (Nirvana’s debut album), some proofs didn’t match the specifications of Sub Pop. Instead of the specified marbled white vinyl, some proofs had a greenish tinge. These were dubbed as glacial white or iceberg vinyl and promptly discarded. However, some were salvaged and entered circulation.
Two hundred glacial white versions were pressed, but exactly how many entered circulation is something that no one knows. Consider yourself very lucky in case you’re able to locate one.
DAVID BOWIE: DIAMOND DOGS (The DOG GENITALS COPY)
If ever there was a weird LP cover, it might very well be the cover of the first pressing of Diamond Dogs, in which David Bowie appears as half man and half dog. Because of public outrage, majority of the copies were pulled out.
However, some survived. This version is highly sought after by rabid David Bowie fans, and therefore is very expensive.
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