Should vinyl records no longer be sold “sealed”?

This is normal in this country. Obviously my comment about sealed vs unsealed does not apply in this case, because you can't tamper with the disc until you have bought it.

A different tactic used by a Perth record store (at leasst they did this for CDs, I'm not sure what they did for vinyls) was to have the disc in a large perspex lockable case that presumably had an anti-theft device that would trigger an alarm if you tried to take it out of the store. When I say "large" they were very large, about twice the height of a CD. It was very annoying, because although you could pick it up and examine the CD front and back, depending on the clarity of the perspex it could be very difficult to read any writing, and of course any information on the inside was completely inaccessible. I can understand why a store might take this option but it was somewhat off-putting and I wonder if it might have contributed to the loss of business that eventually forced them to close.

 

Right... and allow indie stores to return ALL product with defects. There's a lot of stuff that is "nonreturnable." And don't get me started on RSD...

 

Anyone remember Our Price record store in the UK? They used to store cd’s behind the counter in card sleeves. The cd’s were always messed up with marking and looked like used cd’s...similar to when records are kept in card sleeves for long periods, they just look horrible. Bad idea.

 

I wouldn't like it! How many sets of fingerprints would new records (or cds) come with before you get it home? Might be an extreme example, but I can even see uncareful folks flinging records around and them sliding out of sleeves, wrong albums being put in wrong sleeves etc, too many folks are just careless. Maybe if actual record stores were still plentiful it could work but when the main, easily accessible sources for records are places like Target, and Barnes And Noble...na, too many hands pawing the stock.

 

new factory fresh vinyl should be sold sealed...

 

years back a few of the CD/Record stores in The Village, NYC did that as well with CDs...I don't recall any with vinyl doing such...the LP was in the cover.

 

When I was a kid I grew up in a town called Worthing and we had a record store that you could take the record cover over to the counter, ask to hear it and they would pull the vinyl from the shelves behind them and put it on a turntable and send you over to a booth...one of a few, and you could hear the actual record before buying it.

 

They absolutely let employees take those home to play and then sell them as “new”.

 

Not to mention separating the items requires double the space.

 

give me an LP that is quiet, flat, centered, w zero non-fill, skips, pops etc .... beyond that .... i don't give a SH_T if it's sealed

 

All my U.K. imports bought in the 80s in AU were unsealed and perfect, unlike tbe new sealed ones now.

 

New records that are not sealed open the door for sellers to sell records that have been played and claim that they were never played.

The only way to know the records weren't played is by sealing them. For me, a sealed record doesn't mean a perfect record, it means a truly new and unplayed record.

 

Exactly, can see returns being sold off as "new" as well

Your comment also reminds me how it is a common thing for Ladies Clothing Stores to allow the staff to wear the clothes they sell in the store for the work day then at the end of the day, they just take the clothes off, then stick the tags back on & hang them back on the rack as new so they sell them after they have been worn by staff all day!

 

You are spot on and i remember that about boots too... Also i seem to remember the checking being done very particularly at a small record shop in my home town with the owner going out back to get 3 copies of a led zep album for me ahead of him being happy enough to take my money on one occasion ... such attention to detail sadly long gone on the high street...

 

Same here in Germany. Until the early 2000s it was pretty standard that you could have a listen to CDs and vinyl in nearly all retailers to make your decision if you are willing to buy the record.

Even though this practice was good for my wallet I already hated it back then. Not only the headphones were disgusting often times but also the vinyl/CDs never looked like new anymore because the weren’t handled properly by the staff and/or the customers.

Thankfully because of the internet from 2005-ish there wasn‘t a huge demand for those in-store listening stations any longer and this practice died. Because of streaming in 2021 there even isn‘t a need for listening stations in 99,99% of all cases. I recently talked to my local record store owner and he comfirmed that he hasn’t been asked for years by a customer if there is any chance to listen to a specific record before buying it.

Personally, I definitely prefer sealed records for all reasons already mentioned above. In fact, I even think twice about buying a record that is labeled „new“ but isn’t sealed. This especially goes for my shopping at discogs. I hate statements like „only opened to varify the color“. Furthermore, I don’t like it when I receive a package and the sender opend the record to put it out of the cover to avoid seam split. Dude, I know you did it with good intention but ask me before you open a record I bought as „sealed“ from you! I admit this does rarely happen but it does happen.

The only aspect that I don’t like about sealed records is that plastic is bad for the environment. BUT in that sense I immediately would have to stop buying records and CDs anyway.

It is common sense that record collectors are really picky and nerdy when it comes to the condition of records. Everyone wants the best and cleanest condition possible. Having this in mind I really do wonder about the complaints/demands from the „Too many records“-guy from the video (who I do like a lot). Personally, I buy a ton of records and I cannot remember a single case of a wrapped record where I had the suspicion that the damage was done because it was sealed.

 

Many British people of a certain generation will remember the first Virgin record shops where you could ask to listen to a record and they would play it for you on headphones whilst you lounged on a beanbag on the floor. If you went with a friend they would arrange for the music to play over two sets of headphones, which was nice.

 

My local shop in Chester in the 70's would play the records all day and more than twice put them back in the wrong place. No poly-lined cover, no card stiffeners and on inspection if he found a mark he'd lick his finger and try to remove it!

 

I can beat you on that one lol...

My local record shop in the late 70s visually inspected a 7" single I was buying one Saturday... There was a mark on it, so he rubbed it on his jeans .

I'd have only been 9 or 10 at the time, but I was fussy enough even back then not to buy it.

 

He must have run out of fingers very quickly! Or did you mean "remove the mark"?

 

100% true. I work in publishing and once sold books to Urban Outfitters who had to have them all shrink wrapped/polybagged. Really couldn't fight it, hated doing it!

 

it doesn't matter what I think.

records sold new will never be not sealed in cellophane, whether consumers want it that way or not

 

One of the worst aspects of the secondary selling market is when a seller grades a sealed record as 'presumed mint': a meaningless term. This is total crap. These sellers are either being sneaky or are just ignorant. It's not mint until it's opened, inspected and graded as mint. Until then, I presume it's just a sealed record and nothing more.

 

It’s amazing how much crap you read from…most likely the hipsters on YouTube and discogs. One comment on this guys video said he wants them to stop using shrink wrap as he sometimes ends up bending the sleeve when he is opening the record?!?

What kind of force would you need to be using to damage a shrink wrapped sleeve just by opening it?

 

It would be interesting to observe his technique. I use one of those tools intended as a letter opener to open shrink-wrapped items such as CDs, and I would use the same for vinyls if I bought them. Once a long incision has been made, the cellophanec easily peels away with minimal force. I imagine many or most of us use a similar technique. It sounds as if this guy is doing something like grabbing a fistful of plastic from either side and pulling hard until something breaks - hopefully the cellophane.

 

I use a guitar pick to open sealed Lps. Works perfectly every time

It would be a very wrong idea to sell new Lps un-sealed.
Back then in France, no vinyl records were ever sealed. And it wasn't like in the UK: the discs were not stored behind the desk.
So anyone could access to every insert, inner sleeve or the dics themselves. The result was:

-Lps with inserts missing (because somebody took them and put them all in another cheaper record they were buying. Especially posters or photographs.)
-Discs put back in the wrong jackets.
-Fingerprints all over the records.
-Many damages to the sleeves: wear, corner crushed, creases, you name it.

Remember there was no internet so there was no way for us to learn what inserts were supposed to be present inside the sleeve. And the sellers, especially in large malls, didn't have a clue either.

Believe me, you can be thankful to the sealed Lps of today.