To Open Older Sealed Vinyl Or Keep It Sealed??

If you have a sealed Butcher Cover, do not open it.

 

If you love music more than money OPEN IT.
If you love money more than music keep it sealed.

 

I have Rage Against the Machine's debut sealed, which I purchased for $1

I figure that I'll make someone's day with it in the future, but for now I shall keep it safe and sealed in my collection. I don't own these records, I am merely taking care of them so that future generations can rock them like a hurricane.

 

Open it and play it. It was MEANT to be played and LISTENED to!

 

+1

If you intend to enjoy the record at some point, open it immediately... because it could have problems. "Sealed" notwithstanding, it might not be your dream copy. You won't know until you open it and play it.

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Or...find one already open for next to nothing, play it, then sell the sealed one for a zillion bucks on Ebay.

 

If it's something worth a lot more sealed than open, buy a good quality open copy, sell the sealed one, and use the profits to feed your music habit.

If the value of the sealed copy isn't much higher than that of a good quality open copy, then what difference does it make?

 

I buy records for the music, not for some perceived collectors value. Open it and play it!

 

It's a mass-produced artifact with little or no intrinsic value whatsoever.

Really now, this is hardly the same type of scenario as the unsealing of the pharaonic burial chambers of the great pyramids of Egypt - and even there, the question never arose!

 

I don´t want a stamp collection, pictured on a frame on the wall. Valuable records usually are the ones with the best SQ. You are missing to much

 

I just opened a copy of The Travel Agency, which qualifies as rare, if not superly so. But I knew from the needledrop cd that I liked the music, and wanted to hear a better copy. I left my copy of Roy Orbison's Fastest Guitar in the West sealed, since the best thing about that record is the cover.

 

Owning thousands of records and saying "it's just about the music" is living in denial. There are several different facets to this hobby, and enjoying one or all is up to the individual. Whatever!

As an aside, I always take the shrink off when some (thoughtful) previous owner has left it on to preserve the cover, unless the shrink itself is in good shape, isn't warping the cover or disc and has a long lost sticker on it.

 

play it

unless it's a duplicate you didn't realize that you had

 

It's easy to find the legit market value of some sealed albums. It's called Ebay. Look at the auctions, check out the bidding and take note of the winning price. Trust me, you'll see that sealed vinyl is going for huge bucks these days.

 

To me the ultimate question is, to buy it or leave it in the shop. If I've bought an album, it was so obviously made to be opened and played that I wouldn't think twice before tearing into that shrink wrap. In fact, I wouldn't think even once.

 

I like having some sealed stuff, esp. favorites I grew up with. It's like having my youth preserved in some way.

However I recently bought a nice collection from a former WEA promo rep & included were some pretty cool sealed stuff along with some forgotten one hit wonders.
Somehow I highly doubt anyone's gonna pay top dollar for a SS copy (not cut out) of Sammy Johns' "Sings "The Van" original motion picture soundtrack" . When I get the urge to hear 'Chevy Van' someday, I'll slice it open & spin it & not think twice (unless someone here wants it).

 

I have a grand total of two sealed records in my collection.

First one is Force the Hand of Chance by Psychic TV, which is in my list of records I'd bring to that desert island. I had it on CD, and a German vinyl copy as well, but when I found a sealed UK one (first pressing, with bonus LP, and a 'Virgin' 4.29 UK pounds price tag on the front), I just couldn't help myself. It's still on popsike, if you need a picture...

Second one is Tago Mago by Can. I bought it in '89 as a Spoon vinyl reissue, only to come home and find out it'd just been released on CD. I played that and left the record sealed for some reason.

All my other records have been opened to be played and enjoyed!

 

Just got this off eBay. Broke the seal today. Loved every minute of it!!

 

Again, KEEP IT SEALED. Have you seen what vintage sealed LPs are going for on Ebay these days?? If you absolutely have to listen to it on vinyl, just find a nice used copy. There are zillions of opened, minty copies of vintage albums out there at cheap prices. Just get one of those and play it 'til the cows come home!

 

If it has collectible value keep it sealed and finds an open one. After all there years in shrink wrap, it's probably warped anyway.