Travel Agency -
Viva V 36017 - front
 |
Travel Agency -
Viva V 36017 - back
|
Travel Agency - Viva V 36017 - top front
|
Travel Agency - Viva V 36017 - top back
|
Travel Agency -
Viva V 36017 - side
|
Among some high-end record sellers there is a misguided trend to encapsulate vinyl. Another term for this is "slabbing," which I
will use in this article. It means encasing an album in hard clear plastic with an information strip at the top. This practice is
used for baseball cards and coins, where it has become the industry standard for graded items.
The primary gateway to vinyl collecting is the love of music. For collectors, records satisfy multiple purposes: the intimate joy
of holding them in your hand, reading and studying the liner notes, the "collect them all" obsession, the investment possibilities
and especially the "spin them on your turntable" experience. Once records are slabbed, they can't be played.
Another issue is that records have six surfaces or more. Collectors want to see the condition of both vinyl sides and identify
the label. Records are dated by the label sequence, promos have white labels and foreign releases have alternate labels. Then
there is the inner sleeve, which often has photos and liner notes to peruse, not to mention that often there is an entirely
separate insert or poster. Finally there are both sides of the album jacket. Baseball cards and coins have just two sides,
so slabbing them only adds expense and bulk to your collection. When you slab a record, you're reducing the visual presentation
to the album cover alone.
Which brings us to grading. Unlike coins and cards, the record itself will be hidden. There is little incentive for the grading
company to get it right, because nobody is going to check it. To recheck the vinyl condition, one would have to destroy the slab
which you just spent good money to buy. Moreover, most graders are not collectors, they're just hired to do a job. Why bring a
dubious middle man into the collecting equation, who is going to add time and money and probably won't even grade accurately?
While the greater part of record grading is visual, the ultimate test is how it sounds. A record may look perfect but could
skip or play poorly. This is not a big issue if a buyer can listen and return it, but once it's slabbed that's impossible.
Slabbers claim that sealed records benefit the most from their services. However, sealed records are one of the most treacherous areas
of record collecting; slabbing makes it more so. In the 60's and 70's rack jobbers routinely resealed "defective returns" and
resold them cheaply at outlets. Some of these were legitimate markdowns that didn't sell or just returns that people didn't like,
but others had issues. Also, some record stores resealed to "protect" the records. There are current sellers who reseal vinyl and
claim they are original releases. Some even copy the "hype" stickers and price tags found on the original records, and affix them.
If you see an eBay seller that consistently has sealed records for auction, you should be careful. Sealed records from back in the
day do occasionally show up, but rarely. This is the perfect scam: buyers won't open a sealed record because it immediately reduces
the value. On the off chance that it is opened and found scuffed, the seller can claim ignorance and say it must have been done in
the old days, or worse, blame you for switching it. And, their disclaimers will say the record has to be returned in the condition
it was sold! EBay doesn't have the means to police this, so buyer beware. An experienced collector can often spot a reseal job by
looking carefully at the record jacket underneath...but not always.
The above was written before I had an actual example in my hand. I'm even more appalled now that I have one (see pictures).
The plastic is hard, like a CD jewel case and triples the weight of the album. With the information strip on the top there is an
extra two inches in height, and a half inch in width. A collector will need an entirely new/different storage system
to accommodate the larger size because this won't fit in a traditional record shelf. There's also no explanation as
to why this sealed LP is graded a 7.0. Looking at it casually, it seems like it should be a 10.0. There are obviously
some minor flaws that are hidden by the slabbing process. Maybe it's the spine or the top seam, but you can't tell,
because they're not visible...So what we have here is truly a white elephant.
On some level, slabbing may help legitimize record collecting in the eyes of investors (and auction houses), and perhaps
drive up prices on rare items. However, the minimal benefits don't justify a middleman wedging into our hobby with a flawed,
expensive and clunky concept that diminishes accessibility. Those of you hearing about this for the first time may dismiss
it as simply a dumb idea, but it is already being used by some auction houses like Heritage Auctions. There are businesses
advertising record encapsulation and as mentioned, it has become the standard with other collectibles.
When stored in a re-sealable Mylar sleeve, a record is well protected. Slabbing doesn't add anything and in my opinion
detracts from the presentation and ultimately will hurt the record collecting hobby.
Thanks for reading,
Joe Goldmark
VinylBeat.com
