Comments on: Vinyl records: Collecting 101 – part 1

By: korey

korey — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:22:06 +0000

do you have any information about etched vinyls? i have one record that has an etching of a picture on one side. do you know how this is done?

By: Ellen McDermott

Ellen McDermott — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:04:27 +0000

I have an old collection of records (33, 45, and 78s) that I need to ship to my home. I know that the largest flat rate box from the postal service is 12×10x5, can these be used to ship the LPs. I have them all in storage and can’t test it out. Thanks for any help in this matter.

By: Wojtek

Wojtek — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:12:29 +0000

Thanks Ramon. I’m glad that my posts have helped you with information somewhat. Yeah, I’ve been pretty busy lately with college (as one can see by the post frequency, or rather lack thereof). Good luck with your collection :).

By: ramon cervantes

ramon cervantes — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 08:47:21 +0000

thanks for your series. great info. i am just starting my collection of vinyl lps so every little bit helps. some of this stuff i knew. some i didn’t. it was a great review and a great learning tool to begin with. looking forward to more of your series.

By: Wojtek

Wojtek — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:29:11 +0000

Sounds very interesting Carolyn. I may be able to help you evaluate these records, but for that I’d need some more information about them.

I’ll send you an e-mail so we can discuss things in more detail.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:00:06 +0000

I am a very new collector of vinyl records, and recently was given a collection of colored records, red, yellow, green, etc. with oriental writing on the label. They seem to be in perfect condition with very good covers. I have been searching for some information about these, and was happy to come across your article. How can I determine the worth of this collection?

By: Wojtek

Wojtek — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:41:47 +0000

Thanks for sharing this great info Frank. I seriously didn’t know that. I have some 45 rpm singles, which were printed in the U.S., but they’re all Atlantic or Motown, so I guess that I was lucky :). On the other hand, I’d love to have a plastic single for my collection, gotta look into it some day.

Here in Poland, we also had singles released on plastic. Technically the proper term for them is “flexidisc” I think. They were sold by the Polish Mail as “Musical Postcards”. There was always a selection of local and foreign hit songs available and one could stitch a message on them with a marker and then the post office would send it. Problem was that the material used was really cheap so the discs degraded quite quickly. I think that such singles were also popular in Russia and the other Eastern block countries back in the day.

By: Wojtek

Wojtek — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 09:35:32 +0000

Thanks Dave. I’ve seen your blog. You have a great selection of album covers. I also loved the vintage record player design posts. Keep up the good work.

By: Frank S

Frank S — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 02:43:46 +0000

Thanks for posting this.I am an experienced collector of rare and hard to find records.I have been collecting all of my life.I have lots of vinyl record albums and numerous 45’s and some 78’s.

By the way,most foreign 45 r.p.m. singles were vinyl pressings.But in the USA,the vast majority of them were pressed on plastic.How to tell is quite simple.

A plastic record has light showing through when held up to a light.It usually had a red tint but there were times that they were clear.Over time with each successive play,the record would start hissing and a white powdery film would appear on the surface of the record.This film can not be cleared off with a simple record cleaner.Most labels pressed their singles on this because it was a way of saving money.The labels that did this in the USA were the CBS family of labels,A&M,Bell,Casblanca,Polydor,Mercury,ABC Records,Arista,Sceptor,Eric,Philips(when they were in the USA)& Warner Brothers.Though they did at times press their singles on vinyl,this was extremely rare.

The labels that pressed on vinyl in the USA were the Atlantic family of labels,Motown,MCA,Capitol,RCA pressed most of their singles on vinyl until the 1980’s when they switched to plastic for their singles until the late 1980’s when they reverted back to vinyl.The vast majority of these singles,when held up to the light,would not have light shown through.The first four labels at times did use plastic,but it was used strictly for promotional reasons.I happen to have a couple of promotional Capitol singles and they are plastic.

I only share this because there are not too many web sources out there that have this information proving it.If there is anybody who can find one and share,please do so.Thanks.

I just thought that I would pass this along and share.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 02:26:54 +0000

Detailed information – nice round-up.

For more photos, less functional detail, more emphasis on design, please see my blog
“Record Players and LP Savers”

Latest series on tone arm styles. Also – influences of 1940s automobile design on record player cases.

Google blog search for it by name, or see
dschmidt14.wordpress.com.

Keep up the blogging.

-Dave