Is it true records are sealed to look better....

@mapman

I don’t think new records are "sealed" with a coating to hide imperfections. However, new records may have mold release agent and other contaminants on their surfaces. Cleaning new records to remove all traces of contaminants that were deposited during manufacture and packaging is a good idea. But I don’t think it should take 45 minutes.

I clean nearly every record that comes into my house, new or used, with the handy dandy spin clean. It’s good enough for me and it only takes a couple of minutes.

BTW, I hope I'm correct and it is not a common practice to treat damaged records to make them look better.

Thanks for the tip on the Spin Clean.  Might have to give that a try. 

There's often dust and paper debris in new records and it certainly won't hurt to clean them.  I have a VPI and sometimes clean new records, but generally don't (mostly due to laziness).  I have at times picked up a bunch of junk on my stylus after playing a new record.

I haven't heard of records stores spraying stuff on used records to hide imperfections.  The local record store I frequent does use a VPI to clean most of their records.  Most of the other shops I've been to, I have to clean their used records before putting them on my table.

SOME vendors will indeed spray something on used records to make the surface look shiny and with fewer imperfections. I have heard thatsome use Armor All! Ack.

New records have nothing on them except mold release agent. I clean all new records before their first spin.