Starting out- a Beatles question

Ebay is my record store of choice. Expect to pay big (relatively) for NM or sealed copies of famous band albums. I renewed my vinyl odyssey in February of this year.

For beatles I found a mint MoFi Beatles collection, a Mint Beatles Blue Box (parlophone pressings).

Rolling Stones (MoFi) Collection
Pink Floyd DSOTM 0rginal Mofi and Japanese first pressing

I have found virtually everything I ever wanted in my collection from ebay.

I disagree with the "just play then new remasters on CD". I have those, both, and they are good, but not as good as the vinyl.

I have run through many of the EXCELLENT Beatles pressings including some mono Parlaphones, a couple of awesome Japanese pressings (not the great colored vinyl mono's which I have heard, but never owned), and I also finally found a pristine (vinyl) MOFI box, which is my reference now. Many collectors don't like the sound of these, but they are my favorites.

I have yet to hear any pressings that did not blow away the remastered CD's. Those are a huge upgrade over the original digital offerings from the 80's, but they are not nearly as good as the vinyl you can find.

As somebody with a large (probably stupid large-500 total pieces) Beatles vinyl/digital collection, I agree with Musicslug and look for good digital copies.

The very best Beatles vinyl is clearly superior to the best digital but great original copies of the rainbow Capitol, yellow/black Parlophone, and Apple releases are both difficult to find and expensive. Original UK copies of Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road can be breathtaking.

I purchased all of the MFSL vinyl on release but would not purchase them at current prices. They simply aren't that good, the best being Rubber Soul and Revolver.

Have fun but don't get caught up in some of the outrageous prices.

Perhaps patience will be rewarded. Looks like finally the remasters which were previously released will be made available on vinyl during the upcoming Christmas season. Amazon's UK site is taking pre-orders for a September 11th release.

I have heard, (whether true or not is still up in the air), that the newly remastered Beatles catalog will be mastered from digital copies. Given this, and the cost, (which will probably run around $30 a title), it makes getting the box sets on CD look a bit more attractive, at least from a monetary standpoint.

I have the mono CD box set myself, and I must admit that they sound really good. (I do have a few of the LPs in both stereo and mono, and I feel that CD box set did a very good job, better than the stereo box set did, IMHO.)

I recommend getting the UK parlaphone blue box if you can. They are priced reasonably well, (a few hundred dollars for a dozen albums), and they sound very good. (I agree that the MFSL set also sounds good, albeit different than the Parlaphone set does, but they are priced out of reach as they are all OOP and have a name recognition that the Blue Box lacks, luckily for all us!!!)

My two cents worth.