The sealed LP... what is the point?

Xiekitchen: Good point. I received a Classic Records Led Zep that, while not warped, was obviously "dished".
It played alright (when clamped) but for this kind of money, I returned it for a clean copy.

I have many sealed audiophile albums and what I do is look for a back up copy in mint to mint - and purchase that to play. I can then keep the original sealed to sell. I personaly don't care what people do with it when they buy it they paid for it. I have invested in Blue Note japanese pressing for pure investment never to listen to them ,just hold on to sell at a later date. In some case I don't open the sealed copy because I felt how much better could it be to the original pressing. A couple like that are The Pretenders first album. I have a sealed natilus Super Disc but the original pressing i have is as good as it gets.

When I got back into vynil a few years ago , I bought unopened copies of Dark Side of the Moon , Supertramp Crime of the Century , Bob Segars Night Moves and The Beatles Abbey Road and Rubber Soul all Mobile Fidelity Master Copies from a two fer collector. My intent was to keep them unopened . Lasted ten minutes till I was spinning libations and dropping the needle . Buy it, play it, enjoy it . But thats just me , I won,t knock the guys that buy em and keep em ..... without them where would I find excellant virgin vynil !!!!

It seems like a strange dichotomy to be vinyl "collector" for value and a true vinyl appreciator at the same time. My first impression is that they are two different camps.

I can totally understand someone collecting vinyl for the sake of collecting just as I can understand a stamp collector who collects stamps that he never intends to use, but rather to look at and enjoy owning with the possibility of reselling at a higher price.

A vinyl appreciator obviously realizes that there can be financial value in keeping the LP sealed for later resale, but there is more value to an appreciator in actually listening to the music on the album. It's a quick cost/benefit analysis with the cost being the lost financial value of the LP versus the level of benefit that the individual would get from enjoying the musical qualities of a pristine record.

So there are 3 drivers in place here: the enjoyment from having a collection of things (sealed or unsealed records), the enjoyment in the possible financial gain of collecting "physically perfect" things (sealed records), and the enjoyment of listening to great quality music. I would say that most audiophiles fall into the first and third categories, with the people in the second category supplying the goods for us. ;)

-Dusty