Toronto collectors sell one-of-a-kind Beatles records
Last Updated: Saturday, October 31, 2009 | 12:55 PM ET
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A unique vinyl version of the Beatles' Love Songs album was pressed by a Toronto Capitol Records employee in the 1970s for his own personal collection. (Courtesy The Record Guys) Four one-of-a-kind Beatles records, in the hands of two Toronto music collectors, are slated to go on auction in November and could fetch sky-high prices.
The four pieces of vinyl were pressed in the 1970s in Toronto by a bored Capital Records plant employee, who wishes to remain anonymous and who created the LPs for his own personal collection.
That person sold the unique records to music experts Akim Boldireff and Aaron Keele.
"This guy had them in his closet all this time," Keele revealed to the Vancouver Sun newspaper. Keele said he and Boldireff paid quite a bit for the four rare records, but he declined to divulge the actual price.
The auction on Nov. 10 on eBay will begin with an asking price of $1,000 for each disc.
"We knew they were something great," Keele said of the moment he and his partner laid eyes on the records.
The employee had apparently tinkered for hours to make the four singular albums:
- A blue-marbled copy of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- A swirling blue copy of 1967-1970 (known as the Blue Album).
- A paint-splattered gold copy of Love Songs.
- An electric blue album pressed one side with Revolver and the other with John Lennon's solo effort The Plastic Ono Band.
Keele said the records used "original stampers with the catalogue number of the original release as issued and created by Capitol Records."
The pair are also offering up a master metal plate used to press Side A of the Rubber Soul LP.
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