About Michael Harbidge Expertise I specialise in the records that the Beatles released. My expertise is in the British and American pressings but I`m sure I will be able to help with any record you may own. I`ve been heavily into the record-collecting side of the Beatles for over 11 years now (since I weas 12) and have slowly built my knowledge and credibility to such a point that I am one of the big UK experts in the field. Do you have an album of theirs perhaps that you`d like valued or would like some information on? I`m sure I can help.
Experience
Past/Present clients In the past I've managed to help innumerable people who have wanted to know values or information regarding a Beatles LP they owned. Each time I have managed to fully help them, or if unable to do so to point them to where somebody else could.
Beatles, The - Let It Be Box LP set with red apple
Expert: Michael Harbidge - 5/3/2007
Question QUESTION: I purchased this in 1970 in the US but it is an English import. I have the LP
sleeve, the LP, the inner black tray and the book. I saw another just like it on
ebay and it sold for quite a bit. The seller said it was a first pressing. How do I
determine that? Thank you.
ANSWER: Hi there Debra, and thanks for your email.
The original UK box set is, today, highly sought after by collectors. The box-set was originally available as mail order only six months before the official release date in May, 1970. By the time it hit the shelves as a commercial pressing it was just the standard LP. The original box set, an elaborately packaged set containing the LP and a book filled with notes and photos from the recording session and movie, is today very hard to find due to how it was never commercially available to buy in a shop.
The UK presses had a single sleeve with no gatefold, and the early copies had a red apple logo on the back cover. It isn't fully known why this was - there has been speculation that it was a symbol of how the Beatles were dying as a group, hence why it's blood red, but the most accepted suggestion is that the red apple indicated a film soundtrack release. This is why the US pressing of the LP had a red apple label. The red apple copies of the LIB LP were only around for a short while, for when the box set idea was scrapped the logo was changed to a green colour.
The complete boxset could contain the outer cover (which is just a piece of card wrapped around as a slidecase for the contents), the inner tray (which held the book in place), the book and the LP (which had the red logo on the back). Most box sets are in a pretty rough state and because the inner tray was so fragile it was easily prone to getting torn at some of the weaker joints. Some people even threw the tray away. The book, which contains hundreds of photos and notes from the film, was never sold seperately and were only ever available in the box set.
The box set was never re-issued and as such the only sets out there today are the original sets bought via mail order back in early 1970. Today they're extremely sought after and a decent, complete press could easily sell for around £250 / $500.
I hope this is useful to you. If there's anything else you'd like to know then please don't hesitate to get in touch.
All the best,
Mike.
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Thank you for your help Mike. I am in a quandary though as I bought this box set in a record store in San Francisco in 1970. I still remember the purchase. I bought it in the English import section as I was a huge Anglophile and buying the English import version of a Beatles' LP was a big deal for me. I remember it being pretty expensive for a teenager to buy. The # on the record label is PCS 7096 and it does say Mfd. in the U.K. How did this end up in a record store? I can take photos if that would be helpful. I take it that there was only one pressing and that the box set was never available as a U.S. pressing?
Answer Hi again Debra.
To be honest I can only really speculate in regards to how it turned up in a record shop in America. The most likely explaination is that the shop dealer saw the UK box set for mail order in a record magazine and ordered some in to sell on in his shop.
America never issued the LP within a box set. The countries that did were Australia, Canada, England, France. Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, The Phillipines, South Africa and Venuezuela. Since yours carries both the UK catalogue number and the 'Mfd. in UK' mark it definitely sounds to me like a UK pressing. It's definitely a first pressing - the box set was only ever available on mail order for a few short months before being scrapped for the standard commercial release. It's never gone back into production, hence why prices for copies all around the world are so high.
I hope this answers your question. Again, if there's anything else you'd like to know then please don't hesitate to get back in touch.
