Identifying first presses

[Pigmy Pony]

Can anyone suggest a good resource to help identify whether a particular record is a first press, second, or whatever? I have a few mint early Beatles' albums (which sadly are all mono, as I believe the stereo one have more value). I'm not looking to sell anything, (although when I peg it my kids'll have other ideas) I'm just curious :)

[scotty38]

Head over to Discogs.....

[Made in 1968]

I used to be a record collector. What is it you have?

[Pigmy Pony]

The ones I was curious about were: The Beatles - Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Beatles for Sale, Hard Day's Night and Help! It would appear the first one is a fourth press, the rest I'm not sure about. They're all mint or at least NM vinyl and covers, and I got them for nowt, so can't complain :)

The discogs info I found a bit confusing, but there was another site where the guy seemed knowledgeable and had pics of the actual labels for reference, which made it simpler. One of the later albums there seems to be a first press, bur none of the mono recordings appear to be all that valuable.

[Made in 1968]

Can you give me the dead wax matrix numbers

[scotty38]

Discogs generally has images too, just click on the album cover

[Made in 1968]

People always assume because they have a very old Beatles pressing they are worth a lot...

Take notice of the back of the matrix number like 1N, 2N,3N and so on..

[struth]

Most Beatles stuff isnt particularly valuable, mainly due to so many being pressed. Rarity and demand, along with condition makes money..

[Made in 1968]

Thats correct Grant.. Few exceptions like mega low numbered White album pressing etc..

However Ive been looking for a totally mint Mono 'Magical Mystery Tour' EP set for a bit, i was suprise how much these fetch & tbh they should not fetch that much

[Pierre De Grenoble]

yeah but it's that "totally" mint bit that costs Andre ( and I appreciate how particular you are) even really clean copies with the correct white inners are not that easy to find even if the ep itself is.

[Made in 1968]

Aye MINT is certainly a magic wurd

[Jac Hawk]

Most the stuff i've bought off discogs that's been listed as mint is far from it, visual inspection alone is no indicator and in my view unless a seller has actually played the LP for sale should not be allowed to give a grade to the vinyl and mark it for sale as visually inspected only

[Made in 1968]

I dont use em anymore pork pies & piss take prices

[Gazjam]

...worth as much as someone’s willing to pay, some French painter said.
He got right it a very very long time ago...

[Made in 1968]

Is that the same as people with money to burn causing prices to rise in the process?