The response to review copies of the album was hostile, and stores were threatening not to stock the album when it was formally released to the public. This cover became known as the “Butcher Cover.” The album was intended to be released with a photo that depicted the Beatles dressed in butcher smocks, posing with chunks of raw meat and parts of disassembled toy dolls. The original withdrawn “Butcher cover” version of Yesterday and Today.īeatles – Yesterday and Today sealed stereo “first state” Butcher cover (1966) – $125,000 – The infamous withdrawn pressings of the Beatles 1966 American LP Yesterday and Today are perhaps the most sought out album in history. With that kind of interest, it only stands to reason that a number of albums by the Beatles would appear on a list such as this one. They are perhaps the most heavily collected artist, and the single biggest-selling band of all time. It likely won’t surprise most readers to see that a majority of the most valuable vinyl records are by the Beatles. World’s Most Valuable Records – The Top 10 Obviously, private sales are just that, and we have no idea as to the sorts of deals that may have gone on between private collectors. Keep in mind that these are prices for items that have been sold publicly. We’ll list 10 of the world’s most valuable vinyl records, more or less in order of value. That is, these are albums that were, at least in theory, sold in stores and records to which the general public might have been able to purchase at one time or another. We’re leaving out the 45 and 78 RPM singles because on this site, we focus on albums, so we’ll restrict the list to that format only. This article will cover the rare and the valuable, but only record albums, and only albums that were actually commercially available. That being the case, we put this article together to list some of the world’s most valuable vinyl records, but with a bit of a twist. A few other items on the list are ultra-rare pre-World War II blues 78s and ultra-rare 45 RPM singles that were released on tiny regional record labels and were quickly forgotten. We didn’t, of course, and that’s because nearly all of the top 100 of the world’s most valuable vinyl records are individually cut acetates, test pressings, pre-production (not commercially released) items that were never formally released, or other items that likely would only have been available to record company employees or in some cases, only to the artists themselves. Add to cartĬlick here to browse some of the rarest records we have in our store. pressing of It's a Beautiful Day, the debut LP by It's a Beautiful Day. We suspect that when people do a search for “most valuable vinyl records”, what they really want to know is “Do I personally own any of the world’s most valuable vinyl records?” We know that when we bought our first record price guides back in the late 1970s, the first thing we did was look up records we owned to see if we had anything that was worth a lot of money. Those records are indeed the most valuable vinyl records, but they’re all unique, aren’t likely to change hands anytime soon, won’t be affordable if they do, and aren’t records that anyone reading this article actually own. We’re talking about things like Elvis Presley’s cut-with-a-lathe acetate of “My Happiness”, or the one acetate of “That’ll Be the Day” by the pre-Beatles Quarrymen, or the intentionally pressed-in-a-quantity-of-one albums by the Wu Tang Clan ( Once Upon a Time in Shaolin) or Jean-Michele Jarre (Music for Supermarkets). The real reason that you, or any randomly selected individual, don’t own any of the most valuable vinyl records is because, with few exceptions, nearly all of the most valuable vinyl records are highly unusual, one-of-a-kind items. That’s not because you don’t have good taste in records or that you simply bought the wrong ones in the store all those years ago. The short answer is – they don’t, and neither do you. As a lot of people are now giving thought to the boxes of records in their attic or basement that they haven’t touched in decades, it makes sense that they might have a curiosity as to whether they personally own any of the most valuable vinyl records. People know that some records are more valuable than others, and that many records are quite expensive. One of the most popular searches, oddly enough, is for the phrase most valuable vinyl records. Vinyl records have made a comeback in recent years, and as a result, people are often searching for information about them online.