This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/5/2023
Offered is an incredibly rare STILL SEALED copy of Elvis Presley's debut LP ELVIS PRESLEY (LPM-1254, RCA 33 1/3 RPM LP). There are high-grade copies of Elvis' aponymous first record, and then there are SEALED copies-the absolute pinacle for any advance Elvis collector. The album spent ten weeks at number one on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart in 1956, the first rock and roll album ever to make it to the top of the chart—it was also the first rock album to be a million seller. The offered example presents with its bag intact, promoting the princely price of “$3.98” and ensures potential buyers that it is “Sealed for Your Protection”. Prior to switching to the tighter cellophane wrapping, and later shrinkwrapped plastic, these plastic bags were used to seal new records. While the practice of listening to records before you bought them in the shop was still common practice at many record stores in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, the sealed record was gaining in popularity. It both protected the record from unnecessary handling, and provided record labels and retailers a surface on which to add and change pricing as well as promote the records. (For example, the offered record was marked down by hand to “3.47”.) The LP presents with little wear and distress to the cover. The condition of the record inside can only be assumed to be extremely well-preserved. Sleeve grades NM condition.