Record Company Sleeves Info - Record Info pages at select45rpm

This was a page we first published in 2001 when we used to spend ages on saving, sorting & selling original company sleeves, a bit of a wasted effort really. Few were interested in those days & a few more are now, if still a minority & most interest is on 1960s beat/mod era 45s. We found this old page on a CD and offer it purely as info to the rarity or otherwise of UK record sleeves, based on our then-6000 sleeve stock. It is not complete & some labels aren't listed & we aren't going to update it either! The rule is: if it had lots of hits over many years the sleeves are common. One hit or cult labels are generally classed as rare sleeves, demand & supply evens it out pricewise. Prices today would be approx 2x on scarcer items, esp UK Beat & Soul labels. Prices were for nice grade sleeves, meaning no tears or writing. High grade crisp ones from unplayed boxed stock would now attract a premium.

SLEEVES WITH THE RECORDS? When we buy records, we do get some original company sleeves. Collectors are the ones to match up the sleeves with the records for their own use. Buying 'raw' vinyl collections etc you mostly get the sleeves mismatched or they are in other types of sleeve. For us to match up sleeves to records isn't worth it & getting sleeves in EX or better is pretty hard anyway. Even on one-play (or unplayed) mint ex-reviewers stock etc the sleeves are creased up and/or written on. The vinyl is the important part to us and we concentrate ion that only!

NOTES: The Designs did not change overnight: they used what they had in stock (tell Record Collector & Beatles listing that!) Many companies only use printed sleeves for a short time, eg Bluebeat 1962-64 only. Many UK smaller labels only used plain white sleeves. Certain labels pressed by bigger companies (CBS, Polydor etc) used the wobbly top plain white ones. You could also buy those type separately. In the mid 70s EMI randomly used only plain white sleeves for their various labels as we've had untouched Mint 45s like this. You sometimes got a 50s sleeve on a mid 60s release as sold new! Decca group demos often came in a plain white sleeve. Other Polydor pressed labels usually had a plain white sleeve with a wobbly top edge. Acetates sometimes came in a custom card sleeve, eg Advision.

Other noted sleeves not listed below include Chrysalis (plain light green for 69-72ish), Nepentha, Black Swan (late 70s only), Columbia Bluebeat (regular 68 Columbia sleeve in dark blue), odd Decca dark blue-logo in box export type sleeve early 70s??, Electratone, Eyemark (on black labels only), Instant, Camp (early design label), Middle Earth, Music Factory, R&B 1965 (dark blue label), Reality, 2 Tone, Rex, Roulette (early 70s only), R.I.M (Rediffusion). There are likely more esp on obscure labels.

BE AWARE enterprising souls are making computer fantasy versions of sleeves that never originally existed. They fill a gap for the collector. But this will one day confuse the issue as the repros & fantasy sleeves get old looking. Printed Logo Company sleeves DO NOT EXIST for these & more: ATLANTIC (not until K series 70s), STUDIO ONE, COXSONE, BANANA, TRACK, REACTION, BLACK SWAN (60s), PRESIDENT, ISLAND (reggae era), BRIT, CALTONE, CORAL, VOGUE CORAL, VOGUE, FAB, etc. Labels like VOCALION only had a sleeve on the last few years ie 1965-68, BLUE BEAT only on the Pye pressed 1962-64 era. MAJOR MINOR only had sleeves on the later Decca pressed issues, not the earlier CBS pressed ones to MM540-1. An orange DECCA sleeve with A DECCA ORIGINAL on the bottom wording is part of the early 1980s reissue program, most are stamped Made In Germany, though some were UK pressed by Damont.

UK EMI & RCA DEMO SLEEVES. These are turning up on ebay & as typical are being offered as being from a different time to the records they try to fool you actually came in them! EMI TOP POP blue sleeve is a late 50s to early 1962 sleeve. Note how 1950s it looks, well out of place on a 1963 Beatles Demo! RCA PROMOTIONAL COPY white sleeve with Black text. These were actually only used post 1980 on the Black RCA issued 1980-1983 as we remember seeing them at the time & on unplayed 45s got from promoters. This was RCA's lazy way of doing a Demo & just putting a regular stock copy inside!

SO WHAT DO WE ACTUALLY DO WITH THESE SLEEVES? Collectors don't put the records directly in the sleeves, as with EPs & Picture sleeves as old dust & shrinking early EP sleeves (Decca group) will cause problems. Keep them in a new white paper sleeve or as we used to, a card masterbag, which may let light dust in to a minor extent. Never use those colour-coded polylined ones as BBC copies have all sweated & marked proving how bad they are. Put the pair of sleeves in a thicker 400g Polythene 7" covers & store them as you choose. A white card fold-up box, a DJ flight case or a 50s-80s plastic record box are the best. Otherwise dust will get in. We used to use white card covers & write the details on the edge for easy playing & stored them on a shelf. We regularly played the records then, but today's collector will likely put the track on CD/tape/MP3 & file the record away. Having to dust an LP each time you play it will lessen the grade & risk scuffs, an LP is a huge thing! Never use those rich-smelling heavy PVC covers however appealing they may look on 45s or LPs. They unfortunately sweat & react with vinyl creating a cloudy marking after just a few years to noisy patches if stored longer. PVC covers are widely used in coin collecting. Silver just gets mildly slimy but otherwise ok, but a copper coin left in PVC goes very slimy to the point it affects the metal surface leaving a strange finish after 30 years stored away!

The essay could continue for much further, we'll leave it to another to continue & list all the variations...