Select45rpm is a UK based Record Sales site. We sell Original 7" 45s by Mail Order.

Our old record info pages since 2004 updated May 2022, as in deleted, time to move on... other sites have nicked our info which was why we posted it online, to forward record collecting. Despite unique info not all like being told facts & fresh opinions, they'd rather nod amongst themselves & get it wrong, so...

We sell Original Vinyl 45rpm records
We do not sell LPs or CDs. We do not sell bootleg CD-R copies of any of our records as you can find on other sites. We sell only the vinyl, the exact item you see is the one you'll get. Accurate grading on high grade vinyl is what you want, we rarely sell anything below EX. The Record Market has narrowed a lot over the last 10 years, so we now limit what we deal in, based on what sells & what used to sell.

We Know How To Grade.
Grading is difficult for many & usually Overgrading is the issue so you overpay & are disappointed. But we've been selling 45s & had been collecting for a long time & since the 1980s until 2002, so the VG grade once meant a decent used copy but today means an overused one. Some older dealers still use VG to mean a record we'd call EX & others may grade higher. All about opinions. We've had plenty of EX or Mint 45s in awful grade with big scratches the seller managed to miss as they grade in The Dark, not under a 100w equivalent 20w daylight Energy Saving lightbulb in a Desk Lamp as we do. See our Grades page for more.

We Dig The Tunes.
Getting Interesting & Enjoyable Music First and bothering with Selling Second was the idea & even years later finding a New Gem especially on a UK label keeps it interesting. As far from the Lazy Book Dealer as you can get, we find great obscure tunes & want others to discover them too. Appears we do it rather well. Several Decades of being able to Buy, Play, Enjoy & then Sell Vintage Vinyl from 1947-1983 means we know Music very well and have always tried anything that was unknown & looked interesting musically. You'll look a long time to find another Dealer who really knows so many styles of music like we do, as we tried the lot out over the years. We don't collect Vinyl now, having had so much of that what is eagerly sought today, so all items we get are sold on this website & not many get listed on ebay. The best stuff you will always see after we've recorded it to the Computer. See Photos of Every Item and play MP3 samples of all items.

We Ignore The Official A&B Side
We list the most commercial side to Today's Buyer first. You'll see plenty of 'Book Dealers' who know nothing of the music listing the 'Wrong Side' instead of the 'Wanted' side. Some tracks we list the Hit Side first if it's best known as that, though many Pop Hits had more interesting B sides which we describe. Some 45s had awful pop A sides but great B sides, whoever decided the A & B side was aiming for the Pop sales after all & an oddball but appealing track to today's buyer may have been thought 'Too Way Out' to less adventurous reviewers

We Only Sell on Our Website & ebay
We only list our Stock on our Website & put usually about 200-300 selected items on ebay as Buy-It-Now. We don't want to be Top Rated big volume sellers on ebay & give them all our profits as fees like some sellers like to or use other primitive sites that have no MP3s or even photos. This site is all our design & it is a lot of work to do. We were selling records long before ebay was around & will still be once it fades away as we like Records & the music on them especially. Regular buyers will see ebay not getting the quality & quantity of Collectables it used to, the fees of up to 14% for using ebay & Paypal & the risk of scammers ebay appear to allow is offputting. Read our Info pages, we like to help keep our favourite subjects alive with info & facts we want to share for free to keep buyers interested.

We Led The Way: Being Willing to Try Unknowns
We championed the Good & Obscure that others sniffed at back in the earlier days as we always liked finding obscure goodies means we've started the interest in many items & they've grown in price & collectability since. Some take utterly ages to 'hit big'. How many even bothered with the Hipster Image 45 in 1991 as well as the Muldoons on Decca in 1986? We did & copies were easily found cheaply as unwanted. We hyped our copies well & they've grown to be big ticket items now. The Muldoons has still got a way to go. We got Jago Simms 'In Too Deep' in 1986, & have sold it at the right price several times yet RC doesn't list it until the 2012 issued book. That Craig Douglas 'Don't Mind If I Cry' Pye Northern one is also our Discovery from 1998, as is the Anita Bryant 'Minds Playing Tricks' one from 1987. The Lovelace Watkins UK Fontana one is ours too from about 2005. Being into all styles means you find gems from unlikely artists or genres and we've discovered many tunes that are slowly getting into the money at last. Ian McCulloch 'Down By The River' on Decca is ours from the late 1990s too. The wonderful Yellow 'Living A Lie' is our find from 1990, Buster Jangles' Flying Mattress a find in 1992 & there are plenty more we helped get known, Diana Dors 'So Little Time' we found in about 1996 & have known that Alexander Stone "Man In A Suitcase" since 1990, both just waking up now to the £ prices. Matt Monro 'Honey On The Vine' we first found in 2000 also. Very slow progress to get them to be main collectables. The Embassy label is now collected by many for the Music, beyond just being cover versions as many are strong versions in their own right, we've been hyping the Embassy goodies since the 1990s. Even more recently we still dig out the interesting gems, Rog[er] Whittaker "Mud Puddle" is a later find of ours too from 2010. A 2014 find was the Lucas 1966 Northern Soul on Polydor, now a big ticket item. Frankie Laine 'Jelly Coal Man' one of our recent finds too, now a wanted tune. Looking for Gems out of their expected Genre. Plenty more. It was more exciting back then as you can imagine, acetates & unknown then-unwanted stuff we had great fun with in the long-lost days of Record & Junk shops. Our talents in finding 'sleepers' is now more in the Hifi realm, as records sadly ain't what it usta be, if hifi buyers are far quicker to wake up to the goodies, we see a big change in the scene in the comparitively short time we've been doing our Hifi pages. Don't call us 'experts' though, we actally know what we are doing... There are those that don't like Dealers, those who expect 50p bootsale finds to be worth big money, forums & 45dog reveals this. Yet as time goes on Dealers get fewer & prices have dropped even on the best stuff. Ebay may bring silly prices on some items but generally without many Dealers & Shops now the prices ain't what they used to be & we know from the above titles we discovered, it could take Ten Years for a good unknown to get realised as a Main Collectable. Those tiresome types that expect it for nothing then on deciding to sell up then demand prices in excess of what we'd even ask for are slimy Hypocrites. When ebay first got popular, dealers found buyers preferring to take chances on ebay low prices for unreliable grades but be sure these types will always come back meekly for something good a Dealer has as they must buy it. The Record Scene is what is it now for the efforts of Dealers, DJs & collectors who made Bootleg LPs of the best stuff. Records are only worth good prices if knowledge of them is known & therefore a demand is there, the amount of collectors willing to pay does change as older names fade away & sell up, newer buyers generally only go for established items, if via the ability to hear the tracks, newer buyers will buy a tune if they like it, but it needs others to agree it's good first. We've spend years buying 45s that looked interesting, some were great, some were not worth buying but we help keep it alive...

What Do We Know?
From a Lifetime of Shuffling Vinyl looking to try any 45 we didn't know about, especially UK 1950s & 1960s singles, we probably know more UK 45s for their Music than anyone else. In the early days of Street Shops, Junk Shops & Boot Sales records were plentiful & not much wanted unlike the late 1990s burst that we certainly helped fuel. We played them for the Music, who the artists were & tedious things like Matrix numbers we never cared for. This is how we discovered many great 45s out of an Artist's usual genre. We know of the Record Sites that list all the singles, inviting you to give your info for free & they make money from it & the advertisers. We could easily rate 100,000+ singles specialising in all types of UK singles, Jamaican Reggae & USA Blues, R&B & Soul. We could add info for many hundreds of 45s that are missing, but there's the rub. No money in it & like Mr PP says about his expert work based more on record details than the music, to have it plagarised with no credit is miserable. The Troll & Ungrateful Bastard aspect is a big problem too online in all things today, so we just stay away. We did have lots of Contract Pressing info on this site that is now "Common Knowledge" & ripped off by other sites, Orlake pressings & Oriole pressings especially that we now just leave the 2004 written Beatles Contracts page & our Research into the 1954-59 London 45s with our work on Golds & Late Tris seriously having helped the Record Market. (Deleted May 2022). We could give all our Life's Info for free to other sites to help the Ailing Record Market, to rate all the vinyl we know would be easy as the memory is packed with the familiarity of too many songs. We see how our Hifi pages have helped the Hifi scene. The Record Scene is getting narrower by the year, the last 5 years have seen even established Big Money 45s failing yet the rarest of the rare can be very unpredictable, often on the London Golds. Prices are dipping back to the mid 1990s level again. But if anyone wants to pay for us to make their amateurish listing site into a very much better one, then we have a Lifetime of Info that will fade away with us as time goes on. Music is very important. YouTube is the outlet now, see the link above, ours & others.

As The Record Market Changes, So Do We
The lower end of the market is always shrinking sadly as years go by, though "New Sounds" that appeal just on their musical terms regularly appear and can escape their bargain bin prices. Records are more becoming artifacts, but that's not such a bad thing. We will now only list items we consider worthy of putting £6.00 or more on & not just stuff to pad out the site & we don't bother listing lesser items now. This dismisses a huge amount of vinyl that doesn't really sell these days, even Top Grade MOR pop doesn't sell unless the music is more interesting. A bit sad to do this as there is still some great music, but markets change & considering £2 in 1992 is now £5 in value, times have moved on & Collectors taste's change. We used to sell a lot of cheaper vinyl, but now feel it's just diluting the quality of the better stuff. The Easy artist market is limited to the Hip Tunes & the pretty early 45s pre 1957 mainly & we still sell a good amount of those. We enjoy the music on what we get & always pick up items we've never had & find great sounds like we did years ago...

VINYL GLADLY REFUSES TO DIE.
Even in 2012 HMV Record Chain is devoting more space in their High Street shops to Vinyl by artists with a Broader Appeal. The One Show reports that younger buyers are buying vinyl as they like to have an artifact, the unsatisfying feeling of having an MP3 or any sort of digital track clearly is. We've been into Vinyl over 30 years & the overwhelming amount of Classic Tracks were originally hits on Vinyl 45s. Buyers still want these and in some cases the Big Classic hits are becoming more wanted than the more obscure ones simply as more people want the Hit tracks, ie the 1954-55 Bill Haley & 1956 Frankie Lymon Number ones are rising in price & readily sell for prices in excess of what a big hit would sell for as these are more readily found on 78. Classic established items like these are becoming though it's still early days for this area of collecting. We keep watching as we still love hearing records we've never had before & age is no limit, teenagers to 60+ are still buying vinyl. One ebay seller states this on an auction..."I don't know why you'd want to play it as it can be listened to on YouTube in full digitized glory." If you're reading this, you're yelling the same as we did. Sadly we are hearing that 45cat, a record info site keeps upsetting those who spend time contributing unique facts & pictures and they ban them after they complain. We've stayed well clear of this scene of forums & sites because we know too well how people are. It is sad that others who want to help are repeatedly discouraged on that site, but it's just a fan site run by collectors as is Popsike. Even a true record info expert PP gave up as his decades of research were taken as fact with no credit or respect, Record Collector stole the work of another researcher for the Blue Beat & Island listings that detail the actual artist. RC even wanted to steal our Late Tri Centres work by cheekily giving us a passing credit. We used to put more Record Info pages here but as everyone else just steals our ideas & photos before we watermarked them, we've minimalised it as Hifi is a more encouraging market that is far more appreciative & deserves our support. We still love Vinyl but the market is getting so much smaller even in the last 5 years so we are very careful with what we list save crowding the site with uninteresting items. If Record Collecting doesn't get younger buyers, once the 50+ ones who are still active give up, who will want them? As dealers, it is rare to find names from 10-15 years ago as buyers or sellers now, unless they are now selling up.

ORIGINAL RECORD COMPANY SLEEVES.
We do not supply these sleeves with any record, unless obviously a Picture Sleeve or an EP sleeve. Buyers still expect these Old sleeves for Free, but the reality is the ones they want in EX or better without tears or writing beyond the Catalog Number are actually pretty RARE. We often get those Repro sleeves, or ones we get we just Bulk Out cheap in large lots. On ebay etc you see Old Sleeves in the photos, either they are tatty ones, or if nice, they are nearly always Collectors selling up & they have spent the time matching sleeves. We supply the Vinyl & it's up to you to find these sleeves & swap them around as you find better ones, as well as putting the correct era 45 & sleeve together. Some ebay sellers sell these & have got surprisingly high prices for some. Over the years, well over 75% of old sleeves we've had have not been nice enough to bother sorting out & in the days we did as a page on the site shows, few wanted or now even want to PAY for them, even if high grade except the rarest ones.

STRESS-FREE description reading
We know how tiresome these "wow, amazing, life-changing, important, essential" type BS listings on ebay are as you have to almost read between the lines & translate the ridiculous wording into what you can understand, or even downsize the % text size to read Billboard size lettering. Being excited about a common record in VG is never going to happen, but you will find it attempted. All the "puff" they write & you then see a sticker on the label that they oddly don't state. Sit Back In Your Chair & Realise you don't really want to pay that much for a VG WOL copy, oops. One expected disappointed buyer left this comment to one silly hypester: "Description: Next to wonderful.....not really true". Blinded by hype he bought, in reality he gets an average record. People do buy lower grade or 'problem' items if they know exactly what they're buying, we can sell a £200+ rarity overall NM but noc with a big scratch across the B side clearly letting the potential buyer know it plays real nice despite looks & price realistically = sold fast & buyer happy (ebay sale).

STORING YOUR VINYL IS A RISKY BUSINESS.
Vinyl & Sleeves need careful storage or you will be mortified seeing your Gems go all Cloudy. NEVER use those Thick PVC sleeves with the serrated heat melted edges. They may appear more rigid than others but since the 1990s it's been noticed these React with the Vinyl leaving it Cloudy. In more severe cases the Record stinks of the PVC in 5-10 years & on rare occasions can leave the Surface so rough it plays noisy. The card-paper sleeves will stink too. Don't use it for LPs thinking the Thick card will save you, as one Collector who still used these after finding his 45s with cloudy issues. The Laminated side will lessen the Cloudy effect but the unlaminated back will let it all through. A Cloudy LP looks awful as the large area looks streaky & a Mint LP can look less than VG. The Polythene Sleeves are known to squash the Vinyl leaving streaks, the first ones we saw in the early 1990s on early 1970s Polydor such as the Red Vinyl Pink Fairies LP & it's PVC outer sleeve: the LP was all streaky & others without PVC outers (at the time we saw) were totally fuzzed out & played with bad noise. But this is due to bad storage, polythene is fine for vinyl as those polylined brown 7" sleeves prove, but only if kept clean. Another NEVER sadly will annoy many: avoid those PVC lined 45 & LP cases of the 1960s-80s do the same thing: we've seen plenty with streaky marks on the vinyl from pressing an unsleeved record onto the PVC for years. Even ones in Polythene sleeves right against the back or front of the Box go Cloudy too. The only escape is to add a piece of something solid perhaps like fibreglass, but card will not block the PVC decaying fumes & the edges may get affected in years to come. So you need to ditch anything PVC to keep vinyl. The best way to keep a 45 is in a White Card Sleeve, with the Company Sleeve or PS in front of it & put in a 400g Polythene cover with the Sleeve openings not all together. A big drawer or cupboard or modern DJ flight case box will do. Polythene is generally good though, we've seen 50 year old EPs in Mint grade in these D-shaped ones & they are still perfect. The brown coloured edge card 7" sleeves are known to be safe too. Pack them tight enough to stand upright be they 7" or 12" but never pack too tightly as the pressure will "squash" the vinyl & leave pressure marks especially on LPs. If you still fancy buying vinyl after reading all this, a bit of sense & thought for avoiding old fashioned ways will keep your vinyl alive.