Record collecting and music discovery platform Discogs has teamed up with Germany-based indie record store Black Plastic Records for the public sale of nearly 1,300 rare Beatles records from a private collection, Billboard can exclusively report.
The collection, compiled over decades by a dedicated fan who tracked down original pressings and rare singles and editions in different countries, represents an uncommonly extensive archive of Beatles recordings from the U.K. and continental Europe. Following the fan’s death, Black Plastic Records, a shop located in Dortmund, Germany, acquired the collection from his estate. The collection includes nearly 1,500 records total, though only around 1,300 will be available for purchase.
Included in the sale are: a rare 1963 promotional pressing of The Beatles’ debut studio album Please Please Me, one of an estimated 250 copies produced for British radio stations; an early promotional copy of the 1963 single “From Me to You”; an original 1963 U.K. mono first pressing of Please Please Me, featuring the black-and-gold Parlophone label; a rare 1968 pressing of The Beatles (better known as The White Album) featuring the Parlophone label; and a 1970 U.K. box set edition of Let It Be — including the original slipcase, fragile interior tray and book of photographs from the band’s recording sessions — described in a press release as “remarkably well-preserved.”
Courtesy of Black Plastic
Monika Hanfland
“Beyond these individual rarities, what makes the collection particularly remarkable is its depth of international releases,” states the release. “As Beatlemania swept the world in the 1960s, record companies in different countries often released their own versions of the group’s music, with different song combinations, album artwork, picture sleeves and record labels. A Beatles single released in England, for example, might feature entirely different cover art or accompanying tracks when issued in France, Italy or Sweden. Many of these regional editions were produced in small quantities and have since become highly sought-after by collectors. Together they offer a window into how the group’s music traveled around the world, and took on different identities in different countries.”
The first drop of roughly 1,300 records will be available to purchase exclusively through Discogs starting Friday (Oct. 30) at 8:00 a.m. ET. The sale will remain exclusive to Discogs for the first 10 days, though in-store browsing and pickup will be offered at Black Plastic Records.
Black Plastic Records co-founder and co-owner Valentin Gube (Courtesy of Black Plastic)
“You don’t end up with thirteen hundred Beatles records by accident. Different sleeves, different pressings, promo copies nobody’s seen in sixty years — that’s devotion, and a lot of record culture comes down to that: wanting to stand as close to the music as a pressing can put you,” said Discogs director of seller experience Russ Ryan in a statement. “People forget Beatlemania never landed the same way twice. Cataloguing every country’s version has been part of our project for over twenty-five years, and it’s rare to see it tested this thoroughly in one place. Most importantly, a collection like this finds its way to a shop like Black Plastic because of the trust they’ve built up over years, not luck. Our job from there is simple: get those records into the right hands, globally.”
Added Valentin Gube, co-founder and co-owner of Black Plastic Records, “Collecting Beatles records in depth is a challenging field. You can find Beatles records everywhere, as they are the best-selling band of all time, but finding rare records in good condition gets harder every year. Original Beatles LPs from the sixties, and even more so singles, have been played over and over again, whether they are true rarities or common pressings. This makes finding rare Beatles records in nice collectable condition particularly difficult. Some pressings might still turn up occasionally, but finding a copy that has survived all these years with very little wear is a completely different story. So being able to put this collection up for sale in its entirety, with hundreds of sought after LPs and singles is a true honor.”
Courtesy of Black Plastic
Monika Hanfland
The Beatles sale marks the latest edition of Discogs Drops, a series of curated music collections that gives fans and collectors globally access to rare records and private archives. Previous sales in the series have included the personal collections of late Television frontman Tom Verlaine and journalist and author Mikal Gilmore.
