With only 5 albums left, I have 4 I can cross out.

“The Beatles – For Sale”

I have to admit that this one, though I have seen it before, I never knew what was on it. I always thought that this was an import. The cover shot is so strange and it has a tinge of foreignness to me. And, what’s with the blurred out stuff at the bottom of the shot? This one took me quite a while to find at a reasonable price. Evidently early versions and pressings are highly prized. Of course there is the “butcher cover” too. Forget buying that one. Out of my league for sure.

“The Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night”

I had this among the records that Josh had given me, but inside was not “A Hard Day’s Night” but “Meet The Beatles”. This was confirmed by someone writing Meet The Beatles on the cover, along with their name, thus rendering it useless as a cool clock. I think this may be one of my favorite covers however. I found an unmarked copy and ordered the one above.

“The Beatles – Beatles VI”

This is pretty early for me. Close to the yeah yeah yeah phase that I am ambivalent about.

“The Beatles – Introducing… The Beatles”

This one was a struggle. There are a billion different versions and they range from about 3 bucks to the thousands… I am least likely to listen to this one… this IS the yeah yeah yeah phase, so I picked a 60’s reprinted VG+ version and I am living with my decision.

That leaves only 1 album left to acquire. “The Beatles Second Album”.

In point of fact, I have already purchased it. However, I inadvertently purchased it from Japan. After the auction was over they contacted me by mail and indicated that I “should have waited for the invoice”. They charge additional postage charges on the invoice since E-bay only allows $4.00 for postage charges on items of that size.

I was dumbfounded and gave Cindy a very impassioned speech about tyranny and ethics of postage and sellers and such. There was a caveat though by the seller. If I was unable to provide the extra 20 bucks for shipping that they requested, they would understand (they noted that the shipping arrangement was confusing- I say a sham), and would take the loss and send my album by boat. This is a lengthy process and not a guarantee that it will arrive in the same shape as an airmailed album.

So, I said no way was I sending extra postage and put my album on the boat man!

It will be here in 1 to 3 months.

Sigh.