Rare Twinkle UK EP " A Lonely Singing Doll" DECCA 8621

	£		43
	$		57

RECORD TITLE/ CAT.NO: Twinkle : A Lonely Singing Doll UK DECCA DFE 8621. Laminated front cover but not the back.

TRACK LISTINGS: Side A; 1) A Lonely Singing Doll 20 Unhappy Boy Side B 1)Aint Nobody Home But Me 2) Golden Lights

BACKGROUND INFO:  A rare not-so one hit wonder from 1965. Real name was Marilyn Ripley and this is the only EP she ever recorded though she had several singles to her name. As a bonus, I will throw in a Hongkong Decca 45( Decca F 12139 containing Tommy/So Sad) to the successful bidder without any increase in postage costs.

As the current Record Collector Price 2008 lists this as 60+ pounds in Near Mint condition,and it is in such a beautiful condition, I have used a 50% of it as a starting price of 30 pounds with no reserve. I would rather have a higher starting price and no reserve than to start low and impose a high reserve.

GRADING SYSTEM: I follow the Record Collector and Goldmine grading system and usually play grade them. When in doubt I tend to give a lower grading.In this respect, I rarely  give a Mint grading as I never believed that any record cover especially from the 50s or 60s can be in Mint condition. Even if it is sealed, I would not say its Mint,except in very rare cases, as I found even sealed albums can have some minor flaws like edges being affected etc.

CLEANING: It was cleaned on a Clearaudio cleaning machine using Loricraft's L'Art Du Son cleaning compound (which was favourably reviewed in Record Collector magazine some months ago).

PLAY GRADING: I play grade them on a Linn Sondek LP12 with a Naim ARO arm and a Lyra Helikon SL cartridge through an active 3 pack Linn/Naim DBL system. Without trying to sound like a snob, I would like to highlight that the cartridge (or needle as some might term it) is in the US$2000 range. This is to indicate the care I put into my records by using high quality equipment/accessories for playback. Though it may not be an extremely high end system, it does allow the music to flow and is revealing and transparent.

RESULTS AND GRADING:

Cover: I would rate the front cover as in Near Mint. It is clean with no tears or writing on it. All  the 4 corner edges are as sharp as they would have been straight off the printing press.I suppose it was due to fact that the EP was kept in a protective outer plastic sleeve. Some faint ringwear can be seen only under a strong light. I would rate the back cover as Excellent as the cardbord seems to be slightly offcolour due to its age. After all, its 41 years old!

Record: The record itself is in  Near Mint shape on visual examination. There were no spindle marks and no visible scrathes or scuff marks even under a strong light. Both sides played Near Mint though there was an occasional surface noise but it did not intrude on the listening and it was mainly confined to the dead wax areas. As for the bonus 45 which I am throwing in, it does show a couple of faint surface scratches on the Tommy side but it did not affect play badly.

DELIVERY: I have indicated a shipping charge of 4 pounds but this is with registration. I strongly suggest registration as the postal authorities tend to be more cautious with such modes of postage. I do not impose handling charges, just cost of postage and packing materials.Winners of more than one item will have their postage costs adjusted accordingly to cost.I usually place them between 2 very strong corrugated boards and wrap them with several layers of shrink wrap. They are then placed in a padded envelope which Singapore Post sells for fragile items. So far, the people who bought from me generally gave me private feedbacks showing appreciation for the packing, including a 190 pound Black Sabbath single I sold recently. Usually I make it a point to post them the morning following payment if such payment is effected within a few hours of bids closing which is around 0400 hours Singapore time. We are 8 hours ahead of GMT so successful bidders dont fret if I dont reply for a few hours as your E mail might have been sent during our nights.

MODE OF PAYMENT:I prefer Paypal but would consider other modes of payment. I used to advertise in Record Collector 2 years ago as "Sreedharan" and used to accept even cash in a registered envelope though IMOs might be a lot safer.As I just got a negative remark, even though the item was as described and as in the picture, prospective bidders should check my play grading as well as my pictures first before bidding. You could Email me too if you need further information. 

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