SECOND HAND Death May Be Your Santa Claus LP Top UK 1970s Prog/Psych w/“Funeral”

$

61

 • Artist: Second Hand

 • Album Title: Death May Be Your Santa Claus

 • Format: LP

 • Label: Mushroom

 • Country of Release: U.K.

 • Cover/Record Grade: Ex+/M-

 • Other Info: This album is one of those great lost gems of early 1970s British prog/psych rock.  This version is the one that has “Funeral” added.  The original 1971 release left that track off, but the following year there was repress with the additional track.  I would love to be able to tell you that this is an original of the 1972 press, but I strongly suspect that this is a much more recent (maybe late 1980s) repro.  I have read that the cover was laminated; this one is very glossy, but not laminated.  It also has “Second Hand A” and “Second Hand B” etched into the run-out grooves, but I’ve read that it was supposed to be stamped.  Plus, to my eyes, the cover just doesn’t have the look and feel of something from 1972—it looks like it was made more recently than that.  On the other hand, if I’m wrong, someone’s going to get a great deal.  Either way, though, this record belongs in the collection of all fans of early British prog/psych rock.

Payment and Shipping Information

U.S. Customers: Click on the Shipping and Payments tab above to find the correct price.  Package insured upon request.  Yes, I do combine shipping so if you purchase more than one item, you WILL save on postage!  I do not gouge on postage and packaging costs.  I send your records to you carefully packaged in a strong, OVERSIZED LP mailer (to avoid damage to the LP cover) with sturdy cardboard squares (to protect the record and the cover), but I make sure to only charge the amount needed to cover my actual costs.  If you have any questions about this item, feel free to contact me. 

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Grading Information

With very few exceptions, I play grade the records that I list.  (This means that I don't go by the way a record looks, only by how it plays.)  Sometimes when I have a group (or a “lot”) of LPs within a single listing, I will not play all the records, but this is fairly rare.

I use Mint (M), Excellent (Ex), Very Good (VG), Good (G), Fair (F), and (heaven help us) Poor (P), and I take each of these words at their literal meaning.  In other words, if I assign an LP a grade of “G,” that means to me that it really is in good playing condition, not fair or worse—for many dealers, a G (or even VG) grade is often really nothing more than a euphemism for a record that is in fair or poor condition.

I also use up to three plus signs (+) and up to three minus signs (-) to indicate varying degrees within a specific grade.  So, a grade letter followed by a “+” means the condition is slightly better than the grade letter by itself, and a grade letter followed by “++” indicates that the condition is yet another small step higher.  For example, a grade of Ex+++ means that the record is very close to being in the Mint range, but still just shy of it.

This may seem like a strange system at first glance but I use it because I feel that the standard grading systems are inadequate, as they simply don't allow for enough grades or degrees within those grades.  Many don't use Excellent, for example, which means that there is a jump from Mint down to Very Good—and there are a whole lot of grading possibilities in between those two, the way I see it.