What's An Obi?

[MylesBAstor]

I always found the mysticism surrounding this strip of paper weird.

[banditcat200]

Hm, I have had a record with the Obi strip, Pink Floyd, Dark side of the Moon, but threw the strip away, wonder how much money that was ?

It was annoying to keep the strip on the record and it got ripped and flossy, so out it went.

I am not selling the record so I will survive the eventual loss of value ( And please don't tell me its worth 1000 of $ )

[Johnny Vinyl]

Any used media that has all of the original packaging in tact will command more money. Used gear that is sold with the original box will also command a higher price. I like the Obi-strip for one reason only, it allows me to identify visually that it's a Japanese pressing without having to find that info on the jacket or label. I usually add a note between the jacket and outer cover to identify specific country pressings.

I have no problem asking a record store employee about what is playing. If he or she gives me attitude of some sort I'm not shy about responding in kind.

[Gusf]

Nice Mr. Hart! 😂

[MylesBAstor]

Do you keep the original inner sleeves too? Even after cleaning and putting the album in a nice, new audiophile approved rice paper like sleeve?

[Johnny Vinyl]

I keep the original inner sleeve only if there is something printed on it or it's a different colour.

[Bill Hart]

I think a lot of buyers at the time didn't necessarily preserve these, same with inner sleeves- got tossed. Now, makes a difference in value. I never bought a lot of Japanese pressings back in the day (other than old MoFi and a few other audiophile label pressings). I've started collecting older japanese pressings of some obscure stuff, b/c it is a cheaper alternative than the German, Italian or UK pressings, and the surfaces are often better. I used to have a prejudice against the masterings- sounded brighter, taken from safeties, whatever. But, it works for some records. I have an early Japanese pressing of LZ 1 that is phenomenal, compared to Piros '74, Classic 33 and 45, UK plum (early, but not turquoise) and a bunch of others. I know some folks prefer the japanese pink floyds for the mid-era. I've had good luck with the UKs, sonically. Ken G turned me onto King/Seven Seas imprint for japanese cuts of some of the uber prog rock records- have no basis for comparison with the originals for the most part, since they are crazy expensive.
I got one record recently from a japanese vendor- it was packaged like a gift, amazing. (Can't remember what it was, will have to look).

[JCOConnell]

the problem with most Japanese masterings is they are bass shy. that works on recordings that had a lot of bass to begin with but doesn't on records that were thin on bass.