I'm sure you'll forgive me for showing this image yet again, but it's scanned from my own personal mini album which I recently acquired on eBay and received yesterday. Seems almost perfect and the record looks practically brand-new. As you can imagine, I'm delighted to finally have a replacement for the one I had as a kid way back in the '60s.
However, there's always a 'but'. Take a look at the packing the record was delivered in: a sturdy cardboard envelope, with two thick corrugated backing boards and a label clearly identifying the item as fragile, yet the Royal Mail still managed to damage it. It almost looks as if it was deliberately skited off a wall or dropped from an upper window just to thwart the sender's conscientious admonition of care.
Fortunately, the record itself was undamaged, but the cover had a nasty crease, which, with the careful application of a hot iron (a tricky business I can tell you), I've managed to minimise. Luckily, the card sleeve is extremely thin and therefore amenable to such corrective treatment, but the crease is yet there and can be seen depending on which way the light reflects off it.
Just think - the cover has survived in excellent condition for 47 years, it leaves the possession of the seller unmarked, but is delivered to me in a less-than-perfect state. I'm going to explore the possibility of compensation because it's an absolute disgrace that, in this day and age, a 7 inch 'large letter' is beyond the ability of the Royal Mail to deliver in the condition it was sent.
Still, bloody great collectors' item, eh? Just such a shame that it's now worth less than I paid for it. (Please - no gags about CAPTAIN SCARLET supposedly being indestructible.)
(Update: I've since obtained another, uncreased replacement.)
