Introduction

From the early days of record production untill today inner sleeves are almost always added to protect the vinyl record in its outer sleeve. We can't go around the fact many inner sleeves back in the days and even nowadays do more harm instead of protection. Especially the paper inners with no polylined plastic inside and cardboard inners, were constructed to destroy your much loved record. Is it important to replace rare vinyl into a inner sleeve with polylined plastic? Yes!! Shall I throw the original inner of a rare record away? NO!!! Complete rare records with the original correct inner sleeve is always more attractive to serious collectors. It will could have influence on the actual value.

Original company inners in the progressive/psych rock genre

During The Golden Era of progressive and psychedelic rock many labels from countries all over the globe released amazing albums. All accompanied by inner sleeves. Several labels introduced their own company inners like "EMI Harvest" and "Vertigo" in the UK. If we scope on the UK Vertigo Swirl label we know for sure all the albums from 1969 untill somewhere in 1972 were accompanied by a Swirl inner. Tiny differences during the time can be spotted. Visit https://vertigoswirl.com/vertigouk.html for more information. The later 1971 and 1972 records of EMI Harvest were accompanied by original Harvest inners.

How do I know the vintage inner which came with the record is the original?

That's a good question. As a collector Leroy did research on inner sleeves to find connections between mother labels, daughter labels and time period. He found several facts which can give you guidelines to discover if the inner is the correct one. Most records came with plain white inners. Many were made with a date code. But also many came with company inners. For example, we can be sure all UK Vertigo albums untill 6360 073 "Beggars Opera - Pathfinder" were accompanied by Swirl inners. The VO-series carries no date codes, the later 6360 series inners does. Date codes go from 1970 till 1972. Most Swirl issues from other countries never had Swirl inners. Other example. Alle the RCA Neon albums came with the poor made polylined black inner constructed by EMI. This poor made black inner with plastic inside was also used for original pressings of the "Dark Side Of The Moon" album by "Pink Floyd". Other example. All the German Philips, Vertigo and Bacillus albums carries normal heavy polylined inners with date code. For the last example we go to Italy. Many Italian inners from rare records were accompanied by simple plastic inners with no paper outside. The inners were made round on the bottom to folllow the shape of the record. You can be quite sure rare Italian prog album on the "Ri-Fi" label and "Vedette" label were accopanied by those poor made cheap plastic inners. If you are interested to know if your rare record is accompanied by the correct inner, please contact us. Leroy is happy to help and share his knowledge about the inners.

Custom made inner sleeves

Custom made inner sleeves are very scarce for rare albums from The Golden Era. Many albums were pressed in tiny amounts and with low budget. But several albums were lucky to have a custom made inner. Well known example is the progressive rock hammer from Ireland "Mushroom - Early One Morning". Off course there are more albums. Albums accompanied by custom made inners are worth much more if the custom inner is still with the album. Sometimes original custom inners are traded/sold for huge amounts of money.

Always keep the original inner with the album

That is really important to insure its value. But, put the record in a new polylined inner after cleaning it correctly. We advice you to use "MOFI" inner sleeves. These are the best inners produced nowadays if you ask us. Only negative issue with this inner is the fact it is quite thin. If you put this inner in a normal new polylined spare inner (yes this fits), you create the best possible protection for your rare record. Believe us, it is worth the investment and effort.

Looking for a specific kind of original inner sleeve?

Is the original inner missing? We are always on the hunt to find original spare inners. We own quite a large stock of original inners and have many contacts around the globe. Not only to find rare albums but also to find inserts and original inner sleeves. Looking for a specific inner? Please do not hesitate to contact us. We are happy to help and maybe we can provide you the needed inner sleeve.