10 Rarest Albums In Existence

Whether you’re scrolling through eBay or the crates at your local charity shop, you’re on the lookout for that prized record to expand your collection. Mind, you’d be lucky to find a first or second edition of ‘The Dark Side of the Moon’ at the local market. Maybe at one time but now it’s well-known the profit some old albums can generate.

Rare records vary with genre and age. For what their value is, some have permanent worth whilst others differ depending on noteworthy events, release date anniversaries and trends in music. Vinyl has undergone a huge resurgence in recent years, which makes the already valuable even more valuable. The rarest vinyl now is more for collecting than listening. The ones valued highest often go for thousands and sometimes millions of dollars - not because of the sound they produce on a turntable but because they are artefacts in the history of music.

Hard-to-find records go for a lot. The very first pressing of Led Zeppelin’s first album sold for £7,100 in 2013. A first pressing of the Sex Pistols’ second single God Save The Queen, that made the British establishment aghast and stirred the tabloids into a frenzy so much so worried record executives quickly withdrew it from sale, sold for £6000 in 2015. Just 1000 copies of Joy Division's first EP were made in 1977, ones with controversial covers featuring a member of the Hitler Youth banging a drum and which were hand-folded by Joy Division themselves. That makes them worth up to £4700.

But that’s nothing on the following 10 super scarce and super valuable records elusively hiding in a handful of lucky collections somewhere.