And what,IMO,are extremely UNDERvalued,for both their sound,and their rarity,are the early stampers,especially the white label promotional ones of the US pressed Philips Lps,mastered by Wilma Cozart-Fine,whi I assume did all of them,not just the Richters,she is credited with.
http://www.soundfountain.com/amb/mercury.html
Philips is about 60% down the page.

Also expensive are the HiFi Stereo pressings of the Bruno Walter Lps.
Here are a few

http://www.popsike.com/BRUNO-WALTER-9-SYMPHONIES-in-STEREO-PHILIPS-HIFI-STE/200068989021.html
http://www.popsike.com/Beethoven-Bruno-Walter-The-Nine-Symphonies-Philips-TAS/260634249584.html
http://www.popsike.com/Bruno-Walter-Philips-HiFi-Stereo-835-542-very-rare/160444388460.html


The sound on these is a revalation,when you are used to the US pressings,even the 6-eye stereos,that are pretty good in their own way.I have yet to shell out the money for the Walters on Philips,but if the Leonard Bernstein HiFi Stereos I was able to buy a few years ago,at under $5.00 each,these have been creeping up since,the sonics alone make them worth the money.

Roger   





--- On Thu, 1/27/11, Eric Nagamine <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

From: Eric Nagamine <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] curious as to why the high value?
To: [log in to unmask]
Date: Thursday, January 27, 2011, 11:39 PM

Tom Fine wrote:
>
http://www.goldminemag.com/features/double-mortgage-anyone-125000-lot-hits-o
ur-market-watch-countdown
> 
> why would those Philips LPs of David Oistrakh and Lev Oborin go for
> so much? Was that a freak eBay sale? That material was reissued as a
> nicely-packaged good-sounding CD set. The original sound quality
> wasn't knock your socks off, although it was typical Philips high
> quality. The performances remain highly rated by some critics. But,
> if a CD set is available, why are the original LPs worth thousands of
> dollars? Could this have been a Philips completist buyer who got in a
> bidding war?       
> 
> -- Tom Fine

If it's a early 60's(?)Dutch pressed "HIFI STEREO" purple label disc, then
they do have a cachet among collectors, though I've never seen the prices
that high. Mostly in the $50 to $100 range per disc. Perhaps the set
packaging was rare in those pressings?  Were these originally recorded by
the Mercury team for Philips like the Richter/Liszt Piano concerti disc?
Those seem to have more value because of who did the recording, than the
performance it self.

-----------
Aloha and Mahalo,

Eric Nagamine