Veracity of albums for sale being "sealed"?

Don't know about the authenticity of the seal, but I purchase lps to listen to, not look at.

I.m with Siddh on this. I don,t care how rare or sealed or not. I buy em to play and listen to them, period. Mapman's point is right on with "shrink wrap" and its effect over time and the risk of warped lp's. As Elizabeth pointed out , I myself have bought hundreds of lp's unsealed that don,t appear to of ever been played. The collectable status thing is in my opinion out of control, but as long as there are those that will and can afford to pay the prices for 12 x 12 wall art we music buyers will indefinately pay increases for good used copies. Cheers

When I buy an older unopened LP, I look around the spindle hole on the label. All my albums have lines where the spindle gently kissed the paper prior to finding the hole.
Someone would have to be extremely careful not to make that mark while placing the LP on the spindle.
I have yet to find a "new sealed" LP that I purchased with those marks.
I know there's gonna be some "find the hole" jokes comming. I can just sense it....
-John

The few sealed LP's I have purchased have tended to be noisy/dirty ( all those years in a paper sleeve) or warped. I would prefer a used mint - LP to a sealed one.

Thanks to all of you for your insights. I have to agree with Siddh and Has2be on buying them to be played, but once in awhile you run across an album you want and it happens to say "sealed" in the add, hence the higher price for one thats sealed-seems like marketing hype but hey, who am i? I have a collection of around 1000 LP's (which I know pales in comparison to some of you), running the ga mut from classical to jazz, rock, new age. Many are collectables including some RCA shaded and white dogs and Mercury Living Presence, but not too many audiophile as such albums. I play them all but not frequently enough to incur too much damage (on a Ortofon 12 inch arm and Dynavector cart). I also have around 600 CD's. Again, thank you all for your experience and wisdom.--Mrmitch