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B-side culture
story Zach Klassen
With a new generation of music fans raised in a culture where the mp3 has become the aural standard, appreciation of analog LPs could be lost among multi-gigabyte iPods. But according to Nielsen SoundScan, an informational system that tracks the sales of music throughout the United States, record sales have risen from 858,000 in 2006 to 990,000 in 2007. Though these numbers aren’t staggering and pose little threat to CD or online mp3 sales, they do prove one thing: people still buy vinyl.
Here are the most sought-after records of all time.
John Lennon & Yoko Ono
Double Fantasy, Geffen, 1980.
Hours before he was shot and killed, John Lennon autographed his assassin’s copy of Double Fantasy. In 1999 the album sold for $150,000, making it one of the most valuable records in the history of recorded music. 
The Velvet Underground
The Velvet Underground and Nico, on acetate, Scepter studio recordings, 1966. Found by Warren Hill in 2002 at a yard sale in New York, this record was one of the first original recordings by The Velvet Underground. The record sold for $25,200 in 2006.
Sex Pistols
“God Save the Queen” single, A&M Records, 1977. The single “God Save the Queen” was released through A&M in a small number of copies. One original release sold on Ebay for £12,675 (nearly $25,000) in 2006.