I marvel at how good those early UK Big Swirls are- part of it, i think, was simplicity. Master of Reality and Paranoid are very impressive. I've been binging on this stuff recently; the prices are out of sight on many of them, but every once in a while you luck out. The A3 B3 Dark Side UK Harvest is really, really good, and doesn't fetch the money that the solid Blue Triangle does; some of the Island pink rims have the same stampers as the pink labels and are quieter (and far cheaper). I started a thread here on 70's music on vinyl- some of the stuff is very inexpensive, e.g. early ABC Dunhills of Three Dog Night. That one Badfinger record which is a Lee Hulko Sterling pressing can still be found relatively cheaply- great music, sounds wonderful. And so on....
PS: and i agree re the fact that at the time of release, at least here in the States, I didn't really pay attention to the pressings. Most of the Van Morrisons I bought new, on release, were Warner Green Labels; what I didn't have (e.g. Astral Weeks) I eventually paid a price to acquire. Ditto the LZII. The real bite is condition, there are plenty of these records floating around in trashed condition. Thus, one of the values of the reissues, if done right.
