‘Of course, I’m just saying that it doesn’t look exactly the way it should, it’s a bit loose around the edges there – you see? It’s easy enough to find a machine that can rewrap vinyl. But you do have to have an eye for these things,’ he added with a nonchalant shrug that made Rick’s blood boil.

What are you saying, mate? That I don’t know original when I see it?

Rick opened his mouth to speak, to defend his knowledge and more importantly his honour, but the other guy ignored him and continued talking to the girl.

‘But it is indeed a UK pressing. That’s what we are looking for.’

Penny nodded and took the record from him. ‘He played Yellow Submarine to me and Elle – when Mum was pregnant with us. I read it in her diary. He really wanted us to love the Beatles as much as he did – so he played their music for us.’ She chuckled nostalgically and Rick felt a lull of boredom overcome him – it was the same feeling he had whenever anyone started talking about their family, kids, the holiday they took last year. None of that mattered – it was the fuzzy background noise on a 45 to him – he simply wished they would get on to what mattered, namely the music. The records. The vinyl. The cost.

‘So what do you think?’ he interrupted.

Penny smiled kindly at him and started to open her mouth to speak, but the guy beat her to it. ‘How much?’ he asked dryly.

‘Two grand,’ Rick answered with conviction, causing Penny to go immediately white.

But the toff didn’t hesitate. ‘Absolutely not.’ He took the record from Penny’s hands and pushed it across the display case, giving it back to Rick.

‘That’s a fair price,’ stated Rick, trying to get the thought out of his head that this was the first enquiry he’d had since sinking a considerable amount of money into the record when he himself first bought it.

‘No it is not,’ said the guy nonplussed. ‘I know all about this one. Because I did my research before getting here. Now, I would tell Penny to buy this if this had been pressed by Odeon, and not EMI, which we both know was a subsidiary of the label back in the 1960s.’

Rick swallowed hard. The guy had done his research.