Top 20 Most Valuable 7” Singles

27 Jun

A list of the Top 20 Most Valuable 7” singles from my record collection. The order is based on Discogs’ “Median” valuation as of June 2026.

**Top 20 Most Valuable 7” Singles:** No.’s 20-11

This is a follow-on to my “Top 20 Most Valuable Vinyl LPs” post of January 2026.

Discogs’ Low, Median and High valuations are based on the 30 most recent sales for a specific item in the Marketplace. The Median is the middle number in the dataset. If there are 30 sales, the Median is the average of the 15th and 16th highest prices. The Median is usually the most accurate indicator of a record’s worth as High valuations can overstate a record’s, or collection’s, worth.

So, here’s a Top 20 of my most valuable 7” singles using Discogs’ Median valuation. There’s nothing crazy here - I’ve no rare Northern Soul, Punk or Reggae in my collection! When I collated this list I was surprised to see that the first four Fontaines D.C. singles command such a high valuation, a reflection on how huge the band have become and how few of those early singles were actually pressed. The 90s vinyl on my list comes from a time when CD Singles were king and record companies pressed small quantities of 7” vinyl.

I love a list, this is supposed to be a bit of fun, but I also find it really interesting to see what records have skyrocketed in value. This list also reflects my own narrow interests - in total only 11 artists are featured and 13 of the singles are by just four of those artists.

Of the 20 singles on this list 15 were bought new, two were gifts and three were purchased secondhand. One single is from the 1970s, three are from the 1980s, eight are from the 1990s, one is from the 2000s and seven are from the 2010s. The list contains three picture discs, two coloured vinyl 7”s and 15 black 7”s.

20. Lana Del Rey
‘*Born to Die’ (Remix)/‘Blue Jeans’ (Remix)*
(Polydor/Interscope, 2012)
€44.00

A Record Store Day release limited to 2,500 copies, this is the second single taken from her major label debut of the same name. This 7” features two remixes and is the first of two versions of ‘Born to Die’, and the first of three appearances from Del Rey, on this list. The ‘Born to Die’ remix is by PDP/13 aka Damon Albarn and Richard Russell. ‘Blue Jeans’ is remixed by Penguin Prison aka DJ and producer Chris Glover.

19. The Smiths
‘*Hand in Glove’*
(Rough Trade, 1983)
€45.00

This single featured in my “The Smiths - Singles” post from May 2024. This is a “Manchester Address” copy of the 7”. The first 6,000 7”s had “70, Portland St, Manchester” as a contact address on the back sleeve. The address was the site of Crazy Face a shop run by the band’s first manager Joe Moss. Dave Haslam has written about Moss and the Manchester address - Before the Smiths were the Smiths. Later pressings with Rough Trade’s London address on the back sleeve are worth about €35.

18. Lady Gaga
‘*Poker Face’*
(Interscope, 2009)
€46.00

The second single lifted from *The Fame*, Gaga’s debut album, is backed by a Space Cowboy remix of ‘Poker Face’. This 7” featured in my post, though not my list, about Picture Discs, “Top 10 Picture Disc 7”s and the history of the format”.

17. Radiohead
‘*Paranoid Android’*
(Parlophone, 1997)
€47.00

The first of two coloured vinyl 7” singles on this list, ‘Paranoid Android’, the lead single from *OK Computer*, Radiohead’s second album, was released in May 1997 and reached No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart. Housed in a die-cut sleeve with custom labels, the B-Side is ‘Polyethylene (Parts 1&2)’ which was compiled on a collector’s edition of *OK Computer* in 2009.

16. Fontaines D.C.
*‘Boys in the Better Land’*
(Trigger Party, 2018)
€58.00

This was the band’s third single the first release after they added the “D.C.” suffix to their name. It was the last release on their Trigger Party label before signing to Partisan Records. It’s the first of four appearances by the band on my list. The B-Side is ‘Chequeless Restless’ and both sides were compiled on *Darklands Versions* (Partisan Records, 2019), a collection of their early singles. The *Darklands Versions* EP was limited to 2,500 copies and is worth around €100. *Darklands Versions* is named for Darklands Audio, the studio in Dublin where the band recorded their first three singles.

15. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
*‘Into My Arms’*
(Mute Records, 1997)
€60.00

The lead single from the Bad Seeds’ 10th album, *The Boatman’s Call*. This was played on a church organ during our wedding. A special song for us. I have a few earlier Cave singles that I would have expected to be worth more, so I assume that by 1997 fewer copies of 7” vinyl were being pressed thereby pushing the value of this single higher.

14. Therapy?
*‘Meat Abstract’*
(Multifuckingnational Records, 1990)
€61.00

The first of two singles on this list that were gifts. A listener to the podcast (*To Here Knows When – Great Irish Albums Revisited*) sent me this single after listening to the Therapy? episode (Episode 21 - *Nurse* by Therapy?). The band self-released ‘Meat Abstract’ in a limited run of 1,000 in 1990. An incredibly generous gift - the kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze!

13. The Jam
*‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’*
(Polydor Records, 1978)
€62.00

This is where record collecting gets a bit strange. A UK picture sleeve of The Jam’s ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ goes for about €6, a UK copy of the single in a Polydor sleeve goes for about €4. But, an Irish pressing of the single, identified by “Made in Ireland” printed on the centre label, in a company sleeve goes for just over €60. All the Irish pressings of singles by The Jam go for considerably more money than their UK equivalents presumably because they were pressed in fewer numbers and Weller completists want them. This single was one of five Irish pressings I bought together in the early 1990’s in Cork’s Leeside for 50p each. The accumulated value of all five is €150.00. That’s a 5,900% return on investment! Not bad.

The Jam - Irish pressings. ‘Just Who is the 5 O’Clock Hero’, ‘Beat Surrender’, ‘The Eton Rifles’, ‘Down in the Tube Station at Midnight’ and ‘Absolute Beginners’. Photograph by Paul McDermott.

12. Oasis
*‘Cigarettes & Alcohol’*
(Creation Records, 1994)
€65.00

The fourth Oasis single, and the first of four appearances by the band on my list. I purchased the first four Oasis singles on 7” upon release. I bought ‘Whatever’, the band’s fifth single, on 12” because it came with a free artprint and then I missed the band’s sixth single ‘Some Might Say’. Record shops in Cork just didn’t seem to get that one in on vinyl. I’ve previously written about how I ended up with Noel’s Knebworth setlist in my possession - “Oasis - Knebworth setlist”.

The photograph on the sleeve of the single was shot by Michael Spencer Jones on 14 August 1994 at the Halcyon Hotel in Holland Park, London.

*NME* - 08 October 1994. Image from @nothingelseon.

11. Oasis
*‘Shakermaker’*
(Creation Records, 1994)
€65.00

The second single by Oasis and the band’s second appearance on my list. After missing their sixth single, I did pick up the band’s seventh single ‘Roll With It’. I was picking up the singles because I was DJing at the time, I liked the tunes but I never considered myself a huge fan. However, I was always going to go with the Mancs over the Londoners in the “Battle of Britpop”. After ‘Roll With It’, that was me done with Oasis. I never imagined that these singles, or indeed their first two albums, would command so much money 30-plus years later.

**Top 20 Most Valuable 7” Singles:** No.’s 10-1

10. The Smiths
*‘William It Was Really Nothing’*
(Rough Trade, 1984)
€70.00

The second of two Smiths’ singles on my list. Released in August 1984 the B-Side was ‘How Soon is Now?’ You read that correctly - the B-Side! ‘How Soon is Now?’ would be given its rightful place as an A-Side when it was released as the band’s next single in January 1985. The original withdrawn sleeve of ‘William…’ featured a man sitting on a bed. That photograph was taken from an advertisement for ADS speakers.

According to Jo Slee in Peepholism:

“The original sleeve was withdrawn following a claim for ‘violation of privacy’ and ‘deceptive trade practices’. When it became apparent that the culprit was Rough Trade rather than Warner Bros, the US licensee, the complaint was abandoned, possibly because Rough Trade was a considerably smaller target. As The Smiths gained momentum, Rough Trade was learning some swift lessons about opportunistic litigation in the face of commercial notoriety.”
Peepholism: Into the Art of Morrissey (1994, Macmillan)

Billie Whitelaw as Lottie Bubbles in a still from *Charlie Bubbles* (1967).

Even though it was the second version of the single, the Billie Whitelaw sleeve commands more in resale value these days. Charlie Bubbles was directed by Albert Finney and written by Shelagh Delaney. Billie Whitelaw later appeared in the video of Morrissey’s ‘Everyday is Like Sunday’.