This Copy of Metallica’s Ride the Lightning Just Sold For $5,000

Metallica fans and vinyl collectors are both known for their fervent dedication, and when those two passions collide the results are some absolutely astronomically priced collectibles.

To wit: someone recently purchased a test pressing of Metallica’s 1984 album Ride the Lightning for a whopping $5,000! The transaction is verified to have taken place on Discogs.com and was good enough to make it the single most expensive item sold on the entire site in the month of August. I’m not sure whether to congratulate or send my condolences to the buyer… that’s a helluva chunk of change to drop on something that’s just gonna sit on a shelf, but hey, I don’t wanna harsh anyone’s mellow! Here’s a photo of what they got, in all its blank, white glory:

Good news for those of you who saw this article’s headline and thought to themselves, “Man, that’s a bargain!”: there’s another test pressing of Ride the Lightning currently on sale for $7,000. It can be yours!

Elsewhere on the site’s list of the top 30 most expensive items to sell in August, a copy of Mayhem’s 1987 release Deathcrush sold for $2,371.00, placing at #20.

Don’t forget to check out our exhaustive breakdown of how Metallica’s recent vinyl sales history compares to that of the other Big Four thrash bands.