About us

Ethos

The ethos of Mint and Sealed is to provide pristine, collectable and essential vinyl records, which are mint, sealed and unplayed, in all their exquisite glory. Usually these are sealed at manufacture, sometimes the record labels or distributors provide them with no shrinkwrap, or in an open PVC sleeve.

Mint and Sealed also handpicks a selection of the best new music releases and pre-orders on vinyl, providing a minty fresh selection so that everything you can shop for is all killer, no filler.

History

John Peel and the Festive 50, mixtapes, the Top 40, my first gig in South Wales (Big Black in Newport Centre), saving my school lunch money for the record shop instead, bugging DJs in the Square Club, Toucan Club and around Cardiff for the B52s or Jackson Sisters - these were my formative years, shaping my music taste.

After years of DJing and writing music reviews for Buzz Magazine, I went vinyl crazy in lockdown and bought far too much.

I started selling online with Discogs, and still keep that store going with restocks, recent releases, second hand vinyl and rare collectables there. From then, I sold to friends, and at South Wales vinyl fairs with Valleys Record Fairs and Vinyl Daze and also ran my own pop-up shops at Corp Market in Cardiff and Newport Market. Visit my upcoming events to see where I'm popping up next.

This new online shop started in October 2024 and thanks to my loyal customers, I achieved the aim of a bricks and mortar shop with Newport Market in July 2025.

I pick the best of many genres and most of it is vinyl, new or nearly new. A cassette, CD or some other merch may occasionally slip in there too.

Mint and Sealed specialises in indie and alternative albums, hip hop of many varieties, pop music in all its hooky glory and modernity, contemporary jazz and world music - including spiritual jazz and afrobeat and more.

Emo, hardcore, metal and grunge fans are catered for in the rock section.

There's classic rock, psychedelia, glam, folk and more in the 1960s and 1970s racks, electronica such as ambient, techno and more, 1970s to early 1980s roots reggae and dub, funk and soul, neo and modern classical music and soundtracks to films, video games and TV series.

My fave genres are indie, afrobeat and hip hop, and top artists are MF Doom, Shabazz Palaces, Olivia Rodrigo, Fela Kuti, Mildlife, Matthew Halsall, Laura Veirs, Wilco, King Gizzard, Oh Sees, Prince Jammy, Kraftwerk and a whole heap more. 

The shop reflects my tastes and those of Mint and Sealed customers. You won't find all releases here, but hopefully you'll find a nice fresh selection. You will find some bargain vinyl in the sale and markdowns section too.

Buy vinyl records with confidence, from Mint and Sealed, a vinyl record shop in South Wales.