OXFAM has been boosted by a vast donation of classical LPs from the University of Southampton.

The hard work spent cleaning, grading and pricing has paid off as the shop has seen thousands of pounds go through the till recently and as much as £800 on just two records.

They were Johanna Martzy’s Schubert Recital Sonatinas No. 1 & 2 first edition and Ravel Piano Concerto for D Minor In The Left Hand.

Rob Milner, manager at the shop in East Street at the end of Southampton High Street, said: “Everything we sell has a chance on the shop floor and only if we can’t get a fair price would we consider putting it online.

"We always try to have that balance of being fair to the beneficiary, fair to the donor and fair to the customer.

“We wouldn’t claim to get it right every single time but we have certainly improved, especially when it comes to assessing the condition of vinyl.”

Aside from the classical collection, the Oxfam team have found a lot of interesting collectables this year including an extremely rare Beatles contract pressing on Decca, a first issue King Crimson and a Black Sabbath LP with a withdrawn credit on the sleeve.

The most exciting find is a seven inch single by Motown hit-maker Eddie Holland from the Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting team.

Holland, responsible for the lyrics of more than 140 US chart hits, recorded Jamie – rated at £400 in the Rare Record Price Guide – early in his career before stage fright forced him to work primarily behind the scenes.

Stumbling across these exciting rarities has been a great boon to their volunteer team who work hard to keep the shop open seven days a week.

“Even with these incredibly high value items the average price of the things we sell has steadily decreased over the years.

“Yet we have found that we are selling a lot more items to an increasing number of people and so managing to be slightly more profitable year on year,” said Mr Milner.

The shop has a fundraiser tomorrow, with support yet again coming from the University of Southampton.

The society for Alternative and Indie music (AIM) has sponsored, curated and will fundraise for an Oxjam gig where all of the door takings will go to Oxfam’s refugee appeal.

“We have a really welcoming group” said Joe Hayward, president of the society.

“We can’t wait to get everyone together again for the gig,” he added.

Artists featured on the night include The Alaskan Pipeline, Frankie Knight and Calcium, starting at 7.30pm at the Alexandra on Bellevue Road.