Royale Records was king of the junk budget record labels of the 1950s. Eli Oberstien flooded the market with a seemingly endless stream of records in virtually all standard speeds and sizes for records of the period, except for 16 2/3 rpm, sadly. I find most eBay sellers think these are worth money; they are not, at least not more than a couple of dollars.
Eli Oberstein benefited greatly from acquiring several defunct record labels that happened to have sides recorded by big names. Majestic records was a star-studded record label that initially had everything going for it until it fell apart and closed shop in 1947. Majestic Records had artists like Percy Faith, The Three Suns, Louis Prima, Georgia Gibbs, and many more artists, many of which were still making new content in the 1950s and had perhaps grown in popularity since their Majestic Record days.
Varsity Records was yet another label in the Oberstein fold of budget labels. In its first life, it was a business venture selling music Eli Oberstein recorded to be a record producer after his falling out with RCA Victor around 1939. Still, it went bankrupt fairly quickly. Varsity's second life was much more successful for Eli. This time around, Varsity Records was an essentially budget album record line in the early 1950s, although 45 and 78 rpm EP releases were also issued.
Varsity records appear to have been phased out when Eli Oberstein rolled out the Gramophone Records line around 1953. This transition is evidenced in fact there are many copies of later Varsity Records pressings discovered inside Gramophone Records labeled jackets.
Many Varsity record releases ended up being recycled into what became the Gramophone/Concertone/Halo record lines, which featured strictly 12-inch LP-only releases (although some 10" Concertone releases are known to exist), initially, all releases were two similar/related Varsity/Royale Record albums and or the contents on one album paired with a "filler" side pressed directly from the pressing masters of an older Royale release, and issued together as a single album. It is impressive how much mileage/money Eli Oberstein managed to get out of the same recycled material acquired in shrewd business moved involving purchasing the back catalogs of defunct record labels.
