Surface quality of various companies.

Yeah, it felt good, but I felt better when I saw what its actual value really was (I won't sell it - it's just too cool). It was one of those I-knew-what-I-had-but-I-didn't-really-KNOW-what-I-had situations: I knew vaguely that the particular color=R&B but I didn't realize how short-lived the series was or how few releases were actually made in that color. The sound quality of the record is consistent with their 78s of the same time frame - not HIGH fidelity, but enough of a wide range to enjoy and sort of a dull bass which isn't boomy.
I won't confess to knowing EVERYTHING about records but I know enough to prevent getting ripped off most of the time. Sometimes it's real obvious when you're dealing with somebody who THINKS they know about records and this guy was no exception. People who deal exclusively in records 24/7 have to be aware of interest and market fluctuations (case in point: full-time dealers know that Elvis records - with the exception of the Sun releases which may NEVER go down in value - don't sell for as much as what the value guides might boast; one dealer whom I worked for regularly priced his Elvis records at only 10% of book value...and he STILL couldn't get rid of them - while some fly-by-night dealers might see Elvis (especially common scum like "Blue Hawaii" or any of the budget releases) as "Elvis=dead=no longer making records=$$$$$").
It's like the old expression I heard a long time ago: "Those of you who think you know everything are very annoying to us who do".

I love those Columbia 7" LP's but they are hard to come by. It would seem that Columbia intentionally made poor quality 45's in the early years to prove that the 45 was an inferior format to the LP - they were pressed in styrene and cut at a very low level so they tended to be very noisy. The early RCA 45's were also cut at a low level but the New Orthophonics sounded great. The 78's of the 50's usually sounded better than the 45's though, especially the RCA New Orthophonics.
The early rock 'n' roll 45's of the 50's from labels like Atlantic, Chess and King were cut hotter and with more bass and they sound great on modern stereo equipment. Decca and Capitol 45's have been pretty consistently good through the years. Neither of those companies ever pressed styrene 45's. Styrene 45's often had a lot of surface noise even when they were new, although they seemed to have improved by the 70's.

Those early colored vinyl 45 discs are not really that rare. If one record of a production run was colored, they all were.

Until around 1954, RCA used color to identify the music genre on all 45s. Since most of them were popular music, most of them were black.

The colors (vinyl/label) were:

Black*/Black - popular
Cerise/Orange - R&B
Red/Maroon - Classical
Yellow/Yellow - Children's music
Green/Green - Country & Western
Cyan/Turquoise - Comedy and Spoken
Blue/Navy Blue - Pop classics
Gray*/Gray - International

Bright red/Bright red - Christmas
Blue Green/Dark Green - Christmas

* Disc was opaque

Two colors were used for Christmas records. I have a set that has two red discs and two blue green discs. When stacked in the correct order, the red and blue green discs alternate.

After it was discovered that carbon black made the records sound better and last longer, RCA made all of the records black, but kept the label color codes for many more years. Of course, they gave up putting classical music on 45s.

Styrene was favored by record companies because it can be injection molded. But it wears quicker.
Vinyl and shellac can not be injected - the biscuit method must be used, slowing down the process.

I just realized that many of my RCA Victor 78s have the same color code the early 45s have.

Black*/Black - popular (ubiquitous)

Cerise/Orange - R&B (I have one)

Red/Maroon - ALL classical - the Red Seal label

Yellow/Yellow - Children's music (I have two 7" 78 styrene records vintage unknown)

Green/Green - Country & Western (One record, but it's from the 1950s)

Cyan/Turquoise - Comedy and Spoken (none)

Blue/Navy Blue - Pop classics (The Bluebird label for oldies)

Gray*/Gray - International (none)