When did Record Club pressings become more desirable?

Not talking about Beatles , because that is the Beatles. I was in a local shop today and the owner told me people are looking for Columbia House / RCA club pressings and are willing to pay a premium. Seems people that like a band/artist , once they have the "regular" pressing , they begin collecting the various club pressings. He stated he charges a premium on "Club" pressings , anywhere from $3 to 4 more to sometimes 10 or 20 more (if the regular pressing is in demand , he can charge even more for the "club" version.... I don't know , I just found this interesting ...

 

I would avoid that shop

 

Those are the pressings I avoid.

 

He's got the wrong end of the stick if he's doing it across the board. Some club versions are worth more because, oddly, of better mastering or pressings than stock copies - but it's certainly not anywhere close to all of them.

 

Sharing your location may help us put this phenomenon in context.

 

That seems very backward. While I have had many fine club pressings, general rule of thumb is that they have the potential for many problems. To say they are more valued or sought after is a misnomer!

 

very strange

 

Also charges more per skip

 

So, the record store owner is instituting a general pricing guideline, applicable across the board, on the Record Club copies he’s selling?
Since I highly doubt this is a standard rule on Discogs, let the Buyer Beware....

 

i laughed out loud.

 

I have two Columbia House pressings:

1. Led Zep II (better than any other copy I’ve heard except the RL. It slams)
2. Deep Purple’s Made in Japan (off-white labels, better than Burbank but not as good as Porky)

 

Back in the 70's, as record collecting grew, I started to notice people looking for & selling 'record club' variants. Not current record club copies of course but older ones. For various reasons. To complete an artists catalog; cover or label variations, or for sound reasons like the Beatles Yesterday & Today since it had all 'true stereo' tracks. Of course, some record club pressings are inferior and others are not. I had the Led Zep debut as a record club copy (an odd Columbia records cutting) and it had banded tracks which sounded weird....hearing 2-3 seconds of silence between tracks! Not my cup of tea but for a Led Zep collector a neat record. And not very common.

I think the shop your speaking of has it all a bit wrong. But if you get a 1st pressing easier because he has the 'hot' record club variant, it could work to your advantage.

 

Maybe the store owner was talking about Zeppelin's 1st LP on the purple/gold label.

 

They are relatively limited pressings in comparison to the "regular" ones, so it makes sense from a collecting standpoint. Believe it or not, not everything is always about mastering!!

 

Because most of my "record club" type vinyl consists of The Beatles, not sure you want my take on the club releases .. that said, the actual reasoning behind the collectibility or rarity is basically the same regardless of the band. Record Club pressings are very much collected and sought after by serious vinyl hounds...

* They contain a different catalogue number generally. (for Beatles this consisted of the number "8" following the letter/s).
* Sometimes there are differences in the cover jacket .. (example would be "Revolver" which has a black line frame along the sides).
* All original Capitol LP's had a special marking visible on the front and back- three lines together /// referred to as hash tag marks.
* Much more limited as far as the number of pressings made ..
* The label and cover includes the special print .. ie: cat #, other credit differences.
* Sometimes there are record club specific releases .. these are quite unique and rare.

I'm certain there are other factors that I have not gotten in to, but this gives an idea overall.
As with most Beatles rare vinyl there is a premium for such items, and the various RC issues certainly fall in to this area. The condition always plays a major factor as with all vinyl. As mentioned the smaller, limited number issued plays a very significant obvious
part of rarity and price premium. These RC discs were really popular during the 1960's and 70's, they existed in the 80's also but the number was not near what it was when vinyl was king. Capitol, Columbia, RCA, Record Club of America, BMG were some of the largest ones at the time.

 

My Japanese Led Zep II pressing has banded tracks, rather jarring on side two.

 

I was a member of several record clubs over the years. Those “12 LPs for the price of one” (plus shipping) introductory offers were irresistible.

 

That is...super weird.

There were a small handful of LP's that were mostly (or only) available through record clubs at the early part of the 90's, I know Yes' Union was one and I think Van Halen's For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge may have been another.

I have a few record club pressings that I got cheap (Pyromania and Duran Duran's Notorious are the two I can think of off the top of my head), and they're perfectly fine enough for me to not feel the need to find another version, but I don't know if I'm just lucky or what.

 

oh yeah... absolutely same here.

 

Wasn’t someone trying to resurrect Columbia House a couple of years ago?

 

I know the Columbia House pressing of Jimi Hendrix's Electric Ladyland is sought after.

Otherwise, I've only known record club pressings to be avoided.

I never avoided them myself. Some were good. Some were not. It's a gamble.

 

Those club pressings used to be the ones that did not hold their value. I remember a time when some stores were reluctant to accept club pressings and invariably paid less for them when they did buy them. I can understand instances now where some early club pressings are being priced the same as comparable non club pressings since a fair amount of those early masterings have become more desirable ever since the loudness wars started. However, a store that is trying to get higher amounts for club pressings would be a store that I would personally cross off my list.

 

I agree. Also the format makes a dfference (I guess the OP was talking about vinyl).

Record club vinyl is rare in the UK (I guess we didn't have record clubs when vinyl sales were at their peak). CDs less so. I could imagine record club vinyl being sought after, but most stores would probably just ignore it, or note that it was an imported US pressing. I only consider record club CDs to be desirable if the title is hard to obtain or it's an early disc made in Japan or by US DADC.

 

That is weird. Thing is, I found a ton of decent 80's LP's at thrift a while back, all in really good shape, played perfect too. They were kind of thin and flimsy though. Come to find out - BMG and CH pressings.
Of course being music club pressings and doing the whole 12 LPs or cassettes for a penny deal, they had to cut corners. I guess the quality of the LPs had to suffer. In my defense though - the 27 LP's I bought came to less than $20 at thrift.

Club pressings of LPs should go for the least money. they just use too light weight of vinyl for the record to be any kind of durable. Most of the ones out there are probably stuff that no one even bothered to pay for the rest of their obligation anyways. Paying more money for a lesser product makes NO sense. I bet that same shop keeper probably charges more for a crosley than for a technics.

What if the LP has this big nasty gouge that ruins several seconds of the song? Not like just a skip but something that could rip the stylus off the cantilever?

Two years ago in fact there was talk about doing this. It never really took off though. CH does still exist but just to sell DVDs.

 

I generally avoid...

The club vinyl version of New Order Substance sounds pretty good to my ears. I haven't compared it to a regular version though.