Was there ever any worthwhile "Nice Price" or budget catalog reissue vinyl?

As someone in the age group that grew up on vinyl in the '70s and '80s (HS class of '80, go Tigers) my collection falls into several catagories.

a: Records I bought when they came out, LZ Presence, TSRTS, ITTOD; Aerosmith Rocks, Draw the Line; AC/DC, Hwy. to Hell, Back in Black, etc. These should all be fairly good copies, I would Think.

b: Records I bought used, Stuff like a pretty good copy of Let it Bleed, an RL mastered Band of Gypsys, basically stuff I lucked into, that I didn't know what I was getting, except that it was a cheap copy of an album I wanted.

c: MFSL and Japanese pressings of special albums that I wanted the best copy of, like MFSL's of Slowhand, Deja Vu, a Nautalus Super Disk of the Cars S/T, a Japanese Exile on Main Street, German Traffic imports, etc.

and now, since I've developed a good cleaning regime, I'm working my way through my collection starting with these because, after reading here, I have an idea of what has the "possibility" of sounding good.

Now for...

D. "Nice Price" and "back catalog" vinyl. Being that I was too young for most 1st issue classic albums, Beatles, Stones, Zep, basically anything before about '76, this catagory makes up the vast majority of my collection. So my question is....

What would ya'll do in my situation? Would you take the time and expense of cleaning it on the chance that some of it might be good? Would you try to ebay it? Would you sell it to a dealer? Would you just Keep it and clean them one at a time, when you get a hankerin' to hear something? Or just let it sit "as is" like it has for the last 15 years or more?

Are there back catalog pressings that you know sound good? Can we start a list of those that do?

As an example I have an Al Stewart "Past Present Future" that sounds really good, though a little trebley but I cleaned my orange Capitol Abbey Road and it sounded terrible... not worth thr effort and and Orange SPLHCB that sounded fair but not as detailed as the CD. Remember, I'm not talking about the condition of the vinyl but the quality of the pressing.

So, what cha think? Let's hear it!

 

Nothing wrong with nice price. To me it doesnt matter if the record says Mobile fidelity or Nice price or UK import or whatever, listen and learn is all I can do..no preconceptions. I have some nice prices mastered by George Piros that sound really good. Atlantic 2nd pressing (nice price) of Bad Company beats my first pressing. Since you mentioned a Clapton record, you might try the German Universal "461 Ocean BLVD" (cut from the master tape), it stomps any pressing I ever heard of it before.

 

I'm going out on limb here.
Much of the EMI Queen catalogue was mid price during the mid to late 80's and from the original stampers.
The budget Music For Pleasure Lp of The Best of George Harrison using the same stampers as the full price edition (just different cover).
Pink Floyd Relics on Music for Pleasure much quieter than the Pathe Marconi full price.

 

As with anything else in the audio world, the answer is "depends."

When these series started popping up in the '80s it was the first time in a decade or more (or in some cases, ever) that some of these recordings were available.
Remember that the OJC catalog was originally a "nice price" series, as was MCA's excellent Jazz Heritage series.
In some cases, the cheaper reissues were original pressings and/or covers with only a foil stamp with the new catalog number or a new sticker on the shrink. In the case of some excellent recordings that weren't exactly chartbusters, you could get an original pressing or a repress from an early stamper brand new for $3.99.

On the other hand, I picked up a few newer budget pressings on reground vinyl with bits of old label embedded in the grooves.

 

On the other hand, I picked up a few newer budget pressings on reground vinyl with bits of old label embedded in the grooves.

oooh... that's very bad!

 

I'd be surprised if they were British. German WEA had very quiet surfaces during the 80's and had quite an extensive selection of mid price titles from the likes of Led Zep, Doors, Cars etc. I bought back then some Talking Heads albums - Fear of Music and remains In Light - and was very impressed by the sound.

 

I bought a lot of CBS Nice Price, RCA Best Buy, WEA Super Saver Series, MCA Platinum Plus, Polygram Sound Savers and Capitol (whatever they called their green label series) in the mid 80s and I found most to be decent except for the MCA titles. It seemed the vinyl they used for their $4.99 list albums was not at all quiet (plus they stamped the cover to idicate it was a midline series, as did RCA), while the vinyl they used for their full list albums sounded great. I always hoped the quality of the WEA midline albums was the same as their full list, as they were $2 more than midlines from CBS, MCA and Capitol (Polygram was inbetween the two.)

 

Still Sealed Nice Price Lps....

I certainly hope there is nothing wrong with "Nice Price" vinyl.

I bought a lot of titles in the early 1990s when Lps seemed to be disappearing for good, before the comeback and second wave audiophile releases. Oddly, I was just going through my four boxes of sealed Lps last night, and about half of them are "nice price" stickered: Zeppelins, Neil Youngs, Tulls, CSN, etc...

My thinking is they may or may not sound as good as first pressings (RL's thicker pressings, mastering variations, etc...) but they should sound swell. Most are NOT digitally remastered, and that's a good thing, original presentation and all. Some have NO UPC code, which means they might be late 70s/ealy 80s vinyl right? And I know some are even originals... and some have not been reissued on Lp, or only on very expensive (sweet) Lp...

I think, per the one poster, you should judge them for yourself, explore, play in the vinyl... Though there is some great (moneysaving) advice round here...

PM me if you are looking for certain classic 60/70s Lp titles, STILL SEALED...

cheers,

 

Great!!! so I may still find some hidden nuggets, I know my Zep I and II were record club pressings that I bought at "Best" (not Best Buy). A lot of my albums were bought at the Fort Bragg PX and the rest at Paradise and the Record Bar in Fayetteville.

I cleaned a very thick vinyl copy of Can't Buy a Thrill on the MCA Coral label and while it was clean it was very muddy compared to an ABC pressing I found earlier this year. I have most of the Bad Co. albums that I thought sounded good, maybe I'll check them out this weekend.

 

Here's an example I can personally confirm. When Led Zeppelin's Coda (SS 90051) was released as a new release carrying a top-line list price, we overbought a little. No big deal. Since it was Zeppelin, and we knew it would eventually sell, we never returned the excess. By the time WEA decided to drop the price of this title to their "Super Savers Series" price, we still had about 300 copies from the initial pressing. In order to get credit at the old (higher) price, we had to return our supply by a certain date. After that we could buy it at the lower price. This title kept the same stock number after the price change. By chance, when we bought some at the new lower price, we actually received several of the same unopened boxes (marked with my RA#'s) that we had just returned.

So, whoever bought these low priced catalog items got the very first ones pressed back when this was a brand new release. There are probably many cases like this, but this is one I'm certain about.

Jim, we supplied the Best Products showrooms (the chain was headquartered here in Richmond). They were our biggest rack-job account. In fact, the Fayetteville showroom was one of my accounts when I was in sales in 1968 and 1969. We also were the wholesale suppliers for many of the albums/tapes sold at the Fort Bragg PX.

As far as buying record club pressings at Best Products, that's not possible. Even if we wanted to, there's no way we could buy record club issues to distribute. They are sold under different legal contracts. It's an entirely different distribution chain with no overlap. After Xmas 1969, I moved from being a sales rep in our rack-jobbing division to working in procurement/returns. For the next 30+ years I had to watch for any stray record club issues being returned to us from record stores, including Best Products, because record club issues have no return value. Since we (Pat's One Stop pre-1968, and Dean's One Stop 1968 until Best went out of business) were their only supplier of records/tapes/accessories, I can assure you that Best Products didn't sell record club issues.

Perhaps you are saying that your Led Zeppelin albums were pressed by Columbia in their Terre Haute plant? That's certainly possible, but it doesn't make them record club issues.

 

Hey Wilkie,

It's a crazy small world ain't it? I'll check these out when I get home But I'm 99% positive I got these at Best. This would have been a bout '76 so they weren'y new releases at the time.

Did the PX get new releases when they were first released or was there some lag time? I remeber they were alwats overstocked with the most bizzare titles, like in '75 they'd have a ton of Chicago II LPs and Through the Past, Darkly

 

Didn't Coda hit the cut-outs before dropping to "Super Savers Series"? (BTW, this is not an attempt to dispute your story, as I know Coda was continously in-print.)

Wilkie,
I'm curious about when WEA brought the ZZ Top catalog albums from "Super Savers Series" back to full list after the success of Eliminator. Did you have any advance notice this was going to happen, and if so did you stock up on the older titles?

 

You seriously NEED to write a book dude...

on your years in the record biz...

seriously!!!

You're a veritable encyclopedia of rock industry knowledge and record minutia...

Have you started yet?

Vol. II could be "The Complete Wilkie SHTV Posts."






cheers,

 

There is certainly a lot in the UK: Classics for Pleasure issue fine quality EMI material, often better mastered than originals (and in some cases issuing in true stereo for the first time). Other labels to look out for are Greensleeve (revised cover art but superb loud dynamic mastering) and the superb Ace of Diamonds from Decca.

Fame (which sort of was a rebranded Music for Pleasure) sometimes remastered to good effect, sometimes used original stampers.

Remember that several classic rock compilations were originally Regal Starline (a 99p label, shortly increased to 1.49) including the first issue of Relics, Remember the Yardbirds and BJH's Early Morning Onwards.

 

Not to mention the 14 million sellers DC5 album in stereo.

 

Beach Boys green label LP reissues & Beatles purple label LP reissues from the late 70s-early 80s often sound better than any earlier North American pressings, actually using better quality masters. The ones below aren't necessarily outstanding examples, but these are the labels to look for.

 

My second copy of SILK DEGREES had a NICE PRICE! sticker on it. It sounded fine. (I had a Dual turntable and Scott everything else at the time.)

 

I bought quite a few "Nice Price" Columbia and Epic titles in the early 80s that sound pretty good...

 

We sold directly to Defense General Supply Center. From there the records/tapes went out to PXs, and other US military outlets around the world. The majority of titles we sold them were from independent labels, both new releases and catalog. We were only a small part of their overall supply chain. By law, they had to use the services of a certain percentage of smaller businesses, so we submitted a bid to them that was accepted. I believe they got most of the major label releases directly from the manufacturers (marked "For Military Sale Only").

In the cut-out bins, but not as a cut-out, yes. They were over-presses. Sorry, I don't remember which happened first. Dumping some of their stock as non-returnable over-presses, and lowering the list price of their remaining stock were both reactions to the same problem; more supply than demand.

I may have the letter with the exact date of the price change somewhere around here. If I find it, I'll post a copy. Most over-press/cut-out sales by the labels were handled by phone calls, so I'm sure I don't know this exact date. We often got the first scoop when these became available because the branch managers would prefer to do us a favor, rather than a cut-out only distributor. Because of this, we frequently had top quality non-returnables to spice up the usual junk sold in retail cut-out bins.

We always had advance notice of price changes (up & down), and could take advantage by stocking up, if we chose to make the investment. With hundreds of retail stores to look out for, upcoming price changes and impending deletions were a big part of my job, with different ramifications for our one-stop accounts vs our rack-job accounts.