BORN IN THE U.S.A. Japanese test pressing LP w/ flyers (and advanced promo cassette tape)

Despite the fair condition, this test press sold extremely well
(from actual auction)

Auction watching continues. Regularly checking Yahoo! Japan auction for rare Springsteen collectibles, I saw another case of high competition that has ended early this week (July 13) with the incredible final bid of over $500. The auctioned item was a test pressing copy of Japanese BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP (CBS/SONY 28AP 2850) in a white plain cover with the small custom sticker. The total bid volume was 29 from six competitors (again I was just watching, not joining the auction). Interestingly, at least two bidders seem to have joined the auction of the custom promo-only THE "LIVE" cassette tape which was mentioned on the last blog (July 12).

Playing my favorite sequence of
No Surrender / Bobby Jean / I'm Goin' Down

According to the Lost In The Flood collector's website, this record is "super rare," and admittedly rarer than the aforementioned promotional THE "LIVE" cassette tape. However, I had never predicted this outcome because, as you can see, there are lots of stains and blots on the white LP sleeve that could be evaluated in good condition, at best (if it were just plain white, it could be replaced but there is a custom sticker on it). Even worse, the auctioned copy was not a complete set as it did not come with anything but the vinyl disc, which certainly decreases the value of this particular copy; the test pressing LP should contain at least three papers: stapled two sheets of xerox copies of the Japanese liner note (the same as the one available in the regular LP copies), a two-sided brown/black flyer advertising the album, and a one-sided red/yellow/black sheet announcing the lead-off 7" single Dancing In The Dark (CBS/SONY 07SP 810) from the album. Although not sure, the lyric sheet might have been included as well (which is not found in my set). The matrix numbers of the test pressing are identical to those of the sample copies and regular first pressing.

The custom sticker on the white plain sleeve is also used for the advanced promo cassette package, the fact which would explain at least in part why the sticker size is rather small (so that it fits a generic cassette case).

THE "LIVE": The Legend Comes Alive Japanese promo-only cassette tape

Certainly rare but over-valued?

The blog article this time, unlike regular ones, is not on vinyl but about cassette collectible. I had been watching with a great interest a Yahoo! auction in Japan since last week because of highly competitive bidding. The auctioned item was the above-mentioned custom promotional-only cassette tape (CBS/SONY XDKP 93022), which ended up a few days ago (July 9) with the final bid close to $300! I guessed the final bid amount would be around one-third of the actual one, though. As you can see, this particular auction resulted in total cumulative bids of over 20 that were actually placed by three presumably hard core collectors (I did not join the auction, just following).

I wonder what "B001" and B002" stamped on the bottom of the
cassettes refer to.  Reflecting the difference in release timing?

Released nearly three decades back, I know the item is rare and hard to come by even in Japan, and the Lost In The Flood collector's website describes that this cassette is ultra-scarce, especially in comparison to the vinyl LP counterpart which is relatively common as a promo-only release. I agree with this comment (though NOT regarding it as super rare from my point of view); however, the final bid amount is just overwhelming taking into consideration that this was a domestic auction not intended to open internationally. I mean, because of the rarity and popularity, severe bidding competition is often expected for neat Japanese collectibles like this one if put forward on international auction such as eBay, which would eventually result in incredibly high bid amounts (but which would usually not happen at domestic auction because of the relatively smaller number of participants and because domestic collectors obviously have more chance of finding the item than oversea collectors).

A good example is a recently completed eBay auction on the sample copy for Brilliant Disguise one-side Japanese 7" vinyl (CBS/SONY 04SP 1075) with the final bid of $360. Just for your information, back in late 1980s, the regular copies were sold at 400-yen (approximately $3 according to the current USD-Yen exchange rate). Simply unbelievable as the difference between

"Mi-hon-ban" three-Kanji character
referring to sample disc

the sample and regular copies is only whether or not "Mi-hon-ban" (three Kanji characters) is printed on the orange paper label and nothing else (see boxed three Kanji letters on the left-hand picture, generally meaning "sample disc" but often used with no distinction for test pressing or acetate disc). As for Brilliant Disuguise singles released in Japan, much more famous and highly valued is a custom-promo only white label 7" version (CBS/SONY XDSP 93095), but I wonder whether even such a copy deserves this amount of money.

On the cassette itself: although LITF does not mention clearly, as shown above, the white cassette case for this release is not a cheap conventional one, but rather seems to be specially designed (though not sure as I don't collect cassettes in the first place), with the sleeve protected by a clear plastic layer, and inside is a pocket holding a fold-out reprint for the promo-only LP's rear sleeve.

BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: a major production error

A short note that follows the series of BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants. This regular copy is actually not a variant but an erroneous product with the gate-fold interior sleeve being upside down. The catalog number PC 33795 suggests that this one is an early copy but found out to be rather one of the later pressings, as the outer rear sleeve prints the producer name correctly in a single line. The hand-etched matrix codes are AL-33795-1G on Side A and P BL-33795-1A MCR on Side B. I obtained this a couple of years ago on eBay where the US seller did not stress this spectacular error on the item description, so the auction ended with no competitors and cost me only the starting bid of $1.99. As always annoying, however, the international shipping took much more money ($22.74).

Speaking of errors on BORN TO RUN vinyl LP, "John" misspelling on the rear sleeve would come to most of collectors' mind. But this type of production error is seldom seen even though some million copies have been pressed and released for this classic title all over the world. Another one-of-a-kind vinyl item in my possession, on par with the previously shown misprinted inner sleeve of THE RIVER LP from New Zealand.