Collecting log: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN Japanese white label LP with an extremely rare promotional booklet (concluded)

In my collection, one of the Japan-pressed vinyls for DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (CBS/SONY 25AP 1000) seems to comprise an almost complete (or full) set of promotional items. This particular copy comes with a white label promo (WLP) LP, two separately stapled fact sheets, and the promotional 20-page booklet, as well as the regular inclusions (i.e., a printed inner sleeve, a lyric sheet, and the Japan-only fold-out insert featuring liner notes by Japanese critics and the translation of lyrics into Japanese). Here, most widely circulated promotional releases of the fourth album are WLP without any other promo addition. Those with fact sheet(s) or advertising flyer(s) are less frequently found, but often appear on online auction or used record websites. However, I dare say that the WLP copies accompanied with the promo-only booklet are impossibly hard to come across.

Collecting log: DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN Japanese white label LP with an extremely rare promotional booklet

These releases up for auction are accompanied with promo
pictures, pamphlets, booklets or fact sheets
(photos taken by the shop owner).

If you remember, last September I wrote about a local used record shop where various rare collectibles of Japanese pressing vinyls of domestic and foreign artists were reserved for a private auction. As for Springsteen collectibles, reserved for auction were extremely rare promotional releases of the first and second LPs, which are mostly known for the unique wrap-around and typographical-error obi, respectively, and the custom promo-only Killer Tracks 12" EP, as shown previously here. The shop owner had told me that he was planning to hold the auction at the end of 2015, which was slightly delayed and actually began mid-January this new year, ending on the first day of February. Towards the end of the auction, he uploaded several pictures of the auctioned items on his shop’s blog. Shown above are additionally uploaded images for the other Springsteen LPs that were up for the auction.

THE RIVER New Zealand 2LP with "lyric" inner sleeve misprint

Faulty "lyric" inner sleeve turns out to be looking good (Image taken from blog on December 28, 2014).

Faulty production series continues. A year back in this blog, I briefly introduced a major production error that is found in a New Zealand copy of THE RIVER 2LP (CBS S2BP 220235). I think this would be a good opportunity to show the details of what error occurs with it. I bought this copy from a New Zealand seller and just like the standard issue, it comes with two printed inner sleeves for two records and the fold-out insert that opens up to reveal most of the song lyrics (Independence Day to Wreck On The Highway). However, one of the two inner sleeves, which should feature several pictures and the track listing for Sides 1 and 2 of Record 1, actually is the reprint of the inner pages of the lyric sheet.

Collecting log: Unusual label error for My Hometown US 7" single

The seventh and last single cut from BORN IN THE USA in 1985 finally features the live version of Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town on a regular 7" disc (flip side) long after its promotional release to radio stations in the mid 1970s.

Unable to update blog these days because here comes a busy season towards the end of this fiscal year (March). In the meantime, early this month, I just found this US regular 7" single of My Hometown / Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (live) (Columbia 38-05728) on eBay, and after a while thinking, bought it via "Buy It Now" option. At the first glimpse of a small photo on the auction page, I somehow recognized that there was something wrong with this vinyl disc, but just couldn't figure out what was actually wrong. Moreover, the seller did not mention anything about the error in the item description (he/she may have regarded it as just a defective copy, not as a collectors' item). So, I almost passed up this otherwise widely circulated stock copy of a mediocre collectible.