Collecting log: THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE U.S. LP — Why are the first pressings with "ROSALITA" hype stickers so scarce?

Two examples of the stickered copies in my possession. Left: The album title appears cream-yellow on both front sleeves (though the purple stickers are colored differently), indicating that these copies are the second pressing (Columbia PC 32432). Right: Company logo and catalog number printed on each rear sleeve (upper) and the Side Two matrix number of the “bright purple sticker” copy (lower).

About a year ago (08/24/2020), I wrote on the hype sticker (   INCLUDES  "BADLANDS"  35318   ) for Springsteen's fourth LP, DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN (Columbia JC 35318), assuming that this round-cornered rectangle seal was the first example of album-specific stickers of his original vinyl releases in the U.S. However, it was not true. Even though not so often, used copies of his second album, THE WILD, THE INNOCENT & THE E STREET SHUFFLE, have turned up online auctions with its hype sticker on the shrink wrap (   FEATURES  "ROSALITA"  32432   ). I overlooked this fact because I believed that such stickers were coupled with the pressings whose catalog number is prefixed with "PC" rather than "KC," as two examples are shown above from my collection. As we all know well, the former is assigned for the second press (PC 32432) issued in 1975 around the BORN TO RUN era until the third pressing with the catalog number prefix "JC" and barcodes (JC 32432), while the latter is given to the original released in 1973 (KC 32432). 

An example of the press kit for the second album containing unused
custom stickers (not in my possession; although I don't remember when
and where I got this image, the pictured kit must belong to a fellow
collector somewhere). Who does own it now?

Indeed, as far as I've checked online, most of the stickered copies currently and previously in circulation are the second pressing, with the third pressing minor in number. For this reason, I've long wondered why the first pressing with the custom sticker is so scarce and seldom found on the market. A clue to my trivial question may lie in the fact that back in 1973, as shown in the image right, the album's press-kit packages contained a batch of unused stickers, among other promotional stuff (i.e., the album's lyric sheets, an official letter from Laurel Canyon Ltd., a DJ time strip, and photocopies of some newspaper articles). Inclusion of the official letter from Laurel Canyon, but not from the record company, probably means that Columbia Records had nothing to do with the promo kit, which was packed by Springsteen's private management.

If so, these custom stickers must not have been originally glued on the shrink-wrapped album sleeve when the first-pressing (KC-prefixed) copies were shipped to wholesalers. Instead, the stickers were sent out to the office of Laurel Canyon Ltd., where someone might have pasted them on the album covers one by one manually for the promotional purpose, just like how the picture sleeve for his 1973's debut single Blinded By The Light was hand-manufactured (See the Lost In The Flood collector's website for a full account of the Blinded custom sleeve story). This could be an explanation to answer my own question.

This promo copy with a DJ time strip is the only example I know of the
first pressing (KC 32432) with the hype sticker (not in my possession).
Note that the sticker is directly glued to the LP sleeve that was shrink-
removed (Image taken from the auction).

Of course, the above is my pure speculation. However, the only one "KC" pressing with the custom sticker I've ever seen might support my guess. Although not exactly remembering, perhaps about a year back, I found this copy sold on eBay (see the image right; I refrained from bidding at the auction because of the fair sleeve condition), which is currently listed on Discogs as a promo copy (see here). Take a look at the photo and note that the sticker is pasted directly on the sleeve from which the shrink wrap has already been removed. The way the sticker is glued probably indicates that this copy did not carry the sticker originally when shipped in sealed conditions from one of the three Columbia Records' manufacturing factories. The speculation needs to be further examined, though.

Three examples of non-sticker versions of "KC"-prefix pressings in my possession. Left: A regular pressing (middle) is pressed at Santa Maria and still shrink-wrapped, with the matrix-number suffixes 2C/2C. Two promotional copies (top and bottom) are Pitman pressings with the matrix-number suffixes 2A/2E and 1A/1A, respectively. The discs for these promo releases are identical to regular red-label pressings since no white-label promo are known to exist for the U.S. release of this album. Center: "Demonstration" stamped on the rear sleeves (red, 1A/1A; black, 2A/2E). The shrink wrap was removed from these promos in order probably to stamp the promo indication on the rear sleeve. Right: Side One label of the 2A/2E copy with the promo stamp. Lower Right: DJ time strip glued on the bottom of the front sleeve for the 1A/1A copy, which also comes with the lyric sheets from Laurel Canyon Music Ltd. (This copy was previously mentioned: see 12/27/2015).

In 1975, when BORN TO RUN (Columbia PC 33795) became a hit nationwide in the U.S. (and after that), Columbia Records campaigned to promote his back catalogs, probably resulting in the "PC"-prefix copies with the sticker pasted on the shrink wrap, the most commonly found stickered version. It is also probable that such stickered "PC" repressings might have appeared in 1977 when the record company seriously considered releasing the promotion-only 12" edition of Rosalita (Come Out Tonight) on both sides (Columbia AS 330; unissued)* or in 1979 when the promotion video clip from the 1978's performance (July 8th, Phoenix, Arizona) was premiered on television in the U.S. (later issued commercially on video and DVD).
*Bruce Springsteen: Blinded By The Light, P. Humphries & C. Hunt, p. 154, Plexus, London, 1985.

Interestingly, as in the case for the DARKNESS LP (see 08/29/2020), two versions of the hype sticker are available for the second album, which differs in the background color (bright or deep purple: see the top image).

• Bright purple sticker (Sides One / Two):    P AL-32432-2C        /  P BL-32432-2C
• Deep purple sticker   (Sides One / Two):    P AL-32432-2G  1T  /  P BL-32432-2K  2T

(straight, stamped; oblique, hand-etched) 

 

As deduced from the matrix numbers, my copy with the deep-purple sticker came from Columbia Records' Terre Haute plant. The bright purple-sticker version was probably pressed at the Pitman factory based on the elimination method since neither 1T/2T (= Terre Haute pressing) nor 1S/2S (= Santa Maria pressing) plant-specific signature is inscribed on the dead-wax portion of the vinyl disc. I don't know whether the background color of hype stickers reflects the difference in the location of pressing factories.