Collecting log: The best acquisition in 2016

Big box arrived here from upstate New York. Inset shows the eBay
sticker probably for global shipping (overlaid on which is the semi-
transparent lilac-colored label of the domestic delivery service).

Now we're coming to the end of the year, it's time to look over the best acquisition in 2016. It's a volume purchase won on eBay this spring with a cumulative bid of 12, which resulted in the final amounts just exceeding 80 bucks. The amounts were happily way less than what I had expected to pay, but as always, the shipping cost too much from East Coast of the US (slightly more than the half of the final bid). Speaking of the shipping option, as many non-US buyers already pointed out, I am also quite discontented with eBay Global Shipping Program because it charges additional costs that probably results from handling, custom/import duty (pre-paid is mandatory; Note that the zero rate is usually applied for importing vinyl discs here, unless an item is quite expensive or highly valued) and the US domestic delivery from seller's address to the Global Shipping Center. In this particular case, tracking information revealed that the box parcel was originally picked up somewhere in upstate New York, then transferred to Jersey City, New Jersey, then to Cincinnati, Ohio, and finally delivered to the Global Shipping Center located in Erlanger, Kentucky. It was found to cost extra 10 bucks (or more) and take 4 days for the parcel box to be ready for international shipping. Why wasn't the parcel allowed to be exported simply from the international airport in Jamaica, New York, as it was originally posted in the same State? For international buyers, this service is totally unnecessary; a seller can ship an item to an overseas buyer directly, which would not only save shipping and additional fees, but also shorten delivery time. So, the first thing I do now when I join an auction offered by someone in the US is to request the seller not to use the program and ask for another shipping option.

Anyway, I usually avoid volume purchases because of the high absolute cost of international shipping, especially from the US. Another reason is to prevent the accumulation of mediocre collectibles that I don't need in duplicates, or vinyl titles that I am totally not interested in, such as those nothing to do with the Man himself that are often put together in a volume package. However, I could not resist placing the winning bid for this mixed bag.

Photo taken by the seller and shown on the actual auction page. Top: CBS MASTERSOUND HIGHLIGHTS promo-only US copy (still sealed); Second row from left: DARKNESS promo-only US picture disc (still sealed), THE RIVER regular US copy with a blank red label on Side 3, and Tunnel Of Love UK 12" single folded poster sleeve edition; Third row from left: DON'T LOOK BACK single bootleg LP, WEMBLEY STADIUM 4LP bootleg capturing the "4th of July" performance in London 1985, and the BORN TO RUN Armed Forces Radio and Television Service edition; and the bottom row from left: Cover Me UK 12” regular single second edition, THE JERSEY DEVIL bootleg reissue, and THE HEAVYWEIGHTS promo-only US double LP.

This auction lot contained 10 vinyl titles that were exclusive to Springsteen and disaggregated into eight LP and two 12-inch discs or seven official (4 promo and 3 regular) and three bootleg records, counting a total of 15 discs. It's a jumble of wheat and tares, but I did spot an extreme rarity included therein when I, for the very first time, saw this auctioned lot online. That was a vinyl LP pressing from the Armed Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) featuring tracks from BORN TO RUN on one side exclusively. I think this record alone is worth the winning bid of the auction.

The label design for AFRTS has frequently been changed over the 
years. This "large eye" logo represents a typical one for the mid-
1970's pressings. P-15541 seems to be a playing side-specific code,
as the other side of the label prints a slightly different code P-15542.

AFRTS has provided popular radio and television programs to US military personnel, workers, and their families in countries where US military bases are operating but English-language broadcasts are not available. Vinyl LP pressings from AFRTS are generally rare, limited in quantity and often come with unique track listing and label designs, which explains why these records generate a lot of interest from vinyl collectors. According to Lost In The Flood collector's page, there exist at least two AFRTS LP releases of Springsteen, each containing 5 tracks from either BORN TO RUN or DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN on one side of the disc, coupled with songs from other artists on another side. The copy included in the auction lot has the catalog number RL13-6 and features the BORN TO RUN tracks (Thunder Road / Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out / Night / Born To Run / Meeting Across The River) on Side One while the other side is filled with excerpts from Eric Clapton's 1975 live album. The vinyl is housed in a plain black die-cut sleeve and carries the labels in a brown background with a large official AFRTS "Eye Logo" printed on both sides.

The other nine titles are as follows:

• THE HEAVYWEIGHTS: COLUMBIA RECORDS FALL 1975 (Columbia A2S 174): A US-only promotional 17-track compilation double LP featuring Born To Run as the first track of Side One. The two records carry white promotional labels and come in a custom gate-fold sleeve with a "DEMONSTRATION Not For Sale" gold stamp on the back cover. Released more than four decades ago, this one is not seen so often and the first entry in my collection.
  
  

  

  The modified artworks for the albums in which featured tracks appear are printed inside the gate-fold sleeve.
   

• CBS MASTERSOUND HIGHLIGHTS (Columbia AS 902): A single US sample LP for promoting CBS's audiophile pressing series released in 1981. Thunder Road is taken from the half-speed mastered edition of BORN TO RUN (Columbia HC 33795) and featured as the first track of Side One on this promotional copy. Housed in a custom gate-fold sleeve. Again, the first entry in my collection although I obtained many years ago the similar sample compilation LP issued in Holland (THE SOUND OF MUSIC ON MASTERSOUND; CBS SAMP 15) that also features the remastered version of Thunder Road. Still sealed.
  
  
  
• DARKNESS ON THE EDGE OF TOWN [Columbia (no catalog number listed)]: A US-only promotional picture disc LP. No explanation is needed for this official classic collectible. Counterfeits have been reported to circulate for years although thus far I have never seen or encountered such copies. This copy (the third copy in my possession) is still shrink-wrapped and remains unopened but the lyric sheet is visible inside the die-cut sleeve through the spindle hall, which warrants the authenticity (since the counterfeits are said not to include it). This sealed copy alone may also be valued equivalent to the winning bid amounts.
  
  
• THE RIVER (Columbia PC2 36854): A US commercial 2-LP copy pressed at the Pitman pressing plant, New Jersey, according to the dead wax matrix information. At first I regraded it as a mere red-labeled Columbia regular copy. However, what turned out to be was that the Side 3 label was blank only with the yellow peripheral rim of Columbia Records. An unexpected but welcome addition.
  
  

  

  The matrix number PAL-36856 is assigned to Side 3 of this US-pressed, my favorite double album. The matrix code on the right that is unreadable in this picture is the machine-typed MASTERED BY CAPITOL stamp.
   

• Cover Me (Undercover Mix) / Cover Me (Dub) / Shut Out The Light // Dancing In The Dark (Dub) / Jersey Girl (live) (CBS QTA 4662): A remix version 12" single commercially released in the UK in 1985. Certainly the least collectible among those included in this lot.
  
  
• Tunnel Of Love // Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town (live) / Two For The Road (CBS 651295 8): Another UK 12" single released in 1988. This one is a folded poster sleeve edition. Still mediocre though.
  
  

  

  The famous matrix inscriptions on the dead wax of THE JERSEY
  DEVIL pressed from the original stampers: HAR147 on both sides
  with THIS SIDE FOR CHAR on Side 1 and THIS SIDE FOR CAROL
  on Side 2, probably dedicated this record to wives of the
  bootlegger and his friend/partner (not in bootlegging). Note 
  that the original copies have a custom silver label on Side 1 
  only (Side 2 label is white blank).
  

• THE JERSEY DEVIL (Hoffman Avenue Records HAR147): A classic bootleg LP honored to be the first ever Springsteen bootleg or Bruceleg originally released in Fall 1975. This copy is a Dragonfly Records reissue but pressed from the original stampers as confirmed by the dead wax information (see the picture on the right).
  
  
• DON'T LOOK BACK: Bruce Springsteen Collectors Items 1974-1980 (PUD Records PUD P 4234): A single bootleg of random, yet interesting collection of studio outtakes and rare live performance. This bootleg has been mentioned on this blog. Check here for the details. This copy is the fifth(!) in my collection but happily, no duplication of the sleeve color (this time dense blue) and pressed from the original plates.
  
  
• WEMBLEY STADIUM (Spacematic Records 198-50704): A Swedish 4-LP capturing the famous Fourth of July 1985 concert in London. One of the best BORN IN THE U.S.A. tour bootleg in the vinyl era, notably for the sound quality and the show itself with Little Steven as a guest appearance for this special occasion. The bootleg column on the Backstreets magazine (#16, Spring 1986 issue) selects it as No. 1 among Top 10 Bruceleg titles released since the beginning of the tour in 1984 (the column is entitled Live album recap and written by Danny Martins). Unfortunately, this copy is missing the accompanying bonus 7" single.

Obviously, the US seller was not an expert on vinyl collectibles generally, and particularly on Springsteen items, but rather selling whatever could be sold, as far as I overviewed his/her auctioned items that ranged from antiques to electronics, designer apparel, accessories, and more. I guess this lot might be consigned to the auction by a hard collector in East Coast, for the reason we of course don't know, to this utility eBay seller. Summing up, I am really satisfied with this volume purchase that puts together various collector-oriented vinyl releases of both official and unofficial items, with at least two legitimate records of high collecting value. Thus, this volume lot of auction is easily placed as the Top acquisition this year. Best wishes for good health and happy hunting in the coming year!

Collecting log: Cover Me UK shaped picture disc single

A bi-color sticker on the PVC bag holding the picture
disc. Note that not all copies come with stickers.

This is the final of the three consecutive collecting logs on “cheap buy” in my recent trip to Tokyo. Yet another I picked up there was Cover Me/Jersey Girl (live) (CBS WA 4662), one of the three shaped picture disc singles from the album BORN IN THE U.S.A. that were commercially available in England. This limited edition is the second release out around September or October 1984 (the receipt of the imported first copy I obtained dated 11th October, 1984), following the pink caddy-shaped picture disc of Dancing In The Dark/Pink Cadillac (CBS WA 4436) and followed by the US flag-shaped I'm On Fire/Born In The U.S.A. (CBS WA 6342). The original pressing has a printing error on the rear side, listing both incorrect playing speed (45 rpm) which is blacked out and the correct speed (33 ⅓ rpm) underneath it. The re-releases correct this error (see the picture below).

The B-side Jersey Girl (live) is shorter and truncated when
compared to the originally released version on the regular 7"
single, even though the running time is indicated as 6 min
15 sec (that is another misprint on this disc).

Shaped into a cut-out figure of the "jumping in the air" pose which is shot by Annie Leibovitz, it was in fact a cool collector's item that had never been seen before. The disc itself is 5 inches in diameter with his arm, leg, and guitar extending beyond the edge, which comes in a clear thick polyvinyl chloride (PVC) bag, together with an unfolded cardboard paper for a display plinth (that is exclusive to this and not available to the other two shaped picture discs). The Backstreets magazine (number 12, Winter 1985) reports it as "the coolest item released in the last few months" and that "it had limited distribution and was not imported into the US in quantity, keeping the collectible prices very high". Therefore, it was probably the most sought-after among the three picture disc releases, and one of the most popular collectibles in the mid-1980s when the album and the supporting 1984-85 world tour generated a furor around the globe.

From left to right: The original misprint pressing, the latest acquisition (showing the least discoloration among the three); and the first purchase back in October 1984 still with the price tag of 1,300 JPY on the upper left corner of the PVC bag (the receipt is also shown).

However, the praise stops here: As you already know, many circulating copies suffer from the ugly "tea-staining," the phenomenon that picture discs get discolored into brown, obviously due to some kinds of chemical reaction that

The rear side of the discs and unfolded cardboard papers
(from left to right; the same sequence as above)

occur inside the clear parts of the disc. This really unfavorable chemical event is fairly common to shaped picture discs pressed and manufactured mainly in the 1980s for various artists. Unfortunately, these Springsteen's releases represent one of the most frequently cited examples of the tea-stain development, although this does not affect playing at all. It seems that the Cove Me picture single is the most seriously affected by the phenomenon whereas the Pink Cadillac-shaped disc is the least. I own one copy each of the other two picture disc singles, and in fact, the caddy-shaped disc still maintains its intact appearance totally free of the stain while the flag-shaped one has discolored to a "tea stain" effect almost fully.

The misprinted and corrected running speed printed on the
rear side of the original and re-released copies. Inset shows
an enlarged image to visualize the hidden error (modified 
partly to reveal the misprint by enhancing transparency)

Before this purchase, I owned two copies for this particular shaped picture disc. Unexceptionally, they already developed discoloration years ago seriously and mildly. As shown above pictures, one copy has almost gone that ugly browned while the other also started showing noticeable signs of tea staining. When I first noticed the symptom, I could not simply believe it because since the purchase, these copies had been properly stored in dark under sealed conditions, avoiding high humidity and temperature fluctuations. This unpleasant situation, and a relatively cheap pricing (864 JPY including consumption tax), led me to getting the third disc on this occasion, as the on-sale copy looked still in very good condition.

The strange parts for this deterioration of clear vinyl are that (1) not all copies have this problem and as shown here, the extent of brownish discoloration significantly differs among circulating copies; and (2) when it happens, it happens gradually or rather suddenly no matter how the care is paid for. The real cause still seems to remain obscure but there are several candidates for causal factors that are (i) inherent to clear vinyl material (e.g., chemical composition), (ii) process-associated (e.g., overcook or pressed inappropriately at too hot temperatures), and (iii) storage environment or condition (light, temperatures, relative humidity, oxygen penetration, and volatile and/or adherent chemicals from a PVC bag). Although not sure, I think that tea staining could result from certain unwanted reactions between chemical components and oxygen contaminated, which would further accelerate under inadequate manufacturing conditions such as overcooking. Environmental factors could, if any, have only minor effects because the proper storage seems little effective on preventing the development of the phenomenon (as is the case of my collection shown here). So far, I have never seen any report or article on effective ways of suppressing the progression of discoloration on these shaped picture disc singles. 

Collecting log: 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) US 12-inch Maxi single and Supplementary Note to BORN TO RUN US pressing LP variants: unusual red labels (JC 33795) on Sep 13, 2015

Do unusual red US Columbia labels without a yellow-rim indicate
the later regular pressing around early 1990's?

Another 12-inch vinyl I bought at cheap in my recent trip to Tokyo but not mentioned on the last blog was 57 Channels (And Nothin' On) - The Remixes (Columbia 44 74416) that is issued in the US back in 1992. This Maxi single contains three variants of the title track remixed by Little Steven, plus the non-album B-side Part Man, Part Monkey that is almost regularly played in 1988 during TUNNEL OF LOVE EXPRESS Tour. I remember I first listened to this tune in 1991 through a 3-CD bootleg called SPRINGSTEEN, RAITT AND BROWNE (TCD 16, Templar Records) that was managed to get by mail order to the now-defunct Great Dane Records, Milan, Italy (Templar was a sort of sub-label of Great Dane that distributed bootleg CDs under Templar labels). The bootleg captures the famous solo acoustic performance on November 16, 1990, which is now available as an official live archive release. I also experienced the live performance back in 1993, right in this noisy remix arrangement.

For not obvious reason(s), I had not tried to get a copy of this particular release before. Maybe it was just because I had not had the opportunity to purchase it (in fact, this was the first time for me to see the real copy at shops), or just because there were no positive reasons to buy it, even though all the 4 tracks are still not available on any regular LP releases (BTW, I still wonder why the original version on the HUMAN TOUCH album was not included on this 12" single).

A major difference is the introduction of bar codes on both sides of the labels of the 1992 remix disc. I'm wondering what is meant by an inverse triangle on the left of a spindle hole. I don't know, but I guess it refers to the main side (Side 1 or Side A) because this symbol is absent on Side 2 or Side B label of each disc (shown as two smaller images vertically arranged in the middle of the panel). Can anyone confirm this?

Anyway, going back to the accommodation and taking out the disc from the sleeve, to my little surprise, I found that the record labels looked like what I called "unusual" when I mentioned about a variant pressing of the US BORN TO RUN LP (refer to the previous post on September 13, 2015). In that blog article, I wrote "Probably, a minor label variation for Columbia Records reissue series (maybe after 1980?) that is nothing to rave about, but just to record it here, for reference purposes." But back then, I was not able to narrow down when this non-common Columbia label reissue was out in the US market, because I couldn't find out any other example of this label.

Hand-etched on the dead wax of 57 Channels is "Precision TD",
which may indicate Cutting Engineer Tim Dennen at Precision
Mastering, Hollywood, CA (However, some others say Tony
Dawsey at Masterdisk, NYC; I don't know which is correct)

Still, I don't know exactly when the US Columbia has changed the label design or introduced this non-familiar version of the label to LP and 12" discs. As far as Springsteen titles are concerned, the regular red labels with a yellow COLUMBIA rim are used up to Chimes Of Freedom 12" EP that is released in 1988, but both HUMAN TOUCH and LUCKY TOWN, the 1992 twin album, employ custom-designed labels. Although the detailed information still remains to be obtained, it is at least now clear that that particular copy of BORN TO RUN LP is one of the very late regular releases, most likely pressed just before 1990 or shortly after.