Collecting log: Collectable acquisitions in 2017 (Part 1 of 3)

To me, officially and privately, 2017 was the busiest in recent years, and although the calendar year is coming to a close, here in the Far East, the fiscal year still continues to the end of March next year. Accordingly, the number of blog posts this year (that counts 22 including this one) is the lowest since 2014 when I started writing about my collection. This situation also slowed down my activities for collecting and hunting, which, in marked contrast to the last year's report, resulted in few exciting collectables in 2017 (and that's why I refrain using the term "best" collectable for the title of this year-end post). Having said that, I pick up three vinyl titles from this year's acquisition: they are not new here, or probably not main stream collectables, but still worth mentioning as interesting items. Note that this first post is also the latest part of a featured blog series THE RIVER LP collectibles.

THE RIVER "CBS Special Products" US 2LP (US Columbia PC2 36854)
Yes, this rarely seen edition of my favorite double LP has been featured on the very first post in this blog. This year I won yet another copy at Yahoo! Japan auction for an unexpectedly cheap price (330 JPY; just below US $3.00 as of the exchange rate when the auction ended). The seller was a used record store adopting a low margin/high volume policy, and so the starting bid was set as 100 JPY for every auctioned vinyl. The auction

The auction ends at a way cheap price with total 6 bids raised by 5
bidders. A major difference from the regular labels is the omission
of the yellow peripheral rim of COLUMBIA RECORDS lettering/logo
(Images taken and modified from the actual auction page).

page stated shortly the minimum information on the record (i.e. the catalog number and sleeve/disc conditions). A picture of the front sleeve with the two discs was also shown, from which I knew it was "CBS Special Products". There were five competitive bidders including myself who joined the auction. Luckily for me, the bid amounts raised by the other four competitors were quite low by a factor of 100 (i.e. 320, 280, 220, and 200 JPY) when compared to how much collectors have paid for similar auctions (average US $218 and median $167 from 10 eBay auctions, ranging between a minimum of $27 in 2014 and a maximum of $522 in 2013; see the summary table based on the search results on Popsike.come). So, it is obvious that these bidders did not know or recognize the market rate of the auctioned copy

(though exaggerated, in my opinion) and merely regarded it as one of many second-hand imports from the US. Having obtained the third copy in my possession, I thought this would be a good opportunity to update the information on this unusual release that remains vague even in collector's circles.
      Since its first appearance on eBay around in 2013, this particular double LP has often been explained as a possible early or advanced pressing every time it was put for auction sales. For example, an eBay seller suggestively described his/her item as "Maybe a test/pre-pressing before they [i.e. Columbia Records] did the normal run?"  To quote a comment posted on Discogs.com, what it says is: "Very rare CBS Special Products pressing, made with distinct labels just prior to distribution of regular stock copies". From my view, these descriptions represent the most probable misleading information, based on the following facts and observations:

• Matrix information: The two matrix markings, "KP" (the initials of Mastering Engineer) and "MASTERED BY CAPITOL", are not found on the dead wax of the double discs, although having these hand-etching and machine-stamp is an indication of early pressings of this vinyl album (see here for the details). Moreover, the double-letter suffix codes (-AB/-AA) of the matrix numbers, AL-36855-AB/BL-36855-AA on Disc 1 and AL-36856-AB/BL-36856-AA on Disc 2, are quite unlikely to have been assigned for advanced or initial pressings, according to the matrix numbering of Columbia Records. Finally, it is also unlikely that back then, advanced or initial pressings were pressed at a plant other than the three major plants of Columbia Records in Santa Maria CA, Terre Haute IN, and Pitman NJ; THE RIVER CBS Special Products LP is pressed at the factory of Electrosound Group Midwest, Inc., located in Shelbyville IN (as indicated by the matrix etching "Emw"). As far as I know, there is no evidence that this company is involved in the album production in 1980. 

The sleeve surface of the original pressing is glossy
laminated (away) whereas that of the repressing looks
rather matte (front), which may represent another
noticeable difference between the two pressings
(though the picture is not good enough to show the
difference).

• Sleeve format: The original single-pocket sleeve of THE RIVER LP is box-like, with a thick spine (approximately 6 mm in width) that is large enough to house two records stored in thick inner sleeves plus a lyric sheet fold-out. Although the thinner sleeve version (with the spine width of about 3 mm) also exists, as far as I examined, such release mostly contains later vinyl pressings of the regular Columbia label discs, as shown by the different matrix codes without the above-mentioned two matrix markings. So, almost certainly, the thinner sleeve format was introduced one or more years after its original release in 1980, in order to cut down production costs when the album was repressed (It is well known that the maga-hit sales of BORN IN THE U.S.A. results in a boost of his back catalog sales). To the best of my knowledge, all the known THE RIVER CBS Special Products releases come in the thinner sleeve, and I have never seen any copy of this edition housed in the original thick sleeve.

Other examples of the CBS Special Products LP releases. Note that the albums with this unique label
seem to have been released in a short time period between 1983 and 1985. From left to right: 18 SONG
YOU'LL ALWAYS LOVE by Martin Robbins (1983), ROCK OF THE 80'S by various artists (1984), THE BEST
OF MILES DAVIS by Miles Davis (1985), and CHRISTMAS WITH JOHNNY MATHIS by Johnny Mathis (1985)
(Images taken from Discogs.com).
 

An example of Columbia Special
Products labels (taken from
LondonJazzCollector)

• Record label design:  There are many examples of Columbia Special Products (CSP) LP releases (By the way, I don't exactly know what the difference between the two "Special Products" issues is). However, if you perform Google Image Search for CBS Special Products, you would probably fail to hit the same label design as Springsteen's. So, is the CBS Special Products label unique to Springsteen's 5th album or used for other releases by other CBS/Columbia Records artists?  Because Google Search was not helpful, I surveyed the image data available on Discogs.com and found several examples indeed (see the relevant picture above). These CBS Special Products pressings seem to be compilation/reissue albums by old (older than Springsteen!) country/western-based singer/song writers (such as Charlie Rich and Marty Robbins), popular music singers (such as Johnny Mathis), jazz and orchestra players (such as Miles Davis and Mitch Miller), and so on. Importantly, the release years of these vinyl albums are confined to the period between 1983 and 1985. It is very likely that the version of THE RIVER was also released in the same timeline. If so, these circumstances would instantly deny the groundless idea that this unusual 2LP set is "test/pre-pressing before the normal run" or "made just prior to distribution of regular stock copies, although it still remains unknown exactly when it was released.

Finally, despite what I claim here, the CBS Special Products edition of THE RIVER U.S. LP still stands as high collectable. This is mainly because of the scarcity at the market and unusual features otherwise unseen in the standard LP copies, such as the unique label design and semi-transparency of the two vinyl discs.
—  Collectable acquisition in 2017 to be continued.