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Collectors' F.A.Q.
Question
From: Jan Mazzurco, California
I saw something at a store in San Francisco that I have never
seen before, and I was wondering if you could give me info.
about it. It didn't say if it was released from Island or not,
so I'm not sure. It was a black box set containing old CD singles
of U2 songs. It was being sold for $150. What do you think/know
of this?
Dan Eliot: These "Black Boxes"
are basically some CD retailer's idea of "creating"
a collectible. All of the CDs are legitimate, but the box is
not an official release. I have one as well, and it's nice looking,
numbered, etc. Buy it if you like, but keep in mind that the
BOX is not a legitimate Island/PLG release, but the singles
inside ARE. The first set of "black boxes" were released
just barely before Achtung Baby was released (with 10 singles).
There were also later editions which contained Achtung Baby
singles added to the box (giving a total of 12 singles per box
for some I've seen).
This technique is very common by the way. Back in the 80's,
there was this guy in Germany who would place two very common
7" vinyl singles in a plastic gatefold case, add a sticker
that said "Limited Edition" and ... he had created
a "collectible". I know, because I have one of those
too. :-)
Side note: Recently, these older U2 singles have shot up in
value, so the box might actually be worth the $150, depending
on the singles. If I were you, I'd ignore the box, and decide
to buy based on whether you are willing to pay $15.00 each for
the singles (assuming there are 10 in the box). I bought my
box knowing it was not legit simply because I wanted the 10
singles. It was actually cheaper to buy the box than to buy
them individually.
Chris Nilsen: As Dan said, the box
and insert are not official but the CD singles are. I suspect
some enterprising individual created the box and bought the
CD singles wholesale to make the set (and a good chunk of change).
There should be a minimum of 12 CD singles in the box covering
all of the 12" singles released in Germany in the 80's.
Some later sets included two more singles ("The Fly"
and "Mysterious Ways") and have an additional sticker
on the box to note this. There were at least 5,000 of each set
distributed as the numbering indicates. The 12 CD set was being
sold for $100-120 at the time of release around 1990, while
retailers were selling the individual singles for $10-11 each.
In my opinion, $150 is a good price for the set. It could end
up costing a bit more to track them down individually. As Dan
indicated, the values of the individual CD singles have increased,
especially "With or Without You" and "All I Want
Is You". However, the recent B-sides CD included the non-LP
tracks.
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