it is only through the org I recently learned about longboxes/cutouts. I assume they have the size of the One Night Alone live box set? I have one double CD Diamonds & Pearls era concert that came in the same kind of box. tbh I truly believed these kinds of boxes were only ever used for special box sets

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you see I never knew longboxes were more or less standard issue from 1988-1993 as they were easier to display in vinyl record bins that way. (I started going to wrecka stows around 1995, which is when I first started earning some money doing odd jobs. Also, I'm in Europe. I don't know if longboxes were used only in the US maybe?) I was reading up on the whole format online just now. Fascinating to me, old news to all of you I guess

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do any of you know what Prince & associated artists' albums were released in longbox form? I would like to go about collecting as many releases as possible over the following months

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I was watching Arsenio Hall's Prince D&P episode from 1991 earlier today. one segment had Arsenio holding up the D&P longbox. looked dope!

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3 additional questions :

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*Did they use longboxes with cassettes too?

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*Did even the new albums have cut out marks in their jewel cases inside the long boxes, or were these cut outs only meant for overstock that was cheaply priced? (I only have one cutout. it's a used copy of 'Graffiti Bridge' my parents bought me when they went to some kind of flea market. I'd always assumed it had been a former library copy, not knowing what to make of the cut out mark.)

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Did longboxes open the same way 'ONA Live' opens, that is you could lift off the upper lid? Or were they fully sealed boxes that you had to rip open, thus damaging the cardboard box?

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thanks for bearing with me I appreciate your answers to what must seem like obvious questions to most of you

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[Edited 5/28/16 5:33am]

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[Edited 5/28/16 6:21am]

mightycow said:

Did longboxes open the same way 'ONA Live' opens, that is you could lift off the upper lid? Or were they fully sealed boxes that you had to rip open, thus damaging the cardboard box?

Fully sealed, you had to open the cardboard. Here's a couple pics from my Symbol longbox.

Someone should make a site for this and call it discogs. Oh wait...

Militant said:

mightycow said:

Did longboxes open the same way 'ONA Live' opens, that is you could lift off the upper lid? Or were they fully sealed boxes that you had to rip open, thus damaging the cardboard box?

Fully sealed, you had to open the cardboard. Here's a couple pics from my Symbol longbox.

The first wave of longboxes, pre 1987 or so, had a folding seal. You could open and close them without damaging them. After that, they were glue-sealed and you had to cut or rip them to get inside.

thank you all for your input, it's been very helpful so far! loving the pics too. I'm now starting to wonder whether long boxes were ever big in Europe. it's strange I've never ever seen them around.

suomynona said:

Someone should make a site for this and call it discogs. Oh wait...

it's interesting you should say that because I use discogs a lot, not just for reference purposes, but also for actual purchases, and I have never come across any mention of long boxes so far.

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I had another look just now since using discogs might indeed help me spot long boxes (good idea!), but putting that kind of info into the search box there yields no specific results. neither is it a format category that you can select on discogs (makes sense I guess since there's still a CD inside the box, which would qualify it as a CD release).

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I guess the only way you could find out whether a release still came in a long box on discogs would be if it were mentioned in the notes added by the seller, but as I said, sadly I had not come across that before. I gave it a try just now with 'Parade', 'D&P' and the Madhouse albums but I didn't find any mention in the notes of various versions I browsed. I will continue to keep an eye on it at any rate

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this kind of thing does get mentioned on ebay though

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thanks again to everyone who responded!

[Edited 5/28/16 16:08pm]

mightycow said:

thank you all for your input, it's been very helpful so far! loving the pics too. I'm now starting to wonder whether long boxes were ever big in Europe. it's strange I've never ever seen them around.

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I'm fairly sure they were a US only thing (maybe Canada too?).

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To my knowledge they were never a thing in Europe - certainly not in the UK. Even US imports would be displayed and sold here without the longboxes.

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mightycow said:

thank you all for your input, it's been very helpful so far! loving the pics too. I'm now starting to wonder whether long boxes were ever big in Europe. it's strange I've never ever seen them around.

suomynona said:

Someone should make a site for this and call it discogs. Oh wait...

it's interesting you should say that because I use discogs a lot, not just for reference purposes, but also for actual purchases, and I have never come across any mention of long boxes so far.

You're right. There should be.

My copy of this in the longbox is still sealed. Bought it at Django's in Portland in '92. I only have 5 versions of this record on CD lol.

All of the CDs that were released in the longbox, I still have the CDs. I used to hang the longboxes on my walls (not Lovesexy!) -- decades ago before I could afford actual art. I wish I hadn't done that with those.

I know that they were bad for the environment, because so many people just threw them out, but I miss longboxes. Buying a CD hasn't felt the same since they phased them out. The larger artwork alone made them feel worthwhile. But I didn't throw mine out like a lot of people did. Two of them side by side take up about the same amount of space as an LP.