I've tried looking through the past topics and could not find an answer. What made the 1995 Gold CD explode in value? I have 2 copies. I bought myself one on release day and immeadiately played it. My girlfriend (now wife) was out of town and bought a copy and brought it home to me. This was before texting lol so she could not get in touch with me to see if I had it. She rought it to me and I thanked her and never told her I had aleady bought a copy. I put her copy in a trunk in my room and I still have ot. Any insight is appreciated

dsimp8 said:

I've tried looking through the past topics and could not find an answer. What made the 1995 Gold CD explode in value? I have 2 copies. I bought myself one on release day and immeadiately played it. My girlfriend (now wife) was out of town and bought a copy and brought it home to me. This was before texting lol so she could not get in touch with me to see if I had it. She rought it to me and I thanked her and never told her I had aleady bought a copy. I put her copy in a trunk in my room and I still have ot. Any insight is appreciated

It was pretty fast out of print or at least somewhat harder to find.
these days they're still not that hard to find and don't overpay for it because it's not that rare to ask $15+ for it.
They can easily be found for $5 used, or $10 new/sealed.
a big batch of new, seald CDs (as in about 10.000) were found some years ago in Britain from a old Virgin storage warehouse and were sold at $10 a piece on eBay and Discogs. And I thikn tyhey still come up every now and then.

These are like $5 almost everywhere.

billymeade said:

These are like $5 almost everywhere.

I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

had a situation which resulted in me having to repurchase most of the 90s CD and only

NEWS, One Nite Alone, Rave IN2 the Joy Fantastic and Crystal Ball (original 5 disc plastic case version) were hard to find.

Gave up on ONA and Rave but found the other two at decent prices but beware there are lots of fake Prince CD's out there (e.g. Madhouse 8/16, Jill Jones, Family Etc).

TrivialPursuit said:

billymeade said:

These are like $5 almost everywhere.

I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

Wow, a promo CD would normally be worth more than the public release.

The copy Letterman was presenting before performed "Dolphin" is probably the rarest copy

IanRG said:

TrivialPursuit said:

I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

Wow, a promo CD would normally be worth more than the public release.

Well maybe. But it was just a yard sale. I was quite frankly offended they were selling it at all. It's his best 90's album.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

One of those albums that used all the space a cd had but didnt need to.

It was the times. It was the 90s. Everyone was jamming the space on a CD back then.

This throwback nostalgiac resurgence of the 40-45 minute album didn't come back until the early-to-mid 00s when vinyl started coming back.

It does seem ridiculous to deride the excess when he's no longer her to provide anything and The Estate doesn't have any plans for anything beyond the usual Purple Rain spam, however.

And the album is bleh to me outside of the albeit cool guitar (cool guitar over some of his most cheeseball material). Whining it was too long feels like it misses the plot, however.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

One of those albums that used all the space a cd had but didnt need to.

I reckon it gets a bit too long.

Yet, it missed lots of songs from the period and we've been familiar with that later emerged on Crystal Ball (Acknowledge Me, Days Of Wild, Ripopgodazippa...)

I'm sure a (more abridged) earlier configuration of the album would flow better. By the time of release it sort of lost its momentum I guess.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

^An appropriately unnecessarily long post^ Im aware of 90s trends. However the album he released a year later was back to less than 45. And plenty of albums around 95 were still around that length, eg the bends, post, maxinquaye. Your argument is 'hey hes not here now, he should have stuffed every album to the max!' which is not how good or great albums are made. Compilations, yes. Albums, nah. [Edited 4/4/24 22:45pm]

No, my argument is the album sucks anyway, so why not overstuff it for people who like his cheesy songs with cool guitar riffage?

It's a crap album whether it's shaved to 45 minutes or 79 minutes or whatever. It's beyond saving, so give the fans of it more of what they apparently want.

Also all these qualifiers, designators, albums, singles. I feel a great deal of nostalgia to the era of albums and the era of nerds digesting albums and debating albums as albums. But this is the Spotify era. At this point the album era is like the new orleans jazz era or Neanderthal exhibits at the natural history museum. It's only about tracks and content now. I don't make the rules.

WhisperingDandelions said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

^An appropriately unnecessarily long post^ Im aware of 90s trends. However the album he released a year later was back to less than 45. And plenty of albums around 95 were still around that length, eg the bends, post, maxinquaye. Your argument is 'hey hes not here now, he should have stuffed every album to the max!' which is not how good or great albums are made. Compilations, yes. Albums, nah. [Edited 4/4/24 22:45pm]

No, my argument is the album sucks anyway, so why not overstuff it for people who like his cheesy songs with cool guitar riffage?

It's a crap album whether it's shaved to 45 minutes or 79 minutes or whatever. It's beyond saving, so give the fans of it more of what they apparently want.

Also all these qualifiers, designators, albums, singles. I feel a great deal of nostalgia to the era of albums and the era of nerds digesting albums and debating albums as albums. But this is the Spotify era. At this point the album era is like the new orleans jazz era or Neanderthal exhibits at the natural history museum. It's only about tracks and content now. I don't make the rules.

but it doesnt have much cool guitar riffage (no cool guitar riffage on endorphin machine either, more stodgy riffage). maybe 4 or 5 songs out of 12? im not a TGE fan either really. from a fan POV, it has to be the most overrated 90s prince album (though it has a good backstory cos of everything that was going on). C&D is better IMO.

i agree, the album era is gone. but im not debating new spotify data dumps masquerading as albums, im talking about albums from the 90s, when the album was still more of a thing (though at this point, rappers were making big CD length albums, rock bands were mostly still beholden to the old LP-length format). id say it still is, but its now seen less as something to digest in one sitting, then something just to pick and choose from,

[Edited 4/5/24 1:10am]

It's like when gen-z react to old Madonna songs. "She's like Lady Gaga!"

The albums era is like, "Hey, it's like a Spotify playlist!"

And I'm only counting 3 or 4 that don't have cool guitar looking down the tracklist.

lol, you and your hyperbole

albums do still matter, to music fans.

but you could argue they never really mattered to most music buyers, even when the album was a big deal.

generally/broadly speaking, its prob true that its men who care about albums, women mostly just care about songs.

TGE would have been better if it was cut down to Interactive, Endorphinmachine, Shhh, Dolphin, Ripopgodazippa, Shy, BJB, I Hate U, Gold. That would have made it a tighter album. Days of Wild is okay, Acknowledge Me was a pretty generic pop-rnb/new jack swing thing - good but better given to another artist IMO. like a lot of those D&P outtakes.

This album was out of print for a long time, and I'm not sure how many were even produced in the first place? Which is frustrating, because it is one of his best of the 90s and in the top half of his overall discography.

I know that Emancipation, which was priced pretty high when it came out, not long afterward was always in the used CD section of my local record store for $5 each for the longest time. Of course that all changed when Prince died, and everything seemed to skyrocket again!

Plus - there was that Italian lawsuit claiming that TMBGITW ripped off an older song. The value of the original album probably went up in anticipation of TMBGITW being removed from all future reprints/reissues. I'm not sure what ever happened with that lawsuit?

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

If its just the retail copy but with a promo sticker or stamp then its not going to be that valuable Its like old vinyl with a gold embossed promo stamp A bit diff but not special enough to merit being its own edition

And if it was called "Glitter", then it ain't Gold.

Discogs shows the price of (non-yard sale) promo Gold releases as generally higher than even limited releases. No one was suggesting this was just a public releases with a post manufacture added stamp.

IanRG said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

If its just the retail copy but with a promo sticker or stamp then its not going to be that valuable Its like old vinyl with a gold embossed promo stamp A bit diff but not special enough to merit being its own edition

And if it was called "Glitter", then it ain't Gold.

Discogs shows the price of (non-yard sale) promo Gold releases as generally higher than even limited releases. No one was suggesting this was just a public releases with a post manufacture added stamp.

u sure?

trivial pursuit wrote: I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

There was a European promo CD, with a kinda generic WB sleeve and the album wrongly credited to 'Prince', not ''. This one was a bit pricey back then but I see it's not that terribly expensive anymore for a collectors' item.

US and/or Canadian promos were just the retail version with the aforementioned promo stamp on the cover. Under a completist point of view might be interesting to collect, but there's nothing special about it and promos like these abound.

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

IanRG said:

And if it was called "Glitter", then it ain't Gold.

Discogs shows the price of (non-yard sale) promo Gold releases as generally higher than even limited releases. No one was suggesting this was just a public releases with a post manufacture added stamp.

u sure?

trivial pursuit wrote: I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

I have seen real, actual promos that are exactly the same as the regular version, but just had promo text on them regulary - but not just a sticker or stamp. I have also seen real, actual promos that are not the same as regular version because, for instance, they may have no B Side.

Either way, the sale price of 2nd hand promos are normally higher.

The US promo release does not just have a stamp or sticker:

IanRG said:

funkbabyandthebabysitters said:

u sure?

trivial pursuit wrote: I found a promo copy at a yard sale for a couple of bucks. Exactly the same as the regular version, just had promo text on it.

I have seen real, actual promos that are exactly the same as the regular version, but just had promo text on them regulary - but not just a sticker or stamp. I have also seen real, actual promos that are not the same as regular version because, for instance, they may have no B Side.

Either way, the sale price of 2nd hand promos are normally higher.

The US promo release does not just have a stamp or sticker:

That's a single, not the album.

psyche2 said:

IanRG said:

I have seen real, actual promos that are exactly the same as the regular version, but just had promo text on them regulary - but not just a sticker or stamp. I have also seen real, actual promos that are not the same as regular version because, for instance, they may have no B Side.

Either way, the sale price of 2nd hand promos are normally higher.

The US promo release does not just have a stamp or sticker:

That's a single, not the album.

???? There is no Prince ALBUM called Gold!

There is an album called "The Gold Experience"

IanRG said:

psyche2 said:

That's a single, not the album.

???? There is no Prince ALBUM called Gold!

There is an album called "The Gold Experience"

My bad. I guess me and a half dozen orgers got it wrong and thought the initial thread was about the album