I've bought a few of Prince's albums and records on vinyl lately and have spent mostly between $2 and $10. I have ran across a couple of Black albums, one was $50 and I don't remember the price on the other one, but it didn't look like it was the right album in the cover so I passed on it. Now I may take a second look. Anyway, the $50 one included a letter from the International CD Exchange. I assume this is from the 1994 press. Basically, I want to know what should I be looking for when purchasing the Black album vinyl to steer clear of bootlegs and is $50 a normal price for it? It seems like there's a lot of versions of this ablum.

You won't find an original Black album vinyl pressing for $50, put it that way.

This will help:

http://www.theblackalbum.info/

Information on sleevographia might also be useful:

http://sleevographia2.free.fr/

And as for information, look here.

http://www.theblackalbum.info/

EDIT - damn, beaten to the punch. lol
[Edited 11/29/09 9:29am]

Thanks for the links. Based on the pictures it looks like it was the US promo with the letter added. However, I don't remember it being a promo but I guess I could compare the pictures. Still, is this worth $50 or is it something I can should shop around for?

I bought an original for £6 years ago.

boom said:

Once somebody else buys it,it's gone!!!

muirdo said:

What's that in US dollars and how did you know it was original?

luv4u said:

I know! I just want to make sure I know what I'm getting between the two. I'm going to go back and look at the other one today (if it's still there).

boom said:

about $12.
Its a vinyl bootleg,but for years I was convinced I had an original.This was the late 80's long before the internet would tell me otherwise

muirdo said:

Impossible.

muirdo said:

At least you only paid 12 bucks for it...

I have the 1994 released original vinyl, it isn't (wasn't) that expensive

I believe I bought it for 150 dkr. about $ 30.

boom said:

Looks like the going rate for the 1994 Black Album promo is $30-$65. Black flood coat ink takes a beating over the years, so hopefully it's been bagged for most of it's life.

man, i remember thinking those were gonna be worth a lot one day

oh well

squirrelgrease said:

I guess that's about right then. The other store had a 1994 German pressing for the same price - $50, he said marked down from $100. There was one one more but it looked like a bootleg. Guess I'll just have to make a decision and bite the bullet.
[Edited 11/30/09 8:14am]

I bought this one years ago. It was a promo that came with an article about a guy who bought the original Black Album for thousands of dollars.

djdaffy1227 said:

This is the one I saw - with the same letter that said the guy paid like $13,500 it. Thanks for sharing.