Why some A&M albums are so rare

Back in the mid 70's, I contacted a business called Discontinued Records. I was looking for Crystal Illusions and Warm. Both had disappeared from the A&M listings and my copies were needing replacement. DR had them but wanted nearly $30 for each on them. They had a copy of CI with some jacket damage for $15 and I bought that copy. Eventually, used record stores started showing up in my area and they had copies of both at far more reasonable prices. I have bought extra copies of each on LP and have the CD's of each as well.
I had found Warm as a cutout and purchased it but never saw it again as a cut out.
I remember that talk of recycled vinyl but never heard of it's actual use but I guess it did.
In the cut out bins, I saw lots of releases that were not that old. By 1973 most all of the solos by Diana Ross were already in the discount bins and there was three or four of them all at once.
I found and Bought A few A&M cutout Lps myself back in the 80s I saw Herb Alpert's Beyond constantly going for 99 cents New and sealed and multiple copies same with A few Burt Bacharach titles and i even bought a couple of Lani Hall titles in the cutout bins thankfully a few Rare A&M titles Escaped "the Buyback and Destroy and Recycle" syndrome of the time.
 
The experience in the 70s is probably what pushed A&M to go for the translucent vinyl of the 80s in order to get more "audiophile".
I think so too and in my opinion It Worked out Beautifully. Fond memories of The Audio Master Plus Series ( on Vinyl) that in my opinion opened the Floodgates
 
I think so too and in my opinion It Worked out Beautifully. Fond memories of The Audio Master Plus Series ( on Vinyl) that in my opinion opened the Floodgates
The KC-600 vinyl was quite nice. I recently found that sealed Synchronicity to replace the copy I stupidly sold. There's just something about that original pressing that no digital version has touched. Many of their top titles were pressed on the good vinyl--Joe Jackson's records were, and there were others that I can't recall. The whole AM+ series was and they still sound nice. In fact, I will buy those if I see them used in the bins.
 
Yes, I dealt with DISContinued records then. Considered them pricey, so I only ordered rarities that were unavailable elsewhere. Dave Lewis LITTLE GREEN THING and George McCurn's COUNTRY BOY that were otherwise impossible to find but needed. Regional distribution was key. I later learned Lewis' recordings were plentiful in the Pacific Northwest, where he was popular, but not in my neck of the woods. For most of the 70s and 80s I mailed "want lists" to advertisers in 'Goldmine' and 'Discoveries' magazines and sent bids on postcards for obscure A&M 45s found in their dealers' ads. When you won you were notified by post card. If you lost - well - an empty mailbox told the tale.


JB
 
I found and Bought A few A&M cutout Lps myself back in the 80s I saw Herb Alpert's Beyond constantly going for 99 cents New and sealed and multiple copies same with A few Burt Bacharach titles and i even bought a couple of Lani Hall titles in the cutout bins thankfully a few Rare A&M titles Escaped "the Buyback and Destroy and Recycle" syndrome of the time.

I also found Lani Hall's "Sweet Bird" lp in the discount bin and snapped it up.
Another record company called "Square Deal Records" had popped up and my brother gave me their information.
I got catalogs from them and they had a huge listing of records at very reasonable prices. I do not know if they still exist or not.
When I go to thrift stores, I always look at the lp records to see what is there.
 
The Motown Anthology series came out starting in late 1973. I believe that Temptations was the first. Stevie Wonder's was titled "Looking Back" and had a "limited edition" sticker on the front and had a higher list price than the other 3 disc sets. It was also one of the later issues in the series but it was also the first to make it into the cutout bins. The only other release that I saw in the series in the cutout bins was Commodores Anthology but that was months later.
 
That was it! Looking Back.

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I can't remember if mine had the Limited Edition in the upper left corner.
 
We sold all of those back in 70’s and 80’s. Even lesser Motown groups had one. I don’t remember any limited editions, but that was long ago. They sold for between $9.97-11.97 depending on the artist or group. Motown has made a ton of collections over the years. There is a nice various artist 5cd set on Amazon for $11.59, that is a bargain, full of hits, and a couple of filler songs. 101Motown Anthems is the title. Those Anthology sets were nice to have though. They didn’t spend much on the packaging though. Very plain.
 
That was it! Looking Back.

1602805738701.png

I can't remember if mine had the Limited Edition in the upper left corner.
I never even opened my copy. I figured that as a limited edition it might be collectible one day if unopened.
I have most of the anthologies. I never saw the Diana Ross solo anthologhy but it did exist. I bought a copy of Commodores and it had a Diana Ross Anthology inside in place of a commodores. I returned it and got one that was both Commodores records. Nearly all had booklets of some type but the bigger artists had the most information.
 
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