Audio Fidelity's Outer Sleeves

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I've always heard and believed that the shrink should be removed as it can cause the record to warp. That might just be an old husbands tale. In any case poly outer-sleeves work great to protect covers.
It's a total lie, it's envy of the folks who are able to keep from obsessively removing everything removable.
(joke)
There is just nothing like a collection of stone MINT Perfection new looking items.
 
I peeled off a couple of the "limited edition" serial numbers and stuck them to the booklets.

Those sleeves are not worth messing with to me.
Haven't thrown them away, though. 🤓 😬
In a box to be pitched into the dumpster (Br. "skip") at the death cleaning, unless I get around to it first. 👻 🧟‍♂️💀

Not that I'm a nerd, or hoarder or anything...
First World problem.


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That sort of reminds me of (off topic alert) folks who buy a car and slap a shitload of stickers on the back saying where they've been etc. I always thought......who would buy a used car with all those stickers on it?
 
It's a total lie, it's envy of the folks who are able to keep from obsessively removing everything removable.
(joke)
There is just nothing like a collection of stone MINT Perfection new looking items.
Agree. I have thousands of lp's from the 60's and 70's with the shrink wrap still on and absolutely no warps. It really comes down to how you store them. All my records are packed tight. Now if you leave a record with shrink wrap all by itself in the sun then all bets are off.
 
The outer packaging is called a “slipcase” if I am correct. And for anyone who might want to sell their discs off later, they become a part of the package that determines the perceived resale value. Condition of the slipcase is important enough that I always open one side of the sealed shrink wrap and take out the jewel case, but leave the shrink on the slipcase like one would leave shrink on an LP jacket. Thus keeping all the contents in “like new” NM condition.

I’ve always adored vintage LP covers with their shrink still on them - with no hands ever touched them, and not seeing the common ring wear present either.
Lift Lock cases, Slipcovers & OBI. I love them all.
Now if I could find a single release where I could get all 3 :ROFLMAO:
 
They were not an issue in getting an album released or not.
Simply a marketing and packaging decision by Audio Fidelity.

The outer packaging is called a “slipcase” if I am correct. And for anyone who might want to sell their discs off later, they become a part of the package that determines the perceived resale value. Condition of the slipcase is important enough that I always open one side of the sealed shrink wrap and take out the jewel case, but leave the shrink on the slipcase like one would leave shrink on an LP jacket. Thus keeping all the contents in “like new” NM condition.

bmoura and quicksrt hit it on the head. Slipcases are part of Audio Fidelity's marketing and packaging identity. And should you ever wish to sell off your AF discs (because you ripped them and are done with physical media), you would probably be able to ask higher prices with the slipcases still present - just like with OBI's, inserts, posters, and stickers with vintage lp's. If you aren't concerned about that possibility, you might still be able to sell off those slipcases someday to collectors looking to assemble a complete package, rather than outright ditch them.

It always kind of bums me out to buy an SQ or CD-4 record, but the unique SQ or Quadradisc sleeves are missing. Conversely, I'm always excited to find them still with the album. Same thought applies to the AF slipcases, for me personally.
 
The outer packaging is called a “slipcase” if I am correct. And for anyone who might want to sell their discs off later, they become a part of the package that determines the perceived resale value. Condition of the slipcase is important enough that I always open one side of the sealed shrink wrap and take out the jewel case, but leave the shrink on the slipcase like one would leave shrink on an LP jacket. Thus keeping all the contents in “like new” NM condition.

I’ve always adored vintage LP covers with their shrink still on them - with no hands ever touched them, and not seeing the common ring wear present either.
No problem with slipcases themselves, I quite like the one on Tales from Topographic Oceans, I just think the silver AF ones with the disc cutout are ugly :p they do serve a purpose though...
 
Hmmm, Whiz, a LOT of ink has been spilled on QQ about the TOTAL inequities between the US and the UK 'reissue' market regarding pricing. It HAS to be a given that D~V is not burdened with a $30K per reissue licensing fee PER single title as are/were AF, AP and MoFi ARE or those D~V two fers at literally half the price of a single QUAD or for that matter Stereo SACD would never be a reality.

And GONE are the days when one could buy those US reissues at discount from Amazon, ImportCD or their sister company Deep Discount, especially since sales tax is now added across the board.

And the law of diminishing returns when new box sets containing a single surround disc are announced with some pretty outrageous pricing further points to a new reality that our hobby is approaching luxury item status!

And this is totally OFF TOPIC, but it's strange that on Black Friday, one can purchase A list UHD 4K Native movie Titles for $6~10 each, remastered in Dolby Atmos but you almost NEVER see music only discs sold for those steep discounts, including those pricey box sets containing that single surround disc......I know because I did check prices frequently during those sales.

Well, it's all water under the bridge now, what with AF out of business and DV the main source for quad reissues. And don't get me wrong, I am uber-appreciative of all the work AF did getting those releases out and I was more than willing to pay the premium prices (at least for most of the titles). I AM NOT COMPLAINING. Simply observing.

At the same time, I have to continue to believe that there has always been a degree of "perceived value" with "audiophile" reissues going all the way back to the early MoFi stuff. While I think the higher prices were probably warranted with the original 'half speed mastered' LPs back in the 70s, -- when we got into the 80s and the 'gold plated' CDs and such? Look, I understand marketing maybe better than most here, and I know that if you want to sell your product as 'superior' to a standard issue, you've got to charge more for most people to believe it. The premium prices are often part of the premium marketing. ($10,000 audio cables anyone?)

And I l LIKE the AF slip-covers. But let's be honest here: they were nothing more than a marketing ploy to give the product a bit more of a "premium" look. They served no real purpose and cost them very little. Same thing with the stamped numbers. Effectively meaningless; cheap to provide; big ROI in terms of making the product appear that much more 'premium'.


Dutton is also saving money by owning the company AND being the mastering engineer, but the premium price thing plays into that as well. Even here, and on other sites, we see some people who presume that Michael Dutton must not be as good a mastering engineer as some of those "premium" guys because he's not charging as much for his product. OK, admittedly I'm not Mr. Golden Ears (having blown out big chunks of my hearing by playing loud rock n roll on stage for too many years) but his work sounds damned good to me.

I know he's paying much less to license these than the American companies have to pay. I also believe he's probably profiting less per-disc and hopefully making it up in volume in at least some cases. I also applaud him for not taking more advantage when he probably could. When he can't fit two albums on a two-fer, he often adds a second disc and charges just 5 dollars more. Or makes it a 3-fer! He easily could have sold the EWF albums separately and I'm sure they'd have sold at least as well as the Garfunkels (the only case I know of that could have been a two-fer but wasn't), but it seems he stuck to his standard business model based on what it cost him rather than what he could get away with.
 
And I l LIKE the AF slip-covers. But let's be honest here: they were nothing more than a marketing ploy to give the product a bit more of a "premium" look. They served no real purpose and cost them very little.

No, the slip covers were not to give the Audio Fidelity releases "a premium look". They were simply designed to make the discs stand out among a sea of other discs at record stores and audio shows. And they did serve that purpose.
 
Gold slipcases for the gold CDs and silver for the SACDs made such good sense.

And then the big round 4.0 logo circle at top left was perfect. It looked like a big red sticker and in fact should have been on outside of shrink wrap.

All this was very exciting to me, and accourding to some, that red 4.0 circle was confusing to the “stereo only” crowd of buyers.

Anyway cool product in silver slipcases which I bought extra copies and planned to sell later. Thus far I’ve not been able to part with the AF 4.0 series extras with the exception of The Best of The Doors which I think the BluRay issue improves upon. I got $50 for my Doors 4.0 AF and felt good about it.
 
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It's a total lie, it's envy of the folks who are able to keep from obsessively removing everything removable.
(joke)
There is just nothing like a collection of stone MINT Perfection new looking items.
I don't know if shrink related or not but a recently purchased sealed Quad LP "John Keating Incorporated" that I just opened has a warp affecting the first track on both sides. The cover still looks just like it would of in 1974 though.
 
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