Elizabeth Platt ([email protected])
Sat, 4 Jul 1998 20:56:43 -0700 (PDT)
>Maybe somebody here will know about this...I haven't a clue about
>collections.
>
>A friend of mine wants to sell a rare Achung Baby box set (number 465 of
>500). It is a black wooden box, with ACHTUNG in silver on the top and
>has latches...when you open it it has two CDs in circle cut outs in the
>wood...AB and Bono speaks in Philly. It also has the uncensored AB
>booklet (Adam nude) and the other sleeve as well.
>
>He wants $125 for it, is that too much? too little? I am thinking it is
>not official, but I am not sure of the value.
It's not a legit Island release; there've been no "boxes" of any sort
released for general sale by Island/Polygram (there have been some "box-y"
promo items, e.g., "pizza box" promos, but they're quite rare and fetch
big bucks from collectors). I've never heard of Island issuing anything
with a "number" on it, either! The only genuine U2 item that was numbered
was the original "U2-3" EP, though if I'm wrong on this, I'm sure the
hard-core collectors will promptly correct me! ;-)
Frankly, this "box set" is worth the price of an (uncensored) "Achtung
Baby" CD (figure it's an import?) plus yet another copy of the endless
line of "Bono Talks in Philly" bootleg interview CDs--an item that has
been bootlegged endlessly since, oh, 1987 or thereabouts. It's one of the
most annoyingly common (and regurgitated) bootlegged U2 discs out there.
So figure the two discs are worth, at best, about $45-$50? That's giving
the import price to the uncensored AB disc. The packaging is worth the
cost of manufacture--it's not manufactured by Island/Polygram, and has no
collectible value.
And I seriously doubt that any of these phony "box sets" will ever
appreciate in value, if just for the same reason all those "Bono
Talks/Speaks" CDs [and singles sets and picture discs and vinyl, etc.]
from the Philly interview will never be worth much--there's simply too
many of them being made, over and over again. Sure, this particular "box
set" is "limited" to 500 copies. But once they run out, there's nothing
to stop the bootleggers from making another batch, or throwing together
another crappy/tacky "box set" to fleece fans of their cash.
Slan,
Elizabeth Platt
[email protected]
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Sat Jul 04 1998 - 20:57:42 PDT