Night Of The Swallow

[caen!iuvax.cs.indiana.edu!nstar!bluemoon!bsbbs!nrc@harvard.harvard.edu (N. Richard Caldwell)]

relph@presto.ig.com (John M. Relph) writes:
> 
> How can one tell an original "Night Of The Swallow" 7" single?  What
> is the catalog number, label colour, etc?  Any distinguishing marks,
> tattoos, scars?

Definately something worth knowing with original _Night of the Swallow_
singles demanding $100 or more on the collector's market.   I was
checking into this and found a conflict between information that has
been posted here in the past and the Kate collectors book.  

According to an old post from Andrew Marvick, the easiest way to tell 
whether you may have an original single is the number in the run-out
groove.  According to Andy, the second and third issues had a "-A" at 
the end of this number.  The original also has a glossy sleeve while the
second run had a matte finish on heavy stock and the third had a thin 
paper sleeve with a white band down the left side.

Where Andy and the book disagree is on the "-A" suffix.  According
to Ken Saint John the collector's book states that the "-A" appears on 
first and third run singles but not second.  Having the suffix on the 
later reissues, as Andy reported, makes more sense to me but I'm 
checking on it.  The catalog number is IEMI-9001.

Andy also noted that there are counterfiets of the original issue which 
can be identified by the blackish tint of their copied picture sleeve (as 
opposed to the brown tint of the original).  The art of the original 
sleeve is deliberately a bit grainy so counterfiets can be a bit difficult 
to detect without making a direct comparison.  I would be very wary
of buying any of these releases (second and third issues demand up
to $80 and $50 respectively) unless you are quite certain of what you
are getting.

"Don't drive too slowly."         Richard Caldwell
                                  The Big Sky BBS (+1 614 864 1198)
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                                  nrc@bsbbs.UUCP