Immaculate Drama

So, out of nowhere, The Immaculate Collection was reissued for the USA market and released yesterday exclusively to Barnes & Noble stores for their annual “Vinyl Weekend” sales event. The immediate reaction from most collectors seemed to be “Why?”. It’s a black vinyl reissue, and wasn’t a black version just reissued last month? Yes, it was. In Europe. As collectors, we have to understand that, with the exception of colored vinyl, picture disc, and most Record Store Day reissues, most of these other reissues that pop up aren’t aimed at us. They are aimed at the general music-buying public. So to us, it may seem to be just another version of the same thing, released for us collectors to buy so that Rhino can keep milking money out of out wallets, but that’s really not the case. Most American music buyers wouldn’t have bothered importing last month’s reissue, so a release for the American public makes perfect sense. As collectors, we get to decide what we want to buy or not. For example, I did not buy most of the 2012 European vinyl LP reissues because the quality of the sleeve printing was absolute crap. I did decide to buy this one, though. The thinner gatefold sleeve (as compared to the recent EU version), the new catalog number, the slightly different legal credits on the back, and the Barnes & Noble sticker on the front were all enough for me to justify the purchase.  However, if this had just been the EU version with a sticker on the front, then I would not have bought it because in that case it really would have been the exact same thing. If you don’t want it, don’t buy it. It’s really that simple.