CBS / Sony "The Nice Price" Range
CBS started the “Nice Price” Series for vinyl album re-issues in the USA in April 1981, it continued to expand to the UK & Europe and to include CD re-issues.
CBS "The Nice Price" Range - USA
"Nice Price" was a cheaper range with the LPs being pressed with less / thinner vinyl and did not include any inner lyric or inner picture sleeves, instead plain white inner sleeves were used, this range was also $2 cheaper.
A circular “The Nice Price” sticker was stuck on the plastic shrink wrap to draw attention to the fact that these were low-priced editions of the “Original Albums”
Plus the letter “J” in the cat, number was replaced with a “P” (so JZ… became PZ…)
This was important to be able to correctly reimburse any returns/unsold stock from the record shops and also so that nobody could complain about the missing inner sleeves.
ELO albums re-issued in the “Nice Price” range were:
• No Answer (The Electric Light Orchestra) – PZ 35524
• Electric Light Orchestra II – PZ 35533
• On The Third Day – PZ 35525
• Eldorado – PZ 35526
• Face The Music – PZ 35527
• OLE ELO – PZ 35528
• A New World Record – PZ 35529
• ELO Greatest Hits – PZ 36310
Out Of The Blue was at some point in the mid 1980's, re-issued as part of the CBS "Nice Price" range and had a bar code on the top right corner of the rear gatefold cover. This issue did not include the band poster and had a "The Nice Price" sticker on shrink wrap, but there was no change to the cat.no or price-code on the sleeve or record labels.
Discovery was never re-issued in the “Nice Price” range.
CBS "The Nice Price" Range - UK
CBS also used the “Nice Price” range for ELO UK vinyl re-issues:
• Eldorado – JET 32397
• Face The Music – EPC 32544
• A New World Record – JET 32545
• A New World Record – JET 32545 (Epic grey label)
• A New World Record – EPC 902198 1
• A New World Record – EPC 902198 1 (different label text layout)
• Out Of The Blue – EPC 450885 1
• Discovery – EPC 450083 1
• Time – EPC 460212 1
• ELO Greatest Hits – EPC 450357 1
• The Night The Light Went On In Long Beach – EPC 32700
Issues started in 1984/1985 went on till at least 1990 for LP re-issues. Again with new cat numbers to distinguish them from the original priced and issued LPs.
Unlike the USA, UK “Nice Price” issues had white or black shinny advert inner sleeves and sometimes single or double sided copies of the original inner lyric sleeves where included.
The gatefold double sleeves of Out Of The Blue and Discovery were replaced with single sleeves.
CBS "The Nice Price" Range - Holland/Europe
CBS also used the “Nice Price” range for Holland pressed vinyl LPs to cover Europe wide re-issues:
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On The Third Day – JETNP 1202
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On The Third Day – EPC 460728 - 1
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Eldorado – JETNP 1203
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Eldorado – EPC 32397
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Face The Music – EPC 32544
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A New World Record – JET 32545
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Out Of The Blue – EPC 450885 1
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Discovery – EPC 450083 1
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Time – EPC 460212 1
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Secret Messages – EPC 462487 1
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Balance Of Power – EPC 468576 1
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ELO Greatest Hits – EPC 450357 1
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The Night The Light Went On In Long Beach – EPC 32700
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Discovery + Time – EPC 465224 1
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Secret Messages + A New World Record – JET 461015 1
Some Holland pressed “Nice Price” issues included single or double sided copies of the original inner lyric sleeves and some came with white or black shinny advert inner sleeves. Or plain white inner sleeves were included, it was very random !
Issues started in 1984/1985 went on till at least 1991 for LP re-issues. Again with new cat numbers to distinguish them from the original priced and issued LPs. The original JET Cat numbers had “NP 1” added, so JET 202 became JETNP 1202
CBS "The Nice Price" Range - Spain
CBS also used the “Nice Price” range for Spanish pressed re-issued vinyl LPs:
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On The Third Day – JET LP 1202
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Eldorado – JET LP 1203
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Face The Music – JET 32544
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A New World Record – JET 32545
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Discovery – EPC 450083 1 (Jet Records Label)
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Discovery – EPC 450083 1 (Epic Records Label)
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Secret Messages – EPC 462487 1
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ELO Greatest Hits – EPC 450357-1
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ELO Greatest Hits II – Epic 471956 1
Spanish issues add a “1” to the cat number, so JET LP 202 became JET LP 1202 and some issues (On The Third Day & Secret Messages) included the original inner lyric sleeves.
Otherwise the LPs came with a plain white inner sleeve and included a printed lyric/track double sided sheet.
For “Face The Music” the same Jet 201 main sleeve was used and the new Cat. Number Jet 32544 was over printed on top of Jet 201.
CBS "The Nice Price" Range - Canada
CBS also issued the “Nice Price” range in Canada, again this was a cheaper range with the LPs not including any inner lyric or inner picture sleeves, instead plain white inner sleeves were used.
Canadian cat, numbers were prefixed with a W in front of PZ…
ELO albums re-issued in the “Nice Price” range were:
• No Answer (The Electric Light Orchestra) – WPZ 35461
• Electric Light Orchestra II – WPZ 35470
• On The Third Day – WPZ 35462
• Eldorado – WPZ 35463
• Face The Music – WPZ 35464
• OLE ELO – WPZ 35465
• A New World Record – WPZ 35466
• ELO Greatest Hits – WPZ 36310
Help & Credit - Patrik Guttenbacher from Face The Music Germany
