The Fluid

Tin Top Toy b/w Tomorrow

Sub Pop SP57 7", released 1990 (U.S.)

The Fluid's first 7". Side A was exclusive to this single. Side B later came out on Sub Pop's The Grunge Years compilation. The labels on this record are marked as SP56, but the sleeve is correctly printed as SP57. The first pressing of this one was on orange vinyl. This is also the easiest color to find. There were quite a few made on orange. The degree of orange ranges from very light to very dark. There were also black copies pressed at this point, as evidenced by the existence of orange and black mixed copies. The yellow pressing came next, and is a rarer color, reportedly limited to 500. Also pressed on grey marble, purple marble, pink (each of these is somewhat rare, but the pink shows up the least often of the three).

I also came across a color that I am calling "burnt orange." It is a darker orange than the straight orange color, and has some marbling in it with an even darker color (which appears to be black). I had heard rumors of an "orange-brown" version, and can only guess that this is what the person was talking about. Regardless, it is clearly distinct from the regular orange version. Take a look at the pictures below. They were done on the same scanner.

And then, we have the red one. My white whale for many years. I had heard several rumors of a red vinyl version, and those invariably turned out to be orange...until a real red one surfaced in an auction in mid-2009. You can see a pic below of that one along with a very red record sleeve for comparison. The seller wanted an absurd price for it, so I let it go at the time. Oops. Since then, one other true red copy has surfaced, and I now own that one. There are a few others in the Discogs sale history, but I'm not convinced any of those were actually red. I bought two of those, and, true to form, they were orange.

Version Value ($) Scarcity Price Trending
SP57 Orange 3-5 1 Stable
SP57 Black 3-5 1 Stable
SP57 Yellow 6-10 5 Stable
SP57 Purple Marble 6-10 6 Stable
SP57 Pink 10-15 6 Stable
SP57 Grey Marble 6-10 6 Stable
SP57 Burnt Orange 30-40 8 Stable
SP57 Red 50-75 10 Volatile
Loose Insert
Test Pressing
Red
Red Vinyl Comparison Image
Orange
Dark Orange
Burnt Orange
Black
Yellow
Purple Marble
Pink
Grey Marble
Sleeve:  Paper foldover with loose insert
Test Pressing:  Black vinyl, small hole, plain white labels

This page was last updated on March 3, 2022.

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Scarcity Score Definition
10 Near impossible: Fewer than 50 copies or publicly sold every few years
8-9 Very rare: 50-199 copies or publicly sold 1-2 times per year
6-7 Rare: 200-499 copies or publicly sold a few times a year
4-5 Medium: 500-999 copies or publicly sold ~10 times a year
1-3 Common: 1000+ copies, readily available, or publicly sold 20+ times a year

Estimated values are based on recent auction results or online sales.