Well, this one was kind of important. It certainly changed everything for me. There were, of course, tons of versions of this one. I'll focus on the vinyl releases, as those were a bit more manageable.
In the States, there were originally three vinyl releases: a jukebox 7" and two promo 12"s. The 7"s were pretty standard and remain fairly common. There were, naturally, a couple of variants. One lists the label as David Geffen Company and another shows it as Geffen Records, Inc. The "David Geffen Company" version is MUCH more common than the "Geffen Records, Inc." version. Discourage Records in Portland clued me into this little detail: Geffen existed as David Geffen Company as a legal entity before October 30, 1992, and again from April 1, 1993 onward. In the interim, they were Geffen Records, Inc. If we then follow that logic through, all pressings of this 7" from its release date up until late 1992 would have carried the David Geffen Company imprint, and then any pressings that occured in the brief five-month period from November 1992 - March 1993 would have had the Geffen Records, Inc. labels (assuming everyone over the pressing operation was on top of everything, which is a leap). So this is in line with the anecdotal evidence that the Geffen Records, Inc. records are much rarer. Prices for both versions went way up a few years ago, and they have stayed stable at those higher levels since. Interestingly, the rarer version has not really appreciated more than the other one (yet).
The two 12"s have seemed to be the focal point for collectors in recent years. One of the U.S. 12"s was on black vinyl and came in a plain white sleeve with a label affixed to it. The other came in a full picture sleeve and was on yellow vinyl. The major label singles were generally pressed in large quantities, so it wasn't always easy to determine which would be rare or become the more valuable version. It also didn't necessarily happen in the short term. This release is a great example. Neither was particularly valuable over many years. In recent years, the yellow 12" has emerged as the really expensive version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to own and prices have gone crazy, even though it has been sold far more frequently than the black promo. This is the power of color vinyl. The black 12" was affordable for a longer stretch, but has now jumped as well.
In Europe, there were several vinyl releases. Versions of the picture sleeve 7" came out in the UK, Germany, Spain, and France. There were a couple of variants of the UK 7". It came with both molded sliver labels and black paper labels. The silver ones have the lettering molded right into the vinyl. People call these "injection labels", but I don't really know where that term came from. For the commercial release, the label area was then painted silver, so the label appeared silver and the text appeared black. There was also a jukebox version of the 7" that left the labels that unpainted - the text is all there, but everything is black. This version is the tougher one to find of the UK batch. All of the commercial European 7"s are fairly easy to find except for the Spanish 7", which can take a bit of work.
12"s also came out in the UK, Germany, and Spain. In the UK and Germany, there were regular black vinyl 12"s in picture sleeves, but also picture discs. These are all easy to find and are some of the more common versions of this single on the market at any given time. The Spanish 12" is slightly tougher, but not terrible.
The prices for the common UK variants all went up a few years ago, but have stayed largely stable since. The standard UK 12" prices have been rising lately. The 2011 7" has also been on its way up. The German version prices have all been flat for the past few years. The French 7" and Spanish pressings have been stable.
There were a couple of other interesting variants that emerged from Central and South America. Promo 7"s came out in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Argentina. These are all tough finds and generally quite expensive. More copies of the Mexican one surfaced for a couple of years, and the price came down a bit as a result, but sales have gotten more scarce again. It is hard to value the Costa Rica version - it has only been sold a few times over the past five years, and most of those times were in 2019. Since then, it has either sold for preposterously high or preposterously low prices. The Argentina 7" has been mostly stable for five years.
In 2011, a couple of additional 20th anniversary vinyl versions were released. In the U.S., there was a black 10", included as part of the Nevermind - The Singles set. I have seen it sold by itself a few times, but it was really part of this set. Then, there was a red 10". This was limited to 1,700 copies and was given away by Fender with the purchase of a Kurt Cobain Fender Mustang guitar. The prices for these did not jump as quickly as I thought they would, but they have been rising. The real surprise was the UK 7". This was a black vinyl reissue, ostensibly limited to 1,000 copies and only available to the UK. Sales of this edition have remained sparse - more consistent with a quantity lower than 1,000. It is getting more expensive.
| Version | Value ($) | Scarcity | Price Trending |
|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. 7" - David Geffen Co. Labels (DGC DGCS7-19050) | 25-30 | 1 | Stable |
| U.S. 7" - Geffen Records, Inc. Labels (DGC DGCS7-19050) | 30-45 | 5 | Stable |
| Yellow U.S. 12" (PRO-A-4314) | 200-230 | 4 | Up |
| Black U.S. 12" (PRO-A-4365) | 120-140 | 4 | Up |
| UK 7" - Silver Molded Labels (DGCS 5) | 30-40 | 1 | Stable |
| UK 7" - Black Paper Labels (DGCS 5) | 30-40 | 4 | Stable |
| UK 7" - Unpainted Molded Labels (DGCS 5) | 30-45 | 6 | Stable |
| UK 12" (DGCT 5) | 55-70 | 1 | Up |
| UK Picture Disc 12" (DGCTP 5) | 50-60 | 2 | Stable |
| Germany 7" (GES 19050) | 25-35 | 2 | Stable |
| Germany 12" (GET 21673) | 25-35 | 1 | Stable |
| Germany Picture Disc 12" (GET 21712) | 40-50 | 1 | Stable |
| France 7" (GES 19050) | 20-25 | 3 | Stable |
| Spain 7" (GES 19050 (1A)) | 30-40 | 5 | Stable |
| Spain 12" (GET 21673 (3A)) | 40-50 | 3 | Stable |
| Mexico 7" (RX-1054) | 55-75 | 9 | Stable |
| Argentina 7" (RCA S-0758) | 160-200 | 9 | Stable |
| Costa Rica 7" (BMG International 7130092) | 100-150 | 8 | Volatile |
| Red U.S. 10" (DGC/UMe B0016231-01 LP01) | 60-80 | 5 | Stable |
| Black 2011 UK 7" (DGC/UMe 5337510) | 50-60 | 5 | Up |
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Release List:
DGC DGCS7-19050 7" / PRO-A-4314 12" / PRO-A-4365 12" / DGCDS-21673 CD / PRO-CD-4308 CD / DGCCS-19050 Cassette, released 1991 (U.S.)
DGC DGCS 5 7" / DGCT 5 12" / DGCTP 5 12" / DGCTD 5 CD, released 1991 (UK)
DGC GES 19050 7" / GET 21673 12" / GET 21712 12" / GED 21673 CD / GEC19050 Cassette, released 1991 (Germany)
DGC GES 19050 7" / GED 21744 CD / GEC-19050 Cassette, released 1991 (France)
DGC GES 19050 (1A) 7" / GET 21673 (3A) 12", released 1991 (Spain)
DGC RX-1054 7", released 1991 (Mexico)
RCA S-0758 7", released 1991 (Argentina)
DGC DGCDS 21673 CD / GED 21673 CD/ DGCCS-19050 Cassette, released 1991 (Australia)
DGC GED 21673 CD, released 1991 (Israel)
DGC 300099-4 Cassette, released 1991 (Netherlands)
BMG International 7130092 7", released 1992 (Costa Rica)
DGC DGCCS-19050 Cassette, released 1992 (New Zealand)
Geffen GED 76037 CD, released 1996 (Spain)
DGC GED P001 CD, released 1996 (Portugal)
DGC GED 21573 CD, released 1997 (Argentina)
DGC/UMe B0016231-01 LP01 10", released 2011 (U.S.)
DGC/UMe 5337510 7", released 2011 (UK)
This page was last updated on April 29, 2026.