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. 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).
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 become the more valuable version. It also didn't necessarily happen in the short term. This release is a great example. None were particularly valuable over many years. In recent years, the yellow 12" has emerged as the desirable version of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" to own and prices have gone crazy. I've separated out the yellow 12" from the other U.S. versions in the charts below because the scale of the yellow is so different from the others that it created a misleading visualization.
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" and 7" with black paper labels have been rising a bit. The 2011 7" has also been on its way up. The German version prices have all been dead flat for the past few years. The French 7" has actually been dropping, while the Spanish 7" and 12" have been rising slightly (accounting for inflation, these have probably been flat).
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 have surfaced in the past few years, and the price has come down a bit as a result. 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, so I am including it here. I'm not sure if this was just people breaking up the set and selling the records individually. 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. I expected this one to become more valuable than it has. It's not cheap, by any means, but its value has mostly held steady for years (and has probably come down a bit, to be honest). 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 has gotten a little expensive - not terribly.
I've split out the UK versions and the German versions into their own charts due to the sheer volume of each. The French and Spanish ones appear alongside the Central and South American versions below.
| Version | Value ($) | Scarcity | Price Trending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Black U.S. 7" - David Geffen Co. Labels (DGC DGCS7-19050) | 25-35 | 1 | Stable |
| Black U.S. 7" - Geffen Records, Inc. Labels (DGC DGCS7-19050) | 25-35 | 4 | Stable |
| Yellow U.S. 12" (PRO-A-4314) | 180-220 | 4 | Up |
| Black U.S. 12" (PRO-A-4365) | 50-80 | 4 | Up/Volatile |
| Black UK 7" - Silver Molded Labels (DGCS 5) | 25-35 | 1 | Stable |
| Black UK 7" - Black Paper Labels (DGCS 5) | 30-45 | 4 | Up |
| Black UK 7" - Unpainted Molded Labels (DGCS 5) | 30-45 | 6 | Stable |
| Black UK 12" (DGCT 5) | 35-45 | 1 | Up |
| UK Picture Disc 12" (DGCTP 5) | 40-50 | 2 | Stable |
| Black Germany 7" (GES 19050) | 25-35 | 2 | Stable |
| Black Germany 12" (GET 21673) | 25-35 | 1 | Stable |
| Germany Picture Disc 12" (GET 21712) | 40-50 | 1 | Stable |
| Black France 7" (GES 19050) | 15-20 | 3 | Down |
| Black Spain 7" (GES 19050 (1A)) | 25-35 | 5 | Stable |
| Black Spain 12" (GET 21673 (3A)) | 25-35 | 3 | Stable |
| Black Mexico 7" (RX-1054) | 60-80 | 9 | Down |
| Black Argentina 7" (RCA S-0758) | 160-200 | 9 | Stable |
| Black Costa Rica 7" (BMG International 7130092) | 100-150 | 8 | Volatile |
| Black U.S. 10" (DGC/UMe B0016231-01 LP01) | 30-40 | 5 | Stable |
| Red U.S. 10" (DGC/UMe B0016231-01 LP01) | 65-85 | 5 | Up |
| Black 2011 UK 7" (DGC/UMe 5337510) | 40-55 | 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 August 22, 2024.