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A Record Collector's Guide


SP18 Mudhoney

 

Touch Me I'm Sick b/w Sweet Young Thing (Ain't Sweet No More)

Sub Pop SP18 7", released August 1988 (U.S.)

Oy. Where to start with this one...one of the most famous 7"s from the Sub Pop era, Mudhoney's debut Sub Pop single exists in almost too many incarnations to discuss. The first pressing was of 800 on reddish-brown vinyl (see pic), with an additional 200 on black vinyl, most of which were used for promotional purposes (these were reportedly on both solid and translucent black, but I have not had either in my hands to confirm). These copies did not have picture sleeves and had the classic toilet labels, which had a light blue-green tint to them. In addition, there were a few other colors of vinyl (10-15 each) that came with toilet labels. Many have now surfaced. I've seen yellow, blue, clear, red, orange, and several mixed colors. There may be more. There are several stories floating around about these, one of which is that they were a gift from the pressing plant for being late with the order. I don't know for certain. What I do know is that these are all preposterously valuable.

Second pressing: Touch Me I'm Sick was later re-released with a picture sleeve. It was released this way during the period in which Erika Records was pressing all of Sub Pop's color vinyl releases on a huge variety of colors. As a result, there are many colors of this one out there. Most colors are more or less equally common. The brown version is quite scarce, though, and has gotten a lot more expensive. The black version is very common.

This was actually a completely different version of the record, with distinct matrix codes. All subsequent versions were from the same mold. The back of the sleeve has "Second Edition" printed on it. Sorry about some of those images...some were scanned with the sleeves behind them. I cleaned them up, and the transparent ones look a little odd.

Third pressing: After the color vinyl parade, a third pressing of the single came out with the same picture sleeve, but on black vinyl with Sub Pop's mid-90's era black labels. The back of the sleeve has "Third Edition" printed on it. This one isn't worth much.

Fourth pressing (3b): Sometime in 2006, Sub Pop threw us a curveball. They released a version of this single with "third edition" picture sleeves, but on black vinyl with toilet labels. This is where it gets screwy. The toilet labels are slightly different from the original ones. These had either a blue background color, much darker than the original, or a white background. Very interesting to see...I paid way too much for one of these when it first showed up on the market. Oh well, at least I wasn't the guy who dropped $500 on one...

Version Value ($) Scarcity Price Trending
SP18 1st Pressing: Reddish-brown vinyl 125-175 4 Stable
SP18 1st Pressing: Black 175-250 8 Volatile
SP18 1st Pressing: Rarer Colors (yellow, blue/purple, clear, red, orange, green, any mixes of the above) 500-700 10 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Green 15-25 3 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Purple 20-25 3 Down
SP18 2nd Pressing: Purple Marble 20-25 4 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Pink 15-25 3 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Blue Marble 15-25 3 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Light Blue w/ Marbling 15-25 2 Stable
SP18 2nd Pressing: Brown 75-125 7 Volatile
SP18 2nd Pressing: Black 5 1 Stable
SP18 3rd Pressing: Black 2-4 1 Stable
SP18 4th Pressing: Black, Blue Toilet Label 5-10 1 Stable
SP18 4th Pressing: Black, White Toilet Label 5-10 1 Stable

1st Pressings

Test Press

2nd Pressings

3rd-4th Pressings

Test Press 3rd/4th
3rd Press
Sleeve 1st pressing: Plain white paper
2nd-4th Pressings: Paper foldover
Test Pressing 1st pressing: Black vinyl, large hole, plain white labels
4th Pressing: Black vinyl, small hole, yellow Erika labels
Credits James: Called my attention to the red 1st press
Ryan: Orange 1st press image
Costa: Green, brown 2nd pressing images, 3rd press image
Stan Ballard: Most of the other 2nd pressing images

This page was last updated on October 12, 2019.

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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. Commercial use of images on this site is not permitted. Non-commercial use of images permitted, with attribution to Pette Discographies. All images copyright their respective owners.