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 |
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| 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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