Dinosaur Test

Dinosaur Jr week, day two. Yesterday I featured the first pressing red vinyl copy of the first LP, today I'm sticking with the same record but upping the ante to the test press.

This one appeared on eBay with a very optimistic price attached to it. I shot the seller an email offering a much lower price. He politely declined. I thought that he would, but at the same time I knew my offer was fair and that his expectation was too high. So then I played the waiting game. A couple of months later I sent another email saying that I was still interested and my offer still stood. He tried to get me to increase a little, but I played hard ball and declined. Then a few days later he agreed to sell it to me for the price I wanted to pay. That's how you neogitate, kids.

I've seen a couple of copies of this test press previously, and both had a press sheet glued to the front. Sadly, mine doesn't have that, but I'm fine with it just the way it is. It comes in a white disco sleeve with the record name and catalogue number written in the top corner in pencil.

The labels of the record are hand written. Both of them. I love the Side 1 label as it has the date written on too - 17 June 1985. For some reason, an exact date seems more shocking and difficult to comprehend than just a year. I wonder what I was doing in the Summer of 85? Given that I was ten, probably riding my bike and playing on my Atari 2600 I imagine.

So of course, now that I have completed this collection (black vinyl doesn't matter to me), I thought I'd crack out all three copies and take a group photo:

I'm proud of this collection. These things are hard as hell to find. There can't be too many people out there with all three. Times like this make me feel lucky.