Rocket from the Crypt
Boychucker b/w Jumper K. Balls/Lefty
Sympathy for the Record Industry SFTRI-179 7", released June 1992 (U.S.)
Rocket's Sympathy debut. The initial pressing was a really cool picture disc - shown above. Some copies of the picture disc are floating around that have red borders instead of black ones. Long Gone John, i.e. the-only-person-who-actually-knows-anything-about-Sympathy-pressings, told me that he probably did 1,200 picture discs total, and maybe 25-30 red border ones. So...damn. There was also a version that had the A-side image on both the front and the back of the record. We all originally thought that this was a mispress, but Long Gone John has since confirmed for me that these were done intentionally. Much like with the red border variants, there were only a few of these made (probably 25 or so). I also came across a variation that has a beige/tan background in place of white. My initial thought was that this just yellowed over time, but upon examination, I don't think that is the case. It just appears to have a different base color. See images below...it's much easier to see the difference on side B. Long Gone John did not recall doing this variation on purpose, but I have now seen a bunch of them, so it is more than a couple.
Boychucker was later re-pressed as a normal black vinyl disc with a picture sleeve, and that version came with two of five RFTC pogs. It turns out that there were many label variations for this pressing. I have included pictures of as many variants as I could find below. The most common one had labels made to look like the two sides of the picture disc. The other variants were all generic Sympathy labels. Long Gone John told me that he just kept several stacks of generic labels on hand for when he had more sleeves than labels for a record and wanted to press more to use up the sleeves. As a result, these variants tended to be much rarer. He told me that he would normally only do these in quantities of 20-30. The one with A's and B's all over it appears all the time...anecdotally, there must be a lot more than 30 of those on the market. The others are all much harder to find. They do appear from time to time, and at a greater rate than one would expect if the 25-30 figure were true, but they can be tough if you are actively pursuiing them. The demand isn't quite there for these variants on the collector market, so they tend to be pretty cheap, despite their scarcity.
Most variations are on solid black vinyl, but I have one that is on translucent black vinyl, which is slightly lighter in weight. Please let me know by if you have a different version.
| Version | Value ($) | Scarcity | Price Trending |
|---|---|---|---|
| SFTRI-179 Picture Disc (~1,200) | 3-5 | 2 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Picture Disc w/ Tan Background | 15-20 | 5 | Down |
| SFTRI-179 Picture Disc w/ Red Border (~25-30) | 150-200 | 10 | Volatile |
| SFTRI-179 Double A-side Picture Disc (~25-30) | 200-250 | 10 | Volatile |
| SFTRI-179 Black - Astronaut Labels | 2-4 | 1 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Black - A' and B's Labels | 3-5 | 4 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Black - Baby Devil Labels | 12-15 | 7 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Black - SFTRI Logo Labels | 15-20 | 7 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Black - Zombie Labels | 15-20 | 9 | Stable |
| SFTRI-179 Black - Sympathy Bugs Labels | 15-20 | 9 | Stable |
White Background (Normal) |
 Tan Background |
 White vs. Tan Background |
|
 Red Border |
 Double A Side |
 Astronaut Labels |
 A's and B's Labels |
 Baby Devil Labels |
 SFTRI Logo Labels |
 Zombie Labels |
 Sympathy Bugs Labels |
| Sleeve | Pic Disc: clear PVC. Black pressings: paper foldover. |
|---|---|
| Credits | Yuck Foo: red border picture disc image |
This page was last updated on January 1, 2020.
