FTD Reprints

[rollinson1]

I know questions regarding FTD reprints have been asked about on numerous occasions. Now that FTD have actually gone down that route with The Making of Jailhouse Rock and The Session releases being reprinted last year. My question is why have other sought after titles not been reprinted. The likes of Fashion For A King, The Making Of Viva Las Vegas and the Vinyl releases that fetch stupid prices on ebay. How many would have to be reprinted and sold to make it viable. I'm calling out Ciscoking here, is this a question you could ask with your connections at FTD?

[emjel]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

[Mike C]

I don't believe The Making of Jailhouse Rock was repressed. It just took some time for the initial run to sell out.

FTD repressed 3 or 4 vinyl releases as I recall in 2022 and several of the sessions sets, such as Elvis Is Back! and American Sound Sessions.

[elvis-fan]

I don't believe The Making of Jailhouse Rock was repressed. It just took some time for the initial run to sell out.

Agreed.

[rollinson1]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

ETMAHM No 138.jpg

[emjel]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

[rollinson1]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

I have deliberately made a small image as I don't know if ETMAHM would appreciate showing full blown pages although it is an advertisement I guess but you can clearly see what was available

ETMAHM No 138.jpg

[elvis-fan]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

I have deliberately made a small image as I don't know if ETMAHM would appreciate showing full blown pages although it is an advertisement I guess but you can clearly see what was available

I don't understand why the Kid Galahad sessions wasn't repressed... I think it sold out on preorders alone...

[emjel]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

I have deliberately made a small image as I don't know if ETMAHM would appreciate showing full blown pages although it is an advertisement I guess but you can clearly see what was available

I don't understand why the Kid Galahad sessions wasn't repressed... I think it sold out on preorders alone...

It looks like they have not done His Hand in Mine either. I wonder if these were stock leftovers that FTD needed to get off their shelves as opposed to actual re-prints. As asked elsewhere, why not do other out of print titles too that are less costly to produce. It seems strange that they would do re-pressings on these session sets as so many fans said they would not bother with them as they offered very little value for money. And as a sweetener for the dealers, maybe they were offered at an attractive price.

[Mike C]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

I have deliberately made a small image as I don't know if ETMAHM would appreciate showing full blown pages although it is an advertisement I guess but you can clearly see what was available

I don't understand why the Kid Galahad sessions wasn't repressed... I think it sold out on preorders alone...

It looks like they have not done His Hand in Mine either. I wonder if these were stock leftovers that FTD needed to get off their shelves as opposed to actual re-prints. As asked elsewhere, why not do other out of print titles too that are less costly to produce. It seems strange that they would do re-pressings on these session sets as so many fans said they would not bother with them as they offered very little value for money. And as a sweetener for the dealers, maybe they were offered at an attractive price.

I think Elvis Is Back! was repressed since they needed to redo the second disc with the fault on the master of Solider Boy. Aloha from Hawaii was definitely repressed as the original version sold out rather quick (the number pressed is much lower than say 10 years ago for your average title).

[elvis-fan]

Does anyone (who is in the know) know exactly how many FTD's are pressed on an initial run? Or does it vary?

[emjel]

I’m curious but has it ever been announced by FTD that they did a reprint of JHR. I know they did an additional print run of 1000 with TTWII set but I’m not aware any other big book/CD sets that have had that treatment. And what session releases have been reprinted?

With regard to viability, I suspect it would have to be several hundred copies to make a release viable for a repress - probably a lot more for those super deluxe book/CD sets.

It may be just TTWII book that was repressed but the sessions sets definately were repressed, see photo

What were the details inside the back cover.

I have deliberately made a small image as I don't know if ETMAHM would appreciate showing full blown pages although it is an advertisement I guess but you can clearly see what was available

I don't understand why the Kid Galahad sessions wasn't repressed... I think it sold out on preorders alone...

It looks like they have not done His Hand in Mine either. I wonder if these were stock leftovers that FTD needed to get off their shelves as opposed to actual re-prints. As asked elsewhere, why not do other out of print titles too that are less costly to produce. It seems strange that they would do re-pressings on these session sets as so many fans said they would not bother with them as they offered very little value for money. And as a sweetener for the dealers, maybe they were offered at an attractive price.

I think Elvis Is Back! was repressed since they needed to redo the second disc with the fault on the master of Solider Boy. Aloha from Hawaii was definitely repressed as the original version sold out rather quick (the number pressed is much lower than say 10 years ago for your average title).

Yes, EIB was re-pressed due to the problem you mentioned, but it is difficult to believe they would repress again after that. By that time, wouldn’t they know roughly what the demand was including late comers and print extra at that time if the demand had gone up from the original pressing. From memory, I read somewhere on here that the print run on these session sets was around 2,500 so much lower than the kind of numbers that they did at the outset for new releases or as you say, 10 years ago. I note that Fun in Acapulco and For The Asking are missing from this listing too, so why wouldn’t they do those - if these are re-presses, it means that 4 titles from the session series have not been re-pressed which is strange. And if they were doing re-presses, why not make some kind of official announcement through the various channels/websites to bring it to the attention of those who have missed out.

There must be a minimum number production run required and anything less would not make it viable to do a second pressing and as I wrote, if that minimum number is so low that it makes it financially viable, why not do it for those other four titles too and some of the other older releases that have sold out where the production cost is much lower than these deluxe 8" sets. FTD only have to look at the Elvis Shop or eBay and see the sales prices on some of those older releases that are out of stock.

Now I might be totally wrong, and if I am, it’s no big deal, but I still think that apart from a title like Aloha, these are original stock leftovers where FTD have got caught out on the numbers due to lack of demand/lower sales and have offered dealers a discount to take that leftover stock, as FTD simply cannot afford to have stuff sitting on their shelves unsold.

[emjel]

Does anyone (who is in the know) know exactly how many FTD's are pressed on an initial run? Or does it vary?

My understanding is that it has always varied depending on the kind of release ie Classic Album much higher than a soundboard.

But the gap may be slightly smaller now that FTD have moved away from the Classic album series to the 8" Boxset release which undoubtedly costs more to produce, yet the uptake is likely to be slightly lower because they do not offer great value for money - how many times have we read that some are quite happy to make do with their original Classic album release and have no interest in spending even more money just to get 12/15 minutes worth of outtakes, which quite often are just false starts etc and not complete takes.

It will be interesting to see what the uptake is for the Blue Hawaii Sessions set when it comes out later this year. How many will buy it just to maintain the collection even though they have the big expensive Blue Hawaii Book/CD set. It is still likely to cost around £50 / $65 and there is probably a number of fans who will still be quite happy with their original Blue Hawaii double disc set so will not want to spend more money again.

As for numbers, I doubt anyone outside of FTD and dealers know the exact numbers and maybe even the latter are not privy to that kind of info. But I think it is safe to assume that the numbers have dropped off quite significantly in the last 10/12 years - I’m sure someone wrote on this forum that the earlier Classic Albums were up in the 7,500 figure for what were considered as being great releases that would draw those kind of sales, with soundboards being around 5,000 or less. These days, I’d be surprised if the average soundboard releases have more than a couple of thousand pressed.

[elvis-fan]

... I’m sure someone wrote on this forum that the earlier Classic Albums were up in the 7,500 figure for what were considered as being great releases that would draw those kind of sales, with soundboards being around 5,000 or less. These days, I’d be surprised if the average soundboard releases have more than a couple of thousand pressed.

Those numbers are higher than I was expecting... I do believe the soundboards being around 2000 specially with some of them selling out right away. It's hard to believe there are that many hard core fans still left that are privy to the FTD line... and can actually find a source for them.
I can't imagine the vinyl pressings being much higher than 2000 or so as well... given some of the feedback on this forum, it seems there are a number of fans not interested in the LP's.
I was shocked to read Mofi ran 10,000 units of the new From Elvis In Memphis 2LP set...