Record Club vs. Store purchased records

I am old and used to get the Columbia House record club records in the 60's under various names and throw away the bills when they came.My sister taught me that and i later returned the favor by bailing her out of jail for selling pot.The Columbia stuff was mostly pressed at the Tere Haute plant and that is the address the CRC used and this was one,if not THE major pressing plants for Columbia records.They also ran a huge plant in Santa Maria,California.The real question is where in the pressing master stamper,were these records pressed? If the master stamper was set for 10,000 pressings,typical of major labels,then the pressings would be the same.My sense of it is these record club copies were pressed after the commercial release so they would be later in the stampers life.So not as bright and great sounding as the earlier stamped pressing runs-usually ordered at about 1,000 at a time for a major label at that time.Then again,with a big hit the record club copies could be from the first thousand of a NEW stamper....? What is not certain is the premium grade of vinyl for the actual pressing,they might have skimped a little here,but i do know they printed separate labels and amended jacket graphics for the record clubs..
The Columbia record club,when finally discontinued became,"Columbia Special Products" and they lasted long into the final hurrah of the original vinyl age.There may be some stamper master reference number in the dead wax that might answer this question but it has got to be untraceable at this point in time.This information might be uncovered in the distant future by another civilization at an ancient dumpsite in Indiana.By that time we will all be swirling ether.I used to love to look at those record club ads in the magazines,how else could a 14 year old boy end up with Monk,Miles,Billie and Duke?

In the sixties I worked for CBS and was very familiar with the Record Club operations since I was a financial overseer of Columbia Records operations. Quality of the record was a function of the vinyl mix and stamper run, not whether it was Club product or retail distribution. Record manufacturing was done, as noted at many plants. Quality control of the stampers and other parts of the operation varied considerable. Overall, both Club and Retail product was great. Still have many thousands of records that I received as a perk. By the way, the Club operation never made any real money despite the fact Club records that were offered in promo deals never had to pay royalties.

Buconero117, excellent info. What a cool job that must have been.

I just purchased a sealed copy of The Eagles 'The Long Run" Columbia House and it sounds damned good. If my memory serves me well I believe I have some others that are keepers

I have a Columbia House Record Club Led Zeppelin Houses of the Holy.Deadwax has Sterling RL (Robert Ludwig) I can tell you it sounds Much better than any stock copy I have.