Introduction

The original version of this guide was published in the premiere issue of the Tori fanzine Little Blue World, and this online version has not been updated in several years. We are working on updating it now. If you have information you feel should be added or updated, email it to Aimee. If you have questions about collectibles not answered in this guide, check out LBW's Ask the Expert department. For more detailed information about Tori vinyl, subscribe to LBW, which will be publishing a collector's guide to vinyl in their winter issue.

This article is intended as a general guide for Tori collectors, and all suggested price ranges are in US$ and reflect US availability, although overseas collectors might also find this information generally useful. Although we don't cover every single Tori item out there, we'll cover all the basics and most of the more sought-after rarities along with their catalogue numbers.

Remember that the real value of a collector's item is in the eye of the beholder: a collector with a hefty trust fund or who just really, really desires a particular item might feel it's worth it to pay more than usual. After all, that's how so many of the rarities have gained in value in the first place. By the same token, collectors should also take into account the condition of the item, and that's one reason why we list a range of prices here. It's also important to consider the timing of your purchase when deciding what you're willing to pay; when there's more time in between promoting albums, you can get a lot of good deals, but more collectors will come out of hibernation and prices will almost certainly start going up again with the release of new material.

Commonly Available Singles

Before we go into the serious collectibles, it's important for collectors to remember that not every Tori item is worth its weight in gold. All the US singles are currently so easy to find that they might as well still be in print. Most of the older UK singles have been out of print for quite a while, but not all have increased in value.

The charts below reflect fair price ranges for new CDs; when buying used CDs it's a good general rule to pay half of what a CD cost new if that single is still easily found. Used US singles are never worth as much as they cost new, but you shouldn't feel you're being cheated if you're asked to pay the new price for used UK singles from the Earthquakes, Pink, or Pele eras. UK singles from Choirgirl and Venus are still easy to find, though, so if you're going to pay full price for one, you might as well get yourself a brand new copy. Singles released in other parts of Europe can usually be estimated as equivalent to their UK counterparts.

Rare and Limited Edition (LTD) Singles

Although not a single, the Australian tour edition of Under the Pink often referred to as More Pink (756780607-2) fits best in this category. This album includes a second CD with 11 b-sides from the Earthquakes and Pink eras, and it's a very popular and increasingly rare collector's item which currently runs about $50-70.

Promos

Atlantic and East-West (Atlantic's European distributor) put out various promotional items, mostly CDs featuring a song which is about to be released as a single. Most promos aren't all that valuable. If you come across one with one song and an edited version of that song, or one which just contains sample tracks from or the same track listing as an album, chances are it's worth about $10. However, some promos are in a unique form or have different artwork or extra tracks which makes them worth more to collectors. Here are a few of the most popular collector's promos and what makes them special.

Baltimore and Y Kant Tori Read

Items from very early in Tori's career have become the ultimate in collector's items, and the "Baltimore" single is our holy grail. Released in 1980 on privately-pressed 7" vinyl, it's also unarguably the cheesiest of Tori releases. In fact, the song "Baltimore" and its b-side "Walking with You" are nearly unbearable even for the most devoted fan. Despite this, the high demand and low supply (somewhere between 500 and 1000 copies were made) of this first ever Tori single has made its value hard to gauge. Typically it hasn't sold for less than around $500, and more often goes for $1000-1500. RAINN has received several copies of "Baltimore" to use in fundraisers, so you might keep an eye out at www.rainn.org for information on when they'll be made available for auction. After all, if you buy a "Baltimore" from a RAINN auction, then at least the sick amount of money you're willing to spend will go to a good cause.

The other ultimate item in Tori kitsch is her 1988 spandex band release Y Kant Tori Read (YKTR). This was Tori's first commercial release with her L.A. band including guitarist Steve Caton, who continued to work with her on her first five solo albums. Somewhat less cheesy than "Baltimore" (in fact, it might grow on you), YKTR is also generally more available in its various forms, although it's still among the rarest of Tori items.

It's also one of the most bootlegged (or more accurately, pirated) items, as many fans are more interested in or can better afford hearing the content than in having the original release. If you're looking for a YKTR bootleg, see the bootleg section of this guide for information on what it should cost. But if you're looking for the original YKTR as a collector's item, it's important to know exactly what you're looking for or you might wind up paying quite a lot of money for an essentially worthless copy. Here are some of the basic things to look for:

• Extra tracks are a dead giveaway that an item is not original; many bootleggers added Earthquakes-era b-sides as bonus tracks. An original YKTR has only 10 tracks.
• YKTR was never officially released outside the US. If the item says it was made or released outside the US, it's not the real thing.
• The catalogue number for the original YKTR CD is 81845-2. Some bootlegs which look otherwise legitimate label it as 81845-1, which was the number for the vinyl of YKTR.
• Artwork should be examined carefully for picture quality and accuracy. The writing on the spine should be plain red lettering on a white background, and the disc itself is a standard, no-frills Atlantic release: silver with a red border and plain black lettering. Also note that some bootlegs substitute the artwork from the back of the original vinyl and longbox in place of the artwork used on the back of the original CD case. The back of the original CD case did not have a picture of Tori on a bad hair day, it had white and black lettering on a bluish-purple background.
• Atlantic never released YKTR on picture vinyl, only on plain, black vinyl.

Finally, here are catalogue numbers and suggested price ranges for the authentic YKTR and its singles and promos. Keep in mind that cutouts (a notch cut in the spine of the CD case or on the corner of the vinyl sleeve) are worth less than non-cutouts.

Bootlegs

Toriphiles have always sought after recordings of Tori's incredible live performances, and with the proliferation of CD-R burners, DAT, and Minidisc devices among fans, bootlegs are now more easily available as well as more affordable and often of much better quality. This has been true roughly since the Dew Drop Inn tour of '96. Many fans are happy to trade bootlegs or simply charge a flat fee per CD to cover materials and shipping, usually around $5-8, and many will also copy older pressed disc bootlegs onto CD-R for you. You can also now download bootlegs from the Tori Online Music Bank (T.O.M.B.), which compiles high quality recordings of Tori shows and makes them available to fans for free. We highly recommend getting bootlegs from the T.O.M.B. or other fans over buying them at a store.

But if you are going to buy a "commercial" bootleg in a store, you can expect to pay $20-25 per disc for pressed CDs. These became fairly uncommon by the time of the Plugged tour in '98, but you may find older boots on pressed discs. Check to see that you're buying a pressed disc at that price by looking at the non-artwork side, which should be silver. The back of a CD-R disc will usually be gold, green, or blue, and these are more cheaply produced and also more susceptible to flaws in recording. Although most stores will charge the same price for these as they do a pressed disc, it's generally not worth it unless you can listen to the entirety of the disc for flaws first or if they have a generous refund policy. If you pay $25 for a CD-R bootleg and take it home to discover a brain-crushing burst of static right in the middle of "Silent All These Years", don't come crying to us.

An excellent online source for bootleg information is the Tori-boot mailing list. Subscribers discuss the quality and track listings of various bootlegs, and may be able to help you find a source for particular songs or just the show Tori played in your hometown. You can also find pre-Plugged bootleg discographies and reviews at http://listen.to/tori.bootlegs.

eBay and Other Auction Sources

eBay and other sites can be excellent places to find a good bargain, and there are ways to buy smart at auction sites. First and foremost, collectors should be patient. If you see an item which interests you, it's best to decide how much you're willing to pay right off the bat. If you wind up in a heated bidding war at the last minute, you might get carried away with the competition and pay more than you'd intended. And although it might seem worth it at first, you'll probably be sorry when you see another copy of the same item go for less the next week. Remember, unless an item is exceptionally rare (e.g. a YKTR CD still sealed in the longbox), chances are another copy will pop up soon. You can also wait until more than one copy of an item is being sold at the same time; in mid-2000 there was a spate of "Silent All These Years" LTDs for sale on eBay, and many of them sold for around $40-50, whereas we list them here as being worth more like $70-100.

Another important thing to keep in mind when bidding in an auction is an item's legitimacy. I can't count the number of times I've seen people paying $100+ for YKTR bootlegs which were being palmed off as legitimate. Pay attention to the item description, and insist on seeing a picture of the item if you're not sure. Some sellers do try to hint at illegitimacy in the description, since they can't outright call it a bootleg without alerting eBay, but others may try to fool you (one nefarious bastard insisted that YKTR was legitimately released in Germany, and that's an outright lie). If you're not sure of something, like whether an autographed item is forged, you can try asking a more experienced collector to have a look; but keep in mind that Tori gives her autograph freely, and the ink just isn't worth very much. In general, it's best to steer clear of items you're not sure of, or bid so low that the item would be a bargain regardless. Be aware.

Unless, of course, you're bidding in the ToriCon auction. The ToriCon auction takes place every August at rec.music.tori-amos' annual convention and simultaneously online. Because the entirety of your bid will go to RAINN, we recommend that you bid early, often, and with your life's savings. All items are donated, so RAINN gets the maximum amount possible, and all bootleg items are scrupulously labelled. For more information about donating items, bidding, or attending the convention, see the ToriCon FAQ.

Resources for Collectors

For a damn near complete guide to Tori items (but not prices) from Pele and earlier, we highly recommend Paul Campbell's book Tori Amos Collectibles. The 216 pages of colour photos and information can be very useful in helping to determine the legitimacy of items you find for sale, and you can also drool over pictures of items you'll never in a million years be able to find or afford (check out the "Sounds Like Tori Amos!" promotional deodorant on page 105). List price is $29.95, and book or music stores should be able to order it for you: US ISBN 0.8256.1578.X or UK ISBN 0.7199.6174.3. This book occasionally pops up in online auctions as well.

If you have a question about a Tori item not listed here, Little Blue World has an Ask the Expert section in which they answer your questions about Tori and Tori Collectibles. Email our expert or send your question along with a self-address, stamped envelope to: Little Blue World, P.O. Box 430121, St Louis, Mo 63143, Attn: Expert. They'll answer your question, and maybe even print it.