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Topic: Country of Sale vs. Country of Issue with HMV export issues

1st Nov 2017, 4:10 AM
	xiphophilos Member since Dec 2013 3351 Points Moderator	I'm sorry to open up again what may have been discussed numerous times before. Here's the case: The database currently lists about two dozen records under the label "His Master's Voice" [Germany] even though "His Master's Voice" records were, for contractual reasons, never sold in Germany. Instead, they appeared there under the labels "Electrola" or "Die Stimme Seines Herrn". I personally would categorize these as UK export issues, not as German issues. Even though the German series with the prefixes E.G. (10 inch), E.H. (12 inch) and E.W. (10 inch) usually feature German performers and German label text, they were actually mainly sold in Britain, Holland, and Scandinavia, as shown by the nationality of the users of this database who own them, and they couldn't legally be sold in Germany itself. The large number of British owners of these export issues (around 50% of the E.G., E.H., and E.W. in this database, some listed under Germany, others under UK) seems to be explained by the 1951-1952 HMV catalog that includes, apparently for the first time, also records from the Overseas Main Catalogue and Supplement. This catalogue tells British dealers that all these Overseas or export issues are available for order from the British HMV factory in Hayes as well. I know we have the "country of sale rule". But does it really make sense with these UK export issues? I don't understand why, for example, a Dutch record store sticker on a HMV produced in England should make this record a Dutch issue (like this Comedian Harmonists record), whereas a Danish sticker on another copy of the same record would make it a Danish issue. Why can't they all be UK export issues? In any case, even under the 'country of sale" rule, the German-language HMV export issues would need to be listed as "Europe" rather than Germany since they were never sold in Germany itself. Any comments? Edited by xiphophilos on 1st Nov 2017, 7:03 AM