Alan Smithee

Was thinking about this today- from 1985 to 1993, CDs came in cardboard boxes about half the size of an LP (same length but half the width) in order to fit easier in record bins and be less easy to shoplift. The jewel cases were at the bottom of the box while the remainder of the box was empty, with the ends glued shut. I saved all of mine and still have them (several hundred) stacked up in a closet at my parents' house, but most people just ripped the boxes open and tossed them. Being a collector from the get-go, I could never understand that. Some had artwork on them that wasn't in the CD case besides. I see some go for a bit of money on Ebay now. (Before longboxes came about, from 1983-85 plastic "blister-paks" of the same size were used, with the booklet in the top portion and the jewel case with disc in the lower portion so you could see the disc inside. Warner used a slightly wider variation of the longbox with a cutout window for the disc cover- I have two of these. One is Van Halen's "1984" which has some liner notes on the back which aren't in the CD booklet, where David Lee Roth talks about how he annoyed his parents as a kid by banging on the table singing TV commercials.)

Why So Blu?

No, never had long boxes. Way before my time. I started buying CD's in 1994.

Josh-da-man

I saved a few that had artwork I liked on them. One of them was Glenn Danzig's "Black Aria" that had art by Michael Kaluta on it.

slop101

The only one I've kept is the one for The Beatles' Sgt.Pepper because it has the costume cut-outs on the back.

wishbone

I have a longbox for Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti and couple of others still intact but most of my longboxes were cut up for the artwork. I still have them in a bag somewhere.

JANK

Same here. I kept it.

reverie

I have a small box full of them. The only ones I would get rid of were the generic duplicates. If I saw a CD on the shelf in a long box, and one without, I'd always grab the one with the box.

Tarantino

Came in here wondering what the fuck a CD Long Box was.

Noonan

I totally forgot these ever existed until reading this thread. I think I was just getting my first CD player as these were being phased out.

EddieMoney

This is the only one I used to have. Long gone now.

wishbone

EddieMoney

Nice!

davidh777

Blisterpacks were a blight on humanity: Impossible to open, prone to slicing fingers, and permanent landfill.

Noonan

I only remember cases like this being used as theft protection. They would take the CD out at the register. Did stores actually hang CDs on peg-hooks with these?

davidh777

As the OP stated, usually they were placed in record bins. But in the blisterpack's heyday, they would be sealed plastic that I took home and opened there. Such a waste. It was a big innovation at my local music store when they placed blocks at the bottom of the bins and didn't need the longbox to place the art closer to eye level.

Alan Smithee

Ha- I have most of the ones in that big picture- were you raiding my closet? When they had labels on the shrinkwrap (stuff like "Contains the hit song ----" or what have you), I cut those out and put them in the box, but when longboxes went away I put those under the CD tray so I may go back through my longboxes and do that also (goes without saying I also save the shrinkwrap labels from other media as well, including DVDs and Blu-Rays. Remember those silver "WB" stickers that were on their early DVDs?)

Hiro11

I also remember that really strange folding longbox that transformed itself origami-style into the CD case that a few albums had. DeeLite's last album had it.

bunkaroo

I started buying CD's in 1993 and a lot of what I bought was available in longbox, but they were likely releases that had been out a few years already.

majorjoe23

I also started in 1993. I think the only CD I ever got that came in a long box was Bruce Springsteen's Human Touch.

I bought plenty that had a weird plastic add on thing that made them taller, but were removed at the register.

davidh777

I think Costco was one of the last holdouts supporting the longbox. That always annoyed me. Of course, now their CD selection is like 2-5 titles.

Rival11

Long boxes were around in the early 90's

Eddie W

Still got a handful of the cooler looking ones, but most of them I cut up to make artwork for the cassette case after I'd record the CD for my car. The spines were just about the right width to fit between a blank cassette's j-card & the plastic case to show the title. Unless it was too long.

The last CD I remember buying with a long box was Use Your Illusion I & II.

Alan Smithee

Remember the first printing of those had stickers on the outside saying "This album contains language which some listeners may find offensive. They can f*** off and buy something from the New Age section!" The later ones replaced that with the standard "Parental Advisory" sticker.

Some longboxes had postcards on the back for political causes, like the "motor voter bill" which would automatically register people to vote when they received their drivers' licenses (don't think that ever passed- oh wait, just looked it up and apparently it did), and you were supposed to cut it out and mail it to your congressperson to show support for it. I remember that because I bought a CD with that on the back, though don't remember what it was right now, and the cashier pointed it out to me and told me to mail it in, but I told them I saved all my longboxes and he thought I was nuts.

The Antipodean

Wow, I do remember these but don't have a single one left from the day... they did seem an odd compromise between LP display and shelf space... in the end didn't really miss them though. I seem to remember a lot of them distorted the original LP art very badly to fit in the more vertical space?

DeanoBKN

I started buying CD's in 94, by then I didn't remember seeing many in stores. I had 1 or 2 but they definitely didn't survive my last move.