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Collectible Sting

© Melanie Gold

I should be ashamed to call myself a Sting fan: I don't own a single collectible item of his or The Police's. I don't think I do, anyway. If I do, it's purely accidental.

But not all Sting fans are as lame as I am. They pour thousands of dollars into rarities of all sorts and end up in the credits of VH1's "Sting: Behind the Music," one of the best rockumentaries to date. In fact, people who don't even like Sting can buy and sell for profit if they find the right items. But I'm not expecting them to be reading this article.

Dinosaur fans grew up playing albums. This one is the USA Brimstone & Treacle soundtrack.

So what's a Sting fan who is a novice or aspiring collector to do? The first thing is check out the Stingchronicity website. You know the one, in conjunction with Sting's fan club, the singular authority when it comes to all things Sting. There you'll find general suggestions for collecting and you just may be surprised. This list starts with the Newcastle Big Band, recordings from Last Exit, to Police favorites and items from Sting's solo career, particularly from the Soul Cages era. During this era, there were a wide variety of singles in all formats: 7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, tape, jewel case, and fold-out digipack CDs. Some of the singles had very attractive packaging, such as "All This Time" with extras such as art prints. There was also a bevy of promotional items, like the very first official promo interview disc, the appearance of an Italian version of "Mad About You," and other special promo-only mixes.

Example of a USA 7" single. "Synchronicity II."

But one of the collectibles listed at Stingchronicity is something almost every Police fan already has: the Synchronicity album. It's collectible because 40 different jackets were printed, so perhaps the goal is to find all of them.

There is one set of recordings that crops up on virtually every "best of" list: Eberhard Schoener. Who the heck is Eberhard Schoener? you may ask. For starters, he is a musician in Munich, Germany who experimented with many types of sound. The Police played on several Schoener albums--and appeared on stage with him in a number of German concerts--beginning in the late 70s before the the release of Outlandos d' Amour. Stingchronicity features pictures of the releases (click on Eberhard Schoener in the Collectables section).

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