Not to be argumentative mc, but not all cutouts are promos, and not all promos look like true cutouts. When record companies would delete a title from their LP catalog, they would punch a hole in the cover or cut off one of its’ corners, then sell the "cutout" (that term literally refers to the title being cut out of the record company’s catalog) to retailers who wanted them. In the late-60’s, all the companies were deleting their mono LP’s. Myself and fellow collectors regularly visited the drug stores who were selling mono Kinks, Beach Boys, Yardbirds, etc. LP’s for 59 cents, snapping up every copy we could get our hands on. I still have a bunch of them, all with either a hole punched in the cover or a corner cut off. None of those cutouts was a promo copy.
That practice did not change in the 70’s; cutout stereo LP’s were given the same treatment. Now, an LP that has a "normal" commercial label, but is in a jacket with a hole punched in it or a corner cut off, may or may not be a promo: there’s no way of knowing. And it doesn’t really matter, does it? It is the "white label" promos that are collectable; if its’ cover is intact that only adds to its’ value.
As the Indi Buyer at a SoCal Tower Records, I got first promo LP’s, then CD’s. The LP’s often were a standard LP inside a cover with a hole punched in it, usually after the shrink wrap had been put on. Some were true "white label" promo LP’s, sometimes with a standard cover, sometimes with a large sticker with track listing with timings pasted on it. Others were plain white covers, some with a see-through hole exposing the center label, sometimes not.
The best thing about true promo LP’s is that they are uniformly early pressings, sometimes THE first LP’s of a title pressed. So there is a good chance they are amongst the best sounding pressings of any given title. When CD’s took over, the promos came in all sorts of forms, but that’s a whole ’nother story.
As for fromunda's "promo" LP, if the sticker is on the outside of the shrink wrap, it could have been put there by an unscrupulous seller. If it’s under the shrink wrap, that is less likely but still possible, as there were LP shrink wrap machines in the back room of every Tower Records, where returned LP’s were "cleaned", then resealed and put back in the bin to sell to an unsuspecting buyer. Ever get a sealed LP with fingerprints? Now you know why!
