Readers Help Needed

Q3: Status Quo - The Price Of Love 7" - Is this a genuine picture sleeve?

The March 2017 edition of the popular UK magazine "Record Collector" featured an article on Status Quo followed by a discography. On those pages, the following sleeve was shown without any context:-

Their discography (which only covers UK releases) had no mention of a picture sleeve for this single. Also, Quo UK picture sleeves didn't really start in the UK until the release of the "Live! EP" featuring "Roll Over Lay Down" in 1975 (Mean Girl on Pye being an obvious exception)

Many European countries had picture sleeves for the early Pye releases, but not the UK. There also seems to be a recent market in individuals creating fake sleeves for collectable 60's and 70's releases.

Discogs contains a scan of the above sleeve (possibly from the same source as the shadow and creases look the same) which links to the UK release, but a follow up on all of the versions of singles for sale will show none in that sleeve. Also suspicious is the lack of a scan of the rear sleeve.

There are a number of European and Worldwide picture sleeves for this release - the ones I know about are shown on this site here.

Finally, in over 30 years of collecting Quo, I reckon I have physically seen over 95% of their releases from around the World. I have never seen this one though.

So the questions to you, the readers, are:-

Is it a genuine sleeve?
• Which country is it from?
• Is is a standard release or a promo?
• How rare is it?

Suggestions Provided So Far

• 06/06/2018: No definitive answers, but a couple of collectors share my cynicism and suspect that this sleeve is "home made". Other opinions are still welcome!

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