A typical promo record would be pressed in 2.500 to 5.000 copies and mainly distributed among radio stations and record company executives. You can recognise the promo item by the imprint 'Promotional copy, not for sale' or some similar remark.
Sometimes, special complimentory records or samplers were made to promote various artists from one label. If they were not for sale to the general public, they are included here.
The following unique items have been spotted.
Promo records and albums have never been in the regular retail circuit but since old DJ's tend to die or change of taste, you never know what you might run into in second hand shops or on Ebay. You might even find an occasional, white label test pressing, usually with a hand typed sheet containing track and other details. Highly collectable but also easy to forge... A double LP with two one sided test pressings of Sapphire has also been reported.
Of course, any regular album probably has been released as a promo album also. This is not of much interest. (For instance: Serendipity IMCD 256 has a promo twin sister IMCD 256P.) The same goes for regular singles that have been provided with a promo sticker.
After 2000, the value of promo items tends to decline as record companies tend to burn advance CDRs to serve as promo items. These can also be produced on demand... Anyone with sufficiently sophisticated printing equipment could start a promo record shop of their own...