1. XM does not produce commercial pieces beyond ES numbers
   XM does not produce and sell over stated ES. Period. If the base says 999, then we will only sell 999 pieces. Let’s call these commercial retail pieces for ease of reference later. To put things in perspective, if XM produces even 1 extra piece to sell for profit, not only would we lose our reputation, we also risk licensors auditing us for over selling beyond our contractual obligations.
   
    
2. So why is there a 100X/999?
   

   As an industry practice, XM produces a small special run, typically between 20-35 pieces of what we refer to internally as ‘Samples’, ‘Promotional pieces’ or ‘Approval pieces’. These are numbered beyond the ES so there’s 1000/999, 1001/999, 1002/999 … to 1035/999. To be very clear, these are NOT FOR SALE. The applications for these pieces are;
    

   o   Approvals and reference to Licensors. These are sent to licensors as part of the manufacturing process.
   
   o   Used for promotional and marketing activities such as conventions, loaned to overseas distributors for in-store displays and awareness, contest giveaways etc.
   
   o   We also gift these to Artists, Partners who helped us with the project. Case in point, 1007/999 for Cable belongs to the super talented Foo Tze Wei, Concept artist and art director for the XM Cable piece. Tze Wei is very kind to allow us to share his photos below.
   
   

3. Are they more valuable?
   These samples are no different from commercial retail pieces. Generally, samples come from the advance batch production and often touched up by the core XM team founders since these pieces are used for marketing displays. E.g. before the event starts, if there was a paint scratch or minor defect, XM team will touch it up. Together with the fact these are not meant for sale (hence impossible to acquire unless initially gifted by XM directly – meaning you have to be pretty special), we can understand why some collectors may feel these are more valuable than the numbered retail pieces. Value is in the eyes of the beholder.
   
    

4. How do I know if these are samples and not recasts?

   Protecting our collectors has always been an important part of our culture. That’s why even samples have security registration codes which can be matched against the XM online database. If you can register it, it’s authentic. 
    

By being transparent, we hope collectors are now better informed about this matter. We are also looking into changing the numbering system for these Samples, perhaps instead of 1007/999, we would indicate SAMPLE/999 but we'll see. We pledge that XM does not profit from these sample pieces and will never sell them to anyone. If anyone has information otherwise about XM official rep selling these pieces, please email [email protected] or [email protected] and we will be happy to investigate the matter. However, please understand that XM cannot stop owners of these pieces from selling or trading.

We apologise for causing any confusion or concerns to the collectors who managed to acquire these sample versions (You're pretty lucky actually) and hope this article reassures you it's all good.

Stay classy and happy collecting.