How to identify a CD pressing
Two copies of the same album can be worth £3 and £80. Identification is the whole game.
Start with the catalogue number
The catalogue number appears on the spine, the rear insert, the disc face and usually the booklet. Different pressings of the same album normally carry different numbers or suffixes, so this narrows things down before you touch the disc.
Where the spine and the disc disagree, you probably have a mixed copy — a disc in someone else's case.
Read the matrix / runout
Tilt the clear inner ring of the disc to the light. The etched or stamped string there identifies the glass master and plant that made it. Early pressings often carry a shorter code, a plant name (for example a West German or Japanese plant on 1980s discs), or a distinctive mould SID.
Two IFPI codes matter: the mastering SID near the centre ring (starting IFPI L) and the mould SID moulded into the plastic (IFPI followed by a short code). Their presence dates a disc to 1994 onwards.
Cross-check the packaging
Rear-insert details — barcode presence, rights society text, distributor logos, price codes — change between pressings and countries. A barcode-free rear insert usually signals an early 1980s copy. Booklet page counts and the presence of a smooth-edge or ridged jewel case are further tells.
Then confirm against a database
Match your combination of catalogue number, matrix string and barcode against a release database such as Discogs before you conclude you have the rare one. Every CD we list records the catalogue number, and where the pressing matters we photograph the matrix.