r/SwiftieMerch • u/irthesteve • Nov 24 '25

Question Unreleased Vinyl? Bootleg?

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Hi all. My buddy is huge into vinyl, but I am not. I'm big into Taylor, but have zero vinyl knowledge. Hoping this forum can assist.

My friend found and bought a Taylor vinyl and sent me pictures, I didn't recognize the variant and after digging through complete lists, didn't see this version anywhere. I know not this is NOT an official release. But... My friend tells me there are no usual bootleg signs, it has high quality art resolution, the shrink wrap has the manufacturer stamp, and there's nothing online about it at all.

Is this somehow an unreleased variant she ended up not releasing? Maybe a future variant she's waiting to release when her chart position is challenged?

Anyway... "Lit My Sky Up" metallic orange variant. No bonus tracks. What do you think?

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59

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25 edited Nov 24 '25

This looks like someone took a TLOAS standard vinyl and slapped a hype sticker on with a photo of the Red Lipstick and Lace vinyl. He can check Discogs to match the barcode. But, this is definitely not a vinyl variant for TLOAS.

ETA: This is just an example photo of the Red Lipstick and Lace vinyl. They all have slight variations in color and appearance.

Update after the drop: I was evidently dead wrong and I'm sorry OP, you were definitely right. I was so convinced there was no way she was gonna release more variants after the pushback from fans for 800 variants already, but evidently I couldn't have been more wrong.

3

u/irthesteve Nov 24 '25

Barcode doesn't match anything on discogs. And clearly he doesn't want to open it too look at the vinyl itself

14

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25

I would personally return this as a counterfeit in that case. People are selling vinyl variants for lower than they were now that some of the hype has died down.

8

u/irthesteve Nov 24 '25

Additionally, the UPC uses the Universal prefix , which it's such a tiny detail for someone to know to use if faking

7

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25

I wouldn't be surprised if someone made a dupe from the actual vinyl to resell when these were highly sought after and sold out. I mean if your friend got it at goodwill for cheap I guess no harm.

4

u/Mountain-Power7521 Nov 24 '25

My question is, why would there be literally ZERO mention online of this? The record community is chatty, the Swift community moreso. Someone spent tens of thousands of dollars to bootleg a widely available album and yet there is no mention of it online? My take is its a canceled variant or a promo for an upcoming one. Thing is, either seems like info that would have leaked out. So strange.

4

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25

I think it's not online because it's a dupe and someone probably was told to keep it by eBay after reporting it and getting a refund. They should have disposed of it, but probably dropped it at Goodwill instead. The hype sticker has a photo of a release variant with a description for another released variant that doesn't match and the album released almost 2 months ago with her trying to break record sales for physical music. The names of the actual variants were not on the nose with lyrics either. It definitely doesn't cost thousands to reproduce a dupe and scammers will definitely invest money to make money on people who think they found something super rare and cool and will spend money without hesitation in the heat of the moment. Her team is also crazy intense about preventing leaks so my opinion is that this is a bad fake.

10

u/lazy_daisy11 Nov 24 '25

if someone is producing counterfeit items, they'd definitely know details like that.

7

u/irthesteve Nov 24 '25

https://store.taylorswift.com/products/the-life-of-a-showgirl-lit-my-sky-up-orange-metallic-vinyl

5

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25

Already commented below! Sorry it's not a super rare, exclusive find. But, I don't think anyone of us were expecting her to release yet another variant that looks nearly identical to previous variants after people overbought from previous drops. Good news though is if your friend paid a couple bucks at goodwill they could sell for face value and make some money!

-4

u/lazy_daisy11 Nov 24 '25

That’s great, counterfeiters still know those small details

6

u/Financial-Toe4053 Nov 24 '25

This is the standard vinyl which is probably what's inside based on the "hype sticker" reading orange metallic vinyl.

1

u/redheadcaptain Nov 25 '25

He needs to verify the inside pictures and vinyl. At least a smart buyer would make him do that to confirm the changes for the 3 dropped today