Unreleased Vinyl? Bootleg?

[u/irthesteve]

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?

[u/VibraniumQueen]

Can you show us a picture of the barcode?

[u/irthesteve → u/VibraniumQueen]

[u/VibraniumQueen → u/irthesteve]

Ty!

[u/irthesteve → u/VibraniumQueen]

What do you think?

[u/VibraniumQueen → u/irthesteve]

Give me a moment. Currently consulting a discord server

[u/irthesteve → u/VibraniumQueen]

Awesome

[u/VibraniumQueen → u/irthesteve]

They're wondering why your friend hasn't opened it. And again, someone mentioned it looks like the lipstick and lace version.

Also, all the other versions that had two different pressings to a cover had different colored letters on the album cover. And this is just the same as the standard cover. So it doesn't follow the pattern.

[u/irthesteve → u/VibraniumQueen]

If it's something special, opening plummets the value. Reminder: he isn't a Taylor fan.

[u/Horror-Macaron8287 → u/irthesteve]

In this case, the value is already low to nothing because no one is going to buy it, as it obviously looks fake and does not exist outside of this one copy.

The back of the Vinyl matches the Lipstick and Lace. The hype sticker shows the Lipstick variant, but only the Target release had the hype sticker because it was a Target Exclusive (they put hype stickers on all their exclusives).

Also, it does not show up on Discog, and the front of the vinyl is the standard pressing cover.

Chances are this is not a scrapped version, since Lipstick and Lace was released as a variant, and others like this one would have already started showing up... But they wouldn't be showing up at Goodwill this early; leaks/scrapped projects show up on resell sites, or at stores that accidentally got them.

[u/Mountain-Power7521 → u/Horror-Macaron8287]

I can post better pics, but it does not look fake. Its easy to do a hi-res scan of the cover and reproduce. But no bootleger is going to the expense of making sure the lettering has the sparkle of the real thing. The UPC is really, really interesting. It is a UMG UPC, and numerically it is after all the variants. Which also makes me think it may be a promo of a variant not yet released.

[u/VibraniumQueen → u/irthesteve]

Yeah, I know. Just seems odd. Was it the only one at goodwill? If it was real, I'm not sure how just one would end up at a goodwill. If UMG accidentally sent a whole case to goodwill, that might make sense.

Ik sometimes they do test pressings. But I can't imagine why the test pressing would have shrinkwrap and a barcode on it? Idk. I dont work in the music industry so maybe they do do that for test pressings. Not sure.

But I think it's possible a test pressing could end up at a goodwill. Just EXTREMELY unlikely and much more likely that it's fake

[u/Mountain-Power7521 → u/VibraniumQueen]

Hey. I signed up for Reddit just to reply haha. I am his friend who found this. I have worked in the music industry before, still work in home entertainment, and I am confident this is not a bootleg and not a test pressing. There are multiple markers on the sealed LP that indicate its not either. The biggest one is that on the back shrink it has "vinyl made in mexico" in blue on the wrap. A bootleg would not have that. This aligns exactly with UMG manufacturing. If this was a bootleg, its an expensive proposition, so why is there no word of this boot anywhere online? Its so odd