Is it possible that original 1988 CD's are still being sold as 'new'?
The new 2015 “barebones” edition of the CD is apparently essentially a case of resuming pressing up that 1988 CD (down to the format of the album credits on the back cover, etc.). In that sense, it is still being sold. I don’t know if the CD label is literally identical as well, etc. (No doubt, at the very least the matrix numbers on the actual hub of the pressed CD would be different). The only definitive way I can see that you’d know a sealed album-only CD is the 2015 version is that it has a 2015 sticker on the front (and there’s no way to know if all pressings going forward will retain that sticker).
Is the prior album-only, 1988 edition still being sold as new? Unless you’re buying “new old stock”, I would doubt it, as that CD went out of print at some point in the 90’s. It had been out of print for some time (although not necessarily difficult to find used in CD shops) when the 2000 reissue came out.
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