Collecting log: BORN IN THE U.S.A. LP ー Matrix numbers of the earliest U.S. pressing and an error copy with off-centered labels (Part 2 of 5)

With the vinyl collection increasing steadily and continuously, erroneous or defective copies of official releases have gradually accumulated over the years in my collectible archives. As summarized here, such flaws range from tiny careless typos on record labels, sleeves and Obi-strips, to one-of-a-kind production errors like a lyric sheet mistakenly used for making the inner sleeve for Disc One of THE RIVER LP. Although BORN IN THE U.S.A. and its associated vinyl releases have never been my prime target of hunting and collecting, I own two such examples for this album. Shown here is a U.S. copy with the record labels that are incorrectly aligned to the vinyl disc.

Disc can be set on a turntable and played normally. This error results from wrongly processed paper labels because the center hole has to be punched out before vinyl pressing.

Off-centered labels are rarer than labels with typos, since generally, the latter circulate in quantities, for example, of more than hundreds or thousands, especially when such errors remain uncorrected. Long widely known are misprints of the BORN TO RUN U.S. and U.K. album credits (note that the U.K. issues have not been corrected) and the disc 2 track lineup found on the inner sleeve of THE RIVER released in Holland and a few other countries like Brazil (pictured here). A recent stand out example came from the 2011 Record Store Day campaign 10" EP Gotta Get That Feeling / Racing In The Sreet ('78) (Columbia 88697 87461 1) which has not been withdrawn or spell-corrected probably because of the limited run.

The vinyl disc is a later pressing with no MASTERDISK stamp/RL hand-etchings (left). Because of the mis-alignment, part of the run-off grooves is pressed on the paper label but not on the wax directly (right).

Usually, the center hole is punched out of a bundle of paper labels designed for each side, before they are set on a pressing machine and pressed on a hot vinyl clump by a pair of stampers. So, if something wrong happens during the processing of paper label-print outs, such a flawed batch must be discarded as a whole to avoid faulty disc production, or in the case if error-bearing labels are indeed used for vinyl pressing, the defective

Mis-folding on the bottom side of the inner bag (left). The two bags
also differ in surface gloss and color tone, which is not considered as
error. Not sure if the difference is print factory-specific (i.e., pressing
plant-specific) or pressing phase-specific (i.e., early or late copies).
Most copies of the blue & white sticker LP (= early pressings) in my
possession are associated with the rather matte surface/lighter
blue sleeve (right).

discs should be destroyed even if they are played normally. This copy must have somehow escaped from disposal facilities even though the production error is evident and easily recognized by the appearance. It is noteworthy that not only Side One, but also Side Two suffer from the mis-alignment, which (I think) makes it further rarer.

And just for the record. There is yet another sort of error associated with this copy. The inner record sleeve looks a little different from the normal U.S. version due to a mis-fold along the bottom side, which is apparent if you compare the opening side between the two bags (note the white space expansion). Maybe not worth mentioning though.
— To be continued.