I remember buying the Out Of Step 12″ together with the First Two 7″s on 12″ at a festival in 1998, I already owned the Complete Discography cd for a year or five but I got really into vinyl and it just felt right to own these releases on vinyl.

Since then I tracked down eleven variations split over at least nine different pressings. There are a few questions that I haven’t figured out yet, would be nice if someone could answer it for me.

Question 1:

Why did the pre-order certificate came with the second press of the record?

Question 2:

Why did the 7th press came with a “$8 post paid” sleeve and when they made the color vinyl pressing, they used the “$7 post paid” sleeve again?

Here goes!

Test press for the 1st pressing: 50 made. First press (original mix) test presses can be identified by the 14410 code assigned by Nashville Record Pressing as written on the labels and scratched into the dead wax. These first press tests are more commonly found as radio promos with a photocopied flyer attached to the innersleeve and mockup labels pasted on top of the stardard NRP test press labels (which fall off when the glue fails over time).

1st press: 3500 made with totally different labels which are also used on the first press test pressings which were given send out as radio promo’s. The mix used on this record is different from the later pressings but this is also the mix used on the Complete Discography cd.

Test press for the 2nd pressing: 100 made and 50 come with the silk-screened cover and 50 come with a xeroxed cover or generic white sleeves. Jeff Nelson mentioned this in his recent eBay auction. The labels are generic white instead of the Nashville Record Pressings labels.

2nd press: 5000 made. As far as I know all the people that pre-ordered the record got a regular 2nd pressing with different back of the cover, different labels and a different mix but with a very nice looking pre-order certificate, stating how long they needed to wait for their copy of Out Of Step, their name and signatures by Jeff Nelson and Ian MacKaye.

3rd press: The first time the stripe appears on the cover and besides the domestic release, two record labels, one from the UK and one from Germany released them with a different coloured stripe on the cover and a different post paid price. The German version even has German song titles on the back of the sleeve.

4th press: unknown amount made. The blue stripe has been traded in for a blue/green one, also referred to as a turquoise stripe, the price remains 3.50 post paid.

5th press: unknown amount made. The post paid price raises to 5.00. The blue/green stripe is still there.

6th press: unknown amount made. The post paid price raises to 7.00. The blue/green stripe is still there.

7th press: unknown amount made. The post paid price raises to 8.00. The blue/green stripe is still there. It took me a while to track down this one. Until a year ago, I wasn’t aware of this pressing until someone from the UK was selling this on eBay, I missed it by a few cents and it took another four months before it surfaced again on eBay this time it was a German seller. Finally another eight months passed until I got hold of a slightly beaten copy. I have no idea why it doesn’t surface so much as the 5th or 6th pressing, it might be that they didn’t press as much copies, who knows.

8th press: 2000 made on white vinyl. The post paid is back at 7.00 and it is the final pressing to have the stripe on the cover.

9th press: With restored artwork and a download code, looks like Dischord isn’t afraid to progress after all these years and make their releases ready for your Ipod.

All the pressing numbers are taken from the Threatbase website and several eBay auctions. The pictures are taking for eBay auctions, the Threatbase website, Punkvinyl.com and several eBay auctions. Hopefully I will add pictures from my own collection soon, so it looks a bit tidier, but you get the picture. If I missed something or you have additional information, please leave a comment.