Thanks, Carey. This copy looks to be the same as this Discogs entry, which shows BIEM/MCPS rights societies rather than BIEM/GEMA on the one I linked to before. Pressing by Universal M & L indicates that this was pressed in 1999 or later following Universal's purchase of PolyGram and PMDC (the previous name for Universal M & L), as does the third catalogue number 311 000-2, which is in the old PolyGram style (I seem to remember some other MCA numbers in PolyGram style shortly after the takeover). The MCD 11000 number was first used in 1991 or 1992, though (previous European release through WEA was 250 430-2), so we can still consider this to be a 1991 or 1992 release.
Funny thing about the barcode is that most of the US and Canadian releases seem to have it as 076731010021, so different from the Elton John disc, but there is a German one too; I can't tell whether it's before or after Carey's copy, but I suspect its after. I wonder whether it would have mattered in Europe and the rest of the world, as Elton John was only with MCA for USA and Canada.
I'm not good with disc images but I uploaded the first disc if that helps. Starting bid is 500 bucks and $500 postage and handling lol. I uploaded the U.S.A version a couple of days ago as well if that's any help.
I don't know that the package is necessarily printed in the USA, MM - it looks to me like BMG in Europe just left the USA text intact and added Europe-specific details like the slightly different catalogue number and the price codes. In a similar vein, WEA in Australia would leave the Warner Bros., Elektra or Atlantic address details on LP covers, add the distribution credit for themselves, and occasionally forget to airbrush out the "Made in USA" text, which has been known to create some confusion about release country at certain discography sites!
But that could mean this was only in print for a short spell in this form, as it seems the likely candidate fora withdrawal from sale, until replaced by issue with correct barcode.
But the fact that it has an erroneous barcode from an item which has a specific date could be helpful... as Empty Sky would likely have been reissued itself regularly, with new barcodes, so this has a barcode from an item in print at the time of it's issue (?)
(If you see my logic)
Inclined to leave this as USA issue though, at least for time being, as even if it has Made In (W) Germany discs, the only market they would likely be for sale in bearing USA printed packaging would likely be USA?
(For sale elewhere would be printed in Europe or somewhere?)
Further to my comment below about the Australian issue, it appears from Discogs to have been an actual Australian pressing (from Disctronics), so this European pressing is likely just Europe after all; there are several US copies also present in Discogs.
Carey, can you add images of the discs? I still think this is European, but I want to see if the discs say "Made in Germany" and show European rights societies like the Discogs entry for MCD 11000
This has the same barcode as the US version of Elton John’s Empty Sky from 1988. But looking at the cat# I think MCA made a little mistake there with the barcode…
P.S. I can pin it down a little further, to before February 1993, as it appears in the main Platterlog catalogue in Australia at that time; it didn't make it into any of the weekly catalogue updates before that, though (I hate it when that happens), and it doesn't seem to have scored a UK release, not appearing in the Music Master catalogues.
Hi MM, this is actually a Europe (and probably International) release, because the first catalogue number shown on the rear insert is MCD 11000 (i.e. in MCA's then European format), and the insert also shows price codes for Germany and France, the BM in the latter code indicating distribution by BMG, which assumed international (non-US) distribution of MCA's labels on 1st April 1991 (as reported in Billboard of 24 November 1990), so a 1991 release at the earliest.