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Master Of Puppets vinyl value

Master Of Puppets — Metallica album cover
Prices for this album are still being collected: our eBay tracker quotes a pressing only after at least three live listings match it. The pressings and identification below are complete.

Metallica — Master Of Puppets: pressings we track

PressingCatalogCountryNotes
1986 Elektra96 04391Canada—
1986 New Electric Way2320France—
1986 CBS/Sony28AP 3169Japan—
1986 CBS/Sony28AP 3169JapanPromo
1986 Elektra60439-1USAllied Pressing
1986 Elektra60439-1USSpecialty Pressing
1986 Elektra60439-1USPromo, AR - Allied Pressing
1989 Vertigo838 141-1EuropeReissue
1989 Vertigo838 141-1EuropeMisprint, Reissue
1989 Vertigo838 141-1GreeceReissue, Test Pressing
1989 Vertigo838 141-1South KoreaReissue
1989 Sung Eum LimitedSEL-RP 1439South KoreaReissue
1989 Vertigo838 141-1SpainReissue
1989 Vertigo838 141-1UKReissue
1991 Vertigo838 141-1SpainReissue
1992 Vertigo838 141-1GreeceReissue

60 pressings tracked, 16 shown · catalog of 974,753 releases, August 2026

What separates the pressings

Originals, 19864 first-year pressings (US, Canada, France, Japan); any of them is an original. Runout on the US copy starts “ST-E-60439-1-A-AR”.
Collector variants1986 Japan: Promo; 1986 US: Promo, AR - Allied Pressing; 1989 Europe: Misprint, Reissue. Short runs like these often bring more than a standard early copy.
JapanPressed to high standards and collected separately; a copy with the original obi strip is a different record to collectors than one without.
Reissues, 1991+2 pressings. Easy to find, priced as listening copies.

How to identify your copy

Three checks, in the order worth doing them.

  1. 1

    Match the catalog number. It is printed on the spine and the record label. Check it together with the country against the pressings table above: the same number can appear in more than one country.

  2. 2

    Read the runout. The code etched in the dead wax near the label names the exact pressing. On the 1986 US pressing it reads “ST-E-60439-1-A-AR” on side one and “ST-E-60439-1-B-AR” on side two. Jackets get swapped over the decades; the runout does not.

  3. 3

    Grade the condition. The same pressing can be worth several times more in near mint than in VG. Grade the vinyl and the sleeve separately — our grading guide shows the standard scale.

A 1986 jacket with a later disc inside is a reissue in an original sleeve. Judge the pressing by the runout etching and the label, never by the cover.

Questions

Which pressing of Master Of Puppets is worth the most?

The 1986 originals lead. Scarcer variants (the 1986 “Promo” and the 1986 “Promo, AR - Allied Pressing”) can beat an ordinary early copy. After that it is all condition: the gap between near mint and VG is usually larger than the gap between pressings.

How do I tell if I have a 1986 original?

Match the catalog number on the spine and label against the table above, check the country, then read the etched code in the runout groove. On the 1986 US pressing the runout reads “ST-E-60439-1-A-AR”. A period jacket with a later disc inside is still a reissue.

How much is Master Of Puppets worth today?

Market prices move, so a static number goes stale fast. Scan the record in the RecordScout app: it identifies your exact pressing from the label and shows a current value range for its condition.

Not sure which pressing you have? Photograph the label and RecordScout names it, then shows a current value range for its condition.

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