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The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle vinyl value

The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle — Sex Pistols 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.

Sex Pistols — The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle: pressings we track

PressingCatalogCountryNotes
1985 Virgin300 279-406EuropeReissue
1985 Virgin70025FranceCompilation, Reissue
1985 VirginOVED 234UKCompilation, Reissue
1985 VirginV2168UKCompilation, Reissue
1989 Virgin202 521EuropeCompilation, Reissue
1989 VirginOVED 234UKCompilation, Reissue
2010 VirginVDR2510EuropeReissue, Remastered, Gatefold
2010 VirginVD2510USLimited Edition, Reissue, Remastered
Undated VirginVD 2510UKReissue

9 pressings tracked · catalog of 974,753 releases, August 2026

What separates the pressings

Oldest we track, 1985First released 1979; our table starts at 1985 (Virgin, UK). A copy older than 1985 predates everything here. Treat it as the find.
Collector variants2010 US: Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered. Short runs like these often bring more than a standard early copy.
Reissues, 2010Easy to find, priced as a listening copy.

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 1985 UK pressing it reads “OVED -234 A - 5U I 05 TOWN HOUSE” on side one and “V - 2168 A5 5” 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 1979 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 The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle is worth the most?

Original 1979 pressings lead; they predate everything in our table, and that scarcity is the point. Among tracked copies, the 1985 pressings come first. Scarcer variants (the 2010 “Limited Edition, Reissue, Remastered”) 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 which pressing I have?

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 1985 UK pressing the runout reads “OVED -234 A - 5U I 05 TOWN HOUSE”. A period jacket with a later disc inside is still a reissue.

How much is The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle 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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