Eagles — Hotel California: How to Identify a First Pressing

• Other: The original vinyl's Elektra/Asylum catalog number is 7E-1084 — a key number for identifying an early original US pressing.
• Label: The original vinyl label uses a custom design: a blue 'Hotel California' logo on a yellow background, rather than the label's standard generic Asylum design — an important visual clue for identifying an original pressing.
• Runout / matrix: The matrix (runout) area on both sides carries an inside joke that the band had continued since their third album, 'On the Border': Side A reads 'Is It 6 O'Clock Yet?' and Side B reads 'V.O.L. Is Five-Piece Live' — a direct etching clue for verifying the original master.

• Cover: The gatefold's inner photo echoes the cover, continuing the same (Beverly Hills Hotel) lobby scene, but shows the band members and their friends in the frame.

• A 40th-anniversary deluxe edition was released on November 24, 2017, with a bonus CD of 10 tracks from a live performance at The Forum — clearly a later repackaged reissue than the 1976 original; a Hybrid SACD edition was also released in Japan on August 17, 2011, as part of the 'Warner Premium Sound' series.

discogs.com returned a 403 this time and could not be accessed; the English Wikipedia entry was used instead, which explicitly gives the original catalog number 7E-1084 — one of the few albums in this batch for which a specific catalog number could be verified.

• Read the runout (the smooth area between the last groove and the label) with the disc tilted under a lamp: matrix numbers, stamper codes and mastering initials are the strongest evidence.
• Label details change between pressing plants and years: rim text, logo style, address, "Manufactured by" wording.
• Cover printing shows the plant and era: printer credit, catalog number position, barcode presence.
• Match all three. A first-press disc in a later cover, or the reverse, is common.

Shoot the label straight on in even light, then the runout with the disc tilted so the etched text catches the light (a phone torch from the side works). Add the front and back cover, the spine, and any inner sleeve or insert. The app reads the label and cover; the runout photo is what confirms the pressing.