Here is a comparison between a genuine official copy of Aerosmith Pump made by Universal and a Russian counterfeit copy. In the picture, the real one is on the left and the fake is on the right.

Front opening promo box and obis from Disk Union came with first five albums in 20 bit K2 : VICP-62114 to VICP-62118

(Images courtesy of The Brain Salad Surgery site http://www.brain-salad-surgery.de/.)

Die cutting of the cover image or inserts is probably the most common technique employed to create gimmick covers. It's probably also in most cases the cheapest.

There are thousands of die cut covers. Here are a few of the more popular and best known releases.

Recorded in early July 1973 this album took nearly a year to make it to streets.

One of the most elaborate record covers ever produced and probably the most elaborate so far to make it to mini LP release. It is nearly impossible to capture the splendour of this on a web site but we shall try...

Tarkus promo box and obis released to accompany the first K2 24 bit release of the first five ELP albums.

The artwork is darker than the album cover. It came with 6 promo obis, 2 for Trilogy.

Some of the images shown here include all but one of the Tarkus Mini LP releases spanning 1994 - 2008