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.

16 CD box set - being 14 studio albums including 2 doubles.

According to Pink Floyd Brain Damage site there were a few glitches with this release, the most notable being a misprinting of the inner bag for the second CD in "The Wall".

There are also cases of an album being missed out and duplicates in their places.

The later Japanese release of this box set is basically identical to this box set.

Poor quality fakes exist for this set - more details below.

The original Japanese individual releases are regarded as being of a much higher quality to either of these box sets.

You can see a YouTube video of this set on the videos page.

A unique creation from Kerry Hudson design.

This box pre-dates Hudson Dark Side of the Moon Box.

Over the years a number of promotional boxes have been released for "The Who". These have included "Manufacturer", "Disk Union" and "Indeterminate Origin".

Here is a selection...

In late 2008 Caroline Records in the USA released a number of albums by the following artists: UFO, Jethro Tull, Quicksilver Messenger, Brian Eno, Roxy Music, The Raspberries, Kate Bush, Blondie, The Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Van Der Graaf Generator (full list below).

Unlike the suspect Universal releases these are 100% Japanese. The only difference between these and the Japanese (apart from being as much as 50% cheaper) is a sticker on the bar code of the obi.

As at March 2009 most of these are still available at Amazon.