I’m certainly no expert on this subject, only having stumbled across it earlier today, and there have been wiser individuals who have written, at great lengths, about this subject (cited examples: ONE and TWO), and I know it’s rather old news, but were you aware that The Police’s 1983 album Synchronicity (their fifth and final studio output) has 93 different cover variations?! Some sources claim only 36 variants exist, which is still an outstanding number, in my opinion. Sure, The Police were considered the biggest band in the world upon this summer album’s release, but why all the intentional variants? Fun fact: most, if not all US pressings were released as audiophile records, which are actually brown or purple when held up to light, but appear to be standard black vinyl with minimal-to-no inspection. Mine is purple, for the record (see what I did there?). Which color is yours?