Built for collectors who care which pressing they own.

RUNOUT. started with a familiar frustration. You pull a record out of its sleeve, tilt it under a lamp, and read a string of hand-etched characters scratched into the dead wax between the last groove and the label. Something likeST-A-712285-PR. That string is the single most reliable clue to what you are actually holding — an original first pressing, a later repress, a regional licensee, or a modern reissue — and yet searching for it usually means wading through forum threads, marketplace listings and half-finished spreadsheets.

We wanted one box. Type the matrix code, the runout etching, the barcode or the catalog number, and immediately see the release it belongs to: the artwork, the title and artist, the year, the country, the record label and catalog number, and what copies are actually selling for right now.

Under the hood, RUNOUT. queries the Discogs database — the largest community-maintained catalog of physical music releases in the world — and folds the results into a single, readable card. When a matrix string matches more than one release (which happens often with stampers reused across regions), we show you every candidate pressing so you can pick the one whose label, country and format match the disc in your hand.

The marketplace statistics are deliberately plain: lowest, median and highest recent sale values, plus how many collectors have the record and how many want it. No inflated "estimated worth", no sign-up wall, no dashboard to learn. Just the numbers a collector uses to decide whether a record is a keeper, a trade, or a pass at the shop counter.

RUNOUT. is an independent project maintained by a collector, not by Discogs or any record label. It is free to use. If it saves you a dig through forum archives, supporting the tip jar or using one of the accessory links keeps the lights on and the API bills paid.

If you are new to reading dead wax, start with our guide to reading runout matrix codes — it covers mastering engineer stamps, pressing plant symbols and how to trim a long etching down to something searchable.