MFSL Beatles Abbey Road

it may have been re-shrunk. record distributers and retailers do this on occasion, if an lp has a worn or tatered bag. sometimes sneaky sellers do it as well, masking a better copy to look 'as new'. if you're going to play it, and its nice..no harm(except you may have overpayed).....other wise, its re-sell or investment value will always have a 'qualifier'.

Mobile Fidelity actually "rewrapped" some LPs that were returned from dealers as stock overages or inventory swaps or returned by customers for whatever reason. This may be one of those or as Jaybo said a dealer might have done this.

Mine is the exact same way, and I bought mine new from a dealer who was selling all the Beatles MoFi albums.

I seem to recall the MoFi website mentioning this as well.
(Well, technically, it was a site dedicated to the MoFi releases after MoFi died, and before it was resurrected by Music Direct.

My two cents worth.

Thank you all for your insights. As I thought there is no sure explanation. Hopefully done at the factory and not in someone's basement....

Could have been that maybe some dealer broke open the MFSL The Beatles box set and sold them seperately henceforth having to wrap them.