Data sources: Amazon release date, Amazon JP EAN and www.upcindex.com

Seeking the current community opinions on:

Amazon listing release dates; am beginning to think that some of these are actually the date the product was listed on Amazon. EG Amazon US has 2011 whereas Amazon JP 2015 for same ASIN.

Amazon JP is providing EANs for (some?) ASIN. Are these likely to be reliable?

www.upcindex.com as reliable source. (Looks like water after a desert trek to this thirsty cataloger of Google-scarce releases. But maybe it’s a mirage?)

Label catalog numbers found on eBay listings; I’m finding these on an eBayer’s listings (they include label, release date, CA & EAN as well). This looks OK data to me due to correlations with Amazon. Other’s views?

Questions arise from my editing pre-existing Indian releases associated with
Maestro’s Choice Series
By which I mean - It’s not my fault. :grin:

IMO it depends of the release country.
If the country is different than the Amazon store country, you cannot really trust dates.

For all data, I trust the release first and then, the online sites.

As for JAN on Japanese Amazon, I use joshinweb first, additionally to confirm.
For Japanese release date, I don’t use Amazon, I rather cross check with those that I trust more like joshinweb, cdjournal and minc (no harm in additionally confirm with Amazon, though).
But for non CCCD rereleases, the dates will be wrong anyway, even the printed date (only case where it is wrong with a couple of postponed releases, possibly). I had a great site for that but unfortunately it has been down for a while, so I would have to search it through the web archive now: http://nocccd.noihjp.com

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I would prefer to check Amazon release dates and bar codes with a second source. Often I only use the release year from Amazon, if that is the only date I can find somewhere else. Also be aware that all Amazon bar codes are EAN/JAN and many older releases were issued with a UPC bar code. So you often have to remove the first or first two leading zeros to get the real bar code.

eBay is a good source because they often have photos of the product. But the accuracy of the information in the listing itself probably depends on the individual seller, so it’s hard to trust that info.

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Amazon dates are only slightly more reliable than Nigerian princes sending you emails, in my experience. I would only trust the year, and only if I can find a second source somewhere (or it matches the (C)/(P) on the back of the release).

Almost all ASINs are linked to one UPC or EAN, even if Amazon doesn’t display it. Barcode Robot: ASIN to EAN/UPC/ISBN converter or other similar tools are great to get the barcode from the ASIN, and they’re generally fairly trustworthy (you can google for the barcode to make sure though). It also works in the other direction - searching Amazon for a barcode should almost always give you the right ASIN.

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Thank you very much for suggesting barcoderobot.
I have been amazed by the power of an EAN in Goole searches for very obscure releases.

I tried Jesus2099’s tools but found that some links were outdated and others were unfriendly to Google Translate and my Japanese just isn’t.

Where would I find other lists of tools?

How about a reminder for editors on the Add Release/“Edit Note” page for barcoderobot if an amazon link but no bar-code has been entered?

EDIT: CDjournal (recomended by Jesus2099) did find some very obscure releases. And with Google Translate open in another window alongside it is very easy to use.

EDIT: BarCodeRobot wants me to pay to get a single EAN.
Googling: asin ean converter
http://erwinmayer.com/emlabs/asin2ean/#ASIN-to-EAN is freeer than beer.

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