so i mosty just add artists / events.
and i just started adding the records that i own so i have a catalog of them.
now in my collection i have 2 copies of thriller.
the records almost look identical except for the bottom part.
i guess the top one is made for france.
but how do i know if they already exist? and do these nuances need to be added as different enteries?
If anything is different, it’s a different release. These are two different releases.
I usually try to identify my release on Discogs first. The Advanced Search allows you to narrow down possible candidates to a manageable number. If I have found it on Discogs and there’s no corresponding release on MB (Discogs importer script), I look at releases without Discogs relationship. If there’s nothing, I import the release from Discogs.
Of course you can start on MB too. Look at the catalog number and label. There are usually only a few candidates.
Apparently the French edition is here https://musicbrainz.org/release/da0cca22-ddb1-4b5b-8021-cae686c37675 because it is linked to the Discogs that says distributed by CBS Disques.
You should add this relationship to the release and a disambiguation comment saying so.
But unfortunately the release was not disambiguated well enough and the wrong back cover was uploaded.
Maybe you can duplicate this release to make the French edition, again, then move the French edition Discogs URL to that new one…
guess i’ll have to start taking pictures / scans of stuff
You can also upload the low resolution Discogs images, at the moment, if they match your objects.
That’s what I do. First scans/photos, because it is more convenient to search for a catalogue number hidden in the booklet (Discogs) in images than directly in the booklet.
Unfortunately, these are often not high-resolution enough to compare details
EDIT: although, thinking about, if you like to identify it, you have to compare it to Discogs images… 
