Until recently, every record I have bought has had a paper inner liner, usually lined with a plastic film. The very last records from Decca (London to you?) had a much flashier shiny cardboard? inner liner, complete with high quality printing on the liner.
When I extracted the records, I noticed a linear, horizontal deposit near the edge of the disk, about 3 inches long, like a high tide mark highlighted in white polystyrene. Very close inspection showed two fainter parallel lines. After ultrasonic cleaning, the records were very noisy and have not got better with playing!
Looking very closely at the insides of the shiny cardboard liners, you can see where small flaps have been folded to allow the liner to be glued to form an envelope. The edge of the flap is pretty much where the ’polystyrene’ lines would have formed, so I am guessing that the edge rubbed against the record surface during transit.
Presto Classical immediately offered to order new records for me, and to inspect and repack, but I think the damage could also occur in the distribution chain from the manufacturer. Presto then immediately refunded me the cost of the records (as luck would have it, I bought the CD at the same time as the vinyl).
I have tried to alert Decca but have no reply as yet. The specific records contain Klaus Makela’s performances of Stravinsky’s Firebird and Rite of Spring. Hyperion records in the same shipment were undamaged. Previous Decca records have been in paper inner sleeves and are also undamaged.