In what ways did ebay change record collecting for you?

More access to records.

 

It made collecting music a whole lot easier. You can really study and compare things. I learned how to use the internet basically so I could use ebay in the late 90's. It's really a fantastic medium.

As far as records/LP's, it's very useful and sure you find a bargain on rare or particular items, but whoa those shipping fees really add up.

I still have a giant stack of cardboard LP mailers in storage from ebay/amazon purchases. I should just toss 'em, but they come in handy if I re-sell vinyl....which I rarely do. Borderline collector/hoarder blues...

I rarely use ebay nowadays, but I have my vintage 1998 user ID.

 

This is the main benefit of ebay to me. It gave me access to a lot more records and without I'd have a fraction of what I have now.

Some records just don't come up very often locally and right now I have to keep an eye on several record store instagram accounts and be the first to call and request a hold in order to get some items. Who needs the aggravation of that? It's just a pain in the ass. I hardly buy in store these days as a result (in comparison to online), although I do spend quite a bit at record shows.

 

Since I have only started buying records for around a year and a half now, I've really tried to stick to buying locally, but ebay is great for those records that you just aren't patient enough to wait for. So far I've had great luck, but have only used ebay for 4 or 5 records out of the 400-500 I own.

 

Why do say that? I think it's better. Less buyers with money and so many collections being sold off as collectors are either selling off their collections or taking a dirt nap.

Ebay will remove any negative feedback from a non-paying winner. I've called them on the phone on various issues and they're always helpful. It seems they route me to the same rep in some Asian country. I've purchased thousands of new oop cd's and sold hundreds of them over the years.

Lots of sellers like that. Jay of Jay and Marie fame has been selling off his collection. I think I read he got divorced. He was famous for every cd starting at 1 cent and was the biggest seller on Ebay for awhile. That guy has multiple copies of every box set ever released. He was a hardcore collector.

I have a bunch of hilarious stories. Unfortunately most of them involve battling someone who tried to burn me. I bought the Elektra box set and the cellophane was signed by Jac Holzman "For Jeff". That became a war with the seller who turned out to be a big time music business lawyer. Now that guy was tough. Jonifan who used to post deals on this site also tried to burn me. He backed down quick after I told him I was going to put a lien on his house.

 

Stick with the professional record sellers.

If you see the other items the seller has and you see toys, games, ceramics and clothes, stay away.
Those are the people (that I had to contend with at my old job at Goodwill) who'll buy anything to resell with no clue of grading or how to ship that item.

 

It opened up a world of records for me, then international postage rates shot through the roof and the world closed.

 

It made it possible for me to get my hands on out of print CDs or CDs that were hard to find in Europe. I've bought very little vinyl on ebay, because of huge shipping charges and because I don't really trust people's ratings on a record's condition.

 

Simply that it enabled me to exponentially increase the size of my CD collection for dirt cheap, and it turned me on to a lot of music I probably would have never gotten around to otherwise, because I used to buy a bunch of "lots"--you know, people selling 50 CDs for $20 or whatever.

 

Considering a couple of brand new records I've bought, that's not necessarily false advertising!

 

I don't mind eBay, although it's not the end-all destination for buying music. While some have argued that eBay has driven up prices by artificially inflating the market value of certain items, you have more sellers listing the same product and that means more opportunities to purchase the same items. In many cases, an item you lost out on might be available the future and that's a plus.

 

I don't buy vinyl anymore, but it helps me find OOP CDs which I'm always looking for.

 

The difference in an Ebay world is huge.

Back in the day, before Ebay, I used to visit music stores all the time. I'd plan entire days where I'd go from store to store. But here's the difference - I was browsing for something to catch my attention. That is, my search was far broader. I mean, you may want the new Dave Douglas album, but I didn't go straight to the Douglas section, I'd browse JAZZ. In general, my search was simply broader.

With Ebay, or Amazon for that matter, my searches are more specific. If I was looking for that Dave Douglas album, I'd just search for it. For all the benefits of an Internet age, the simple act of browsing has not been replicated. Frankly, it's lost. Sure you can go through every release in the Jazz section of Amazon, but it's not the same. Certain stores I went to had specializations, they had fluid stock, but it tended to be more focused. Ebay and Amazon is a warehouse, any old thing gets chucked in.

So - if you're looking for a very specific thing, Ebay and Amazon is decent. But sadly, it's not replaced what was. I think people tend to be focused on a want these days, rather than going to Ebay or Amazon just to look around and see if anything takes their fancy. That's partly because the sites don't really offer a viable solution for simple browsing.

 

One of the biggest plusses especially for people who use these forums is being able to calmly search for a particular pressing. When browsing in stores I'm usually too excited when a title I want shows up at all to focus on the serious business of ascertaining whether it's a good-sounding pressing.

 

Not one, single iota.

 

Mainly, because the 'rarer' items that used to show up have been sold to most collectors, never to be seen again. It makes it harder to find those
kind of items. Also there's a lot more items that show up as overpriced buy it now, and less as auctions.

A lot of sellers, are just stores, with less selection, and more commodity items, instead of rare ones.

Your mileage may vary, and if it works for you, thats good. But between discogs, and amazon, it has been surpassed and replaced for me.

later
-1

 

I'm definitely in the camp that has found eBay to be an obstacle for finding records in stores. I can name a number of stores I used to frequent and find incredible things 10 or 15 years ago for whom anything interesting or (what they perceive to be) rare goes straight to eBay and/or Discogs. It's almost not even worth popping in some of those places anymore because you know anything they have in the bins is going to be common dregs. It's also driven up the prices for many fairly common records, particularly as the European market gobbles up more and more. Good on them for trying to make money, but as a brick-and-morter consumer, it's frustrating to say the least.

Then there's the phenomenon of eBay megasellers who seem to inexplicably come up with all the records, bleeding ordinary storeowners dry.

eBay is a good thing in many ways, but it's definitely made for a more boring record store experience across the board.

 

When the "professional sellers" came in it became boring. A lot of the rules introduced by ebay seemed to favour them too, instead of the person just selling off stuff from their own collection. I remember when I was trying to sell a lot of stuff back in 09 that they made it very difficult to make money, by forcing people to offer free shipping, which was ridiculous for people to do unless they were running a business.

 

My experience of shopping in stores was different. As mentioned earlier, I didn't often go in with a specific want. Or I should say, more often it was simply to go find something to buy and listen to. So, I'd go into with an ear to Sabbath, and come out with an arm full of Gavin Bryars.

 

Interesting, I check all three sites. I've also been on Ebay almost since the beginning. I remember when CNN used to report when Ebay crashed. "Ebay is down." I agree that rare items are disappearing. I have two accounts so that gives me 150 saved searches and some things just never come up or are snagged so quickly that it's gone by the time I get the email telling me one has been listed. I also have a bunch of bookmarked searches that I click on every day.

Compared to Ebay, Amazon is ridiculous in the prices for new oop cd's - that is what I buy unless the price is too high for me. Used cd's are probably a better buy on Amazon. What I see is that lots of Ebay sellers check Amazon for the price and then match that price and they are almost never going to get that price on Ebay. Ebay has the bargain hunters and Amazon has the people with the money who will pay a high price now for a new oop cd or box set, generally speaking. That is my experience as a seller and buyer of new oop cd's. I bought about 60 rare oop cd's from a seller selling his collection on Ebay for about 450 bucks. So far I've sold 4 on Amazon and cleared almost half of what I paid for the lot.

I've purchased close to a couple thousand new oop cd's on Ebay and I've snagged countless killer deals, so I love Ebay! (Amazon too! and occasionally discogs). There are many sellers trying to gouge no doubt, but still plenty of great deals to be had. You're never going to get a Schoolhouse Rock box brand new on Amazon for 30 bucks like I did on Ebay and my list of snags like this is endless. I saw one come up for 50 a few months ago on Ebay so I sent the seller and a message and told her to bump it up to 90 because it was too low and it sold in a couple weeks at that price. On Amazon prices only go up for new stuff 99 percent of the time. Only rarely will a seller buck the herd and list something substantially lower than his competitors.

Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Schoolhouse Rock! (1973 TV Series)

Otoh, does this guy really think he's going to get 37 bucks for the non-remastered Chocolate City? I highly doubt it and if he drops it down to 10 or 15 then I will grab it. This is the only Parliament I need and the first new copy to pop up in years, but I'm not paying that price, maybe 20.

PARLIAMENT - Chocolate City - CD ** Brand New ** 42283670020 | eBay

 

Let's go back in time before answering this question. So when I started collecting records some 45 years ago the hunt was everything. I think I must have had several hard backed notebooks that contained my "want list(s)" . In those books I had written all the details I needed to know especially if I was looking for label variations etc.. It took a long time to compile those lists but the research was amazing. No Internet - just books, magazines and fellow collectors - Google old style.

Your best asset was a well stocked used record store that you were on a first name basis with all the staff. That was usually a weekly stop and several hours of searching.

Next in line were the quasi antique stores that may have a few records and some second hand stores that were in the area.

This was followed by the once a quarter or once every 6 month's record show where you bumped shoulders with like minded souls that you hoped were not looking for the same treasure. Always fun.

By far the biggest reach was through the collectors magazines like Goldmine or Record Collector. Grab the monthly issues head home and immediately begin the classifieds search. First the "set sale" listings and then the auctions. If you were lucky and found something then out came the writing pad and you wrote a letter to the vendor. After you had written maybe 8 letters off to the mail box where you posted the letters. Then you waited maybe a week, two weeks or longer. If you won an auction or bought a set sale item then you got a postal money order or a bank money order wrote another letter and mailed it to the vendor. So by the time you saw the item and bought it, it might have taken a month probably longer to get your record. Finding a really rare item on your list was a special occurrence that did not happen all that often. One thing I will say is that there was an honor in collecting and trust was a given (for the most part).

So along comes eBay and what changed - everything.....

Notwithstanding all the technical advancements the entire world was at your fingertips. The rare records became less rare as multiple copies were now discovered and put up for auction. The standard record grading confidence fell through the floor as to some sellers VG+ meant just not that many deep scratches. Absolutely trashed records were and still are offered for sale at stupid prices because the label says Beatles.

Ebay opened the market to counterfeiters, bootleggers, forgers and scam artists who took their toll on the naive unsuspecting collectors. I wonder how many collectors have been scammed or ripped off on eBay compared to the old days? I feel sorry for those buyers who purchased all the fake Beatles acetates sold by a dealer out of Austin TX. Crazy!!!

I will admit eBay is not all bad. It has opened up the market, it has facilitated the listing and exposure of many rare items. And that is a good thing. Although you really have to wade through a lot of crap to get to the good stuff. Lots of great people on eBay and I've had a chance to speak with many of them regarding the items they are selling and the stories that go with them.

 

When selling, I've always agreed with the idea that ya need to let the buyers determine the value. If I'm afraid the item might not reach what I think it's worth, I'll put a reserve. If the item doesn't meet the reserve, at least I get an idea of what folks think it's worth and I can adjust my price for the next cycle.

 

Yeah, my storage shed is full of lp mailers as well. I think it's good to keep 'em. They aren't at every box store and when ya do find 'em, they'll cost ya. I haven't sold many LP's either but I do have a number of Laser Disks up for sale and they'll come in handy for shipping those baby's (provided anyone buys 'em anymore - they fairly obsolete). I also used the LP mailers for shipping of about 30 reel to reel tapes sold over the last couple of months.

 

This is especially bad lately with sellers in Japan. Many of them I've dealt with in the past now charge 20 clams just for the shipping. I was alright with $15 or so. And what's up with Ebay not allowing them to post a charge of any more than $4.00? I don't like that some Japanese sellers are asking 20 for shipping but they should be allowed to put in the amount of shipping they require.

 

EBay is great for completists and has been invaluable to me in finding those rarer items in a favorite artist's catalog.