Discogs experiences-postive and negative*

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Question for those of you in the continental US: what are your recent experiences purchasing from sellers in Eastern Europe? A couple of RSD ‘19 wants are being sold from Russia, Poland, plus France and Belgium from Western Europe.

I’m asking in terms of both shipping & fee issues, as well as whether the albums are legit issues.

I’m still waiting for prices to come down, so this is just a curiosity at the moment.

 

Like most you're making the mistake of painting with a broad brush. Just like if Europeans would ask about whether US sellers are honest. You'll have some good and bad ones, just like with any group on any platform.

Look at the ratings, ask questions about matrix info and confirmation of the condition.

 

Problem mitigated....apparently a personal computer issue. Sorry to detour the thread.

 

My recent purchase from Slovenia was great, as well from Eastern Germany (dunno if it counts as Eastern Europe).
The best seller by far (albeit not the cheapest) I encountered on discogs was from Belgium.
The worst - from Houston ((.
So you never know. Due to shipping charges, etc I am still getting majority from US. But prices for European rock in states recently jumped too high, and if buying more then 1 record then it is often cheaper to order from Europe.

 

You’re half right. I’m aware of what the broad brush looks like, which was why I asked the question. Just trying to reconcile between perception and reality. The shipping (and tariff/duty?) question is the other part of the equation.

 

See? Glad you're back in.

 

Shipping is shown in the seller's terms and is individually set so nobody can say. Look up the terms of each seller you're interested in buying from to get your answer.

As for taxes and duty fees, Americans tend to rarely have to pay whereas US Canadians and UK members oftentimes have to. The duty fees are arbitrarily set by the shipping company. Both taxes and duty fees are out of seller's hands.

 

My advice is to be cautious of anyone with neutral. A neutral is a negative left by a nice person. Many leave neutrals these days knowing that discogs removes almost all negative regardless of adherence to rules.

 

Maybe, maybe not. I had a neutral eary on as a seller on Discogs. I did not see an order come through. The buyer got frustrated after a week and left me a neutral. I guess it was warranted, but it could have been Discogs system that did not get the order to me. Still don't know. The buyer then bought some records and left positive feedback. Since then my feedback has been stellar.

Just a data point....

 

oh c'mon. don't generalize. sometimes neutrals are just left by complete jackasses and ding-dongs.

the best advice is to take a look at all feedback and form an educated opinion.

 

In my experience of reading feedback, most neutrals are negatives in spirit. The % rating system is flawed since someone can have a single negative and 0 neutrals in 1000 sales who will be rated same as another with 10% neutrals because discogs has removed neg (leaving 1-2 on both accounts for appearance) and buyers not bothering knowing they will be removed or face retaliation. The goal of course is to keep revenue flowing in by improving seller ratings. The downside is that it helps bad sellers and puts good ones out of business. There is no way for a good seller buying nice item to compete against bad ones buying dollar bin crap for 90% less and rating it same with a huge price advantage that they leverage. The bad ones use same language so no way to tell. I get fooled all the time on there.

 

I often read comments on negative and neutral ratings. Sometimes they are silly such as "I have to pay duties" or "Item was not available" or "shipping is expensive". The biggest red flag for me is multiple mentions of misgrading.

 

I seriously doubt that someone selling trash as NM would have 100% rating on 1000 transactions. There will be red flags

 

That's come to an end as of todayish, I think, for buyers in certain states. Discogs (and other marketplace facilitator types) will automatically add sales tax to transactions for any sale going to one of the states that passed the law. (Unfortunately for sellers on Discogs, they lose the paypal % on sales tax collected because Discogs adds it to the bill, the seller receives all the money, paypal deducts their fee and then Discogs bills for the gross sales tax amount.)

 

All true but in this case, this member was asking about buying internationally and importing these goods into the US. My experience has been that only two transactions were assigned tax and duty fees out of a couple of hundred items I've shipped to the US over the years... although it's always a crapshoot.

 

Or my favorite, leaving a neutral because of travel time by the carrier as if the seller is somehow responsible for this.

 

I even seen negative because of it. This is why reading negative comments is important to understand why seller rating is less then 100%

 

Yes, IIRC I've seen a couple of those myself. Some peoples children.

 

Discogs is apparently having website troubles for the second day in a row now.

Was acting up this time yesterday and I thought they had it fixed last night but it's very stubborn to navigate again.

 

My rules to discogs:

1. Never buy anything without asking first, why? a lot sellers list WRONG the items, remasters like originals, wrong deadwax info, wrong labels etc. ASK first if its the exactly release that you looking for. Just by example, I ask yesterday for a CD to 10 sellers, results: 4 never reply, 5 are totally wrong (not original 1st press, just a modern remaster) and the only one that list correct, send me pics and the case is totally cracked and booklet with tabs marks (he has graded as Mint, yeah right!!!).

2. Ask for pictures, due you don't need add pictures when you sell, a lot of sellers OVER GRADE the items, VG+ records sold like NM, at least pics helps a little to see the REAL condition. I know you can see the record disc condition on pics, but at least you can see the artwork and some scratches on the discs. Overall Pics helps!

3. Again Many sellers tends to overgrade, no offenses with italians but there's a lot Italian sellers that have everything MINT (yeah right!), also russians, and is hard to deal with those people, they refuse to give more info or pics.

4. This happens some times, I check for a record, I ask to a seller for the shipping or other details, and BOOM!!!!!!!! they increase the price after my question, for some reason some think "hey somobody is interested on this, so I up the price".

Overall buy on discogs is very tedious, a lot of amateur/lazy sellers, but it worth seeking for deals and stuff that appear on.

 

+1 ...from an Italian...

 

I wonder why anyone would by from Russian sellers as local prices there are generally much higher then in Europe and USA, so unless it is an absolute rarity look elsewhere for bargains. When visiting Russia I am buying sometimes records, but I can examine them myself and do not have to pay for a shipping. Makes huge difference. I know some guys who sell exceptional quality records, but prices are way too high.
Italian prices are also pretty high, and shipping costs are rarely bargian, so unless you are into Italian music and/or pressings, dunno...

 

but your grades have always been spot-on!

 

By the way just to be clear: I don't say all italians acts like that! of course, generalize is wrong. But is interesting you confirm that and the last italian seller that I purchase a record say the same to me:

short story about that seller:

The last record that I purchase from a italian seller on discogs was expensive, $175 or around, sealed copy. After dealing with the guy, he tell me "I recommend do not buy too much from italians, they tends to overgrade and are not to be clear about many things" that purchase was so disappointed because the record was sealed but the artwork is totally warped due the shirink, he don't say anything about that, he grade like Mint/Mint on discogs, very dishonest not tell about the artwork.

Is not good because I love Italian Prog. and I want many records from Italy.