e-bay selection not as good as it once was

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by torcan, Oct 6, 2019.

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  1. radickeyfan

    radickeyfan Forum Resident

    yes

    this is not even a fair competition , the 4 sellers , who i buy from weekly on Ebay , and have developed a relationship with (having dinner with them , when i am in their town/city , etc)

    they are all high to medium volume, vinyl sellers and all of them list their inventory on Discogs and Ebay at the same time (or did , 2 of them recently stopped Discogs , as it was a waste of time



    1 of them told me 20 to 1 sales (ebay to Discogs)

    another 50 to 1

    yet another 100 to 1

    and the other guy, laughed , and told me it was like 500 to 1



    the last 2 have since given up on discogs

    i would imagine the other 2 are not far behind



    the biggest problem , all 4 stated

    w/ discogs
    is the lack of pics
     
    Christian Hill likes this.
  2. Christian Hill

    Christian Hill It's all in the mind

    Location:
    Boston
    and this is such as easy fix for Discogs one wonders why they have hesitated at all other than to protect lousy sellers that overgrade
     
    Dubmart likes this.
  3. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    :laugh:

    oh is it?
     
  4. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Boy, your wild bias an clear resentment against Discogs makes me wonder what happened. Did the founder kick your dog?
     
  5. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    You are correct. It is an easy fix. What sellers can do is, in the comments section of their listing, they can include a link to the item they are selling.

    For Discogs to change their marketplace so that each seller on there upload their own pictures wouldn't really be an easy fix. They could do it, but it's not going to be easy for them. In addition, pictures is pretty low on the list of things they really do need to do to their database and marketplace.

    In addition, pictures of lps won't always save you from bad grades.
     
    Lost In The Flood likes this.
  6. Christian Hill

    Christian Hill It's all in the mind

    Location:
    Boston
    your intuition fails you
     
    quicksrt likes this.
  7. Christian Hill

    Christian Hill It's all in the mind

    Location:
    Boston
    yes, it is, your incredulity is noted
     
  8. QuestionMark?

    QuestionMark? 4TH N' GOAL

    Location:
    The End Zone
    I recieved one of the seller ratings today that really are BS. Buyer gave me 5 stars for everything except shipping and handling charges. Apparently if you declare the full value of the record on the US customs form and sign your name under penalty of law, they feel they can take that out on you and your good name. The funny thing was the first time I sold the record to someone in Greece they asked me to declare the value under $25.00. When I said I wouldn't do that they never replied to me or paid for the record. I relisted and it sold for $18.00 less and I shipped to France. This has happened to me many times and one buyer even mentioned it in my feedback saying it was a shame about the tax he had to pay.
     
  9. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    pretty common gripe that i see, unfortunately. some folks just aren't too smart and rush to blame.
     
    QuestionMark? likes this.
  10. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I think Europeans are far less inclined to be worried about a foreign government collecting large fees, in my experience only American sellers declare full values, nobody else in the world seem to, the Japanese being a possible exception, funnily enough US buyers are quite good at asking for the value to be declared lower than it is. You have to remember that postage, fees and VAT can nearly double the cost of a $50 record sent to Europe.
     
  11. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    and you have to remember that if we aren't honest with the value of item being sent, our USPS will not honor insurance claims should something happen in transit. this is why so many sellers just won't hassle with sending their valuable stuff across the pond.
     
  12. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    What intuition?
     
  13. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    In the UK, the insurance is in bands so you don't specify the exact value at the post office, also Royal Mail won't pay out on what you sell something for, only what it cost you, so if I pay £50 for a record and sell it for £150 I can only claim the £50 and then only if I have a proper valid receipt, anyone selling things they've owned for decades is screwed by Royal Mail, it's always worth getting and keeping receipts. Generally as long as you send tracked and signed for it should get there 99.9% of the time so the insured value isn't relevant.

    If you want real fun try sending things to Norway, in the past I've had to send letters with copies of payment transactions just to prove buyers have only paid what I've declared and aren't under declaring, Chinese customs can be fun as well, but that seems to be more of a power trip thing against their own citizens.
     
    GentleSenator likes this.
  14. Christian Hill

    Christian Hill It's all in the mind

    Location:
    Boston
    exactly
     
  15. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I believe smaller sellers have been discouraged at both Ebay and Amazon by all kinds of new rules and fees. The return policy for Ebay is now pretty open ended and risky for sellers, particularly small ones that can't average their losses. So you may have to go to smaller sites that are less cumbersome.
     
  16. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    With respect to discogs, one other problem is the proliferation of different versions of the same album. Sometimes this makes sense as in country or original pressing/issue. But discogs has promoted the excessive use of variants to include label design and other minor characteristics. Having to wade through 50 different pages each filled out differently and some with pictures and some not is very time consuming. I'm sure both buyers and sellers are just getting tired of it when you can simply list relevant aspects of an album in a regular listing on ebay or similar sites. How much time is a seller supposed to take to figure out which discogs page is the correct one for their $10 item?
     
    PhantomStranger likes this.
  17. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    Won't make a difference if the seller accepts Paypal. Paypal's return policy is far more generous with respect to the amount of time a buyer has to make a claim.
     
    Dave likes this.
  18. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    50 different pages...over exaggerating but I get your point. Would I want to add a White Album for sale...it might take me some time to find my copy...

    However, Discogs is a database as well as a marketplace. In order to achieve what you are suggesting, they'd have to separate the two, effectively making the marketplace a standalone site and possibly have sellers link to the database if they can be bothered to link to the correct item. Since many sellers already fail on that front (one of my favourite examples is a seller listing a Canadian pressing under the US pressing on a title with only three variations and one of them is a Canadian pressing) I can see sellers linking to the incorrect item and then adding some variation notes. :)

    Of all the issues that users (buyers and sellers) would like changed on Discogs, I expect something like this is very low on the list for most sellers and non existent for buyers. One of the best aspects of that marketplace is that you can find the one pressing you want and that can be difficult now (due to sellers listing incorrectly) and to make that even more difficult would not benefit the marketplace.
     
    Lost In The Flood likes this.
  19. All Down The Line

    All Down The Line The Under Asst East Coast White Label Promo Man

    Location:
    Australia
    I bought them all!
     
  20. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It's been all bought up and then trashed with poor handling, and bad record players, then discarded.

    I recall when certain double albums were $4.00 to $6.00 for mint originals (Quad, Lamb, Song Remains, ), and some single albums were $2.99 (Goats, Only R&R, B/B) also mint. These were cheap for many years too. I wondered where they all went and a Friend said that they were bought up and then promptly ruined. Now I know that this is true.
     
  21. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I think we agree more than disagree. As for 50 pages, any reasonably popular album can have more than 50 pages/variant listings. The inaccuracies of sellers for variants is correlated with the issue of too many pages to wade through. I encountered that problem several times before I gave up.

    Your point about the dual purpose of discogs is I think the crucial one. The discographical function operates on different principles than a sellers site. I have retained my account on 45cat because it is pure discographical with links to seller sites.
     
  22. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic

    Reverb for one allows linking a credit card.
     
  23. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear.

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    I wonder how eBay in the last 6-8 months since this thread was posted has changed. I have been shopping on eBay for the last 20-plus years and although some specifics on how items are bought and sold has changed I think the format has pretty much stayed the same.

    The market for music will eb and flow and flux. Maybe now that there is more interest in vinyl the amount of records will increase as well as the prices. As far as CDs right now that I can see people are dumping great quantities of them on the market which is causing them to plummet in prices. There are still certain CDs that are sought after and will still be in demand but the prices of them are coming down as well. Then again there are those rare CDs that will always hold value but due to people passing away or changing their attitude towards their collection these two will come on the market. Whether or not they will continue to command high prices or come down all depends on the market.
     
  24. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I just put up an enormous number of CDs on Discogs. And for some of them.

    I had to check eBay prices to make sure I was not overpricing them at Discogs. Because I'd see some high prices for the nicer condition like mine and then lower-priced for VG+ish stuff. I wanted my NM- to be at the lowest but higher than VG+ or VG obviously. What I saw is that my CD collection is loaded up with the $9.99 and up type of titles. $14.99 to $18.99 was my most common range for single CDs. eBay had many of my CDs, and they were not real lower end prices, and the completed (sold) items show sales of these discs actually went.

    So it just goes to show, if you bought cool stuff on CD and not the common junk, it's still holding some value. I said this in another thread that certain albums on reissued CDs are in demand. Those nice sounding great mastering on Koch, Collectibles, and Razor & Tie, especially the 2-fers. Very nice and still wanted. I have only two CDs that are priced less than $9.99 for far in my listings.

    I may not sell that many CDs right now being that I am offering them up at their real worth according to previous sales. In 60 days I will knock the prices down $3 to $5 per disc if they are not moving pretty good. Some of my best favorite I can hold out for top dollar on - the stuff I am in no hurry to unload.
     
    Dave S likes this.
  25. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Just look at what UFO's "Strangers in the Night" is going for on CD!!! I was ready to price mine at $12.99 at discogs until I looked at ebay and saw completed items. This is a $20 to $30 CD when it is in mint or close condition. I had to double my asking price.

    Look at Thin Lizzy Live / Life 2CD set. another example of the CDs that are not exactly dropping that low in price.

    I could go one but ya'all get the drift.
     
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