The state of the market. What will the new year hold?

I wonder what will collecting vinyl and CDs be like in the new year? With Amazon no longer selling used CDs, Discogs instituting new policy starting in October, and eBay making it more restrictive and more expensive for sellers to sell CDs what will the market be like next year?

Will record stores come back and flourish again? Will a new distributor of used vinyl and CDs start to overtake the market? It seems to me like selling used product is going to become more hit and miss in the future.

 

Amazon still sells used CDs.

We have a really nice classified section here that sells used CDs. And no fees to sell here either.

 

Are you posting this as a Buyer or Seller? That would help me understand your point.

I read through Discogs blog post from mid-July announcing the changes and didn’t see anything alarming, but I read it as a buyer. If there is fee creep to the sellers that would be helpful to understand, as I saw something similar when selling some household items on eBay a few months ago.

 

Since I don't buy or sell on Amazon I can only go off what I've heard and some people here have said from a year ago Amazon is not letting people list new used product on their website.

 

A buyer and a seller no matter. I don't sell things but new policies and way things are sold still affects me as a buyer. If These things push sellers out then that limits my selection and prices increase.

I'm not sure what fee increases will happen to eBay other than postage rates going up. But there was a new policy being instituted come October and many sellers have stated in their store that they will no longer sell product after October at discogs.

 

From what I've gathered from the Discogs situation is they just want to make sure every seller has some sort of shipping price attached to all their items. Some are in a tither because it means it'll be harder to figure out overseas shipping costs. Maybe I'm wrong and there's much more to it. I do sell but it's mainly to just afford my own buying (some things I don't want anymore). I think I'm set but even I'm not sure if I am because it seems to be such a big deal that maybe I'm missing something. Personally, I just put a flat rate all over the board for anything over 1 gram of weight. Seemed easy enough for me. I don't ship outside of the US so I don't have to worry about that aspect. Unless I do. Then please tell me!

 

1) When did Amazon delist used cds? I don't really check there for used cds.

2) Discogs changes are going to be irrelevant to the marketplace as a whole. There will be some teething issues and some sellers might leave, but overall, sellers with more complex postal pricing systems will just need to work out an average and take the extra hit in costs. Discogs is likely projecting that these changes will result in higher sales and hence more money for them so they probably don't care if a few sellers leave and they are probably right.

3) I haven't sold on eBay since Feb of this year. What changes have they made that make it more expensive for sellers to sell CDs on eBay?

 

Yes there is much more to it.

I expect the issue doesn't exist for US sellers selling to other US based buyers. But for some sellers, like those based in Canada, it will be impossible to set up automatic shipping policies for Canadian buyers because of the way Canada Post calculates postage. It varies according to postal code. Essentially, unless Discogs integrates with Canada Posts API, like eBay does, Canadian sellers will need to charge a flat fee and lose on some transactions, gain on others and hope it all balances out. It's a big problem. But as I mentioned above, sellers will just need to work with the system and take the hit if the costs do not average out.

 

What is "New Used Product"? Think the majors will tell eBay/Amazon/Discogs "no used product to be sold?"

 

I doubt that. I do not think the majors are overly invested in physical product to that extent.

Even if they were, they couldn't force any of those sites to delist sellers who sell used product using the law and they also couldn't do it with leverage since they have no leverage.

Besides, if they were going to try anything like that, they'd try and get them stop selling new product which would hasten the death of physical product and move more people to streaming.

 

It is about having the payment (their cut) into the hands of the owners quickly without the normal delay of a monthly invoice. It more like Amazon rather than ebay in this regard. And they also don't want to wait for their buyers to get the shipping costs to the potential seller. Like a day to get back without the invoice being paid just yet. Sellers would rather have a good transaction than a fast one imo.

 

Not looking good for Canada according to global news: Alan Cross: The vinyl resurrection is in trouble. Is it over for LPs? For Canadians, it might be

I would tend to agree with the really high prices. Sorry local stores, sometimes I can't justify $45+ 13%tax for an album with 3 good songs and 7 fillers.

The used market around here is picked clean. Very little left other then the very common albums from the vinyl exodus of the 90's that nobody wants...... which are all priced 8-20 bucks.... Any treasure found in the wild is priced twice of what the going NM rate on discogs is too. Insane.

Used hardware market is thin too. Slim pickings and high prices. I think people are holding off until covid runs its course. But ya, Covid is here to stay for a long time.

 

The above paragraph has a sentence that is written in reverse. The sentense should read:

"And they (Discogs owners) also don't want to have to wait for their sellers to get the shipping costs to the potential buyers."

 

I get it. The discog people figure that it may be a put off for you to be trying to guess how much shipping will cost after you decide to purchase the item or items.

Sometimes there is a little bit of a mystery at eBay too. It seems like people aren't really free about telling you if and when they combine shipping. Sometimes you have to ask and I guess they're put in uncomfortable position cuz if you ask before you buy then they have to tell you or admit it and then they're committed to it.