Near Mint on Discogs

You are a bit vain (in a passive way, like this answer, don't get me wrong) if I might, but I do agree with most of the answer. Records can get hairlines from polythene bags aswell... A spotless vinyl is a vinyl you didn't inspect well enough, especially if it's from before the 80s... Although there might be some around.
The thing that I find bs is that you talk about "problems" in "buyers"... You should be providing the buyer the most info you can, and help him, your profession isn't just pricing and shipping! A virtuos seller is the one who does everything in his range of possibilities to leave the client satisfacted. If there are two same albums graded NM and NM respectively, they shall be both NM, even if one costs twice! NM is NM, it's not, "up to the seller", therefore buyers should not have such a problem! They should receive an item as pristine as the one that costed twice! NM should the same NM that costs more. "Politely email sellers" which are gonna be hysterical, act like they are stupid, or telling you you're gonna pay the shipping by yourself to repair THEIR mistake, really easy indeed. "I can't give away all my secrets" is the epitome of your vain ego, you are here talking **** about sellers and not even faking some modesty, you basically are on this forum to flex "I'm very cool, I have seen tons of Mint records like its nothing. I'm so cool I basically imported them, also, did you know seller's always right? Last, but not least, you are all a bunch of bollocks, I watch feedback before buying a vinyl on Discogs. Yes, uneblievable right? I also score lots of grails with the power of my superior mind, I have a whole lot of collecting tips which I'm not gonna tell you cause I'm too smart". Man seriously, you are too obnoxious, if you ever see another one of my threads don't bother answering, everyone who is here to learn and give informations is welcome, I despise self proclaimed teachers like you

 

I'm being sarcastic and humorous and yet factual. It's like seeing folks get really worked up in Zep II "RL" threads. I laugh at those too, and it's a little mean maybe. You'll see the envy go through the damn roof in those threads.

But stone mint records do not always sell no matter how many one has and how perfect they are. The need to be the right records as well.

But basically what I am saying is true, just drop $25 rather than $15 is the best advice I can give. Too many cheapskates out there that don't want to pay like the rest of us did when we maxed out of credit cards and skipped filling up the gas tank so that we could buy more records. The investment pays off sometimes. I've seen it from both sides as a buyer and as a seller. Bye and good luck you'll need it in today's "picked clean" collecting climate.

 

Oh God, then I must've judged you a bit quickly, I beg you pardon me then. Yeah, I kinda know the "I own a dead-mint copy of this album" type of guy, everyone says that with RL, sometimes I even think Dillon from Noble Records abuses the term "clean copy/dead quiet", especially when talks about US pressings. Anyway thank you and sorry again

 

You're obviously pretty expert, and I'd feel pretty safe buying records from you. That said, however, in my own case I've never graded a record as MINT even when it looked (and played) perfectly. It's always better to undersell a bit, and besides I'm human and therefore fallible so I'd want a slight margin to ensure that my buyer is satisfied. So NM is as good as it gets for me, with the single exception being NEW SEALED which we all agree isn't a perfect guarantee.

In fact, to be sure, it's better to buy a NM copy from a trusted seller whom you know is a conservative grader than it is to buy NS! Because you'll pay less this way and the artifact in question has been vetted. I've had great FB (on AK) from people who've bought NM media from me--they declare that the items appear (and play) perfect upon receipt. That's really gratifying and lets me know I'm doing something right.

 

I generally agree with you - and I have been following this principle for a while but unfortunately I am finding just as many overgraders at the top end of the price scale. People who seem to have realised that being the most expensive actually gets you just as much attention as being the cheapest. I feel sorry for the people who have really nice VG+ copies that I would likely be quite happy with, but get lost in the mid-table noise...

Sellers - if you claim your record is NM, and you're charging higher than the highest price this record has ever sold for, you had better make darn sure that record really is NM otherwise you're going to hear about it from me.

This is really good advice and something I have started to do - to ignore anything which doesn't have any description, or just has a generic description copied and pasted into all their listings. If someone takes the time to write a little something about each record it is much more likely that they actually looked at it properly and I'm more likely to agree with their grading.

And let's face it, if someone puts "there are only 2 tiny hairlines on side A" in their description instead of just grading it NM, there's much less room for interpretation and dispute...

 

See? Me and you, Narcissus guy, search the same things, I'd much rather a VG+ which in the description states no noise, than a random NM

 

Absolutely. I have ordered a couple of VG+’records this week from a seller on Discogs who is claiming exactly that - that he has professionally cleaned and played these records and they now play with zero background noise. If this turns out to be true, I will be adding him to my favourites list FOR SURE!

 

I've been on Discogs since I was very deep into my collecting original LP pressings including high value UK ones.

My best advice is stick to Discogs for reissues where they are more likely to have been played fewer times and by audiophile turntable/cartridge setups that don't put much wear on the vinyl. Generally speaking I mean classic rock, classical and jazz not newer music where people might have inferior turntable setups.

For originals the best source is the well known dealers (or maybe not so well known name wise but have a "known" reputation). I stuck to this buying LPs from UK dealers that I knew graded properly, built most of my collection a few years after I registered on this forum and ended up selling the most valuable records for 2-5x more than what they were going for back then.

One thing I learned is that if you're buying from audiophiles or fellow collectors (even on this forum sadly) everyone is upgrading their copies... which means you'll eventually be upgrading said copy as well. Unless it was someone selling their entire collection to get out of vinyl.

I don't miss it one bit, thank god for CD and SACD, I enjoy music far more now than I ever did in that aggravating period of my life of being disappointed, paying for return shipping, packing, etc.

 

Some older turntables where low quality tho

 

I'm not the only one I see. Picked up a Ry Cooder title that I'd been looking for, and wound up with a dozen reasonably priced, pristine LP's from the same seller. I've noticed these tend to be sellers with little feedback, but all positive. Stating "selling from my own collection" and "play graded" are also good indicators of someonme that knows what they're doing.

 

As a seller, I only grade records as Mint if they're still sealed. If it's opened, NM is the top grading I'm willing to assign to the record. If there's a visible mark that shouldn't be audible, I grade the record as VG+. I think this approach has worked well - I have 100% positive feedback as a seller.

In regards to the earlier discussion about play grading, I'm very cautious about that as a buyer. You never know if the seller is using a cheap DJ cartridge that's not resolving enough to hear defects. I've bought a lot of play graded records that were significantly over-graded, and I suspect it's a result of the seller using inferior playback gear.

 

That's what I meant in my post, older turntables/setups are more likely to put groove wear on records than modern turntables; a generalization not accounting for things like Crosley, ie a cheap $250 Rega/popular cartridge pairing from 15 years ago would be gentle on records.

Even an audiophile cartridge back in the day say an Ortofon SPU tracks at a whopping 3+ grams. If that cartridge isn't dialed in perfectly it is going to put wear on a record. Now imagine that the vast majority of records aren't going to be played on an Ortofon SPU but something much worse.

One more tip - avoid any seller that grades something with say a punch hole or mark through a barcode as "NM except for the barcode mark". These guys are guaranteed over grading everything else, they want you to have the "NM" in the front of your mind when you click purchase. Just honestly grade it the VG that it is and mention why you gave it that accurate grade instead of the dishonest grade with the except.