Why do local record stores charge discogs pricing but not list on discogs?

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by 12" 45rpm, Jan 3, 2021.

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  1. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Los Angeles was even better than NYC for selection and prices. I used to see so many sealed copies, promos, and cutouts, plus the regular used vintage stuff. I did pick up a lot of stuff during the gravy years. Some of it I have sold off, some of it I will sell off in another ten years. I am currently selling my thrift store finds, plus other things I tried to see years ago and found no takers on ebay. The stuff I could not sell for a decent price back 8 - 10 years ago is now more desirable. Then at some point, I think in ten years I will cash it all out since there is no one in my family that would know the cream from the shinola in the collection. I may as well reap the cash myself since I know how to sell it, and there is at least $60,000 in records sitting there.
     
  2. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    The stuff I am mainly looking for is not found in stores at all.
     
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  3. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I'm sure LA was great with all the west coast labels, I know a couple of people who hit it in the early nineties, but one was then living in the States and the other was on tour, being in the UK New York was so much closer and at times you could get ridiculously cheap air fares, I think they went as low as £100 so people were literally spending long weekends record and often clothes shopping, also there were plenty of Brits living there meaning many people could find free accommodation for a few days, LA was a much bigger journey both in cost and time.
     
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  4. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I know of one store owner at least that sent more than half of what they brought in at the trade-in counter to NY. They said prices fetched much more in NYC than anywhere in CA. That was 1984.

    Anyway, it was really good in LA and NY being big cities with media companies and pressing plants in close proximity. I was buying carefully thinking records were not exactly a great investment. Had I known the internet was coming and records would go from hot to white hot scorching, and prices on the nice stuff would go so high I would have spent more of my money on records. I thought I was over-doing it in the 80s/90s, had I known.
     
  5. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I've always spent all my money on records, it's just all the Led Zeps and Floyds for 50p or £1 that I left behind in the early nineties as there was almost zero demand.:laugh:
     
  6. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    I wish I could go back to '93 sending bad soul to Tokyo. Thousands and they paid the shipping. $1 to $7 over and over.
     
  7. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    I also spent most of the money I had on records. I was feeling some guilt at the time that I was not paying monthly on a piece of land rather than records. But my income has always been erratic rather than stable. And the records I did buy were priced very low for what I got out of the ones I did sell thus far.
     
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  8. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Clearly we shop record stores very differently. If you always know exactly what you're walking into the store to purchase, then yes, you might as well just stick with Discogs.

    On the other hand, when I walk into a record store, I don't have the slightest idea what I'm going to leave with. I might -- and in fact often do -- leave with nothing. I might buy one or two LPs. Or I might walk out with the sides of my record bag straining and my wallet $300 lighter. Could go any number of ways, and that's how I like it.

    You don't get that on Discogs. But clearly that's not the experience you're after.
     
  9. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    I agree with this. When I go into a record store, I'm not looking for anything specific. I'm there to browse. But there are store that are better than others. If you go to Cactus Records in Houston, it's set up in very friendly manner. You walk in, you are greeted with the typical new releases. But as you pass them to get to the records, they have bins for all RSD releases segregated from the rest of the inventory. These would be all the records that didn't sell on the event day. It's all of them from years gone past. Then you pass the recently reduced bins. This is where I look mostly. I pick up records that I just skipped for whatever reasons. Maybe there were other priorities, or the artist has been in decline with more recent releases and I just wasn't going to pay full price. I like this section a lot. These are records that obviously aren't going to get another pressing, so this is you chance to pick it up before it goes OOP. So for a collector, this is great. You're buying at reduced prices and these will be the rare and more expensive ones due their rarity should you have had a change in heart later. I often don't even make it past the reduced records section before I've reached the point where I have to start putting records back.

    I don't at all agree with the initial post's argument. I don't even think the owner or management of a brick and mortar should care what the prices on Discogs sell for. Their priority should be to price things to bring in revenue. Which means everything is priced to sell at whatever the market will bear. The store has to pay rent and staff. And places like Cactus Records are in higher rent locations. So, pricing has to include the overhead costs. Whether the price is higher or lower than Discogs just isn't a concern for me. When I'm looking for records I will check Discogs, but I'm looking for pressing information, not comparing prices. Also, I know whenever I buy off Discogs, I'm paying $5 for shipping. At a record store, I don't have to pay it, so if a records is a dollar more than Discogs, you aren't paying for logistical support and overall expense can be lower.
     
  10. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    Newbury Comics stores all have a sale bin where they put overstock they want to rotate out. I rarely buy much on Record Store Day because I know most of the stuff I'd be interested in is going to be in there two or three months later.
     
  11. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    Record Conventions, Record Meets, Record Swaps, and whatever you want to call those monthly and annual record seller meets were the first thing I noticed go downhill with the rise of internet sales. These were the places where dealers who did not want to have a store, did not want employees, and the bookkeeping and tax filings - would bring out their goods. The savings were passed onto the buyers. One could go there with a $80 - $90 budget, and bring home a large stack of imports, promos, vintage copies with shrink wrap still on the cover, and a Beatles or Stones boot. It was amazing!!!

    Then online sales kicked in and these dealers that they could bring in higher prices on their nicer items. They then started bringing out out their worst stuff to the meets, and it all went downhill from there.

    Then a few years after that, the brick and mortar stores started putting out their lesser stuff, and it got slim pickins' or/and the prices went through the roof.

    I hate to say it, but the good ol' days were really good. I think about 1980 to 1995-96 were the best years for used records. As far as finding just about everything, great prices, and good selection if you were to go and look a few times per week especially. Or if you went to a Swap Meet Convention once per month.
     
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  12. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    No, the good old days for used vinyl were approximately 1992-2007, which was the period when I was buying foot-high stacks of records for $20, many of which are selling for three figures on Discogs today. Thanks, people who sold your LPs after you bought a CD player!

    While things have definitely cooled on that front with the rises of the vinyl revival and Discogs, I'm still finding plenty of good stuff out there.
     
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  13. quicksrt

    quicksrt Senior Member

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    It all depends on what you call great records. I've been into high-end collectibles, imports, WLP, tests, and 60s vintage originals. So if one was not around in the 80s, how would they know what was there.

    I'll tell you what was there. Still sealed copies of 60s & 70s albums, some were cutouts, some not. I'm talking about stuff that was never issued at the time on CDs. By the 90s, this stuff was dying up fast. But there were other things appearing in the 90s. Pre-CD days were great, but you had to be there I guess.
     
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  14. Danby Delight

    Danby Delight Forum Resident

    Location:
    Boston
    lol

    I was there, punkin. Have been since 74. But thanks for the oldsplaining.

    I've never been in it for the promos or the boots or the variants, and I suspect we weren't elbowing each other over the same bins at the record fair, because the stuff I was buying in the 90s was post-punk, DIY and indie stuff I hadn't been able to afford in the late 70s and 80s and vintage west coast and Brazilian jazz I hadn't known about as a kid. But go head on with your Beatles and Stones. It's just that I bought that stuff in grade school and I don't rebuy albums I already own. There's too much other great stuff to explore.
     
  15. Ludwig Vancouver

    Ludwig Vancouver Active Member

    Location:
    Salt Spring Island

    Its effed up how brick and mortar stores ask the Discogs high or Popsike record high price on their VG minus garbage. Especially when their records are visually graded and filthy and they offer no refunds or returns. Online sellers clean and play grade their records and are accountable via feedback and have to take returns and do refunds.
     
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  16. Ludwig Vancouver

    Ludwig Vancouver Active Member

    Location:
    Salt Spring Island

    Discogs is a horrible place to sell rare and pricey vinyl. Too many paypal scammers and thieves to be able to make it worthwhile. Its better than ebay though.
     
  17. MrSka57

    MrSka57 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, New York
    Our local has a beat-up German 'Demons and Wizards' for $20 if you're interested.
     
  18. Russ Gary

    Russ Gary Engineering Legend

    I find Discogs difficult to navigate.
     
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  19. Ludwig Vancouver

    Ludwig Vancouver Active Member

    Location:
    Salt Spring Island
    I got evicted a couple years ago because I spent all my rent money on records. I used to be late paying the rent all the time because I spent it all on records.
     
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  20. Ludwig Vancouver

    Ludwig Vancouver Active Member

    Location:
    Salt Spring Island
    Its weird how beginners go on Discogs and think they have to write new release pages for every record they want to sell. It completely efs up Discogs. They should bar new accounts from writing release pages until they've been on the site for a while and know what they are doing.
     
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  21. Ludwig Vancouver

    Ludwig Vancouver Active Member

    Location:
    Salt Spring Island
    Can someone please start a thread questioning what constitutes a Discogs Release page. I cant figure out how. They have no real standards. A release page should have to have photos of front and rear cover and both labels, plus the track listings credits etc.
     
  22. Spencer R

    Spencer R Forum Resident

    Location:
    Oxford, MS
    At least on eBay 99% of the time you can see pictures of what you’re buying.
     
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  23. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    Not sure I understand why the expectation would be that prices would be lower in the local market. If someone does not want to buy online where there are many sellers competing for business, they should expect to pay a little bit more. A brick and mortar has higher costs for rent, insurance, employees that many small sellers don't have to deal with either.
     
  24. bamaaudio

    bamaaudio Forum Resident

    Location:
    US
    I feel bad for whoever sold a very rare and large record collection to a local mega media store. Many of them had price tags of over $100 each. The seller probably got a very lowball offer for the whole collection and I'm assuming it was either an estate or someone really desperate for immediate cash.
     
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  25. MrSka57

    MrSka57 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Syracuse, New York
    Any examples of the $100 items?
     
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