Pics don't show whether a record will sound great or bad. 99% of pics on eBay are taken from way too far with little light or are out of focus, therefore unhelpful at best.
Discogs culture? What is that? How about the ads that were in the newspaper around here or should we talk about "The Sun" culture too? Your statement makes no sense in any way. Just a random bunch of people, some good and some bad, who sell stuff and use a tool to do it. You're looking WAY too much into inventing some type of common element, here. I sell everywhere; eBay, Discogs, here, etc. I play-grade everything I sell, never overrate anything, have a perfect record on every platform, too. How am I going to fit into your weird made up correlation?
This x 1000. You'd think the sellers were getting ripped off left, right and center based on the forums. Usually the same sellers who can't figure out how to set up their shipping policies.
I used to think eBay had the worst sellers. So I started buying from Discogs sellers more often. Then I started thinking Discogs had the worst sellers. Since I've bought way more record on eBay than Discogs, it can feel as if eBay sellers are worse but if I were to do an A/B comparison the hit rate wouldn't be much different. But at this point, I'm comfortable with neither. When I buy a record these days I just assume that I'll likely need to deal with an over graded record no matter how much effort I put into the pre-sale screening process. Given the ability, I would never buy another record online ever again but shopping local or at record shows doesn't always turn up records on your want list. I loved going to NYC for the WFMU show and once that's back up and running I'll go again. Knocked a lot of stuff off my want list but it's not cheap. But I look at it as a part holiday. More fun than going to a resort in Playa Du Whatever for me
Looks like Discogs sales are finally leveling off and slowing way down for me. There are several reasons. But one big one is that I think folks are now going outside and fewer being signed in to Discogs. Folks are tired of being at home and online. I noticed that three days ago I entered feedback for over 20 orders (after tracking said they had been delivered). Not one of those buyers has posted feedback to me yet. They will eventually. But it is interesting how none have yet.
Its spring and more people are spending time outside. I go through streaks with buying LP's online and nothing beats going to an old school record store.
I saw my sales slowing down in early June so I went and grabbed a few stacks of Jazz and R&B / Soul LPs and loaded them in and up. Sales have skyrocketed ever since and I've had an amazing sales summer for June, and July anyway. The striking thing is much of my Jazz titles are reissues. Some originals but the hot titles were so often Impulse from the mid-70s (ABC target-style), and Riverside / Prestige (Fantasy OJC), etc. And those reissues went for $40 to $50 a title. I am shocked at the value of these, especially the OJCs which were $8.00 to $10.00 LPs not that long ago. Oh, and Chess reissues on 1989 MCA also went for big bucks, $75 for a Etta James reissue. The condition has something to do with it, I am offering NM on almost all of the reissues. They have been kept in poly liners and some never played. Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf are still hot! Anyway, I did really great and it has inspired me to load in some more, maybe have a bang-up year-end and blow em' out. I have more R&B I thought that I wanted to hang onto. Issac Hayes and Curtis Mayfield originals. But if they are going to top out so high I may as well get top dollar and forget about them. I have digital and can needle drop them as they blow out. So anyway, Discogs has enabled me, it's been so much easier than ebay to list. Very grateful. Buyers have been very nice too.
This post above was from Mar. 30th and it was a false alarm, sales never slowed down but for a week here and a week there only to pcik up full steam days later. Lots of big tickets $50 to $75 went out the doors. But the feedback comment stands, I am getting only 40% of the buyers leaving feedback. Oh well, at least the ones leaving fb are leaving nice comments. I'm grateful. I do think records / vinyl is peaking for the classic stuff. I mean that prices will remain high always for the top items in nice condition. But I sense they are not going to go higher and higher as the decades roll on. It's not quite like real estate investment here.
I started selling on Discogs about one year ago and so far have about 65% feedback rate. I don't think it matters too much as long as one doesn't have lots of negative/neutral feedbacks. (I'm selling more CDs than vinyl records, so maybe that explains the difference between our rates.)
Thanks, and yeah. I did start with loading up about 1,700 items to Discogs that were all bottom shelf LPs, plus the CD collection (which was not bottom shelf). Then slowly work up to the nicer things. Lots of good records that nobody ever says that they are looking for. Like nice copies of Steppenwolf, Three Dog Night, still sealed Rod McKuen, Neil Diamond (on Columbia) and Johnny Mathis, Vintage Lounge stuff like Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Yuma Sumac in remarkable condition. See it's not exactly top shelf stock, but there are those people across the USA and beyond that will grab this stuff because the condition is said to be mostly M and NM. Lounge titles with clean LPs and jackets are now $25 to $30 LPs. And I set aside some nice ones that have no entry in Discogs yet. I'll check back later or enter them myself, but do not want to do too much work creating entries when I have other stock I can load in. I really thought that this process was 8 - 9 years away, and I'd get to it much later. But cv-19 and having some extra free time, and the vinyl gold rush kind of forced my hand here. I have had to move on it while I had the time. I guess it was meant to be.
I am selling 70% LPs to 30% CDs. But maybe I am underestimating the feedback ratio. The last month certainly is way down for FB response. But overall it might be better. I don't like to consider it too much and just enjoy the sales and be glad I got no Negs. Amazon is where 95% of the buyers do not leave FB.
I've bought a few and sold a few over the past couple of years. A few days ago I bought 6 lps, and a few sellers are sloppy with their jacket grading. I will give it a few days then I'll contact the sellers about it. I don't want to return any because I'm happy with the condition of the lps. As a seller I'm a strict grader with lp/jacket and always err on the side of caution. I reread the goldmine grading standards and I think they are reasonable.
This is why you pretty much have to take notes on Discogs sellers reminding yourself which ones undergraded and which ones overgraded for future purchases.
Anybody ever get banned from the Discogs forums? For the last couple of days, I've been getting a message "You are not allowed to post in this forum" when I try to reply to a thread there. I suppose it might be because I've made some less-than-favorable comments about the staff's ability to deliver successful software features in a timely fashion, but oddly, the potentially-offensive posts are still there, while I can't make any more posts to offer my opinion on The Clash vs. B.A.D. or anything else.
I got into it with a veteran database contributer. I opened a thread questioning a mass edit on a series and gave the opinion that it was wrongfully executed, and I wanted to change it back. A couple of responses agreed with me. And then this person responsible for the edits replied explaining his reasons, and he provided links to support his position on the topic. The only thing is, his reasoning was flawed, and the links he provided did not back up his position. In fact, the links provided clearly went against his position once I read them). It was like he thought if he just threw up enough writing and linked B.S. I would just cave and go away. But as I will (and have done) in this forum, I don't cave and just go away until facts are provided that do prove something. This guy asked other contributors to voice their opinion on this. No one came to back him up. Then he asked again - a few other members, and when they finally did, every one of them voiced their opinion that his edits were wrong - and that my assertion was correct according to database rules. Furthermore, a couple of people stated that no mass edit should ever have been done without opening a thread and taking a vote on it. But it's weird when someone is just doing edits in the database because they feel like it, (and they want to rack up their number of contributions I guess). But worse is when their argument is just plainly based on preference with a dash of fantasy. As I lost patience, and respect for anything he had to say, he stated I was hostile. Anyway, glad it got settled, and in my favor, and I was able to go in and change his erroneous edits and I fixed up a bunch of other things in the series that needed to be fixed. Here is the potential "edit war" brewing where I prevailed. Discogs Forum - Title of CD removed and the label name in it's place (is this an error?)
uhh, that's very strange. i often see your critiques there and i can't recall a single one that's more colorful than ones made by users with tons more experience than you or i! did you get any sort of notification? did you submit a support request inquiry?
Didn't get a notification. Haven't raised a support ticket since it doesn't bother me that much. They'll just have to struggle on without my sage advice, LOL.
The response was probably sent to your registered email address, because a PM will probably be inaccessible. Is your email address up-to-date?
