Creating your "good luck" buying vinyl on Discogs & eBay

Wow, you paid $70 for a Cure - Mixed Up album. I have a NM copy i paid $20 for a few years ago, I'm amazed at what my records are worth nowadays.

 

If it's an obvious scam tactic, that's a different story altogether. No mercy there, I say.

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I joined Ebay back in 1999, it was so good back then like a little community of record people. I bought some of my best stuff in the years of 1999 to around 2008. Something changed afterwords.

 

I stopped selling on Ebay around 2008 when I crunched some numbers and pretty much found that 10-15% of all Ebay transactions were likely to be problematic and also time/revenue consuming. Along with their unholy commission percentage (15%+ listing fee + 4-5% for Paypal) left us filling orders and netting a dollar or two!

When I started selling on Discogs, it was pretty fair and accurate, and had many disillusioned but experienced Ebay sellers.

I've noticed that the volume of sellers there now has kind of watered down the experience for some consumers and wish they would figure out a way to delineate pro and amateur sellers.

 

Other than doing it manually taking notes, can you add favorites or people to avoid for future purchases?

I'm sending a Doors record back today that was grade NM/NM and is absolutely trashed. I will not do business with the guy again. He/she also has a 97.5% so the OP definitely rings true. I'm only buying from vendors 99% or higher from now on.

 

Another tip: if a record is listed for more than you want to pay and the seller has enabled Make Offer / Details then don't be afraid to PM them and haggle or name your price.

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't but you can just walk away if it doesn't work out. I've saved quite a bit of $ doing this and it takes just a little effort.

 

I have bought a few records on ebay over the years, mainly some really hard to find obscure 60s things (Hobbits Middle Earth, for example) and I was happy to find it fo 15 bucks + shipping, and while they were always described as being in great shape some were not so great. But I was delighted to get the music back in my hands and I wasn't concerned about the money so I kept them all. But I am neither an audiophile nor a rabid collector of anything but the music. I don't care about matrix/label/cover condition, etc....it has always been about the music. I appreciate why someone who spends $80 on a record wants that to be in perfect condition, but for me I stick with cheap stuff I can afford and usually I get lucky. I have never had to return anything yet.

 

This works especially well with an item that has been recently re-listed.

 

Seller just refunded me $60 of the $70. I have to believe that he knew darn well that the album was unlistenable, but was hoping to find a buyer who didn't care. Thing is, what am I supposed to do with it? If I take it to my local shop, they'll be pissed if they play-test it. Or maybe not.

 

I wish there was a way to block these sellers from showing up in my search results. I can't possibly remember every bad seller I've dealt with.

 

Maybe too obvious, but I find the Wantlist feature to be really helpful when trying to track something down or wait for the right price.

For the unaware, you can add a record to your wantlist and discogs will send you an email that lists the price of any added listings for that specific pressing. So if you want a record but want to wait for a better grading to show up just add it and you never have to go back to look at it again - discogs will automatically let you know what's available. It's a big time and money saver and a huge advantage over ebay.

 

Glad to hear you got your money back. Here's what i would do with that record. Wait until you have about 15 to 20 records to sell or trade and just add that one to the mix.
It's no big deal to most buyers at flea markets or some record stores.
Mixed Up by the Cure is not a record you see that offen on vinyl, someone will want that one.

 

I was gonna say, $70 seems a bit pricey for mixed up, even NM. It's one of the Cure albums I'm personally fine with only owning on CD, which you can get for about one cent...

http://www.discogs.com/sell/release/483273?ev=rb

 

I have both on cd and record...the vinyl is so much better sounding. Plus you get extra song on the vinyl version.

 

I wish the Wantlist allowed me to specify the condition. I get an email everyday stating there are 100+ new listings from my Wantlist, but most aren't the condition I'm looking for. It's still helpful though.

Another key thing I only recently learned... When you leave feedback, you can then automatically add an item to your collection.

This is super efficient for those of us that like to keep track of our collection on Discogs, especially if you have a bigger order.

 

I thought the OP suggestions are pretty good, especially for more expensive records. Since I tend to like more obscure stuff, there is usually only one or maybe two pressings of a given LP anyway, so it's not a huge worry. But if it is something more expensive/rare and it seems the price is too good to be true, or claiming it is totally unplayed or mint or sealed, it's a good idea to verify what you are actually ordering.

As for grading, it's a crap shoot to some extent, though I have found that discogs is better than ebay generally, and in both venues its better to deal with people who you can tell have some experience selling records. I mean if you are a volume seller of LPs, inaccurate grading is going to cost you money, so hopefully you are a bit more careful with it. I might not ask for LPs that play "totally quiet" as most new LPs don't even do that... Personally I'm not too uptight about a few pops or clicks, but consistent damage bugs me, so i stay away from records where the seller says "some noise in quieter passages" or "between tracks" or etc. But I appreciate when they do provide that level of detail.

 

So much this. If they've sent you a copy that you still feel you need to replace, it's not really worth anything. When I still have to try and find another copy somewhere else, all they've done is waste my time and money.

 

It's cool, but it's like the last Cure record I would choose to play probably...

 

I bought on eBay a first UK Abbey Road two days ago. I wanted to give a try because I knew I was going to be the only bidder since the seller have zero feedback. But before bidding I send several messages and questions asking playgrade. So i hope I did well trusting the seller and his ears but who knows... I will see soon if I get a trashed record or not. First time I buy to a zero feedback seller...but this one has others ID with 100 % positive feedback and selling records. I don't know why he selling records under different ID

 

I agree, it's not the Cure's best record but if your a fan, well you know what that means...gotta have it.

 

As someone who's been buying and selling on ebay/Discogs for a few years now, there are certain paradoxes that seem almost inherently unfair to either party. For instance, a seller who consistently over-grades records definitely deserves to be held accountable for it. On the other hand, if that same seller is always willing to provide a full refund, and pay for return shipping, and always responds to every message, I'm still not sure that makes him or her a "bad" seller. At least on eBay they have a somewhat more detailed section where you can grade the seller's accuracy without leaving negative feedback, and if the seller is consistently bad at grading LPs then those stars will start to show it. One can also leave positive or neutral feedback and still explain that the grading was way-off. Regardless, it's a tough call because to me a truly bad seller is one who grades (and usually packs) poorly and also communicates poorly or doesn't pay for return shipping when he/she dramatically over-grades a record. Also, keep in mind that a seller who over-grades without the feedback to show for it still suffers financially from all the refunds and returns.

Additionally, it's hard to say that Discogs or eBay are on the "seller's" side. Ebay (and Paypal) in particular will always take the buyer's back if an item isn't graded as advertised and sellers can't even leave negative feedback for buyers on eBay. If eBay (or Discogs) didn't implement at least some sort of standard in terms of removing feedback, it would drive sellers up the wall because some buyers are insanely careless when it comes to feedback. In fact, over the past few years the majority of feedback situations I've dealt with as a seller (all of which were removed) were when buyers left negative feedback because the item hadn't arrived yet. The tracking info is right there--heck, in one case the item was marked as delivered. These buyers never reached out to me or anything. I don't work for the USPS and have no control over what happens to the package after I drop it off. All I can do is ship the item and hope they deliver it, and then hope the buyer has enough sense to contact me before leaving feedback if the item doesn't arrive. One time I dropped a package off and for some reason the post office took an extra 6 days to get it out. The buyer left neutral feedback saying it took me too long to ship the item. I had to convince them to dig the package out of the garbage and inspect the postage just to show that I shipped it immediately (from a privately owned postal center--hence the lack of accurate tracking info). If that buyer hadn't listened to reason, I'm still not sure eBay would've taken my back as far as feedback, when I went out of my way to get the package out the door in the first place (it was a holiday so that particular postal center was open when the normal post offices weren't).

There was one instance where on Discogs I lowered my settings (I normally don't allow anyone with less than 98% feedback to buy from me) for like 20 minutes and some maniac woman from Florida ordered from me. She had like four or five negative feedbacks where the sellers claimed she would extort them for partial refunds after receiving the item. I contacted Discogs BEFORE I even shipped the record because I anticipated a problem and they said they had my back. Lo and behold she gets the record, tells me it's in garbage condition (it was a VG record that had been playtested) and that I needed to send a partial refund or she'd be "unhappy". I told her she could send the item back for a full refund and then I contacted Discogs AGAIN to ensure that if I left negative feedback for a buyer with a history of extortion I wouldn't be punished when she does the same thing for me. Discogs told me with assurance to go with my gut and negative feedbacks were exchanged. I contacted Discogs once again to have my feedback removed and they basically stonewalled me. After that I had to raise hell just to get the feedback removed because it was blatantly obvious this woman was crazy. The negative feedback she left for other sellers remained, mind you, because they didn't fight it the way I did even though it was clear as day they didn't deserve it.

Then you have people like Tom Port, who bring their own inflated standards of grading into realms where that grading doesn't apply. Suddenly, VG+ basically means (to him) that the record has been played like two or three times, which is not what VG+ means. He'll buy an album, claim it doesn't meet his standards, and leave negative feedback if the seller doesn't pay for the return shipping. To his credit he contacts the seller beforehand to explain his grading system, but it doesn't matter because VG+ is VG+, not VG+ according to Tom Port. If he's going to bring that elevated standard of grading to the table, he shouldn't be buying on Discogs. In summary, buyers can be irrational all the time and even use things like feedback as leverage when trying to get refunds. Without some degree of leniency in place from Discogs or eBay the sellers would probably revolt, and they frequently complain on the various forums that it's the buyers who get too much leniency in terms of feedback.

As far as all the specific listings on Discogs go, it can be very frustrating for a buyer to receive the wrong item (i.e. a pressing that doesn't match the Discogs page) but in general the whole system is really annoying for a seller. If I go out and drop a bunch of cash on some records, then come home to find out all those pressings have minor details differentiating them from other pressings, I still have to dig through all the Discogs pages to find the exact match. In some cases there will be one longer standing page that has the item on like 500 wantlists and then another page lingering in obscurity because it was added so late. As a result, the record I'm trying to sell will get no eyeballs due to something very minor like a difference in font size on the label or the fact that "side one" is on the left of the spindle hole as opposed to the right. For reference, try looking at all the different pressings for something like "Let It Bleed" by the Stones. Every single label variation gets its own page, which makes sense for Discogs as a "database" but is very cloying from a "marketplace" perspective because the matrix info will often be the same regardless of the label differences.

 

I spend at least $250 a month on Discogs. I have a select group of sellers that I buy from. If you are willing to weed out the bad sellers and establish yourself as a good customer with the good sellers you find that there are quite a lot of sellers who are in it for integrity and love of vinyl. When minor snags do occur I find that everyone I work with (sellers and buyers) bend over backward to help each other. Personally I think the place is a goldmine of information.

 

If a seller has enabled Make Offer/Details, then you should always make an offer. I'm not sure what discount you can get, but 20-25% seems reasonable. Perhaps more of it has been sitting there for years.

 

I calculated at one point that 75% of the vinyl that came in from Discogs wasn't as described.