Discogs or eBay for Vinyl Purchases?

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Rattlin' Bones, Aug 3, 2021.

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  1. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer Thread Starter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    Having a string of bad luck with eBay vintage vinyl purchases. I only buy vinyl listed as Mint or NM. But last several eBay purchases have been disappointing. Listed NM but not really even VG.

    Genre I buy is jazz. Love me some Blue Note or Columbia original or 2nd gen pressings from 50's or 60's. And Pablo from 60's and 70's.

    You folks have better luck on Discogs? Or another purchase platform?
     
  2. Recordfan

    Recordfan Misfit Among Misfits

    I'm not a jazz person but I have had great luck (so far ..2 years now) from the sellers on Discogs..only drawback is that you have to ask for photos...which reminds me..I hate when sellers on Ebay remove an album from the sleeve and display it on a table or any other space. Painful to see that cruel treatment to vinyl, plus a photo like that doesn't say squat with respect to condition!
     
    giantleech, EdogawaRampo and keiron99 like this.
  3. Muffinbutt

    Muffinbutt Forum Resident

    Location:
    United States
    Discogs has been solid but to be honest, I think you will always have a tough time finding NM or mint for original blue note records, especially on eBay.
     
  4. eddiel

    eddiel Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Canada
    No real different other than with Discogs you will need to contact sellers to for photos and verification that they've listed the record under the correct submission. I find that I need to do that on eBay as well but since sellers can upload pictures on eBay of the actual item they have for sale, it doesn't happen very often. Outside of that, bad sellers exist on both, stupid pricing exists on both, etc.

    I guarantee you, you will be disappointed with the grading on Discogs as well. It's just part of the online buying lifestyle we've all moved to. But as @Muffinbutt mentioned, it will be difficult to find NM/M copies of what you are looking for.

    I would look on both sites as there's no point in limiting yourself to just one option. I would also try WTB on here. Might be work.
     
  5. Steely Don

    Steely Don Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland,OR
    Probably a nod to eBay. Discogs for newish/sealed records. Have had more than a few Discogs mis-listings (2000’s press replicas listed as originals, obvious label mistakes like the Warner Bros mid 70s “losenge” logo represses on said listed original pressings). So yeah I guess you could ask for photos but a bit of a hassle.

    If the seller has good enough feedback on both platforms then maybe it dose the make a difference. Like most things, trust your gut.
     
  6. NekoM

    NekoM Seriously not serious.

    I go back and forth, I’ve had a couple of bad purchases from discogs that was harder to negotiate, they both shipped from Germany, and not easily returned.
     
  7. hoggydoggy

    hoggydoggy Forum Resident

    eBay can be an incredibly lucky place to pick stuff up still (though less so these days), but if I absolutely want a particular record in a particular shape, then I'm more likely to get it right on the 'Cogs (albeit generally dearer, especially in the UK these days).

    Really, it comes down to understanding & quality of rating: ANY sellers of vinyl should know & adhere to Goldmine standards, but especially so on Discogs which, after all, is the specialist marketplace.
     
  8. David Austin

    David Austin Eclectically Coastal

    Location:
    West Sussex
    I haven't used eBay for records for a long time as many sellers are casual sellers who don't use or don't understand either the Goldmine or Record Collector grading systems. I therefore use Discogs, but I find it's often the case that dealers grade their records visually (as they admit, if asked), so grading isn't always reliable - for instance, I recently bought a handful of singles from one dealer on Discogs that were graded NM, but they all had a lot of surface noise (but they looked pretty good to the eye).

    The great thing about Discogs, in my experience, is that dealers are very quick to offer a refund if their grading has been off (I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but I've never had any problems). With eBay, it can take a bit longer to resolve a dispute. So, neither platform is perfect, but I find Discogs is a lot better than eBay.
     
    Recordfan likes this.
  9. Malibu John

    Malibu John Forum Resident

    Really silly prices on eBay for very easy to find items are commonplace. As common as the description “Rare”. Or my favourite “Highly sort (sic) after”. I find Discogs sellers have more realistic pricing. This is perhaps assisted by the fact that Discogs show the median sale price for the item. Of course, even Discogs sellers routinely list items well above the last highest sale price.

    An increasingly common description on both forums that I find really annoying is “EX for its age”, which means VG or worse of course. The age of a record has nothing to do with an assessment of its condition, which should be a statement of fact. The fact is that there are very few 50+ year old records that are EX or NM. I understand that and I understand that sellers want their copy to stand out from the many others listed. But that is just too bad. If dealers don’t like the business they are in they should do something else instead.
     
    c-eling likes this.
  10. c-eling

    c-eling They're made of light,We never would have guessed

    Ebay has seller fee's, a reason Discog's may be cheaper in some cases. However Discog's doesn't have photo hosting capabilities.
    I'd think finding clean players for Jazz would be tough. People played them and who knows on what.
    I buy from both pretty much equally.
     
    Recordfan likes this.
  11. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    At least the table isn't the kitchen floor or the carpet or outside in the sun on a picnic table. Seen all.
     
    Recordfan and giantleech like this.
  12. Daveymoore

    Daveymoore Forum Resident

    Location:
    Manchester UK
    I've seen items on Ebay which could well be NM from photos and condition of flipback sleeves, virtually no spindle marks, original inners, but the seller just describes as "Used", time to pass?
     
  13. greelywinger

    greelywinger Osmondia

    Location:
    Dayton, Ohio USA
    Most of my online purchases have been on Discogs.
    I do occasionally pick up a few on eBay that I hardly ever see listed for sale on Discogs.
    Feedback is the first thing I look for when dealing with a new seller.
    You can get the feeling of how they grade, & in Discogs case, whether or not the list under the correct version.
    It's also nice to see comments on how they pack the records for shipping.

    Darryl
     
  14. vinylontubes

    vinylontubes Forum Resident

    Location:
    Katy, TX
    Both are marketplaces. Each have good sellers and bad sellers.

    On Discogs, I've had a seller that took two weeks to ship a record. It was stated that he only shipped on Saturday and only the payment is cleared. I purchased on Monday and paid at purchase. After not getting any update I inquired. He stated that PayPal hadn't transferred the money to his bank account. At this point this has nothing to do with me. PayPal is basically a cash transaction. Once that money is transferred, he has the money. Anyway I was cussed out for not reading his terms and conditions. Whatever, I finally got the record. The record I was buying was recently OOP, so the guy was flipping it. I paid a fair price for it, but honestly I would have rather paid more to another seller to not have dealt with all the grief.

    On eBay, I bought a copy of Tool's Aenima. It was stated that there was some crackle on the record. I think this scared off a lot of bidders. I won the auction with a more than fair price. I got the record and played it, didn't hear any crackle. Then I realized he was referring the track Useful Idiot which is 40 seconds of an old record with the stylus running through the runout over and over again. It was Tool's little joke and it's also on the CD. I messaged the seller informing him of his mistake. He said he'd probably never another one, but he'd keep it in mind and told me to enjoy the record.

    For the most part I've had good experiences with both eBay and Discogs. But you're always dealing with people. And like almost everything in life, there are always people you're not going to get along with.
     
    Lost In The Flood and Recordfan like this.
  15. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    The #1 reason why I sell a lot of brand new records ahead of many other sellers, despite often being the highest priced vendor for any number of the exact same item(s). A lot of customers do not want to risk chancing receiving records in square mailers (banged corners galore), in pizza boxes or in bubble wrap mailers.
     
    cut-out, GentleSenator and Recordfan like this.
  16. giantleech

    giantleech Lord of all fevers and plagues

    If there is a record on Discogs that I want to buy and I haven't dealt with that specific seller before, I ask very specific, brief questions about how they package records for shipment. If I can pick up the vibe that they understand the necessity for using rectangular mailers or "extra large" boxing and understand the necessity of getting records to the customer in the exact same condition as they are presently described, I do business with them. If their answers are purposely vague or evasive, I may take a chance if the record is very scarce to rare and the price makes it worth the chance..., but if the record is not so uncommon then I'll just move on, as I know it will be eventually available elsewhere (at a decent price through a straight shooter type vendor.)
     
  17. AppleBlossome88

    AppleBlossome88 Rock 'n' Roll Ambassador

    Location:
    Moscow
    Discogs is getting rediculously expensive because it is mainstream !!
    Can't expect fair prices there anymore....
     
  18. Recordfan

    Recordfan Misfit Among Misfits

    Best crackle ever!
     
  19. Recordfan

    Recordfan Misfit Among Misfits

    To give a positive example from Discogs, a seller from Greece shipped an LP on July 27 and it arrived Aug 2, which was phenomenal...maybe I was just lucky..the album's condition was as described..the seller's rating was 100%.
     
    Mr. LP Collector and giantleech like this.
  20. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer Thread Starter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    I found that, too. Like $25 on eBay, but $12 on Discogs. That seems the norm 2x on eBay for same album same pressing same reported condition.

     
    Recordfan likes this.
  21. Rattlin' Bones

    Rattlin' Bones Grumpy Old Deaf Drummer Thread Starter

    Location:
    Louisville, KY
    6 recent purchases last 2 weeks on eBay and Discogs. 5 described as NM, 1 was Excellent. Only real keeper was the Excellent it plays with no noise. When contacting sellers about the others they said they only do a visual inspection. I guess I need to ask in future if described as NM did they listen to it to verify it plays as NM? IMHO no one should grade an LP as M or NM unless they listened to it, or else disclose in description the rating is visual only.
     
    Johnny Vinyl and Recordfan like this.
  22. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    this.
     
  23. GruveRecords

    GruveRecords Well-Known Member

    Location:
    South Florida
    Lol what? How exactly would you expect someone to take a picture of the record? Literally every professional seller on ebay uses some kind of table for a photo station to photograph the record. My workstation where I photograph and ship from is a plastic foldout table. I mean do you prefer the guys that just throw them on their bed or on the floor and snap a photo? I'm confused about what the problem is here.
     
  24. Recordfan

    Recordfan Misfit Among Misfits

    What I am saying is that I don't know why sellers take the record out of the sleeve and photograph it...maybe it's just me..or my phone quality..I can't tell the condition of vinyl through a photo!
     
  25. GruveRecords

    GruveRecords Well-Known Member

    Location:
    South Florida
    I do it mainly to show the label so buyers can tell which pressing it is. I appreciate when other sellers do the same. For instance with something like Led Zeppelin II it’s much easier to tell if it’s an early pressing based on the address on the label like 1841 Broadway vs the later Warner labels.
     
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