Anyone can create one if they have the resources (time, money, expertise). Getting people to buy and sell on it is another thing all together. The barriers to entry aren't insignificant. Both eBay and Discogs have a huge head start here. Plus, we have other sites e.g. Musicstack, which hasn't done much to gain ground on Discogs and they are already in the market place. Reverb LP (IIRC) tried it and failed and they just used Discogs data. There are some other sites currently operating now as competitors. They'll stay small, I forget their names but someone posted them on Discogs yesterday, until someone puts big money into them or people move their en masse. It's significant commitment of resources to get it up and running and then turn it into a viable alternative to Discogs.
Considering how slow they are to implement just about anything, it'll be more like 6-9 years. Shipping costs and changes to sales tax rules have had, and will continue to have, a bigger impact on buyer behaviour than what sellers might do, to compensate for this extra fee. I've already been buying less due to the cost of everything except the actual product I want! IMO, they went with this structure because the alternative would've been a bigger chunk of the sale price. So instead of 9% x all, it would've been 10%+ (or whatever) x sales price only. It simplifies things for them and in the long run, it'll just be the way it works. No matter what they did, it would've drawn complaints. Hard to say what sellers will do to compensate for the fee increase. Some will eat it, at least in the short term, but I think most will increase their prices to compensate. Mind you, often, eBay is far worse for pricing so little choice if someone wants something.
The inclusion of shipping into the fee hike means obviously that this is a far higher fee hike than an additional 1%. It is a 1% hike on the item price, and a 9% hike on shipping. I just recently raised my shipping cost per order by .50. I hate to do another raise on shipping, but I may have to. We are already in a recession with tons of layoffs and store closures. I really wish Discogs had waited for things to get better economically before soaking everyone for more money. It's not going to help growth right now.
My last sale was a $30 SACD plus $4 shipping and a $2.39 sales tax with $1.76 PayPal fee. The $4 Media Mail shipping was breakeven for me with USPS fee and shipping materials. The new rates would change my net as follows: Old 8% rate - Net after Discogs and PayPal Fees $29.84 before shipping (Discogs fee $2.40) New 9% rate - Net after Discogs and PayPal Fees $29.18 before shipping (Discogs fee $3.06) The increase from $2.40 to $3.06 is a 27.5% increase. The Discogs Fee + PayPal fee may be more or less than eBay fees for the same transaction depending on one's eBay seller status. For most Discogs is probably slightly less than eBay. Discogs has offered a helpful inventory pricing analysis for those that want to sort of increase their prices enough to cover the additional cost and I bet most will. How to Manage Your Inventory and Prices | Discogs That suggests increasing $30 items by 2.8% to cover the increase and that comes close enough for me. That increases my sales price to $30.84.
Most of the best deals I have gotten were ebay. Just bought a Europe only SACD that rarely appears from a US seller. Usually disc and shipping hit the $55 to $65 range, I got it for $26 shipped from a US seller. This is typical, eBay has the bargains but one needs to keep an eye out, and Discogs has the stock there ready to buy but prices higher almost every time. Anyway, one much look at all selling sites and compare. Discogs is about to become the most expensive place to shop all the time.
I would raise price by $1.00 for simplicity rather then .84. I've recently dropped the prices on everything just to get some more sales. But maybe it's time to jack them back you a little. The last two price drops I did did not result in very many sales. I'd hoped that all those notices sent to want list watchers would result in additional sales.
I started selling on eBay in March, 1999 and eBay did not charge fees on shipping costs then, vinyl or CD. It wasn't long until seller abuses caused eBay to change. With the increases in USPS rates, eBay fees, and collection fees, PayPal and now eBay, selling sure isn't as lucrative as it was back then. I also think my items have declined in value to make things even worse. It is a good thing I am not a business seller, hoping to earn a profit selling music online.
The way to make more money selling online, and keep making money in a changing environment (fee hikes) has always been to harvest buyers from an online source and bring them to your own site, or directly engage them in emails. One way to to slip in a coupon into each order sent from ebay inviting them to your own store, or discogs store. Or do a mass email with invites and $5.00 off per order. Whatever it takes, one must get the good buyers to buy directly from you and cut out the middle man as much as possible. PayPal can remain in the loop, but ebay must be kicked to the curb for some orders. Like selling in the forums here is a good way to get fees down. In fact I sold a $400 order for a bunch of Nederland radio show transcription LPs two months ago. The person bought two titles from me on Discogs, and then I emailed him asking if he'd like to see what I have that is not listed on Discogs. He bought 10 out of the 11 titles I had offered (all 2LP sets). I supplied pictures of each title quickly taken with cellphone camera, and they looked sharp enough that I didn't have to write out too many details on each one. He paid a fortune in shipping costs but he wanted those records. This is how I bought down the fees several times. Harvest those buyers if you have a lot of stock to unload.
Please explain this to me. As someone who buys insurance on some of my large orders and pays out of my profits (not charging any extra when insurance is bought) I'd like to figure out where your losses are and how they do not exceed insurance costs. I generally have both shipping cost and mailer cost covered to the penny on all LPs, and I make .60 profit on each CD sent, I try and cover the $2.65 (for $50 coverage) or $3.40 (for $75 in coverage) insurance from the .60 overcharges on CDs sent. But lately I've insured enough packages that I did not cover "insurance fee" losses.
Pretty simple, last time I checked insurance cost 3-4% of insured value. I only lose about 1% of my shipments. Insurance is a profitable product for USPS. Of course that is always the case for all insurance, or they wouldn’t sell it.
Of course. Bigger profits are built into the system, since inflation is built into the prices. But that will never stop someone from looking for even more. The only way to stop this is for there to be another viable competing platform with lower fees. But eBay isn't cheaper.
I'm definitely looking for profit on (all of) my sales, it is not what I have to live on, but it's not just to get rid of junk I don't want. It's a side hussle that I can afford to shut down for many months or a year if I feel like it. But since Mar. 15 2020 when the pandemic really hit us, I went to Discogs and stocked up my account and had a wonderful time with old stock that had appreciated in value over the last 10 years. Maybe with the new 1099, and Discogs fees, it's time to step back, maybe leave the stock up and selling, but add no more to it. Just left it simmer and cool off for several years. Lots of thoughts are being considered.
My hat's off to you if you are able to make a profit selling music online. I have sold many of my most valuable pieces and a lot of mass market CDs. Of course, the mass market CDs are essentially worthless. I still have a massive collection and I will continue to sell even though the fee increases by USPS, PayPal, eBay and Discogs makes things more difficult to justify spending my time doing it. My time isn't worth much at this point, but it is worth something. I may look at Amazon to see if it is an attractive option, I have no idea how it compares to eBay and Discogs.
I have LPs listed at Discogs and a few books (CDs are not listable for the private seller). I do far fewer sales there, but get nearly double the prices fetched anywhere else. I'm douing well on CDs because I bought so much of my old original collection in the used bins for $6.98, and $8.98 and much less for what was then lower end. And then more for doubles. The last few years grabbing used CDs at thrift stores for $1.00 average (was .50 a disc). So I can make money on $6.99 or $7.99 CDs. But I found out that tons of discs went OOP 8 or 10 years ago, and those are often $15 to $20 discs. Several Joni Mitchell CDs are in the $12 to $14 range. Titles that went OOP years ago have slowly gone up in value, and I am able to fish those out of the bins along with just good classics I'd expect top be able to sell. I'm going to use ebay (again) for the free listings each month if they still offer that. Just hope to get $590 (or less) worth of sales per year at Amazon and ebay. Low expectations, easy work. My low-end vinyl which was sitting in storage room went up in value, with obscure titles that I could not sell at all 10 years ago now going for $30 to $60 an LP. I kept them because they were real rare non-hit wonders. Now they are all the rage I see the needle drops on youtube of these. So anyway, I think I am going to do well with CDs as they slowly go up in value for the nicer titles, top condition, and longer OOP. Under my bed is long flat boxes with rows and rows of titles by genre, all picked up used in recent years. I guess I'm hooked on flipping old used media. I feel like I am at least using my knowledge of music and media for something like a side-hustle. The books I read say that if you can use your knowledge and what you like as a side-hustle, then you will do well at it, and it won't feel like work. And since I don't do ebay, it is much less work. That side wore me out 10 years ago. So won't be using ebay that much at all going forward.
Here's a top tip from Discogs on how to lower your 9% cost on shipping charges...offer free shipping! You see. If you don't charge for shipping, you don't pay an additional 9%. Problem solved. Kidding aside, I've been baking in my shipping fee into my sale price on eBay. Works well. Optically it looks like a better deal to buyers. Also, no one complains about how much you are charging for shipping. I've been debating doing the same thing on Discogs now that they charge.
9% of my shipping fee comes to about .49. So a .50 price hike on my items is what it will be after the 1% hike on the item prices already being planned. Oh well.
If I sell a record to someone on the West Coast of Canada, or the US, I'd be taking a $2 hit. Hard to take the hit, but equally as hard to increase an already expensive shipping costs, even higher. Anyone in the US, selling to others in the US, will generally be fine, both on the seller and buyer side. It's the international sales that are going to be impacted the most.
One good thing happened for me; I just had my biggest weekend selling on Discogs. Apparently, buyers realized sellers would increase prices on Monday, I am grateful to get the sales before the fee increase. I raised my prices this morning to cover the fee increase.
Over at Discogs forum, a few UK/EU members have commented that the 9% fee hasn't been added to their sales.
