What are your thoughts on this new site, I checked it out but was not too impressed. Very high-priced bidding. One seller I checked out was selling some R&B funk records but he was playing them and also dj backwards scratching them. I could not believe this was happening, but people were actually bidding on this.
Hmmm... Haven't seen this site before. Will need to figure out how this site works and what the fees are before deciding if it's worth my time.
I’ve become quite familiar with it, took advantage of my $10 sign up ‘bonus’ and scored the OOP Dead @ Houston Rhino ‘72 vinyl at well below market value. What I’ve learned- the more popular sellers will attract hundreds of viewers, thus bidding prices go thru the roof to the point that they’re not even sensible. There’s a few buyers who are notorious for paying idiotic prices, wayy above market value (ex today a guy paid $186 for a recent Zeppelin unofficial 2lp that I can buy right now for $45). Noble Records and InGroove Mike are examples of popular sellers that attract mind-boggling prices- they are making huge profits from Whatnot. The flipside is the lesser known sellers (who only attract a handful of viewers) can also have great stuff for sale, you can often score great deals when they start the auction low and you have few competing bidders. Couple other notes-many sellers will list everything thats for sale in their upcoming auctions, often with pics of the item. You can bookmark those auctions and even bookmark a specific item so you’re notified when the auction goes live. Other sellers don’t list anything and expect you to watch their entire show to see what they have- sorry I don’t have time for that! It’s also common for certain days to focus on specific genres which is nice. -The moment you win/buy an item the purchase is processed and you are charged -You can send sellers a direct message with any specific requests (ie ‘please remove the vinyl from cover for shipping’, etc).
I will have to check out Whatnot... It seems like Hibid and Proxibid are good auction sites, if you are interested in estate auctions. Yesterday on Hibid I scored a Zerosurge 2R15W for $1.16! No one else bid on it. I have seen some good deals on audio equipment on those sites too, but most of the time you have to be able to pick the items up in person, or pay to have them sent by freight.
Noble Records and the In Groove usually have the best products but people get way too swept up in the fervor and bid up the items way too high. I saw an original Dire Straits “Brother in Arms “ go for almost $80!!
These distant also-ran auction sites follow a predictable arc: A few experienced worthwhile sellers try them out and realize they don't get enough eyeballs. In that testing period, a few people get good deals because few are watching. The experienced worthwhile sellers leave in frustration, moving back to eBay The site becomes a ghost town and ultimately closes.
Wrong. The well-known sellers (Noble Records, In Groove, Bearded Vinyl, etc) attract the most viewers (hundreds every auction), including the fanatical ones willing to pay exorbitant prices. These sellers can make more profit on Whatnot than they do in their stores/Discogs, and can literally sell an Lp every couple minutes, depending on how fast they want to go.
I’ve bid and bought things on whatnot. It’s not worth it though. Sell prices are way higher than what they’d typically be on eBay. I’ve only ever bid in In Groove auctions, and to be honest I don’t think I’ll be buying anything else from Mike. He’s getting to be very full of himself and rubs me the wrong way but that’s neither here nor there. The point is, whatnot is IMO just a short trend. I can’t imagine this staying around for more than a couple years, especially when the hype dies down and people realize they’re overpaying on stuff they could get on eBay without all the performance.
I agree with you, that guy Mike is way full of himself and he’s strictly a business man. I too find it better to just deal with Discogs or eBay.
It's obvious after about 5 mins that Mike's Whatnot auctions are a complete joke, the bidders there seem to be waiting with blank checks and no idea of the actual market value of the Lps they buy. There are deals to be had from sellers who are not nearly as famous/popular as 'In Groove', less viewers = less bidders.
'Strictly a business man', whatever that means. He's also a collector and passionate about the hobby. He voluntarily makes videos ridiculing over-priced releases and hype sticker nonsense on titles he is selling in his store. Mike has no control over what people are willing to pay for his Lps during auctions, he can't stop people from being reckless with their money.
Okay. Be careful how much you defend the guy. I’ve seen prices on his discogs for used records that would make ERC blush and were totally disproportionately out of wack with historical market values.
You haven’t provided an example, so I guess I should take your word for it (?). Anyways, I feel the same way about Chad Kassem’s used Lps. I also understand these guy’s operating costs are much higher than sellers who don’t have physical storefronts and employees.
I started selling on Whatnot around a year ago. I did just take a 4 month hiatus but recently got back on. Whatnot was overall pretty good for me last year. But I would say on average I get 20% less than ebay or Discogs prices. I’m just an average dude though with only 780 followers. I always try to offer nice stuff at prices below Discogs median. But for me Whatnot was about moving volume. Pretty easy to move 100 records in around 3 hours. The downside is the fees end up higher than ebay, because they hit you with a transaction fee for every single item sold. So someone could buy 10 items from you and each one has the CC transaction fees. It adds up. Also, you can’t charge for shipping like on ebay/Discogs as Whatnot takes that money directly. So, the packaging cost has to be figured into the starting prices. So with that said, as a buyer you can get great deals in the right streams. There still isn’t enough traffic overall on the app..so if you find a seller with 10-20 people in their stream, it’s a lot easier to win auctions. Plenty of other sellers that are not YouTube famous that offer great stuff. Sure, there’s a lot of crap sellers too. But it’s pretty easy to tell who knows what they’re doing and how to grade properly.
A couple things I find distasteful about online auction sites. Some bidders just seem to have adopted the “nobody is going to outbid me” attitude , even if they have to pay twice market price. I don’t get that. The other thing has to do with the big well known sellers who know they are going to get a bidding war created on every listing. They know that only the buyers with the deepest pockets and/or the most stubborn attitude are going to come away with their offering. I’m not saying it’s wrong, it’s just not the way I’d like to conduct business. It almost seems predatory.
Don't forget these 'big, well-known' sellers had to put in years of effort and hard work to build their reputations. The biggest ones have been producing videos on Youtube for years, a massive investment of time and effort. And it wasn't just because they want to sell sell sell, these guys are collectors and have a passion for the hobby. They also run physical record stores, paying rent and employees. No doubt they spent years grinding it out just trying to survive and grow their business. They were smart and took full advantage of the opportunity provided by the internet to reach exponentially more viewers. Now they reap the rewards, whether it be from clueless obsessed buyers or those who just feel more comfortable buying from a reputable seller. Please don't blame the sellers for what other people choose to do with their money.
I’m going to try to be careful how I say this. I’m not minimizing all the things you said. Of course all of that is true. They do know exactly what their vinyl is worth though. Selling it pre priced in their brick and mortar to walk in customers will produce one profit, selling it in an online auction much more. I get it. I’m just saying the consequences to the local vinyl community are a net negative. Less opportunity for the money conscious to get an LP they desire at a fair price. I’m not saying they don’t have a right to take advantage of clueless buyers, just saying that it’s not simply a case of emptying one guys wallet and filling another’s. I suspect if I lived in a community where one of the big guys was in business, I would have to travel quite a ways to find affordable desirable vinyl. I know you can’t buy it all and sell it all but in the course of buying and reselling a lot…you drive up the prices because you can. I’m not saying its right or wrong. That’s just how I see it.
Okay. Tangible example. He has a punk single by a band called the Fastbacks. Discogs med is $182 and the highest sale is $322. I know this record extremely well and it actually has never sold for that high number since like 2017 and always around $180-$220 but because of pure greed and because there’s not many for sale he has listed at $365! It’s been sitting unsold for months. I’ve made extremely generous and reasonable offers and I can’t get so much as a counter offer. I think it’s the biggest sleaze move when sellers on eBay or discogs mark something way up because it’s rare and then unfortunately one desperate sucker sometimes pays and then that’s the new price. I’m all for some one making a buck but I can’t stand gouging and squeezing for every last penny.
You can go online right now and see what these guys charge for their vinyl- the Whatnot auctions have no bearing on their retail prices. They charge 'normal' prices for new vinyl, and of course charge more for desirable used/rare/limited vinyl.
So you have a personal grudge against him because he declined your 'reasonable' offers lol. That title is extremely rare and a nice copy sold for $322 in 2017! 6 years ago! His copy is NM- and there's only 3 available on Discogs (1 in the U.S), his is on par with the other copy listed in the UK. The majority of other copies sold were of lower grades. Right now he has several Stones mono titles from the 2016 boxed set, asking prices $29.99. That is less than what SHF members have been historically selling for in the Classified section! The man is not the 'sleazy' greedy devil you make him out to be, he knows what's reasonable and when he can charge a premium.
You’re wrong! The most recent NM version of that record was just over $200. It’s not just that title either. I’ve seen him do the same thing on many other titles. And the only reason why those other prices are so high for that listing are because of his listing!! The other sellers are just matching so in actuality it’s helping me make my argument. When sellers gouge it empowers other people to do the same thing. And of course some dumb digital reissue of the Stones that has 1000 other pressings is cheap no one wants that crap.
Here’s an example in my region. A second hand estate clearance dealer has a cement block storage building that used to be an old Esso station. I stopped in occasionally and he would have some used vinyl he naturally acquired in clean outs. Sometimes I bought some stacks from him. Well, he opened an online store on hibid.com. Nothing of any value is ever out to be seen, examined at his storage facility/store front. Anything interesting is on his auction site. You can’t check out the vinyl and there is always a bidding war going on driving up closing to silly prices. It’s not been a good thing for the local collector.
