Money Laundering on Discogs

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Vinyl Archaeologist, Oct 23, 2020.

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  1. Vinyl Archaeologist

    Vinyl Archaeologist Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I'm going through my collection and there are many instances of people paying $3-700 dollars for $40 or $50 records. Well above the premium you would pay for a clean or even signed copy (none were signed that I could find).

    What gives? the only thing I can think of is that people are laundering money through the site or creating fake transactions to do so.
     
    Gabzi Nemo likes this.
  2. Sane Man

    Sane Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bethlehem, PA
    Many non-paying bidders. I have seen (generally) prices spiking hard on records in the last 6 months, maybe attributable to the pandemic and people being cooped up. My win rate is much much lower lately. But I think it's mostly non-paying bidders (I've seen a lot of subsequent relistings claiming as much) with a very small percentage of fraud (people having their auctions bid up by another party) and laundering.
     
    melstapler likes this.
  3. Vinyl Archaeologist

    Vinyl Archaeologist Forum Resident Thread Starter

    That makes sense. I've certainly had to get my record fix stalking higher priced records online rather than estate sales and dollar bins. But keep in mind this is on Discogs where someone has to list the record at an astronomical price and someone else has to look through all the available versions at the same price and say let me just pay 6 times as much for this one. It just doesn't compute.
     
    melstapler and Sane Man like this.
  4. Sane Man

    Sane Man Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bethlehem, PA
    Ah, I'm sorry. I totally missed the fact you were referring to discogs and not ebay.
     
  5. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    @Vinyl Archaeologist, you are overthinking this. There is a much simpler explanation: People are goofy when it comes to money.

    These sellers think their records are made of gold, not polyvinyl chloride. They have an inflated opinion of the value of their albums. Often they have an inflated opinion of themselves, too. You mix those two together and they won't sell their LPs for less than astronomical sums.

    You see this with anything folks can value too highly. I have this problem with the owner of an empty lot next to my house. I'd like to buy the lot from him. He thinks it's worth as much as a lot with a house on it. I don't. We aren't even close to a deal. That suits my neighbor just fine. He doesn't want to sell.

    Which takes us back to the folks you have found on Discogs. These listers aren't looking to sell these records. They just want to say their 200 piece record collection is worth $30,000. Their over-priced albums and their inflated ego prop each other up. $700 records buttress their superiority complex.

    These sellers and their records are only worth your pity or maybe distain.
     
  6. Vinyl Archaeologist

    Vinyl Archaeologist Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Totally agree but these are sold records. Someone had to buy them at that price. That may be a real transaction or not but it takes two accounts and a payment. I’ve heard of people trying to inflate the value of records with fake sales but no one is going to start thinking Al green records are worth 600 dollars because of a few oddball sales.
     
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  7. ggergm

    ggergm another spring another baseball season

    Location:
    Minnesota
    I didn't catch in your post that these were actually sold. My reading comprehension is no better than @Sane Man's. Sorry. It does make a guy wonder what's going on.
     
    Vinyl Archaeologist likes this.
  8. LivingForever

    LivingForever Forum Arachibutyrophobic

    I must admit that “money laundering” is one of the first thoughts that comes to my mind when I see some things on Discogs.

    Like how every rare item seems to have a Mint copy in Russia, for some extortionate price.
     
  9. Muzyck

    Muzyck Pardon my scruffy hospitality

    Location:
    Long Island
    Someone would have to do a lot of layering to even reach the threshold where transaction value would be enough to trigger AML concerns. Discogs enforces states sales tax on top of that don't they, so it would come with a surcharge for the effort. Think it's probably some other goofy reason. Some people just have to get something as soon as possible no matter what it costs.
     
    Last edited: Oct 23, 2020
  10. Dave

    Dave Esoteric Audio Research Specialist™

    Location:
    B.C.
    I think I need more starch in my $50 bills.
     
  11. melstapler

    melstapler Reissue Activist

    Without solid evidence, we can only make assumptions at this point and yet there's no denying that many titles have sold for unreasonable sums in recent months. Compared to this time a year ago, prices have increased drastically on titles which I used to find at low prices. If scarcity is causing titles to increase in price, it doesn't help that so many buyers have been stuck at home browsing through listings on discogs.
     
    Vinyl Archaeologist likes this.
  12. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Prices have really increased a lot. So many people are into records now. I saw a bus bench with "I buy records" in Denver all the way across it. I'm not joking......next billboards.
     
    melstapler likes this.
  13. whisaeri000

    whisaeri000 Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Riverton, Utah
    More and more pieces are going into long time collections as well. As more new collectors are buying records, less can be found by people who already have a copy and let it move on to someone else
     
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