Records from Ebay sellers….

Yep, identical hype sticker. I didn’t hold it against the seller who did send me the wrong pressing the first time, more holding it against this guy for refusing to accept that they are indistinguishable and being unwilling to open it after I’ve purchased it to confirm they aren’t selling me the wrong copy by mistake.

 

Just had an experience with a seller that can only make me laugh because it was only an $8.00 item. A UK Donovan 45 that I wanted for the B-Side listed as VG+. I get the single in a padded envelope. The B-side has scratches that could have been done with a nail. Unplayable. The seller won't help because of a "no refunds" policy. I could have gone through the process of an "item not as described" claim but it wasn't worth the time and effort to send it back. I left a negative feedback and the seller responds by refunding me $4.00 because "only one side was damaged". Can't make this stuff up.

 

That's absurd. It may be a bit of a hassle, but that's the person you need to stick them with the return, they should be a little bit inconvenienced for their attitude.

 

I think the negative feedback was more painful to the seller than a full refund would have been. It is the nuclear option for me that I rarely use except in cases where sellers don't at least try and sort it out. I look at as more of a warning to others to beware before going through with a purchase / bid.

 

I doubt they even play the record unless if they mention it. So just keep that in mind.

 

I've definitely been sending back a whole lot more records that I used to. I've even been adding a lot more to the trade in pile that I bought in person lately. Not sure if it's just a sign of the used vinyl market right now, but a solid half if not 60-70% of the used 60s and 70s (and earlier) records I have bought in the past 6 months or so belong in the garbage. The amount of groove wear for instance is absolutely insane. It's one thing when I buy a record for a couple bucks and take a chance on it, but it's another thing when I sometimes am spending a couple hundred dollars on a single LP.

I've actually switched over to buying mostly reissue/audiophile records for about the past year especially during covid, just because I was sick and tired of opening a box from eBay, Discogs, or even this site, taking one look at the record, or playing 30 seconds of it and knowing it was junk, then immediately repacking the box and driving back to the post office to ship it back. My time is better spent doing other things. With new records, I get the occasional non fill or warp, and that's usually not an issue because I buy new records from larger stores with a good return/refund policy. If I get a bad record from Target, I have a full refund within minutes after reporting it. A used record can sometimes take a couple WEEKS to get the money back.

It especially sucks when it's a record I've bought bad copy after bad copy trying to find something actually worth listening to, and at that point, I'm so sick of ending up with garbage that I barely even enjoy the album anymore. I think I bought 7 or 8 original mono copies of Surrealistic Pillow before I found one I could tolerate listening to. I'm on copy number 4 on the Moby Grape debut right now, it's gotten to the point I even made a thread about it because I just don't believe it's THAT hard to find a copy of that record without groove wear. And it's not like I'm buying $1 bin copies either, The worst graded copy I bought was a VG mono pressing that was a chance buy, and surprisingly, that one actually sounds better and has less groove wear then even the "NM" copy I just unboxed today.

I agree with OP completely, it has only gotten worse and most of the used records I've bought online lately, and even some I've bought in stores have been no higher than G or G+. It used to be I'd bring home a stack of 10 or so used LPs and maybe 1-3 of them would go on the trade pile, and if I ordered 10 records online, maybe 4-5 of them got sent back. Now it's closer to 6-7 of them go on the trade pile, and 8 or 9 of them get sent back.

 

Another thing I've noticed lately too, you cannot trust buyer feedback at face value anymore. Example: today I was considering bidding on a copy of Love's debut album. Photos looked great, seller said the jacket was VG+ and the vinyl NM. They had 100% positive feedback with over 7,000 sales. So I go to their rating profile just to have a gander, and almost every single (positive) feedback about records they had sold had mentioned they were overgraded. WTF? I'm sorry buy what kind of ***** gets ripped off and then leaves a positive review? My guess is the seller gave partial refunds, or sweetened the deal somehow to not take that hit to their ratings, but it absolutely p*sses me off. How are you supposed to know if someone is worth buying from if their feedback is false?

Once in a while, I get a bad record and don't leave feedback, and once in a while if the seller has been overly difficult, I'll hit them with a negative feedback, but why on earth would anyone still give positive feedback if they got an overgraded record? It's beyond me.

Not to put the seller on blast or whatever, but seriously, I just cannot believe the amount of "positive" feedback that's actually negative...

Feedback Profile

 

Did you notice all the essay length feedback complaining about these records (while still leaving "positive") came from one buyer? I wish I knew who she was so I could block her.

 

Good catch, I hadn't noticed that! Very weird behavior though, whoever it is sure likes getting ripped off!

 

I'm not sure a seller is at fault if they can't tell and you can't tell either if it is a first or second pressing without opening it. I doubt stores would let you start opening up their product looking for some sign that you can't detect when it is sealed. And you want every seller to open up their product for you?

I suggest you buy an opened one that is graded MINT or NEAR MINT condition. Confirm that, and the original date. and forget about still sealed, as it doesn't work with this album. Why keep beating your head against the wall with sellers who don't want to rip open their product for you?

 

You're not wrong, but its also the responsibility of the seller to know and appropriately identify what they are selling, and if they sell something that is incorrectly identified you would think they would accept a refund, but thats just my opinion. You're totally right in this instance that I've accepted if I want the Chab cut I'll have to buy opened.

 

That buyer was likely fishing for a reduced price, perhaps they did not get a discount and tried a passive aggressive approach.

Too be honest looking at the last two pages of seller feedback, I think you missed out. That seller has some really sterling feedback with great grading remarks on some hard to find accurately graded albums.

 

Hmm… I’ve been looking for a copy of an lp that runs around $250-300, but was European release so not many come up in the US to avoid the shipping fiasco. Someone had one on eBay, buy it now $1000…. It had an offer option so I made an offer around $250 and auto decline without going to seller so he also set a higher offer minimum, so I ask what he’s hoping to get, to which he replies ‘make an offer.’ I explain I did but it was auto declined, and seeing as his set price is $450 more than the highest recorded sale of this record, which was for an unplayed 1/30 archive test press, that I was just trying to get an idea from him what a real number he’s looking to get is. Mind you, his ad has no pictures besides a tightly cropped one of the cover, and he also incorrectly states the release year as 20 years later than release, so I’m a little skeptical to begin with but he accepts returns , has 25k+ positive sales, and figure if it works out then great. He doesn’t respond, so I drop it.

A month goes by, still no sale happens at his asking price obviously. I submit a new higher offer, auto decline, again reach out since it’s not prompting him to make a counter offer or anything, and again he says “make an offer.” I basically say I’ve made reasonable offers that are being declined, that he’s never going to get $1000 for it, but I’d love to work something out. All I get back is, “you are blocked.”

Interesting sales tactic I guess.

 

If a buyer makes me an offer below my minimum acceptable price and then follows up complaining, I usually ignore it.

If they contact me and explain why I don't know what I'm doing, they go on my block list.

And I'm a reasonable guy. But that gets under my skin.

I imagine the person you were trying to buy from had the same feeling.

His item might be overpriced, but you aren't going to bully him into changing the price. That just doesn't work--even if you're right about it being overpriced.

 

I mean to each their own, I certainly wasn't bullish or pushy in my messages, it was a legitimate ask since he is asking for $700 over market price, if he said hes looking for $1000 take it or leave it that's totally fine, I'd just walk away. If he said $350 or something I could at least consider it. Since you only have limited offers, and if its below a minimum accepted price it doesn't present a "counteroffer" opportunity, I feel like contacting the seller is well within reason.

I should mention I also didn't jump immediately to telling him that the price was too high, that was a few messages in of him sending the exact same response of "make an offer."

 

I spotted 5 lots of 6 single 45s from the same seller. I sent him a message asking if I bought all of them would he reduce the shipping charges, and got a message back, basically, "No." I just got a real negative feeling about that, so I'm just leaving it alone.

 

I went to a local record show (should state semi-local) , it was a 3 hour one-way drive. 90% of the dealers were selling records (based on condition) , that I would toss in the trash. Ran into a local store owner, and he had the same conclusion. That 90% of these dealer's inventory , would land in his green dumpster. He joked that he would probably be shot , if he sold this type of inventory to his customers. (He does have some real Hot-Heads , that are great customers , at his store)