What's with eBay record sellers? (rant)

Guy, it is a crap-shoot worth shooting for. One of the things I look at is the grading of the cover, and then the picture of the cover. If the cover looks rather worn or trashed, and it is graded VG++ or NM-, then the red flags are raised.

The other thing I do is once I have narrowed it down to the one I think I want, I look at if returns are accepted, and if it is stated, then I will likely take a chance. If returns are not accepted then ebay's buyer protection will likely save you for a loss, in other words, ebay will convince seller to refund regardless of their policy.

So I end up returning 10 to 20% of all LPs bought. You just get used to those odds and lve with it. But like you said, there are some great deals once you learn the sport and learn to spot.

I have learned to keep the email very short when complaining about condition. I get right to the point and try and be nice. I have gotten mostly nice replies back thankfully. One guy did try and string me along hoping the 45 day window would close. He stalled, and then later asked for my paypal information so he could send refund. I told him that he had that info in his email inbox, and then I filed with ebay knowing the deadline was fast approaching.

Final word, kids, stay away from VG+ unless you really know the seller, and their feedback is 100% with hundreds of vinyl sales. It is a high risk grade, same as EX and EX+. Go for NM and NM- and Mint or Still Sealed if you want a better net.

 

^^^ The voice of experience ^^^

I've made about 150 eBay purchases and all but a couple were for LP's so I've rolled the dice quite a few times... not too often in the last couple of years. I've complained and gotten refunds just five or six times (I've had worse experience with Amazon sellers) and there were maybe another six or eight times where the quality of the vinyl was less than hoped. But it looked clean, was listenable, and was a modestly-priced purchase in the first place so I shrugged it off. I don't expect the seller to seriously "play grade" an LP that goes for ten or twelve bucks. Paying high prices for coveted rare pressings of 40-50-year old albums by major artists is a much riskier business and I've never done that.

What you say about the photo of the LP sleeve is very true... it's pretty rare to find a 40-year old NM album in a well-worn jacket. With old albums that were well-loved by the previous owner the groove wear from a Garrard 40B or similar torture wheel is usually the problem. As I said upthread, I usually do vinyl-transfers of the hard-to-find albums that I seek out so occasional ticks and pops aren't a problem... I invariably comb-out lots of barely audible ones along the way; the big easily-heard/easily-spotted ones are no problem.

A grade of VG+ is definitely a "DANGER WILL ROBINSON!" alert although I have had very good luck with B&M thrift shops that annecdotally describe records as being in "very good condition." Again, the picture of the LP sleeve will usually give a good indication.

 

I salute your Zen-like patience. I suppose it's good policy not to expect every LP to be a diamond, but I don't like return hassles and I hate to sacrifice a lunch hour making a trip to the post office.

Regarding UK sellers, I avoid them for two reasons:

1). They do tend to overgrade by my standards, but I think this is a relative crime. I'm guessing that the component stereo boom that hit the US in the late-60's/early-70's didn't happen in England; it was economically prohibitive. Old albums were invariably played on cheap little record players. I bought a number of LP's in Wales during a 2001 visit; they all looked clean, but there was more groove-wear than I expected based on my experiences here in the US.

2). Paypal exchange fees. Between postage and the infernal exchage fee a modestly-priced LP triples in cost.

 

A second thought on this...

Really loud thunder cracks are obviously distrubing, but if that six-revolution cycle is the only thing wrong with the album a VG+ grade is generous in my mind. I'm sure I've gotten similar quality LP's that were graded M, NM, NM- or VG++.

I very rarely got perfect vinyl back when I was buying several new LP's each week. It's not a perfect medium. I would pay double for European imports and even more for Japanese imports of favorite albums in the endless pursuit of clean pressings. Used goods are almost always going to have some wear.

 

Yeah, but there is wear and then there is wear. Some things are much more annoying to some people than other things. In my inner feelings about these things:

Completely unacceptable, record not worth keeping, should be unsaleable: skips that cannot be corrected, warps that cause skips, massive groove wear, off-center pressings that are so far off that pitch variation really is obvious and problematic, gunk on the record that makes me afraid to put my needle on it.

Really problematic, makes the LP much less desirable, but if rare still worth keeping: loud repeating tics for longer than about 3 revolutions, moderate inner groove wear, poor pressing with major non-fill problems, etc.

Not great, but I don't worry about it too much: occasional tics or even one or two loud pops, very mild background noise that is only audible between songs or in extremely quiet parts of songs, almost imperceptible inner groove wear, very slight off-center pressing, warps that don't really affect play, warps that cause a tiny bit of "shushing" sound in the outer grooves,

Record covers I usually don't worry about too much - I'm always happy if the cover is in really nice condition, but I don't usually throw away an album based on the condition of the cover (unless it's really wrecked).

YMMV

 

Your headings could form a new, more realistic record grading system !

 

My new favorite. Guys who pick up stacks of free priority mail boxes at the post office then turn them inside out destroying any integrity the box originally had just to get free boxes.

 

Yes, but my main point was not the unlikely arrival of a nice album in the worn cover, but that the grade given and then the picture discrepancy, can simply be a great indication of a LIAR of a seller. One needs to be able to read through the murk, and discern the condition beyond what is written.

 

once i got tina brooks' true blue on blue note. i think its 4040 .. it was a buy it now...no real info...but looked like the real deal.... for 80 buy it now.

it was the real deal and in great shape...

i sold it a few weeks later for 2000 bucks

i love ebay.. i've scored a lot of great stuff.. and since they changed the feedback system its great for the buyer


but for the seller.. i think the deck is stacked against him... the buyer can leave negative feedback for any reason or no reason and what can the seller do?

 

call eBay and have it removed. The seller can not just leave negative feedback for any reason.

 

I was checking out Deja vu copies on ebay a few minutes ago. Rockstarvinyls has one and the cover is listed VG+. I am still laughing- there is no photo on the album cover- it's gone, the edges are ratty and it looks like someone took a bic pen tube and pounded divots all over the cover both sides. Very good plus? There are 372 other copies to choose from. I e-mailed them about it. Wonder what a straight-up "good" looks like.

 

Can you do that anymore? For the past several years, the post office has imprinted the other side of the cardboard with priority mail...so that even if you reverse the cardboard, it still says Priority (though not in full colors). You can wrap that in mailing paper or tyvec envelopes, of course...

 

You can still take the free boxes, but unless you wrap it in brown paper or whatever, it's still gonna have to go Priority Mail.

 

I know I have had someone do it to me within the past year. Maybe this guy has a huge stockpile of priority mail packages.

 

After winning a record I had suspicions it might not meet the condition described. I emailed the seller and told her if it wasn't up to grade I'd return it.

I paid and received the record, it was ok (not great).
She then gave me the only negative feedback I'd ever received. Her reason: "Seller asks for too much."

 

Um, how does one call eBay these days? (I once had phone numbers for eBay--toll-free, IIRC--but none of them work any longer.)

Do you have phone number(s) for eBay that work these days and you can actually talk to a live person?

 

I called them a few months ago. Google is your friend.

 

I think this seller's definition of "excellent" is not the same as my definition.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BEATLES-HEL...1352269?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item19dec0afcd

 

Tremendous! I've never seen a scratched label before. Frisbee, surely?

Edit to add: $25 to send outside Europe, to boot!

 

Good grief!

 

Holy smokes, that is really bad! How anybody in their right mind could possibly associate the word "excellent" with that is unbelievable!

 

Help! Indeed...

 

OK...I am for once in my life speechless! I didn't know where else to post this but here goes...

I won an eBay auction 2 weeks ago for a sealed MFSL LP of Count Basie's "April in Paris". I paid $50.00 for it but feel that was an excellent price seeing how much opened copies of that can go for. Anyway, the package arrives today and it looked rather large for a single LP (even a MFSL gatefold). Turns out the seller gifted me with a pristine opened copy of the double LP "Lena Horne: A Lady and Her Music"!!!!! I of course thought the seller sent it in error so I contacted him. He advised me that it was a gift and all he asked was for a nice 5 star rating/review. Can you imagine that?

So, I am sharing his seller info with you here in hopes that you ill look at his store and possibly support him for being such a great and generous seller:

Eric Targan of Lake Worth, FL topshelfcollectables 101

I hope I can do this without rattling any feathers here. But this unsolicited generosity has just blown me away!!!