discogs marketplace?

this was eBay but i had a guy win a bid for an album and then he completely ghosted, just never paid me. After a couple months i left negative feedback and he left negative feedback for me, saying not only had he paid but he had the record in his possession. like he was trying to "Robert Blake in Lost Highway" me via an Underworld 12".

weird thing is the guy had positive feedback, 100%, a couple hundred transactions' worth. but after that one with me there were a few more left on his page with the same issue. must have lost his mind.

Recently I bought a new CD from a shop on eBay that turned out to be a CDr, as well as the digipak being damaged in the post - it did have a tire mark on it but too many people seem to think a padded envelope is adequate.

I wanted to contact them but ended up starting the return process automatically so I guess they just got charged straight away for tracked return post. Not quite my intention initially although I wasn't happy with it, especially as I have the release on Bandcamp anyway.

Not sure if there's a point to this tale.

Here's how i break it down

M - doesn't exist but I guess you can use this for new things
NM - the best
VG+ - would be NM apart from a couple minor things
VG - average. There's a wide spectrum of subconditioning within the VG realm. Very dangerous.
G - beat up
F - worthless
P - worthless

If something is missing a disc there is no way in hell it can be mint near mint very good. Maybe good?

Half the media is gone. If I cut the cover in half and throw half of it away, I'm not going to say that the remaining half is mint. That's crazy.

M - sealed
NM - no marks, no sound issues
VG+ - marks, but no sound issues
VG - sound issues that don't overwhelm
G+ - sound issues that overwhelm
F/P - jumps, sticks, cracked, warp that affects play etc etc

When listing a VG or G+ for sale, I always describe the sound issues in detail. Sometimes a VG will just have a bit of brief, light intro crackle.

I bought an original UK MC5 "Kick out the jams" recently, it was listed as P. (poor) but I thought hey...

Anyway, yeah it's worn and the sleeve is well worn, but not torn and the LP plays well, bit crackly but hey.. Or indeed ramalama..

Anyway, I sell a fair bit on Discogs, most are listed as vg+, I'm not checking every LP and CD

I do check before sending, if I'm in doubt about the condition or the version. I get a few that say no I wanted 'that' version so I refund. Most say they don't mind.

Condition is all in the eye of the beholder...

M = "still shrink wrapped"
NM = "if I bought this new in a shop, I would be OK with it"

VG+ = Yeah, owned clearly but no visible damage and a minor LP markings it's seen oxygen.

VG covers a multitude of sins but it depends on the music...

yeah I've def taken a punt before on things the seller presumably considered effectively unplayable and found them to be basically OK

I play-grade every record I sell, before listing it. Not all the way through, but always at the start of each side (the biggest danger zone), then a few places in the middle, plus if a mark looks significant then I'll play that section as well. With CDs, it's much the same. I'm also rigorous about listing the correct version. It takes longer, but it's helped to keep my feedback at 100% positive, after 1800+ orders in the last two years. Considering how much of my monthly income comes from Discogs sales, that feels like time well spent; even if I dipped to 99.9%, I'd lose out on some orders. (As a buyer, I've had so many over-gradings that I'll now only purchase from 100% sellers, and I suspect many others do the same.)

I doubt you lose out on some orders, and in truth we'll never know

I play-grade every record I sell, before listing it. Not all the way through, but always at the start of each side (the biggest danger zone), then a few places in the middle, plus if a mark looks significant then I'll play that section as well.

Hats off to you! I've been back on a vinyl kick for the past several months, and in addition to hitting up local shops and record shows, I spend a bit of time comparison shopping online. With vinyl being the hot thing right now, I can't begin to tell you how many merchants on Ebay mention something along the lines of "I don't own a record player, so I sight grade only etc."--and not all of 'em are weekend warrior types selling off inherited collections. Would it seriously put them out too much to go pick up at least a Crosley or other, better, entry-level players to spot check for skips and hiss on?

Can you call a NM album if it has "only been played on a Crossley"?

I think that's an instant P tbh

I've been doing a discogs store for the last couple of months as a bit of a lark and a way to extend record collecting as a hobby, and it's been a blast. I'm very, very small scale - just shy of 300 listings, but proud of my 100% positive feedback. Anyway, I get an inquiry from a guy who wants me to listen to 3 of my listed LPs (VG+ all) and tell him if they've got surface noise, with the enticement that if they're quiet enough he's interested in buying a bunch more from me. Because I've got the day off, I listen to all 3 through, report back that these VG+ records have just as many light bits of noise as you'd expect them to... ie, they sound good and within the realm of the condition listed. He writes me back and tells me they're "not clean enough for us". I look him up and he's one of these sellers that go after the Steve Hoffman Red Hot Stampers crowd, and he's looking to turn my $5 MJQ record into a $250 boutique item. Anyway, good riddance.

Aside from that everyone I've sold to has been super cool and excited to get the stuff I send to them. I doubt I'll ever make money off it, but it's a lot of fun.

https://blog.discogs.com/en/10-expensive-post-rock-records/

is this a new thing or part of a series which I've just noticed now (appeared top right of my homepage)

writing has a proper work experience kid feel to it and all the TOP PRICES are in fact dickhead chancers listing records at several times the actual going rate, why give them any credence

Yeah, the "Earth 2" cassette promo, listed at £190, top price actually sold at £45

Yeah seems to be Discogs trying to hype up the value of releases by about 1000%. For comparison, I just sold a copy of that Swans Love Of Life box for £40 on Ebay, admittedly not with the poster or extra LP. And the guy trying to sell it on Discogs for £400 is based in Russia. Not that that makes it automatically dodgy. Actually, yes it does.

They're a funny bunch sometimes, but the lack of public facing slickness, the slight ineptitude, it's kind of reassuring in a way. They still seem to genuinely care about the database mission despite the marketplace presumably generating the vast proportion of income. The guy that owns it has probably done unexpectedly well out of it and doesn't seem to have got greedy.

Possibly that sounds a bit condescending.

I guess you lot would like it if they hired some writers, which is fair enough.

I think they hired a PR firm to help them out a while back, hence the blogging/promo stuff.

I have sold and bought from/to Russia, its been fine.

“I hope the Russians grade their vinyl too”

as of right now it's a very useful and friendly site, which you can't say about many monetized internet sites that have been around as long.

forums are full of absolute mentalists arguing in third languages, but most of them are arguing towards the same principles so it tends to be Highly Fraught but not actually aggressive

oh i've never touched the forms, perhaps that explains why i'm so sanguine about the site. i'm not sure i even knew there were forums?

vinyl hospital group might be useful but idk people have weird ideas

Be prepared for strong opinions about mould variants.

forums are full of absolute mentalists arguing in third languages, but most of them are arguing towards the same principles so it tends to be Highly Fraught but not actually aggressive

board description etc

Since when have Swans been post-rock? And Earth?

And even Slint. They are on every post rock best of list, but surely they are "just" rock? Riffs and hooks. Kinetic energy.

Just started using this. How long is it normal to wait for sellers to add the shipping information?

day or 2 usually

If it goes a week without hearing anything about shipping I'll send the seller a message to remind/ask what's up.

Cool. I'm not anxious about it or anything. Just wanted to get the general vibe of how long it is before someone is dicking around.

So I bought a record off discogs a few weeks back, paid via paypal straight away, but it still says "payment pending", even though the money has left my paypal account. i've contacted the seller twice about this and they've not replied - they have 100% approval as a seller tho. i'm guessing they're possibly just away or not checking messages, but i'm not sure what to do next. i've found the seller on discogs - he even has his discogs page on his bio - is it crepey to contact him via that? tho he doesn't seem v active there, either. i just don't want to take it to making complaint or getting paypal refund if it can be solved a better way.

Where are you shipping to/from?

from UK to Uk - literally, it seems, a couple of miles up the road

did you mean to say Facebook or something? otherwise, you found the discogs seller's discogs page, well top sleuthing there ;)

if it's been a few weeks I'd message them wherever (tbh I'd've probably raised a Paypal dispute by that time if they're not responding on discogs)

Ha! Yes, sorry, found them on Twitter. Will hit 'em up via there.

Have you checked the seller's terms? There may be something at the top, along the lines of "I'm away on holiday for two weeks"...

Only seller's terms are "Orders will be cancelled if payment is not received within 7 days." Hollow laugh.

Sounds like a lapsed seller- I’ve seen some people who have great ratings up to a point and then they just crash.

You definitely should have had some follow up by now. Good luck my friend

I had a 19 day wait from a low volume seller (been on there for years but only sold a handful of things). He'd gotten logged out so he wasn't getting notifications or some such, but when he logged back in and he had a paid order waiting he apologized profusely and everything went smoothly from there.

I have an order from 2017 still listed as "Payment Pending" and I got the LP in a timely manner. I think it's just the seller didn't update the status.

Yeah that would be my guess, I'd just ask for tracking

i very occasionally sell on discogs and i've found their notifications of some things hit and miss, as in, I didn't always get emails about things. the message would be in discogs if I logged in and looked, but if I'm not paying particular attention I could miss something for weeks.

I always get all of mine by email - minus the types that I've opted out of (mostly database notifications) - but if a buyer isn't responding to messages, I'll double up with a direct email to them - it often does the trick.

I just sold a record for £1*, packed it in a decent mailer with bubblewrap and a stiffener (and a new inner sleeve) and shipped it for next day delivery. Now *that's* service, if I do say so myself ;-)

* yes not really worth it, but the lower value items often help sweeeten bigger deals as add ons. Although they do now allow sellers to stipulate minimum order requirements.

That's commendable. I sent a Photek CD to Japan the other day, price £3. I wonder whether it's really worth it sometimes but would agree with your disclaimer.