discogs marketplace?

Does it not? I uninstalled the app years ago having hardly used it. The mobile site works OK for me.

New way to return records just dropped. pic.twitter.com/fZyXIzhHcs

— Run For Cover (@rfcrecords) January 25, 2021

this was listed as "Very Good Plus"

https://i.imgur.com/riJPa2j.jpg

I'd hate to see what "Very Good" looks like!

lol oh geez. I got a copy of Aladdin Sane a few weeks ago where the ostensibly VG+ sleeve has a bunch of brown stains and water damaged inserts :-( I really don’t mind ring wear/shelf wear etc but stains etc is a dealbreaker
the disc sounds incredible but if anyone has a spare Aladdin Sane gatefold hmu

not discogs but on ebay the other day i almost pulled the trigger on something billed as VG+, until i happened to scan through the sellers explanation of his grading scale, which also included VG++, NM--(wtf?), NM-, NM, NM+, M-, and M. no other explanation for such inanity other than just straight up trying to scam people.

FFS

protip: if there's any doubt, it's fucking VG

seriously these people grade records like they're judging the NBA dunk contest

good news is you can generally Elmer's glue something like that back together, not sure if it's gonna hold but I guess we'll find out. and the record itself sounds pretty good, hard to ask for more from a $15 VdGG album

double sided tape is good to fix split sleeve ime

Oh, yes I've used gentle kid's paper / craft glue very sparingly and left to dry with some pressure applied for a few hours to put sleeves back together successfully.

gluestick imo

The number of times I've bought stuff graded as "P" or "G", things that would otherwise be fortunes, and found.. Yeah bit crackly but alright actually.

"also, nobody ever buy anything from Giantleech on Discogs, awful troll and Trump supporter"

how do you even know this? does he fill his shipments with Trump stickers or something?

from folks who knew him on the Waxidermy board

^ slightly before my time lol

actually i disagree about that van der graf record. i think with the european-style sleeves it's really common for the glue to give out even when the rest of the jacket is in really nice shape -- no ring wear, no tears, etc. doesn't mean it needs a demotion. if somebody had repaired that sleeve before shipping you probably wouldn't have noticed -- but now you have the privilege of choosing your own glue brand (i would use elmer's school glue fwiw) and taking care to do a nice neat job, which is p cool imo

well, what i mean to say is that when a european-style sleeve like that, with the interior folds that are glued together -- when those come apart i don't think it's AUTOMATICALLY a demotion. looking at the photo, frogbs, i'm not actually sure i'd say that is VG+ (need more light imo). but as a seller i would've mentioned both the stains and the undone seams, because i'm courteous and like to use the "Description" box as much as possible to avoid misunderstandings.

true, it doesn't have ring wear or any big rips, but one of the corners (which you can't see on the picture) is pretty crinkled, there's writing on the back, the spine is basically unreadable...even if it wasn't split in half I wouldn't say it's "VG+"

looking at the order, it does kinda mention it:

beautiful copy!! Actual greade closer to EX. Mercury inner sleeve. Initials/name written on labels and jacket in pen. Jacket glue failing/separating, but easily fixable - no splits or cutouts - on sale!

I took that to mean it was starting to come apart, not that it was split all the way lol

either way I used some Elmer's glue and that seemed to work. I don't feel swindled or anything, it was a $15 copy of Still Life and it plays well so it's kind of a bargain. still pretty clear that it was "on sale" because the jacket was so rough

Kinda unreal that something with writing on labels & jacket could be considered a “beautiful copy”

Got a positive review this week, "records look great!" when one of them had this cosmetic scuffing all over one side, and since it didn't affect the sound i said NM...... i graded that a long time ago and wouldn't have been so generous now. Lucky he was happy with it.

I’d really like Discogs to adopt an EX rating between VG+ and NM, although grade inflation & abuse in the existing system would probably only compound. If spindle-marks alone are enough to downgrade a record from NM, yet VG allows scratches “that can be felt with a fingernail,” then VG+ is just too broad a grade.

would help the dilettantes like me for sure

How's shipping vinyl from the UK to US going these days? There's a 7" I want (Nots - "Reactor (Mikey Young Remix)") that only seems to be available from UK sellers and it's already more expensive than is justifiable, I'd hate to have it show up warped or broken.

Neither of the UK sellers of that 12” are offering you surface mail as an option, even though it’s much cheaper; I’d be charging you £8.45, whereas these sellers are charging you more than double that.

If you’re OK with the slower service (it goes by ship, not by plane, and typically takes 4 to 8 weeks), you could message the sellers and ask them to quote a rate for it (it’s also known here as International Economy).

Most UK sellers don’t offer this rate, because it can’t be processed seamlessly through PayPal in the usual way; we have to use Royal Mail Click and Drop instead. But since I made it my default for overseas sales, my US trade has been brisk.

Hmm, will have to look into that.

I don't offer it for EU sales, as the cost saving is minimal, but it's the default for everywhere else. It's the same rate for all countries; there's no extra premium for the US, unlike the other rates. It's important to set expectations as to the slow delivery and lack of tracking, though - I've added warning text to my seller terms, and I paste some standard wording to buyers when setting the order to Shipped. If you don't do that, you'll have a steady stream of "where it it?" messages.

Oh I'm getting that now, thankfully everyone has received their stuff eventually

I just get the 'what's the tracking number?' and I'm like 'you didn't ask for tracking in the first place!'

I might well do tracking for £50+ orders, but for five cd's, each £2? C'mon!

...an EX rating between VG+ and NM...VG allows scratches “that can be felt with a fingernail,” then VG+ is just too broad a grade.

VG allows for groove wear FFS! And because the VG+ is unclear about minor surface noise it's often claimed that VG+ must play "perfectly" whatever that means. I do actually follow this as far as possible when grading and I'm sure as a result many of my VGs are equivalent to Near Mints elsewhere.

Which is to say I agree, an EX grade would suit me as I am very partiular about NM, never use M for vinyl and downgrade VG+ at more than a hint of crackle, which is galling given the reality of a lot of new vinyl.

xp: Here's a tip re. tracking numbers: US buyers, and possibly some other overseas buyers too, can often use the bar code number from the shipping label to track their packages once they've arrived in the US. Alternatively, if you're using pre-printed adhesive CN22 forms as supplied by your post office, they also have bar code numbers. I supply either or both of these to buyers when setting the order to Shipped, along with some standard copy/paste text explaining when they can be used. Again, it manages expectations and prevents a lot of subsequent messaging.

I only use M if the vinyl is still sealed. I grade VG+ if there's no surface noise whatsoever, occasionally making an exception for light and brief introductory crackle, but I'll also explain that in the description. I'll also grade some 7"s as VG+ if the B-sides have surface noise, but only where I think the B-sides are likely to have little interest, and again that will be explained in the description. Sometimes I'll grade a record with no surface noise as VG if the playing surface is significantly marked, and I'll always downgrade to VG if there's writing/stickers/damage to the label - but in the latter case, I'll start the description with "VG+ except for...."

This thing of no surface noise whatsoever. It's rare if not nonsexistent especially with nu-vinyl. There's no threshold defined. I use headphones, any noise is completely apparent, not least because it is mostly distributed very widely in stereo. If I used speakers at a moderate level with background city noise I could say there was "no surface noise whatsoever".

This kind of thing is a terrible crime for some - https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/413610?page=16#8368827

But it's not necessarily counter to the actul grading definitions. So yes, an EX grade and a more clearly defined VG+ and less broad VG would be good.

I take the high road on grading as far as I can and I'm very particular with these things by temperament but we're up against hoardes of sellers who don't give a damn or genuinely think mouldy old bangers are mint. It's a little galling at times.

For assessing surface noise, I use speakers at quite a loud level with no background noise. I work in a semi-underground room on a quiet street with no adjoining neighbours, so it's feasible. My decks are very sensitive to surface noise, and so I've often ruffled the feathers of sellers whose gradings I've politely disagreed with. But so far, after four and a half years of selling and about 8000 records shifted, I've had my gradings disputed maybe 4 or 5 times, and I've never yet had neutral or negative feedback from vinyl buyers (only from CD buyers, the picky bastards).

M = 'sealed'
NM = 'would not complain if I bought it new from the shop and it was like this'
Vg+ = 'pretty decent, obviously been played a bit but generally fine. Might have a click or two, but c'mon it's a record!'
Vg = 'seen action but it's effect is ignorable, to me anyway.'
G = 'bad'
P = 'use as sandpaper or for taking to Woody Bop Murray's record graveyard'

G+ = it plays without skipping or sticking, but there's no ignoring that crackle.

mike t-diva gets it, that is correct grading

Kinda unreal that something with writing on labels & jacket could be considered a “beautiful copy”

depends on context sorta... if it's a record released in 2015 then writing on the jacket knocks the grading way down, but if you're talking about some self-released psych LP from 1970 where only like six copies are known to exist, that IS a beautiful copy

tbh if the writing is neat enough it rarely phases me, especially when it's pen. it's the scrawling, inconsiderate marker writing that really bums me out.

i have a don cherry record on MPS which i bought in france from a shop that had acquired the collection of a recently-deceased music journalist. the liner notes have neat underlining and there were french translations of words and phrases scribbled into the margins -- to me that's just part of the provenance, you know? like i wouldn't consider the jacket to be VG

I got a digipak in the mail on Friday with sleeve condition described as "NM" that had clearly been stored in a fishtank since it was purchased, but for five bucks who cares

if it's not a rare album I kinda like the writing on the jacket - I have XTC & Gordon Lightfoot records with favorite songs & lyrics circled in the insert, a bunch of Utopia records with the previous owner's name written on the front, some King Crimson LPs with "Stefano" written in Sharpie...its kinda cool to feel some sort of connection with the previous owner. but it should knock the price down a buck or two, come on

There’s a ton of records circulating in my hometown with PICKLES scrawled across the front covers in sharpie.

I remember buying this on Discogs and being surprised when it arrived because the listing hadn't disclosed anything about writing on the cover. In most cases, I'd be a little mad about it, but I legit laughed out loud when I opened the box this one was in. Boss move, "P.M."

https://i.imgur.com/5ctzvb2.jpg

lmao that got me

that's "mint" in the other sense

hahahahaha

Someone sold me a sealed NM/NM copy of the new Bicep 3LP and 2 of the 4 corners were bent / creased. I let it go but I wanted to leave neutral feedback since the description didn't say anything about it and the box it was shipped in did not cause the damage. Complaining about bent corners is a bit picky but it did irritate me.

I don’t mind wear on jackets, but stains are kinda a deal breaker for me and sorry I feel like a dick but ppls names and writing creeps me out kinda :-/