discogs marketplace?

I did some adding to my inventory, and things are moving now. I did sell a bunch of "God save the Queen" sex pistols things, so I guess you could call that 'seasonal'

is the site plagued with glitches the past few days or is it just me?

I find:

The drop-down when you search for items is very hit and miss. Sometimes it lets you click on an item on the list and off it goes, sometimes you can down-arrow and <CR>, and sometimes you can't do either and you have to hit the "Search".

And as for the new filter on the "All Versions", well...

I've had that happen for months now but I need to update my browser

I'm also a buyer not a seller, and I'm often put off buying by the ridiculously high prices some sellers charge for rare items. Would they rather stuff sits there at $200 waiting for the unlikely eventuality that a collector will come along and pay that price for it? Or would they rather drop the price to below $100 in which case I would bite their arm off? Apparently it's the former.

Yeah, I have a bunch of stuff that I'd rather not sell, but if someone wants to pay xxxxx for it, then fine. Most of the rest are priced at "reasonable", some are priced "cheap to sell".

It's quite frustrating that you can't make a counter offer to sellers and can only accept or reject. Had a few which were just a little too low.

To buyers, not sellers, I meant.

I didn't even know until just now that there were listings that enabled the buyer to make an offer. All the listings for stuff I've been interested in buying, but have been put off by ridiculously high prices, were fixed price sales.

It's quite frustrating that you can't make a counter offer to sellers and can only accept or reject. Had a few which were just a little too low.

I've had quite a few direct messages requesting certain items at a lower price. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

As a buyer, I don't understand why you won't accept an offer that's significantly below the asking price. Do you really think some well-heeled collector is going to come along and pay the asking price? Because I can assure you they're not.

I will usually make offers at median sale price or near the last sold price for a similarly graded copy. I'm about 50/50 on sellers accepting my offers. When they don't accept my offer, I just mutter to myself that I hope they choke to death on their inventory. Works for me.

I'm sure you can put your super powers to better use than that...

USPS raised postal rates again, less than a year since their previous increase. This time the reason given is inflation.

New prices that have been in effect as of this past Sunday:

The first-class mail (1 oz.) letter rate for postage purchased at the post office: increased two cents to $0.60. Each additional ounce will cost $0.24.
The “metered mail” rate for first-class mail (1 oz.) letters: increased four cents to $0.57.
First-class mail flats/large envelopes (1 oz.): increased four cents to $1.20. Each additional ounce will cost $0.24.
First-class mail international (1 oz.): increased 10 cents to $1.40.
Postcards: increased four cents to $0.44.
First-class mail international (1 oz.): increased 10 cents to $1.40.
Certified mail: increased by 25 cents to $4.00.
Media mail: increased by 9% to $3.49.

On the other hand, standards for Retail Ground and Parcel Select Ground products will be accelerated starting August 1. The current standards will be shifted from two-to-eight days to two-to-five days, so at least we get that.

Is selling a good experience like 90% of the time? I’ve been sitting on two boxes of records that I’ve been “planning” to sell for two years now because for some reason I’m still intimidated by selling records online. I don’t know why because I’m sure it’s as easy as packing them up and shipping them off in most cases.

I think so. If it wasn't, I don't think Discogs would have taken off and remained so popular. I usually don't sell any vinyl or anything that valuable so I'm not sure if those are prone to issues with buyers who are more particular about condition, etc.

mostly yeah. have had 2 parcels go missing since I started in January but that's out of about 130 orders. I get the odd weirdo messaging me asking for photos and asking me to confirm the CD I'm selling is the same version as the listing I'm selling it as but I just ignore them, take it as a bad sign they are going to be a PITA and would rather not sell to them. I could understand it if it was some big ticket item but for a £3.99 CD fuck off. (they are all the versions I've listed them as that's the fucking point of Discogs)

of course Discogs is currently down for me, so not a great experience right now

Well the site's pretty f***ed at the moment, unless they're emulating ILX's minimalist approach to style sheets.

For me, selling has been a good experience 99% of the time, if not more. Whereas buying has been more like 70%, if that. Most people are OK. I don’t mind being asked for photos, but admittedly it has always been for pricey vinyl, not cheapo CDs!

Hey sellers, when something you're shipping gets damaged in the mail it's pretty bad form to ghost a buyer who wants to send the product back for a refund right? Even though this guy's shipping policy says he's not responsible for damaged items, Paypal has its own rules that says he is (and, in general, if you're selling things online you just need to factor in that sometimes a thing will get damaged and you'll just have to eat the cost).

But yeah, do you guys usually accommodate a buyer who wants to return the item or do you just move on since you've already been paid?

(to be clear, I'm the buyer here—record is still sealed, and I'm not going to open it up, but the spine of the cover got all mashed up and is unreadable now.)

When i'm a buyer who receives an item that was damaged in the mail, i let the seller know, see if they'll offer a refund, but do not expect it. It isn't their fault it got damaged. If the packaging was shit, like some Uk sellers like to use those flimsy envelopes for their shipments, then I'd feel they were responsible. Otherwise, shit happens and it isn't the sellers fault the mail carriers are workign shit jobs for shit pay and don't give a fuck about our packages.

I wouldn’t think to blame the seller for damages occurring during shipping. Isn’t that what shipping insurance or whatever is for anyway? Maybe if they packed it poorly or something. I received an LP last year where it appeared to have been shot at or something in transit (hole completely through the mailer and record) and just chalked it up to the USPS

Well, I did ask first about sending it back (twice) and got *crickets* so that's when I leveled up an opened a Paypal case. Treat me like shit and I'll reciprocate.

lol sorry if that sounded all harsh and judgemental <3

That worked. He agreed to take it back and Paypal now apparently will reimburse you for up to 12 returns a year, so if I can figure out how to do that I'll be out exactly zero dollars.

Nope, never mind. Reimbursement for returns is only for personal accounts and I have a business account for some reason. Oh well.

Buyer-side question:

I ordered a record that seemed to be described as XTC’s GO2 with the GO+ EP included. The seller got back to me and said “aw, geez, postal rates went up last week and I have to charge you 10euro more than you were automatically charged.” I said “*silent grrr*” “alright, sounds fair. Hey, just to confirm, this includes both records described, right?” The seller then cancelled the order and sent me a refund with no further communication. I’ve refrained from leaving feedback or contacting him again, but as I was just cleaning up my purchase history I ran across this transaction & was rankled all over again … is this something that deserves neg feedback, or what would you do in this situation?

Canceled with no further communication? As a buyer, I would totally give negative feedback for that.

why? they sent the refund!

yeah I mean if it’s just some person and not a store, life happens, idk, I’d leave it

Saying they "have" to charge more for postage because they failed to keep their prices up to date is shitty and against site terms AFAIK.

Did they at least cancel it as "unavailable" or was it "per buyer's request"?

Item unavailable.

I’d leave a neutral end explain what happened just so it’s documented.

^

yeah that seems fair

Clearly they figured they were sparing both of you the trouble once you pointed out they didn't even have a complete product on top of the shipping increase.

well, HD asked the question anyway! seller then evaporated, which is rude and shady.

why? they sent the refund!

― thinkmanship (sleeve), Friday, August 12, 2022 11:23 AM (fifty-four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Because people should have complete communications and not leave a buyer sitting there in the dark wondering what happened.

sure but actual negative feedback seems harsh there, somebody needs to rip me off before I do that

The positive/negative/neutral system just isn't great overall... tons of these edge cases. Too late to change it now, the whole site's built around it. Also, as a buyer, I'm usually just going to skim the negatives and make sure there are no red flags. But something like HD's experience - which probably does belong in "neutral" - is also something I'd care about.

In practice, the best thing you can do for yourself is only buy from people who, if they've got a lot of transactions, have over a 99% positive rating.

this seller seems a bit thick, I couldn’t imagine having g the stones to ask for more $, lol wonder what his vinyl grading is like

Neutral feedback is useful for these cases. I've only left neutral once - for a seller who had five items out of stock (and issued a partial refund), then tried to get me to accept the CDs without jewel cases because he hadn't factored in shipping cost increases. Sorry, not my problem. Then the jewel cases arrived all smashed up because he packed them like an idiot. All of this could have been avoided if the seller had kept proper inventory and up to date shipping costs. In the end the CDs were as described (apart from the smashed cases) so I was satisfied. Won't be buying from that seller again, though.

I think neutral was appropriate because it wasn't a terrible trade - but also wasn't great. And other buyers need to be aware it could if be a frustrating experience.

I should add all my other Discogs experiences have been great. The best sellers tend to grade conservatively - I've received many CDs and LPs graded VG+ that were closer to NM.

Shipping costs and the weak New Zealand dollar have put me off buying much lately though.

I ordered a PM Dawn LP from Italy that showed up at my house 4 days after I paid. The shipping was $10. I have no idea what they did, or how they did it, but it was amazing. I ordered a PM Dawn 12" at the same time from a US seller and his item arrived 10 days after the item from Italy.

Wild! I've heard horror stories about the Italian mail system, so I've only ordered from there once. It arrived in a reasonable timeframe, but there was no tracking on it so I was on pins and needles. 4 days is crazy.

I've never left a neutral or negative feedback...usually I'll just forego feedback at all if I was underwhelmed with the experience...but the one time I left a little bit of criticism in a POSITIVE feedback the seller freaked out and left a rude reply and banned me from ever buying from him again. All I said was that a cover with water stains on it shouldn't be graded NM.

does anyone in usa have experience buying records from jamaica?

i am not concerned about the seller (what little negative feedback there is seems to revolve around condition of records and not getting how tropical climates affect vinyl) but i am wondering if their postal service is relatively reliable? seems like proximity to gulf states would make it not too challenging to get records over safely

This is a first: I got a porn spam through the messaging service. I didn’t know anyone could contact you outside of a transaction?

look maybe Emilyxs just really wants to show you her nudes, it’s possible

I think everyone got it! also, what's up with this new "Add Friend" function?

Haha, reminds that awhile back I saw somewhere that Playboy had done a SFW shoot with an influencer wearing a skimpy outfit while looking at used records.