discogs marketplace?

pricing out hundreds of records for a show next month and it really feels like prices are crashing, so much of this stuff (especially any newer reissue type thing) has median values that are half or less of what they cost new

I track the average item value in my collection just out of curiosity, along with a couple other data points, and it has been declining since early this year

I should probably amend the above to "it really feels like used prices are crashing"

on the other side of the equation, those formerly-ubiquitous $1 J.R.R. Tolkien spoken word LPs are now going for $20

There’s a weird thing where former dollar records are now $20 records, $10 records are $5 records, and $5 records are $40 records.

Is there an ilx marketplace

An ilx marketplace would probably involve posting your records for sale, then other users ripping your taste to shreds.

Bring it on.

*cough*

https://www.ilxor.com/ILX/NewAnswersControllerServlet?boardid=1425799748

Well, I already have no taste so tat's ok

reminds me of the days of Audiogalaxy when people could browse yoru peer to peer stuff and some guy left me a message about how shit my taste in music was

thanks for making the world a brighter place

one thing I've noticed is that with the Pound, Euro, and Yen all crashing compared to the US Dollar it's now usually cheaper to import records than it is to buy them domestically. especially if you get a few items at once.

mm maybe not the best time to sell vinyl in general

It's made buying in USD when you're outside the US far too pricey. I can take the hit buying in GBP or Euros but the USD is way too strong against the NZD. Consequently been buying a lot more from Europe and less from the States. Also US shipping prices have never been cost competitive.

But yeah CDs that used to cost like $8 NZD are now close to twice that. Sad Ghost Club. The cheap CD era is ending for now...

I wonder when CDs will stop being produced for major artists

This buyer keeps messaging me over and over complaining about how much tax (probably import duties) he paid for a record he bought. I’m like “I literally don’t know what you want me to do here; take it up with your government.” In sending me the same message repeatedly I think he’s trying to leave feedback but can’t figure out how. Kinda glad of his incompetence, TBH.

Another left me negative feedback because his record hadn’t arrived after 30 days from Canada to UK. Tracked shipping would have been $60 and I told him before it shipped that intercontinental shipping can take up to 3 months (yes, it’s happened).

It’s been many years since I worked retail but I’m getting that old time feeling again of like “Not only is the customer not always right, they’re likely to be a dick.”

Had my first purchase go completely astray in the postal system, and while the seller is being really decent and helpful and chasing it all up, I'm still quietly bummed about the fact that a) he charged £10 P&P for a double album and a single album, but b) didn't send it tracked, only signed-for. £10 feels a lot for postage to not be sending it special delivery or whatever.

postage is expensive unfortunately. people message me for tracking numbers all the time and I'm like did you think you were getting tracked postage for that price, because lol. mind you I'm selling CDs, so I have no idea if £10 is reasonable for 3 LPs or not, does seem a little high.

but yeah, stuff is taking forever to arrive. I had 2 people not get their parcels sent on the same day 1st class 3 weeks ago, 1 of them just arrived on Saturday, the other one still hasn't turned up yet. people in the UK have been OK about it because they know about the strikes, people abroad mostly OK when I explain that but there's a not can be done about it.

Signed and not tracked? Now I've heard it all.

Not discogs but I had a record take three months to get from the US to EU recently.

This was UK address to UK address, and the average postage for 1-3 LPs is usually a fiver. But the guy had two obscure records I wanted for cheap-ish, so I leapt for it. It's been enough weeks now that the post office said they'd send it back to the depot if it was still there unclaimed. He's chasing it on his end and has already offered to reimburse, I just feel a bit like, dude, you were charging twice what you would charge for sending the double LP on its own... It is what it is, just the luck of the draw.

If you're buying on Discogs marketplace, you have to expect that shipping will be costly and take a while. I mostly opt for untracked due to the cost difference. Most things take four to six weeks from Europe, the UK or the US to reach me here in Aotearoa New Zealand. I love buying from German sellers - even the cheap shipping is tracked, and usually arrives within two weeks. I don't mind untracked because it's a nice surprise when it turns up. Mail days are exciting (or disappointing if there's nothing in the mailbox).

My biggest gripe is inadequate packaging to keep the costs down. I've had several CD cases arrived cracked because they've just been shoved between sheets of cardboard with a shitload of packing tape wound around. I mean, come on, just factor in the cost of a proper mailer please...

seems like all the functionality of this idiot website has been taken away from the orders portal. i guess they're spending all their time and resources on their monetized blog. a guy wanted to add another record to the handful he'd already bought and paid for, but he accidentally "offered" the wrong amount. all i can do was decline? awesome. so i told him to just "buy" the record and i'd change the price and shipping on my end. no, that's not possible either. just totally moronic. i had to request the money via paypal and cut discogs out of the transaction. morons.

It's frustrating to be unable to merge orders from the same buyer after they've paid for both orders. I think that used to be a thing... I don't remember for sure. Either way, Discogs should enable it going forward.

i started selling on discogs in 2014. i can no longer remember exactly what it used to be like. but i do know that i used to be able to manually change the status of my orders. the fact that i can't do that anymore really bugs me.

Why though?

Is it like the stage of 'ok, I see your order and will get on with it now' stage 2?

What I do remember back then, pre-paypal, was wondering if I set up as a seller that accepted credit card payments, would that put me ahead of sellers that don't?

Well, yeah it would have, probably. But not for long..

a Netflix show where contestants, the best of the Discogs community, have to determine if a record is M, NM, VG+, or Cake

— Tabs Out (checkmark viewable upon request) (@tabsout) December 2, 2022

lol.

sorry that i didn't reply, Mark G. just trying to keep my blood pressure down. my revive was classic rageposting

np

I ordered from a first-time seller who charged me $6 to ship two records — however, he sent them via UPS rather than Media Mail (with no notice of this ahead of time whatsoever) and is now asking for me to venmo him the $8 difference since he paid UPS $14 to ship two records domestically. How would you all handle this?

lol he's out of line. Learning experience for him.

Let him know about media mail maybe

Gently reiterate the agreed upon shipping expectation while informing him of the common practice so he doesn't make that mistake going forward? Sympathetic tone overall without further acknowledging the venmo request and maybe he'll give up and accept it as a learning experience?

Yeah, when I've shipped stuff and my post/packing prices have proved to be somewhat out of date, it's a case of ok, let's review. I did tell one purchaser "I'd have made more profit if I'd left it out for the binmen" one time, but that was more humour than bitterness.

venmo your regrets

I got completely screwed on an order to Poland last week, the postage was £30 more than I charged. I'm not sure how I managed to cock that up so badly, unless the Royal Mail changed their services or something. They ordered 26 CDs which came to about £90 so I still got £60 (minus Discogs/Paypal fees of course). Maybe I misread the price list because I thought the price only went up stupidly over 3kg but it's actually 2kg, and this order was 2.4kg :(

Anyway as I told the buyer on that one, it's the seller's problem, if they undercharge for the postage that's too bad for them.

Too late for this time, but in this situation it can often cheaper to split the order into 2 separate deliveries.

Is it effete coastal snobbery to expect records to be cleaned before they are shipped? Been getting a lot of purchases lately that are covered in dust, fingerprints, etc. Like, how did you even grade this record with all the dust on it?

unless it was a cheap "G" grade, that is strange

The lowest grade I'll go for an online purchase is Very Good.

god what a snob

I'm a buyer in Europe and I recently ordered an item from the UK. The seller says he can't ship it at the moment because the Royal Mail is advising people not to send any packages overseas at the moment due to some kind of cyber attack. Is this reasonable? I don't mind waiting a bit but I hope this situation resolves itself soon.

it's a bit of a nightmare situation with no news as to when it might be resolved.

if it isn't resolved for a long time i guess your seller will have to investigate alternative shipping methods.

Yep it’s reasonable; that cyber attack issue has been all over the UK news and it’s affected all outgoing mail. I’d assume it does’t affect courier shipping where Royal Mail/Parcelforce isn’t a factor, though.

Amazing how many people — and particularly how many Discogs sellers — don’t have a clue that cleaning vinyl is the best and cheapest sonic upgrade you can make.

Spinclean ftw

i was collecting in some form for close to 20 years before I got a SpinClean, though I definitely did some moderate fooling around with a Dishwasher brush. just didn't really know about it, or thought all record cleaning meant elaborate and expensive vacuum systems or whatever. it's easy to just not know this stuff.... I feel like every good-sized record store should become a SpinClean dealer, have them up at the register, idk.

Yeah, I've got a knock-off Spinclean (Studebaker). Thinking about upgrading to an ultrasonic cleaner at some point for extra sparkly records. It's just a pain in the ass to have to bust it out and wash and dry a bunch of records before I can even see if they even play well before I give a seller feedback on the purchase.

xp: these were definitely from high-volume sellers, not dudes selling off their living room collection or whatever.

I've got an ultrasonic, you can get them relatively cheaply (like $150 or so) and it does work wonders....sometimes. I guess it all depends on what kind of junk is on the LP. It's always more of a hassle than I remember though

anyone ever have luck using the toothpick method with scratches? I have new one record with a scratch that's maybe an inch long. you can see a bump on the edge so something happened on manufacturing. it clicks for about 4 minutes. too late to return it now (though I always feel guilty about doing this), wondering if there's anything that can be done.

are ultrasonic cleaners quieter than the vacuum ones?