discogs marketplace?

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?

I’ve bought records that looked clean but had major issues and records that were dusty and obviously never cleaned but were immaculate once cleaned. I’d much rather clean the record myself than have someone do a superficial cleaning that doesn’t actually do anything then say the record is NM. I would much rather they play grade the record than actually clean it.

all of y'all's discussion of ultrasonic experiences in Cleaning Records has definitely made me want to own one someday. would need to be living somewhere with a dedicated "workroom" though. as it is we barely have enough cabinet space for plates and cups, so it's hard to justify big, bulky, industrial-looking gadgets. sigh!

mine takes up the whole basement bar when I do it, because I also put it through a cheap spin clean that I bought years ago, then dry it before leaving it on the rack. as far as noise I would guess it's quieter than a vacuum but it's probably a bit more obnoxious. it kinda sounds like a tattoo parlor. bzzzt bzzt bzzzzzzzttt

unfortunately I find myself having to use it on new records a lot. some of them are just weirdly noisy right out of the shrink, for example my copy of Can Live in Brighton was full of crackle which I am guessing was the result of extra PVC getting in the grooves; when I cleaned it it sounded a lot better. but others you just can't do much about, I have a few new records that have this intermittent scraping sound, it's almost like velcro. I am guessing that is non-fill? that I don't think you can do anything about and it sucks b/c often this means other copies of that pressing have the same issue.

I shipped a CD to a seller in the States and later that day the announcement about the cyber attack broke. No idea if he's going to get it any time soon. Switched overseas shipping off temporarily.

I had a quick look at alternatives but they were super expensive, £20 to ship a CD etc. Unless someone knows a cheap shipper.

Frogbs I know a dealer who swears by the toothpick method. Never been confident enough to try it myself (altho I should just take an old Percy Faith record and practice on it I guess)

https://www.instagram.com/tv/CYCxwtgJ_gW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

When you get a new record that’s defective, some folks have been known to buy a copy from Amzn and then return the defective one for credit. Obviously this only works with in-print stuff.

Ooo, I'm going to try that on a couple skips that have been bugging me.

just bought a supposedly NM- 70s jazz record from a dude with very good feedback. i've actually bought from this seller before. price was about what i would expect to pay for a VG+ with a G+ cover. the cover turned out to be G+ (i.e. good enough) and the record looks VG, but after trying the first track sounded VG+ with some loud pops. okay, i'll give it a good clean and we'll see what happens.

turns out there's a hard skip on both sides, only one of the two was a speck of dust that popped out with a fingernail. the other is a near-invisible scratch running in the direction of the grooves. ok, so i guess i'll message the guy

he writes back "well, i would say return it, but i'm about to leave the country for 10 weeks. and i'm very surprised - it sure LOOKED NM when i LOOKED at it!"

i'm not sure how you even respond to this or what this person is trying to say. i said i was surprised too based on NM- grading, and that i'd be happy to send it back and wait 10 weeks to get a refund (or leave negative feedback). unfortunately that gives him 70 days + the shipping and handling time that's already passed to get past the feedback deadline.

i hate playing hardball with people but i might just tell him to refund me up front once i send it or i'll leave negative feedback. i've bought like 400 things on discogs and never left anything but positive feedback.

i also ended up buying a (again reportedly) VG+ copy with a shrink-wrap cover, because i realize if there's one cover out there that i'd like to own in good shape, it would definitely be pat martino's "consciousness" (aka "thousand yard stare of death")

re: skips caused by jammed-in dirt: the head honcho at my favorite local store, Brooklyn Record Exchange, swears by manually turning the record backwards to draw the stylus across the spot, hoping to catch the wedged-in dirt at a vulnerable angle. i've witnessed him accomplish this in the store, but have yet to succeed with it myself. maybe i have the wrong kind of skips.

i used the toothpick method to fix a skipping scratch at the beginning of an (otherwise pretty good) copy of bert jansch’s avocet

it took multiple toothpickings and play tests (using a non-precious stylus) to make sure i had smoothed out all the jumping grooves, then i gave the whole thing a clean with revirginizer

It still pops when the needle passes over that area but honestly the fact that it plays through at all is so satisfying that i almost enjoy the reminder

what I'm talking about is more of a pop/click on each pass. it doesn't skip. does the toothpick trick help at all there? I've seen videos implying it does, but I'm not sure how

revirginizer has gotten some pretty high praise, unfortunately in the States it looks like it's hard to get unless you wanna buy in bulk. also I really hate the name. is the implication that you are fucking the records every time you play them?

i guess the same theory would kinda apply? that you are trying to smooth damaged plastic out of the groove.

with mine i was trying it on the basis that the record was fucked unless i did something drastic- would be a bit more reluctant to attempt it on a precious record with an annoying scratch (but that’s not to say i wouldn’t)

I think revirginizer (agree the name is woeful) is pretty incredible product - would definitely be other posts with me singing its praises - i use it on pretty much every record i buy now, including new ones

Sounds like they need to get their us distribution sorted! If you’re real keen i could explore the $US cost of buying a bottle and posting it over

sounds expensive, if I'm understanding the process correctly one of these bottles is only going to clean what, 30-40 records?

for me the question is if any of this stuff works better than the Vevor ultrasonic I have. I use Tergikleen as the agent. honestly it's pretty hard to tell what is and isn't going to show results. some records are improved dramatically, others are improved somewhat but still have notable clicks and pops during the quiet sections. I've used the wood glue method and gotten roughly the same results, but with 30x the hassle of course.

turning the record backwards works for me too. helps that i am a dj cool guy who uses an elliptical needle with heavy tracking weight

when that doesn't work i upgrade to fingernail

xp for me i guess it works out to about $2 a record? And i kinda ask myself, would i pay an extra $2 at the counter for a better copy of that record, and i would! I don’t do many before/after comparisons anymore but when i did there were very few records where this stuff didn’t make a worthwhile difference (as someone said above, properly cleaning a record is the single biggest determinant re decent sound)

i daresay a VPI or some other bit of kit would do a sterling job but I don’t have the room. this stuff i can keep in a cupboard.

one of our local record shops has a RCM and he says some things clean up better with the RCM and some types of grot respond to the Reverginizer

but yep, as with wood glue, it is fiddly and requires patience

unfortunately I find myself having to use it on new records a lot. some of them are just weirdly noisy right out of the shrink, for example my copy of Can Live in Brighton was full of crackle which I am guessing was the result of extra PVC getting in the grooves; when I cleaned it it sounded a lot better.

I’ve read that noisy new vinyl is largely the result of the records not being given the time or space to cool (and/or dry?) properly before being packaged. My copy of Iris DeMent’s Sing The Delta and Dylan’s Tempest have inner-groove distortion on one side that is — I’m told — the result of the pressing plant rushing the process.

that is really interesting, first I've heard of it but it totally makes sense. I would love any primary-source type references for that, wish we had a 77 thread for pressing plant employees (not that any are on ILX, I don't think)

how bout when you get little chunks of paper in the fresh wax. wtf

the fact that it plays through at all is so satisfying that i almost enjoy the reminder

you're doing this right tbh

I know the cyber attack on Royal Mail was mentioned above but I just received this email from a discogs seller in the UK, so head's up, everyone:

You may be aware from reports in the media that Royal Mail reported a major incident on Thursday 12th January of a cyber attack that left Royal Mail temporarily unable to despatch items to overseas destinations. This has affected every business in the UK.

Currently all international deliveries have been severely disrupted and no post is leaving the UK until the IT infrastructure is back up and running.

At present we await an update from Royal Mail when this issue will be resolved, once we have feedback that this issue is resolved we shall ensure you order is shipped.

We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

not sure if this is actually going to make any difference to anything? it was taking months for any post to get delivered before this anyway

my very late birthday card can attest :(

My seller in the UK says he can ship my item to me using something called "Global Priority" for £25 p&p which is £10 more than what he was quoting me using Royal Mail. Isn't Global Priority part of Royal Mail, though? If that's the case then I don't see how he can ship it using Global Priority but not the regular Royal Mail.

Apparently Parcelforce Worldwide aren’t affected for some reason. Presumably they use different IT systems.

alright I've got two records with skips and I finally managed to dislodge whatever the hell was in them with a toothpick. it's pretty hard to do because the grooves are so tiny, you kinda have to find the exact area and keep going over it until you get it. as far as I can tell the toothpick isn't hard enough to damage it. definitely a frustrating process and there is a pop where the skip was but I'm with emsworth, just being reminded that you were able to fix it is neat

When you get a new record that’s defective, some folks have been known to buy a copy from Amzn and then return the defective one for credit. Obviously this only works with in-print stuff.

you know what maybe it's time to enact revenge on them for all the bent corners and torn sleeves.

if there's one thing taking me out of this hobby it's new records that inexplicably have a lot of crackling and clicking. sometimes you can remove it with a good thorough clean, sometimes it's just a bad pressing. feel like it's better than it was, back in 2010 or so a lot of boutique labels would press records that sounded like absolute trash, almost like they never tested them. but it's still kind of demoralizing.

I had to laugh the other day when I saw a comment (not on ilx) saying modern vinyl is much better quality than records from 30/40 years ago. I think they were under the very mistaken impression that records being pressed on 180/220/50000g vinyl automatically makes them better quality

maybe they're referring to the flexidisc era. some of those were notoriously bad. I have an original copy of Muswell Hillbillies and it sounds kinda awful. not sure what is up with the 180g thing, I know it doesn't sound any better, but they are kind of annoying to put through the spin clean, since the thicker vinyl wears out the threads in the rollers really quick.

u mean Dynaflex, I knew what u meant

every dynaflex record I have sounds great

same!

ahh yes you're right. tbh I don't know if I have any other dynaflexes but this one sounds particularly bad to me. I'd have to compare with the CD. maybe the album just isn't recorded very well...most Kinks albums weren't

could be thinking about how there were certain record clubs in the 70s and 80s known for shoddy pressings. idk if I've gotten any of those though. I've given up on trying to figure out which of the 87 versions of Gordon Lightfoot's Summertime Dream I've got.

if there's one thing taking me out of this hobby it's new records that inexplicably have a lot of crackling and clicking. sometimes you can remove it with a good thorough clean, sometimes it's just a bad pressing. feel like it's better than it was, back in 2010 or so a lot of boutique labels would press records that sounded like absolute trash, almost like they never tested them. but it's still kind of demoralizing.

― frogbs, Friday, January 27, 2023 7:00 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

there is a record store in Los Angeles which, for awhile at least, had a policy where they didn't accept returns on new vinyl due to QC issues, which lost me as a customer pretty fast.

i'm pretty careful about what i buy these days, there were so many bad reissues pressed by lousy labels (4MWB) and i only want to pay the insane price for new versions if i'm confident in it. Stereolab, Blue Note, Verve Records, etc...

and obv the price gouging on used vinyl is a problem too, i think the prices remain kinda fair once you move up the ladder a bit at a lot of stores but there are fewer $3 treasures these days. for those you have to dig deeper.

xxp based on several reference copies over the year, it is my considered opinion that Muswell Hillbillies sounds like garbage regardless of format

year years