discogs marketplace?

there are certainly beautiful unplayed records that look like they did when they were new and they could be considered mint by me. but i would still grade them near mint.

yep this, or make ppl happy with a VG+

Mint=sealed
NM = would not mind the condition if bought new on-release at a record retailer

vg+ is a good grade, covers x"pretty good" to "way better than I was expecting"

Here is my grading comment: I get why jewel cases don't count, but I have also received a shocking number of CDs in the kind of state where I'd rather lose the $5 than ever touch the thing or have anything it contained in my house

yes! same here, most used CDs I order I have to replace the cases cuz they’re disgusting or broken

xps I usually assume vg+ means "endorsed by vegemitegrrl"

i put booklets/CDs into clean cases if they are wrecked. or even just dirty. everyone should. i never buy CDs online so i don't actually know how good/bad the used condition of discs are online.

for some reason i still kinda miss "excellent" as a grade on Ebay. i don't sell there anymore and sometimes in the comments on Discogs - which doesn't have "excellent" as an option - i will say that a record is "VERY clean and in excellent condition". excellent used to mean VG++ i guess. which isn't a grade but sorta should be?

discogs also weirdly doesn't have VG- as a grade. they have G+ which is so not VG- but that's what i end up using when i have a cover that is less than VG. which doesn't happen often. but sometimes i have something sought after that has clean vinyl and a crappy cover and which is perfectly sellable.

I have used VG++ as a sub for EX before, yep

I never noticed there was no VG- on Discogs!

yes! same here, most used CDs I order I have to replace the cases cuz they’re disgusting or broken

I mentioned this before, but ever since lockdown in 2020, I made a point to either clean jewel cases or replace them altogether. I was wiping them down with bits of paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol just to be safe, and it was impossible to ignore how nasty some of those paper towel bits looked. I'll leave the details to your imagination, but I'm guessing in a few cases they were heavy smokers and what I was wiping off was smoke and nicotine residue.

A few vendors do a pretty good job of replacing jewel cases though - they tend to be bigger operations, but I make a point to go back to them as a result. (I haven't placed another order with Omega Music yet, but IIRC I bought a whole bunch of CD's that were actually given brand new jewel cases.)

I'd be fine with smoke/tar. Got one the other day where, in addition to it being shattered, I can only assume someone was doing lines off it, passed out, knocked over a full can of Fanta on there, then spent like three years in another state while mold grew over the whole thing. Liner looked fine, though, so ... NM! Literally just threw it away

(I don't get much joy from ordering CDs, but the whole reason I started buying vinyl decades ago was that it was incredibly cheap and featured lots of music that wasn't available in other formats -- and that's CDs now)

stuff being unclean is a hard pass for me, as is anything that is moldy or even rippled from past water damage. just do us all a favor and throw it in the trash

i mean, or clean it, if it's a jewel case or disc. but stains on a cardboard sleeve means it's essentially uncleanable. no thanks

this is akin to used book stores that sell what i can only describe as "bathroom books". water-stained paperbacks that they STILL try to get 5 bucks or more for. and i know its the same as the dirty CD thing which i also see in used record stores ALL the time. "Eh, its a paperback/CD, who cares. they're always dirty."

and don't get me started for the 400th time about dollar bins filled with unplayable trash with covers falling apart and covered in crap. either you are too lazy to walk to the dumpster or you really don't care about records at all. or both.

not just dollar bins with that stuff, it’s in the regular bins now.

books are even worse, I can’t be touching something for hours/days that has a stain or weird residue on it blecccch

yeah the regular bins are full of such junk in so many stores. there are stores throughout L.A. which i think take pride in never allowing shit condition records into the main stacks, and some which are at least 50% full of records in bad shape and they're selling them for $10. if a record is scratched or scuffed, it should be automatically a junker. those are the ones the stores need to sell for a quarter apiece as art pieces.

i still remember trying to find a copy of Gaucho for a friend and finding one at Record Parlour in Hollywood for $12 and it looked like a cat had gone at it. imagine being so craven that you'd sell a copy of Gaucho in that shape for that much.

I always try to list everything about one grade lower than I think it is or at LEAST “grade conservatively” because I’m always afraid my buyer is one of those super particular record geeks that’s not afraid to start some shit.

I don't want anything water damaged, period, even if it's clean water or if it's just a wrinkled booklet. But I've noticed there are plenty of people who will still buy CD's with wrinkled booklets or tray cards when it's clearly indicated as such, especially if it gets them a collectible, out-of-print CD for a much cheaper price, so I have no qualms with people selling them. They have to make that clear though - it pisses me off when someone marks a CD as just "Very Good" with no details and sends me something with a booklet or tray card that's all wrinkled from some liquid.

100% fine with trashed covers and VG+ vinyl here, gimme that discount

yea I got a really nice bargain at my local shop, it was a copy of Singles Going Steady with a completely mangled cover, really hard to tell what exactly happened to it. it was probably multiple things. the vinyl looked trashed as well but the guy insisted it actually played okay. he was right, somehow it did. when the covers are that bad I actually have some replacement outer sleeves where I just draw the cover on it myself. it's a fun little art project :)

my copy of Too Many Humans by No Trend is like that. cover is pretty trashed and no insert so I got it cheap but the vinyl is like VG++

well, i didn't say i wouldn't accept a trashed cover. rips and tears and wear are all fine with me, depending on context usually. sometimes a nice bright clear outer sleeve, and the disc in a separate, new "disco sleeve," can make a bad situation look "presentable." but if it's water damaged or moldy, it's not coming in my house

I have a couple with some mold, I'm not proud. used to have more! and definitely some water damage on a few, honestly I don't notice/care if it's minimal

(the first Last Poets album and a Hank Williams LP come to mind for mold stains, I mean yeah I wiped them down)

The worst are 12-inch singles that have been played in smoke-filled clubs. That shit takes a LOT of shifting.

"sort collection by median value" is so broken right now, I have top-dollar albums that don't show up at all, and others that are in the wrong place. pretty annoying, I use this view most often.

Half of my most-played records have been second-hand, animal-eaten, previously damp ones. Love a bargain.

sometimes for record shows i'll put together ten crates of really decent stuff within the 5 to 15 dollar range - and sometimes even higher if its stuff i don't sell quickly at the store or online - and make all the crates $5 records. its good for the store. good advertising. people are really happy. and i get to make all the dealers look bad. win/win! maria is doing a show today in connecticut and she said a dealer came up to her and said "you know, you can price stuff higher..." haha! i love hearing that. she's selling tons of stuff. i also told her to not start selling until the show actually opened. no early bird specials for dealers. i'm a stinker.

yeah I don't like that either, I keep my bins covered until it actually opens

looking at a something/anything? that i got in a DJ collection and its the holy grail red and blue promo pressing from 1972! that i didn't know existed until one minute ago. you learn something new every day. it sounds great.

https://i.discogs.com/WwS4V7FXTLGUtjJCcy_Ci-Hyq2Yi7SW5Ki_5Ut6sKLo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:400/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTQyODQx/NTAtMTUxOTU3MzMy/Ny04MTMzLmpwZWc.jpeg

i come across a 1977 promo of "blue bayou" on blue vinyl. cool. it looks nice. then i keep going and i find a promo of "blue bayou" on...purple vinyl? these people were so high. and spent so much money.

"you got a great shop...a little retrospective..." *walks out door*

people wonder why i just want to sell on discogs 24/7...

having maria out front now has totally saved me. just being here on a day when she's usually here...............the very first person in the door grilled me about records, people selling records, selling his records, going on and on about his collection...turns out his records are in texas. *walks out door*

still nice people too of course. and we have been doing great instore which is nice and i'm glad cuz i work this stuff really hard.

I’ve got 2 tables at the upcoming record fair. One will be dedicated to $5 records, basically anything that has more than the lightest scuff. Some really good titles that I could easily try to squeeze $10 or more out of, but goddamn, let the people have some records!

yeah really!

right there with y'all, I am gonna have 2 tables/16 crates. CDs even! I pulled almost 500 but idk if I have room for all that. my sweet pricing spot is gonna be "more than a store would give me in a bulk sale, but fuck a discogs median"

Sunday June 2nd in Eugene Oregon, 13th and Oak, come say hi

Back on the subject of Discogs, I just want to reiterate: the APP is TRASH

Collection takes forever to load, if it ever does. It seems random whether you transaction inside the app or it punts you out to a browser. Sorting & filtering options are HARRIBLE.

It works nicely on desktop (esp with Discogs enhancer enabled), not too bad on mobile, and the APP is TRASH.

I forgot there even was an app, whenever I tried to use it, it wouldn't even log me in so I gave up on it a long time ago and use the website on my phone

Literally no reason to do anything else.

There’s an app called “Record Holder” that’s a pretty good substitute for the official app, adding stuff to collection is really easy

I mean, for maintaining your collection, I don’t think you can buy stuff on it

yeah I don't like that either, I keep my bins covered until it actually opens

I didn't know about that. The first time I shared a table at a WFMU record fair many years ago I thought it would be fun to bring a lot of dance stuff, at a time when there weren't a lot of people selling 80s club stuff at those fairs, I had a lot of dupes and it wasn't super expensive stuff but I priced it all really low because I thought I'd be some kind of hero to kids getting into proto-house or whatever.

Soon as I set up a bunch of dealers came over and just grabbed everything. Like before I even knew what was happening they had piles in their hands and were handing me cash. Really lame. Stupid of me.

vultures.

maria did really well. the guy who told her should could sell stuff for more didn't sell anything and was amazed when she started stacking up empty crates. some dealer came up at the very end and asked if he could get two records for $7 instead of $10 and she said: no, put one back. haha! that's my gal!

i did good at the store today too. sold a bunch of records.

maria did really well. the guy who told her should could sell stuff for more didn't sell anything and was amazed when she started stacking up empty crates. some dealer came up at the very end and asked if he could get two records for $7 instead of $10 and she said: no, put one back. haha! that's my gal!

xp I don't understand this custom (which I have also witnessed). Is the idea that the vulture dealers are going straight back to their own tables to mark up those very same records for sale that day? What kind of profit could they actually gain from this? A few bucks? If they sell? Maybe I'm dumb.