Discogs - Help, Tricks, Secrets And Tips

I wasn't sure where to post this, so here goes...

I had a stack of records accumulating dust in my closet. Stuff that is not valuable/interesting/worth my time enough to list on discogs. So I brought them into my local (Rough Trade nyc) and they offered me 1/3 of the average price listed on discogs. Is this standard brick and mortar protocol, or did I get lowballed?
 
Jeff Lerner said:
I wasn't sure where to post this, so here goes...

I had a stack of records accumulating dust in my closet. Stuff that is not valuable/interesting/worth my time enough to list on discogs. So I brought them into my local (Rough Trade nyc) and they offered me 1/3 of the average price listed on discogs. Is this standard brick and mortar protocol, or did I get lowballed?
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I'm going to echo this question as it feels like my local stores are, um...lowball city. I'd love to hear the expectations of others. The owner of Plaid Room had a GREAT post on this


He says generally 50% for things below $30 with potentially higher for high demand, easier sells, etc., but it's widely variable and unsure how it applies to records you can actively grab for cheapish. But Plaid Room is clearly an S-tier store so I am not surprised if others are a bit lower. It's probably widely variable on store model as well. I have a Bull Moose nearby that I hear taking in trade-ins and getting 1/3 from them in cash seems like it'd be a massive win - they pay pennies with 2x for store credit to where I'm shocked I find anything beyond absolute junk because these people could sell one of their records trade ins on Discogs and make more.
 
Jeff Lerner said:
I wasn't sure where to post this, so here goes...

I had a stack of records accumulating dust in my closet. Stuff that is not valuable/interesting/worth my time enough to list on discogs. So I brought them into my local (Rough Trade nyc) and they offered me 1/3 of the average price listed on discogs. Is this standard brick and mortar protocol, or did I get lowballed?
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It’s probably on the lower end of standard but not insulting. I would say in most cases getting half of the median Discogs value for a bulk record store sale would be the best case scenario but anywhere in between 1/3 to 1/2 the median value is reasonable. I just dumped around 100 titles at my local a few weeks ago. The median Discogs value was $3k. I was hoping for $1,500 but woulda happily taken $1,000. I did have some high value stuff mixed in there and pointed that stuff out to him so I ended up getting the full 50% but had he offered me $1,000 I likely would have taken it.
 
It may be a lot of extra work but you could also have a "Seller" Discogs account where you load those as you can then load your profile not logged in and see all the current "cheapest" prices on Discogs in one quick list as opposed to clicking in, so you get min/median/max and lowest for sale. The folder idea is a good one though...I should do that.

I feel like for a stack of records I couldn't otherwise sell via Reddit/Here/Discogs/FB/whatever, 1/3 is probably not terribly unfair if the goal is to get rid of it given the store's absorption of risk/storage/etc. It's probably heavily dependent on where your records actually sit in terms of relation to "average". Like...average on a lot of records is still a good amount more than you will realistically sell them for while on others it's a severe lowball. I have some where the actual sale price for a record would be half or less of Discogs average even if I tried to maximize earnings whereas the real value of others are 2-4x average.
 
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1/3 avg price sounds decent considering you are asking for cash.

I usually try to trade with my local brick and mortar.
I feel like I get rid of unwanted vinyl and the value seems to be a little more balanced out.
I walk out happy with stuff that I probably wanted to spin more frequently.
 
I'm not a seller and haven't sold one single record....but I would think this is the difference of selling to another seller vs Discogs where you are probably selling to a collector.

Median price / value is a good ballpark, but it really depends on who's buying.




I really don't know which I would pick whenever the day comes and I need to sell my collection.


I should say...I don't know what my wife would do when the day comes and she needs to sell my collection - because I'm sure she's outliving me.
 
LeeVing said:
I'm not a seller and haven't sold one single record....but I would think this is the difference of selling to another seller vs Discogs where you are probably selling to a collector.

Median price / value is a good ballpark, but it really depends on who's buying.




I really don't know which I would pick whenever the day comes and I need to sell my collection.


I should say...I don't know what my wife would do when the day comes and she needs to sell my collection - because I'm sure she's outliving me.
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Yeah, I have made sure my SO has my Discogs password. I told her if I ever kick the bucket she should look into selling my entire collection in bulk but also showed her where to find the collection value so she can get a fair price.
 
JohnnyCashFan said:
Yes, I have the app as well. Most of my older, original stuff though is no barcode.

What does everyone do to help read matrix info ?
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I put a piece of paper on the record and then rub a pencil over it to get the impression, like an old-timey detective, it makes me feel like i'm in a dashiell hammett novel

I kid, I kid. I have one of those 10-billion lumen flashlights that are so bring they let you shine a light into people's souls and I use that but it's usually sucha pain in the ass i normally don't do it unless i'm selling something that requires looking it up (or if someone in the PIF thread is like "which version is that")
 
Thanks for the feedback y'all! Very helpful. I think they offered me like $54 cash or $60 store credit, so I was happy to take the credit. If I had listed the records on discogs, maybe one or two would have sold for more than 1/3 median value, but I'm sure a bunch would have just sat there (and in my closet) for a long time. So I cleared some shelf space (wifey happy) and I got some store credit (me happy). Win win.
 
If I am buying expressly to resell, I try to make 2x-4x my outlay. I don’t have a store or overhead. The other expenses apply; shipping supplies, printer toner, labels, outer poly bags, inner sleeves, tables and transportation at shows… plus time.

Generally people don’t come to me, and I am a very part-time, laid back seller. I only do it to help fund my own collection. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother. I enjoy the hunt as much as anything else.
 
I have a box set or two I'm thinking of listing. How does everyone go about shipping box sets? I'm 100% confident in the single mailers I use but Box Sets make me nervous.
 
dbarila said:
I have a box set or two I'm thinking of listing. How does everyone go about shipping box sets? I'm 100% confident in the single mailers I use but Box Sets make me nervous.
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Yeah box sets are tough. They all seem to be different sizes most of the time to. I've tried to save some of the shipping boxes I get for box sets I buy just in case. But the most recent box set I sold did not fit any of the boxes I have saved so I went to my local store and just asked if they had any old boxes laying around. They let me look through what they had and just take one that fit perfectly. Worth a shot if you don't have one on hand.
 
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