Discogs - Help, Tricks, Secrets And Tips

Maybe Michael 45's MoFi voodoo can get Discogs to finally have sellers ship the correct record.



I have to say I've had this happen a few times...either it wasn't the "original" or wasn't the pressing I ordered. I've kept the record each time, but I do write my issues in the feedback.

Also there is a major issue of over-grading. "Near Mint" is often VG at best.
 
Like, there's definitely issues with Discogs sellers as well as reseller markets in general. With that said, I think part of the issue is that what makes Discogs a very good database makes it a cumbersome sales platform and some of his complaints are just...not Discogs problems.

He uses the example of looking for a Roxy Music OG in his video. If you filter down to 1972 + Roxy Music + Vinyl you have 28 distinct results. If you want a UK OG there are still four categorizations - take out the promo and there are three very similar listings - definitely different in terms of labels or coding but not dramatically so otherwise. As a database it has to be done this way, but if you're a seller, you have to take on the entire onus of driving down through this database to try and find the exact pressing. You can't post photos to where the buyer can look at the label color, sleeve, etc. to drive a lot of it themselves. In many of these cases you need to drive down to a ton of deadwax details and prune through database photos to try and get an ideal match. You then find it's a somewhat obscure spinoff pressing...which then drastically reduces the number of eyes seeing it since a buyer will often only add certain, common pressings to their watchlist. Of course, buyers can search for all pressings with filters they want but many will just pull up the most popular one and look there. Or you do all the drilling and then see there's still like...four listings that seem to match everything and you have to find your best guess. Only to peeve off a buyer who sees something you don't, and suddenly this $10 transaction is way more trouble than it's worth.

The long and short of it is that I don't know if it's worth it for sellers to really hunt down the exact pressing - but rather get close enough (right year, right record, right country ideally) and then not put it under something obviously wrong. It's the right thing to do but effort wise? Hard to incentivize. Especially as other collectible markets really don't go this deep on a lot of their goodies at the low prices records are compared to things like cards and coins.

I can respect seeing Discogs as a non-solution - but every e-commerce used record sales platform has massive warts. Ebay has photos, but Ebay's filtering is so much worse and the sellers are just dramatically worse. Individual stores usually rely on their own proprietary platform which really isn't something that can be built on. Whatnot is still new and definitely aimed more at the tech-friendly buyer and not the usual vintage buyer like 45 RPM. Nasdisc doesn't have the volume. Even the classic "in-store" method is pretty deeply flawed right? How many local stores even try to catalog their records in any manner nevermind finding the right pressing to classify it as? The "best" I've seen is a label with record name and grading on their scale and, occasionally, info on a color variant.

The complaints in the video about having to buy from a bunch of different sellers and the fees that come from that feels like he wants Discogs to be a centralizing warehouse which just seems silly. That's a job for a much bigger party and the vinyl resale collectors' market probably isn't big or valuable enough in most cases to justify that.
 
LeeVing said:
Maybe Michael 45's MoFi voodoo can get Discogs to finally have sellers ship the correct record.



I have to say I've had this happen a few times...either it wasn't the "original" or wasn't the pressing I ordered. I've kept the record each time, but I do write my issues in the feedback.

Also there is a major issue of over-grading. "Near Mint" is often VG at best.
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I just ordered a supposed NM/NM copy of a 1974 Original Pressing of Dickey Betts debut album from Light In Th Attic Records and it was definitely not NM/NM. It was priced the same as other that were graded at VG+/VG+ so I kept it but it was a bit disappointing.
 
VG+ is like my base level for any record grading I do. If I'm selling something NM, record-wise, it would be something I've cleaned once, needle dropped once and didnt like it. Even then I would still be hard pressed to say its NM. I still go VG+ on any disc that I have visually and audibly graded. I'll denote in my sales description "conservatively graded" as well. Sleeves I dont mind doing NM. As long as I dont see any crush or stress marks, chipped up edges or bumped corners then that thing is NM, especially now since I keep new single disc records in their shrink wrap with the hype sticker still attached.
 
I won't sell it as NM if I've opened it and removed the record from the sleeve. People will generally pay near mint prices for VG+ and it gives some leeway for minor, harder to detect issues. I'd rather lose a few bucks on a sale than dealing with selling something as M or NM and having the really high standards on that.
 
So what is standard practice to wait for a seller to ship items? Their terms or shipping 2-4 days after payment. Ordered and paid for an order on Saturday. Nothing. Contacted the seller this time yesterday to ask for an ETA on the shipping and still nothing.

I am not worried, just never had a seller take this long before to ship so was more curious than anything.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
So what is standard practice to wait for a seller to ship items? Their terms or shipping 2-4 days after payment. Ordered and paid for an order on Saturday. Nothing. Contacted the seller this time yesterday to ask for an ETA on the shipping and still nothing.

I am not worried, just never had a seller take this long before to ship so was more curious than anything.
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I’ve waited a week before but there’s no harm in following up if it will ease any anxiety.
 
jamieanderson1968 said:
So what is standard practice to wait for a seller to ship items? Their terms or shipping 2-4 days after payment. Ordered and paid for an order on Saturday. Nothing. Contacted the seller this time yesterday to ask for an ETA on the shipping and still nothing.

I am not worried, just never had a seller take this long before to ship so was more curious than anything.
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I give 10 days and then report them, if no response.
If they message, I'm fairly flexible to wait.
 
I never have a problem with the seller taking a while to ship, so long as they're communicating about. I recently bought something from a guy who was on vacation and let me know when he'd be back and that it might take a couple of days from there - which was more than fine by me, but communication is the key. If they're not responding, especially after a second check-in, then fuck 'em.
 
avecigrec said:
I never have a problem with the seller taking a while to ship, so long as they're communicating about. I recently bought something from a guy who was on vacation and let me know when he'd be back and that it might take a couple of days from there - which was more than fine by me, but communication is the key. If they're not responding, especially after a second check-in, then fuck 'em.
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That actually happened to me as a seller recently. I hadn't sold anything in about a month so of course an order came through when I was on vacation. They wanted me to check something specific but they were cool to wait until I got back. (You didn't buy a Cut Worms album from me did you???)
 
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