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Discogs

RobFTM

RobFTM

pfm Member
Minor rant.

Its difficult isn't it. You want to buy a 40+ year old record and its described as VG+ or Near Mint and it rarely if ever is. Perhaps I've been unlucky or perhaps I just want stuff that's too old but I'm not buying from Discogs anymore.

Yes I shouldn't have sold my copies that i bought from new originally and perhaps I'm asking too much but its new all the way for me now and I'll buy via the local shop in Amersham if I can. I don't care about mastering or whatever as I'd prefer a less well mastered silent reissue with a nice clean cover than a shitty original copy as I'm fed up with crackly scratchy rubbish at top prices being sent to me.

And I absolutely refuse to believe that all remasters are bad. The Led Zeppelin reissues are excellent to my ears. At least if they are rubbish from HMV or Amazon they are easy to send back.

I'm on my third different seller for the same record described as VG+ or NM and each one is rubbish and each one with postage has been £25+. The last one, VG+ sleeve has a rip on the back. Ah well I've got two other sleeves to choose from, pity none of the actual records are any good!

Is everyone else less discerning than me I wonder looking at the feedback most sellers receive?
 
Be honest with your feedback. That will make a difference to the discerning buyer.

I sell and buy on Discogs and have had good and bad experiences.

When buying I advise that you ask the seller to double check the stated condition.

I rarely buy without having a conversation with the seller about the record I wish to purchase.

I also stipulate how I want it to be mailed.

On the other hand, I think the recent Led Zep remasters are very good, and I have bought a few.
 
RobFTM said:
Minor rant.

Its difficult isn't it. You want to buy a 40+ year old record and its described as VG+ or Near Mint and it rarely if ever is. Perhaps I've been unlucky or perhaps I just want stuff that's too old but I'm not buying from Discogs anymore.

Yes I shouldn't have sold my copies that i bought from new originally and perhaps I'm asking too much but its new all the way for me now and I'll buy via the local shop in Amersham if I can. I don't care about mastering or whatever as I'd prefer a less well mastered silent reissue with a nice clean cover than a shitty original copy as I'm fed up with crackly scratchy rubbish at top prices being sent to me.

And I absolutely refuse to believe that all remasters are bad. The Led Zeppelin reissues are excellent to my ears. At least if they are rubbish from HMV or Amazon they are easy to send back.

I'm on my third different seller for the same record described as VG+ or NM and each one is rubbish and each one with postage has been £25+. The last one, VG+ sleeve has a rip on the back. Ah well I've got two other sleeves to choose from, pity none of the actual records are any good!

Is everyone else less discerning than me I wonder looking at the feedback most sellers receive?
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Well if I had a shop even half as good as the Record Shop in Amersham (was browsing in there only this week in fact) local to me then I’d likely do the same. Got stung once on an early purchase on EvilBay (worn out/damaged tracks) from a fly-by-night seller who promptly disappeared off the platform soon thereafter. Put me off buying records sight unseen for years. Now new vinyl only for online transactions with secondhand records strictly an offline purchase (pfm record shop notwithstanding: crawler alert)!
 
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From, my experience, I always buy nm vinyl. sleeve and contents is of no interest to me so can be poor. It is all about the vinyl condition for me.
Not concerned about future values, can always buy a shit copy with an nm sleeve etc and a shagged record and swap them about. The music is the holy grail for me.
 
@ Tony L - guessing this has been suggested (many times?) before...not sure how the record business is right now, but how about raising the 5 'free list' LPs a month on here to a larger number but taking a cut for PFM? I'd be much happier to pay 10% (or whatever) to PFM as a selling fee but be dealing with known people on here rather than dealing with the Escam cesspit (or Discogs, which should be much better, but no personal experience of it).
I guess the mechanics of it would need to be based on trust (i.e. people actually pay their fees), but probably manageable on a limited basis - e.g. 5 free per month and 25 more on a 10% fee? You'd quite quickly be able to manage "aberrations" and might get a little income from it?
Not that I've sold any vinyl here, but thinking about selling a few now..and don't know what best to do... :)
 
Different experience. I’ve generally found Discogs a great place to buy & sell vinyl (and CD’s). Buying, I only go for NM listings (vinyl) and VG+ (min for sleeves). The few problems I’ve had have been easily resolved. Dare I say it but in the 20 years that I’ve been using eBay I’ve hardly had any negative experiences and those again have been easily resolved.
 
I'm with Mike on this: I've bought hundreds via Discogs, with only two bad copies and one no-show - all of which were credited. Having said that, I've never sold via Discogs, somehow preferring eBay or this site.
 
Did you contact the sellers and explain the problems with condition? Most sellers will accept returns (or offer a partial refund if you'd prefer to keep the LP).

I've had my share of 'optimistic' grading but I've also found sellers who seriously under-grade which is always a nice surprise.
 
The other side of the coin - I've heard of sellers shipping a minty LP and accepting a return on it only to have a scruffy copy mailed back...
 
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I’ve only ever had one bad experience on Discogs, but I’d say in general used LPs tend to be graded one grade higher than I would have graded them.
 
In buying used vinyl I have found that the quality available is so diverse.
If you are a retailer on discogs or a record store or stall you are well aware of grading and scarcity and probably have picked the best & rarest for alternative sales routes.
If you are on discogs as a civilian you probably are overly optimistic about the quality and also maybe don't have the playback equipment to fully appreciate the true state of the grooves!
After many disappointments I have become very careful about buying used and in fact have defaulted to getting 90% or so of my used vinyl from the shop here as the quality is consistently tremendous. Thank you @Tony L.
 
I only buy 2nd hand vinyl in person, I like to have a look at the disc. I have a local shop that I trust & who’s prices are fair.
 
blossomchris said:
From, my experience, I always buy nm vinyl. sleeve and contents is of no interest to me so can be poor. It is all about the vinyl condition for me.
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And me too regarding the condition of the vinyl but you're missing my point. If someone grades a sleeve VG and it has a obvious rip and tear what does that say about the grading overall and the likelihood that the vinyl really is VG+/NM? This person had 1000+ positive feedbacks so my negative isn't going to be worth much is it?

I made the error of buying from a shop in Sheffield that had only 90% positive feedback. Sadly the record I received was in the 10%!

Given the overall comments here I'll either have to realign my expectations of what I think I'm getting or as I commented just buy something I can physically see. I have bought from Tony but I can only buy what he has to sell. If there is something I want that he's not got then I have to go elsewhere.

On a more positive note I did buy an album from 1976 from a seller that had commented it was cleaned with a VPI. It was absolutely quiet and almost like it was brand new. Clearly I need to be more discerning with who I buy from or get myself a record cleaner. Perhaps that anyway.

Regards,

Rob.
 
RobFTM said:
On a more positive note I did buy an album from 1976 from a seller that had commented it was cleaned with a VPI. It was absolutely quiet and almost like it was brand new. Clearly I need to be more discerning with who I buy from or get myself a record cleaner. Perhaps that anyway.
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I buy most of my records via second hand channels, and I couldn't be without my RCM. It makes the most of them - even new vinyl, which can be shockingly grubby.
 
RobFTM said:
And me too regarding the condition of the vinyl but you're missing my point. If someone grades a sleeve VG and it has a obvious rip and tear what does that say about the grading overall and the likelihood that the vinyl really is VG+/NM? This person had 1000+ positive feedbacks so my negative isn't going to be worth much is it?

I made the error of buying from a shop in Sheffield that had only 90% positive feedback. Sadly the record I received was in the 10%!

Given the overall comments here I'll either have to realign my expectations of what I think I'm getting or as I commented just buy something I can physically see. I have bought from Tony but I can only buy what he has to sell. If there is something I want that he's not got then I have to go elsewhere.

On a more positive note I did buy an album from 1976 from a seller that had commented it was cleaned with a VPI. It was absolutely quiet and almost like it was brand new. Clearly I need to be more discerning with who I buy from or get myself a record cleaner. Perhaps that anyway.

Regards,

Rob.
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You have to return it for sure. The only way is going for the best available, shops with A1 records tend to sting harder than Discogs IMO.
Trouble is everyone now knows that some vinyl is an earner, condition irrelevant to them
 
I try to buy only reissues of sealed, or NM vinyl if it’s from a seller with a good reputation.

I recently bought a copy of Point Of Departure by The Gary McFarland Sextet listed as the US original issue and described as NM/NM. Turned out to be a later reissue and not more than Good+. The seller was clueless, said he was selling them for his dad but agreed to accept the return and refund my money after a week of silence. But then his dad chirped up saying he's sure it was the US original issue and that I’m wrong and would need to return it to them at my cost for them to check. I sent them pics proving my case and said they’d need to pay for the return postage. Silence for over a month now. I could leave negative feedback but then they’d just retaliate, wouldn’t they?
 
I've only ever had one seller go silent when there was a problem. Discogs has a button for 'seller not responding' that will lock their account if they don't reply in a few days. In my case the seller got back with the offer of a refund but never actually refunded and I had to open a Paypal case. A pain but thankfully rare.
 
paulfromcamden said:
I've only ever had one seller go silent when there was a problem. Discogs has a button for 'seller not responding' that will lock their account if they don't reply in a few days. In my case the seller got back with the offer of a refund but never actually refunded and I had to open a Paypal case. A pain but thankfully rare.
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I had another one a few months ago. A £90 double LP went missing in the post. I expect the label fell off in transit. The seller stopped responding so I clicked the option you mentioned. He still didn’t respond so it went to PayPal and eventually got a full refund. Took a long time though. I don’t know what’s wrong with some people.
 
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