Discogs $^()($!

[BilboBaggins]

I have never had bad experiences on discogs. I've been buying there (only the ones I've given up finding locally) for 8 years or so. Although I have a big order in right now, and the seller has been paid, it shows it, and the seller has gone out of commission. No response, so I put in a Seller not Responding complaint on Friday, and still nothing from the seller. My gut is telling me for this one, i will be going back to paypal.

 

[ra7c7er]

Discogs IMO can't decide what it wants to be. The collection feature is nice but it's about as bare bones as it gets. Why can't you sort by genre/style but you can sort by label? I've never found a need to sort by label but often when others are looking through my collection for something to play it always comes up "how do I search by genre".

As for those who have trouble will sellers I'm going to venture out and say you're probably buying from basement sellers and not shops or dedicated sellers. The issue I have is the 3rd party "direct from label" drop ship sellers. It's clearly in the TOS that you have to have the copy you are selling in your possession but they don't enforce the rule. It's highly annoying to buy a group of albums from a seller only to have to check 3 different packages to make sure I received everything. I've gotten to the point where I only buy new or NOS and only from labels (or label affiliated sellers) or shops.

I'm also surprised more small labels aren't selling on Discogs.

 

[grillebilly]

Discogs IMO can't decide what it wants to be

Whatever it is, it's free, and is the most comprehensive resource for record collectors that I'm aware of. Not many days go by I don't use it as a search tool.
Agree completely with the basement sellers. It's not a business for them, just a hobby.
There's tons of small labels selling on Discogs but they're not identified as labels. An example is a label/record store I have an order in for currently, https://www.discogs.com/user/MidnightCruiserRecs
You can search labels, find their catalog, pick a title, then go to items for sale, and often you will see the seller is the label.

 

[David_NC]

The problem with this attitude, though, is that most people on Discogs are not running a business. It's essentially a big newspaper classified listing, just online.

Your expectations should be set accordingly. Lots of sellers on there are just regular folks trying to unload their used records and CDs.

In my opinion, if you're selling something and making money, you're acting as a business, unless it's truly a one-off thing, such as selling an inherited valuable album. In that case, I'd hope the seller would ship ASAP and do a good job just to be able to get it over with. Buyers rarely know if the seller is an occasional, part-time seller or a full-time record shop (other when past sales and current listings show lots of items). Buyers don't need to know that, however, any more than the seller needs to know why the buyer is buying any given item or if the buyer buys and sells all the time. Buyers should pay on time, and sellers should ship on time.*

*The shipping expectations should be set by the seller, as in 'I ship on Wednesday and Friday afternoons', shipping X number of days after payment, etc. If those things aren't stated, and if the seller doesn't communicate otherwise, seller should ship promptly after buyers' responsibilities end (payment).

 

[seely]

I've had two albums arrive in far, far worse condition than advertised, and in both cases the sellers immediately refunded my money, no questions ask. Annoying, but I've also had the same experience from local shops not carefully checking a record over before I buy. Most of my buying though is from independent record shops through Discogs. Most of my listening is smaller indie artists, so finding their stuff, especially back catalog stuff, locally, is hit or miss at best.

 

[patient_ot]

I have been buying records online since the old days of Musicstack and Gemm.com. Before that I would do mail order with money orders and even call record stores overseas with international phone cards.

When I left vinyl and came back, I had decent luck on Discogs at first but maybe 5 years ago I noticed a huge influx of sellers and overgrading running rampant. 100 percent positive feedback didn't mean jack either because it's very easy to game things. I mostly bought NM where the grading should've been unambiguous but wasn't. Sellers still tried to pull a fast one.

Now I rarely buy used vinyl on Discogs. I go to actual stores and have other sources I deal with. The only stuff I regularly buy on Discogs anymore are used and OOP CDs.

 

[Taketheflame]

I had decent luck on Discogs at first but maybe 5 years ago I noticed a huge influx of sellers and overgrading running rampant.

I'm guessing this is possibly an unfortunate consequence of the vinyl revival in recent years - prices have gone up enough to attract a more speculative breed of seller - those more into it for a quick buck, and not very careful (or just not very good) with record grading.

I see it on eBay with vintage audio gear as well - people trying to sell beat the hell up examples of gear for $$$$ because it says Pioneer or Marantz on the front of it.

I agree on Discogs as a great source for rare and OOP CDs. I've been grabbing a few for myself recently, as it's still a buyers market for CDs.

 

[E2]

No help, only bought three things on there ever. All were good deals.

I am really in the "It has to be in front of me, and a great deal" mode at this point. I don't need more stuff, still pulling a few spinners here and there.......with the overwhelming balance to the LRS, and the occasional Ebay flip.

 

[E2]

I'm guessing this is possibly an unfortunate consequence of the vinyl revival in recent years - prices have gone up enough to attract a more speculative breed of seller - those more into it for a quick buck, and not very careful (or just not very good) with record grading.

I see it on eBay with vintage audio gear as well - people trying to sell beat the hell up examples of gear for $$$$ because it says Pioneer or Marantz on the front of it.

I agree on Discogs as a great source for rare and OOP CDs. I've been grabbing a few for myself recently, as it's still a buyers market for CDs.

One of my three purchases on there was Carla Bley's Tropic Appetites for $15 shipped several years ago.

I feel this way about most record shops. The deals aren't in the LP section (Why would a flip to them?) they are in the CD section.

 

[mcgjohn]

Anyone else have sellers that don't respond to multiple messages, and "payment pending" days after the money leaves your account? I've had good experiences, but maybe 25 - 30% of the time buying via Discogs is a MASSIVE PITA. They've converted me, I will never cheat on my local record stores again!

This and buying a couple of tweeters for a Genesis ll+ that must have been packaged by someones monkey while it was wasted has me heading for the Tequila!

yes, I have had both very prompt shipping and others where I have waited almost a month for it to show up.

JMO, but if the discogs seller is a regular vinyl seller with a retail outlet, the acct may get checked more frequently than if the seller is a private collector and is selling off some of their dups.
I visit both Discogs and regular record stores. For common releases, not much point in going to discogs when the local store is likely to have the title unless you are looking for a very specific pressing from a specific pressing plant.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

I have a problem with the media rating scale. It’s primarily visual. Last two I bought were labeled NM/M- and when I received them, they sounded really lousy. Fortunately for both I was able to return them on the seller’s dime. But it’s still a trip to the Post Office.

 

[seely]

but maybe 5 years ago I noticed a huge influx of sellers and overgrading running rampant. 100 percent positive feedback didn't mean jack either because it's very easy to game things. I mostly bought NM where the grading should've been unambiguous but wasn't. Sellers still tried to pull a fast one.

I think a lot of this is both buyers and sellers who don't actually know anything about vinyl. Like, 99.9% of people probably don't even have their tonearm balanced correctly, and then they are trying to sell/grade records. Similarly for buyers, 99% of people now wouldn't notice if someone took a belt sander to the record. My niece pretty recently got into vinyl, and mom told me she likes vinyl because of the "pops and clicks" (thats my left eye twitching lol). To each their own, but I think a lot of listeners just don't have their stuff setup right and assume vinyl is just inherently "noisy", or they just don't notice. My wife is very musically talented, but "hifi" is completely lost on her.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

…That being said, I'm a big believer in supporting local record shops as much as possible…

I just ordered my third replacement of the new Revolver LP. It was pressed in the Czech Republic, so I’m not getting my hopes up. But if I brought back the same release two times to a local seller, they’d probably ban me from the store.

 

[nerpissad]

There's no better alternative to Discogs when it comes to maintaining an overview of your collection IMO.
But, as other have stated, the vinyl comeback of recent years did make it less probable to find really good deals on there. I can't even count the times I noticed a recent repress of an expensive record becoming just as expensive as the original within a couple of weeks just because the sellers look at the sales history.
Also, it used to be so that ordering records from overseas sellers was still an economically viable option.
None of my ramblings can be ascribed to Discogs directly though

 

[TerryMarmite]

If you see anything that has been opened and used rated as "NM", you can be 99% sure that it is not near mint. And that the seller will be deliberately overgrading as opposed to accidently. It's a violation of discogs' own guidelines for grading.

Still much better than my experiences of ebay.

 

[patient_ot]

I think a lot of this is both buyers and sellers who don't actually know anything about vinyl. Like, 99.9% of people probably don't even have their tonearm balanced correctly, and then they are trying to sell/grade records. Similarly for buyers, 99% of people now wouldn't notice if someone took a belt sander to the record. My niece pretty recently got into vinyl, and mom told me she likes vinyl because of the "pops and clicks" (thats my left eye twitching lol). To each their own, but I think a lot of listeners just don't have their stuff setup right and assume vinyl is just inherently "noisy", or they just don't notice. My wife is very musically talented, but "hifi" is completely lost on her.

I can tell you over the last several years I have noticed many people that buy used records without even checking the condition. Often they are happy they found a certain album and just want any copy. Later on when they get some more experience and knowledge they realize they've made a mistake.

As for the sellers they are taking advantage of the new people but also seeing what they can get away with from folks that are too timid to complain. There are also plenty of junk flippers and "storage wars" type sellers hitting eBay and Discogs now.

 

[Bkphoto]

I love, “just played once”

hahahaha

 

[Taketheflame]

As for the sellers they are taking advantage of the new people but also seeing what they can get away with from folks that are too timid to complain

I've had to return a few misgraded records that were just too far off the mark before. Most sellers were at least cooperative with the process (and at least no loss of $ with the Paypal return policy) and some have even agreed about the grading being off upon return and apologized. But I had one guy really flip out on me about a return once - he seemed rather adamant that lots of crackle on the lead-in groove and pop-causing scuffs throughout (after some good deep cleaning) qualified as "NM"...

Sometimes I've had better luck just buying VG+ graded records tbh (I've found many that are closer to NM). I expect most NM graded records to be closer to VG+, so I just go for more reasonably priced copies if I do buy any NM ones.

 

[Coolhandjjl]

I love, “just played once”

hahahaha

Hey- I resemble that remark

 

[patient_ot]

I've had to return a few misgraded records that were just too far off the mark before. Most sellers were at least cooperative with the process (and at least no loss of $ with the Paypal return policy) and some have even agreed about the grading being off upon return and apologized. But I had one guy really flip out on me about a return once - he seemed rather adamant that lots of crackle on the lead-in groove and pop-causing scuffs throughout (after some good deep cleaning) qualified as "NM"...

Sometimes I've had better luck just buying VG+ graded records tbh (I've found many that are closer to NM). I expect most NM graded records to be closer to VG+, so I just go for more reasonably priced copies if I do buy any NM ones.

I have no interest in overgraded records (and the accompanying "partial refunds" some seem to think are okay), and I lost patience with all the back and forth with sellers after awhile (was turning into a part time job TBH), going to the post office to return stuff, etc. At least for used vinyl I'd rather buy in person or from another trusted source. Much less of a hassle for me.