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Discogs

Started by Malcy, February 21, 2020, 10:44:01 AM

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Malcy

Have started cataloguing all my physical media on here. Barely made a dent so far but I've been surprised at what some things I have are going for on there. I have a pile of stuff that isn't on there so need to start submitting as well.

Was wondering what people's experiences are with buying/selling through the site. I have some stuff i wouldn't miss that goes for a nice few bob but wonder would it sell quicker through ebay.

Also noticed that when I've looked at buying things there is no postage details available straight away with a lot of sellers which puts me off a bit. Doo just looking for tips people may have that have been using the site for a while.

holyzombiejesus

I've been using it for years and have sold hundreds, probably thousands, of records on it. The rates are slightly better than ebay and I don't really use that any more for buying or selling records. I guess if you had something pricey and managed to get one of ebays '£1 maximum charge' offers it might be worth using it but otherwise I find Discogs much better. I'm surprised that you've found lots of things not listed, I'd double check if I were you as I rarely come across anything that I need to list myself unless it's only been out that day.

The 'wantslist' feature is useful but if, like me, you generally get it shown in order of when items have been listed, it becomes really fucking irritating when people relist their items daily. I do it weekly which is possibly annoying but it does seem to affect my sales if I don't bother.

You'll need to have a think about where you want to have your red line on acceptable buyer's ratings too. You can automatically bar people with poor ratings (generally non-payers) from bidding on your items but this also means that new buyers can't bid. I think Discogs has a bigger problem with non-payers than ebay and you can't 'demand' that they pay, but you can cancel the sale after 4 days and there's an automatic relist option.

You can normally find out what postage rates are by clicking on the seller's terms button.

Have you sold records online before?

Pauline Walnuts

The forums are full of the most unpleasant, pedantic and sanctimonious people you could ever hope to meet, outside of Cook'd and Bomb'd, obviously.

The Culture Bunker

Very surprised to see how much all my Felt LPs (plus the Ballad of the Band EP) are worth. I think I bought them for a couple of quid a piece in Oxfam.

holyzombiejesus

#4
Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on February 21, 2020, 10:51:26 AM
The forums are full of the most unpleasant, pedantic and sanctimonious people you could ever hope to meet, outside of Cook'd and Bomb'd, obviously.

I had a big row on there as I'd been using the comments section on releases to alert people to imminent represses, and admin were deleting them. There was this one guy who was just such a cunt, accusing me of 'digital vandalism' and another who said I was jealous of his inventory. When I checked it, he was trying to sell things like Paloma Faith albums for £400!

https://www.discogs.com/seller/alan.james/profile?sort=price%2Cdesc

Someone else said "I note you price everything at £X.99,a technique used to fool the less intelligent into thinking they are priced at X (and not X + 1 - 0.01). Where's your moral high ground now?"

Captain Z

If the condition of the record you're buying is a priority then I've always had much better experiences through Discogs than Ebay. People tend to list and describe things accurately, whereas I once paid £65 for a "VG+" vinyl album on Ebay that really wasn't, and similarly a CD that was covered in scratches and flecks of nail polish. Discogs sellers can be a bit shifty though, I once messaged someone to ask if three records they had for sale came in their original sleeves, and after confirming found they'd hiked up the price of those items by 50%.

Crabwalk

I've always had good experiences buying on discogs, but have never sold anything. As Captain Z days, the conditions on listings seem to be much more accurate than eBay in my experience. And if you don't like the packaging prices that are revealed after you've bought the item you can cancel the purchase with no repercussions.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Malcy on February 21, 2020, 10:44:01 AM
I have a pile of stuff that isn't on there

Fuck me, I've got hundreds of vinyl LPS/ singles, a lot of them quite obscure, but so far, I've only ever found one album and a 7' in my collection that hasn't appeared on Discogs. It's almost become like a Dave Gorman type challenge to achieve a record no show.

bigfatheart

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 21, 2020, 12:02:37 PM
When I checked it, he was trying to sell things like Paloma Faith albums for £400!

https://www.discogs.com/seller/alan.james/profile?sort=price%2Cdesc

Actually, he's selling it for £399.99.

Inspector Norse

Quote from: The Culture Bunker on February 21, 2020, 11:53:18 AM
Very surprised to see how much all my Felt LPs (plus the Ballad of the Band EP) are worth. I think I bought them for a couple of quid a piece in Oxfam.

They all seem hard to get hold of for reasonable prices. Cherry Red did some reissues a couple of years ago, they seem to be about £25 which is the cheapest I think I've seen any of them go for. I've never owned a physical copy of any of them, I always have them on my list but wait in vain for a drop in price.

Inspector Norse

Anyway my handful of transactions on Discogs have all been positive. Got a very good condition copy of Nuggets II for about £60 a few years ago when elsewhere you'd probably pay twice that.

I have a copy of the Flying Nun box set that I'm never likely to listen to again, the discs are in good condition but the lid of the box is damaged (twisted and scratched). I wonder how much I'd need to knock off the going rate to sell that. The cheapest one on there at the moment is €164.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 21, 2020, 12:02:37 PM
I had a big row on there as I'd been using the comments section on releases to alert people to imminent represses, and admin were deleting them. There was this one guy who was just such a cunt, accusing me of 'digital vandalism' and another who said I was jealous of his inventory. When I checked it, he was trying to sell things like Paloma Faith albums for £400!


Disgusting. Oh, hang on, I've got a copy of that one, In that case I can only support his price jacking shenanigans. Sorry.

The Culture Bunker

Quote from: Inspector Norse on February 21, 2020, 01:00:07 PM
They all seem hard to get hold of for reasonable prices. Cherry Red did some reissues a couple of years ago, they seem to be about £25 which is the cheapest I think I've seen any of them go for. I've never owned a physical copy of any of them, I always have them on my list but wait in vain for a drop in price.
I was a bit surprised to see both the original LP and the Cherry Red CD reissue of 'Poem of the River' go for about the same prices.

Biggest surprise was seeing that the Wild Swans' 'Magnitude' compilation (which I got as a freebie to review) has gone for nearly £100.

holyzombiejesus

Quote from: Crabwalk on February 21, 2020, 12:30:05 PMAnd if you don't like the packaging prices that are revealed after you've bought the item you can cancel the purchase with no repercussions.

Are you sure? I think the seller can give negative feedback if they're so minded.

Crabwalk

I thought that was the case at least! I've done it plenty of times and maintained a 100% rating but maybe I've been lucky...

phantom_power

I am pretty sure that is acceptable as you don't know the cost of shipping when you agree to buy the item and someone could charge you £50 or something. I think the done thing is to enquire about shipping for the items you want before you agree to buy them though

Malcy

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 21, 2020, 10:49:48 AM

I'm surprised that you've found lots of things not listed, I'd double check if I were you as I rarely come across anything that I need to list myself unless it's only been out that day.

Have you sold records online before?

Nope, never sold anything online. I was going through boxes of old stuff when I came across Oasis Definitely Maybe on Minidisc. No idea where it came from but price on EBay & Discogs was £40-60 and only saw 4 copies between both sites.

That's what made me think I might have other stuff sitting in boxes that I'd rather have the money for.

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on February 21, 2020, 12:36:21 PM
Fuck me, I've got hundreds of vinyl LPS/ singles, a lot of them quite obscure, but so far, I've only ever found one album and a 7' in my collection that hasn't appeared on Discogs. It's almost become like a Dave Gorman type challenge to achieve a record no show.

I have a lot of Promo only copies of stuff that I used to get given by people in the music industry and various second hand shops. Most have came up but a good few haven't. Same with a couple of music DVD's as well.

I've added about 150+ which has been mostly easy to do but a lot of them I was checking barcodes, and all the other little details mentioned other notes and found several that were imports etc.

I tried the app to just scan things but don't think it would be that accurate on getting the exact release and I'm having to use my kindle camera which is very grainy and won't read it anyway.

Quote from: phantom_power on February 21, 2020, 04:44:40 PMI think the done thing is to enquire about shipping for the items you want before you agree to buy them though

Seems like the best idea. I've seen some really great stuff I want but then look at the shipping costs and sometimes they are more than the item itself by a big amount which has put me off. Have noticed a few sellers have really good information up and have a good way of selling more by saying they can send x amount for the same price.

I gave away all my vinyl years ago. Not much admittedly but that's what I'm hoping to rebuild through the site.

holyzombiejesus

You'll need to do a bit of prep before selling. You're best going to the post office and asking for their price list, although this only has a month left on it and prices will rise in March. Also ask for some customs forms and some air mail stickers which they should give you for free (or just swipe them from the self service counter). Swing by the pound shop and get some jiffy bags if you're selling CDs and a load of parcel tape. You'll also need to go online and buy some mailers. I usually use the brown card envelope types for LPs but these are useless if someone orders more than a couple of LPs from you or sending anything decent overseas. For these, you're best getting some cruciform boxes which are quite a bit pricier but you can add this on to your postage prices. You'll also need stiffeners (I use 2 per LP, or 3 for 2 LPs).

If you're deciding your postage rates, you'll need to decide at what price you will send 'signed for'. I draw the line at £20 and charge £1 more (UK) for this service. Overseas is loads more expensive for signed but definitely worth it if you don't want to get ripped off by (thankfully rare) unscrupulous liars.

I definitely think you're best to conservatively/ undergrade your items and be really careful to note any scuffs or blemishes in your listing. There are some really picky buyers out there as well as those who will seize on any faults in the hope of a partial refund. There's an option where you can invite offers on your items but I tend not to use this as it generally just invites piss-taking from cheeky people.

This sounds like a palaver but it is quite good fun when you have everything all organised. If you want any advice, let me know.

Malcy

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 21, 2020, 06:32:04 PM

I definitely think you're best to conservatively/ undergrade your items and be really careful to note any scuffs or blemishes in your listing. There are some really picky buyers out there as well as those who will seize on any faults in the hope of a partial refund. There's an option where you can invite offers on your items but I tend not to use this as it generally just invites piss-taking from cheeky people.

This sounds like a palaver but it is quite good fun when you have everything all organised. If you want any advice, let me know.

Thanks for that. Appreciate it. I put most things at a grading below. There was a lot of dust and marks on some things that would clean off very easy soon reality a good portion of what I've logged so far is VG or VG+. Even the few items that were mint I put under as well.

It will take me a week just to get everything up there at least. And that's just the CD's. The vinyl won't take long and I've already done music DVD's so after that it's just the few cassettes i still have. One of those was a Clive James audiobooks that wasn't listed on the site. Also have a few promo music video VHS to look out as well.

It's something i wish I had done years ago. I've loaned stuff out and lost so much that I can't even remember half of what I used to have unfortunately.

Captain Z

Christ, that packing discussion reminds me that the second most-expensive record I ever bought on Ebay, a £40 single 12", was sent to me wrapped in nothing more than a bin bag.

monkfromhavana

Quote from: holyzombiejesus on February 21, 2020, 12:02:37 PM
I had a big row on there as I'd been using the comments section on releases to alert people to imminent represses, and admin were deleting them. There was this one guy who was just such a cunt, accusing me of 'digital vandalism' and another who said I was jealous of his inventory. When I checked it, he was trying to sell things like Paloma Faith albums for £400!

https://www.discogs.com/seller/alan.james/profile?sort=price%2Cdesc

Someone else said "I note you price everything at £X.99,a technique used to fool the less intelligent into thinking they are priced at X (and not X + 1 - 0.01). Where's your moral high ground now?"

Fucking hell don't get me started on some of the arseholes on there.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Captain Z on February 21, 2020, 08:05:38 PM
Christ, that packing discussion reminds me that the second most-expensive record I ever bought on Ebay, a £40 single 12", was sent to me wrapped in nothing more than a bin bag.

I've had records sent to me from Amazon with the address sticker stuck straight on to the LP cover.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: monkfromhavana on February 21, 2020, 09:12:44 PM
Fucking hell don't get me started on some of the arseholes on there.

Oh go on.

I once said that we should be able to tick the box that says gatefold on records that are gatefold.

They went through my contributions, nit-picked them to death, flagged them up to get me bared from making edits/contributions.

monkfromhavana

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on February 21, 2020, 09:19:41 PM
Oh go on.

I once said that we should be able to tick the box that says gatefold on records that are gatefold.

They went through my contributions, nit-picked them to death, flagged them up to get me bared from making edits/contributions.

There was an interview with an artist about the creation of a particular track and he named the studio used. I added it ti release, marked as 'Uncredited' and added link to source.

Guy disputes veracity of link and says thay if it's not physically on the record or sleeve it shouln't be anywhere near Discogs.


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Brundle-Fly on February 21, 2020, 12:36:21 PM
Fuck me, I've got hundreds of vinyl LPS/ singles, a lot of them quite obscure, but so far, I've only ever found one album and a 7' in my collection that hasn't appeared on Discogs. It's almost become like a Dave Gorman type challenge to achieve a record no show.

They've culled loads of bootlegs/unofficial remixes etc and the place is poorer for it.

holyzombiejesus

They're still listed though, aren't they? You just can't put them up for sale. It's dead annoying as now I'm stuck with that Matching Mole Live at the BBC LP which is just fucking dogshit.

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: Malcy on February 21, 2020, 10:44:01 AM

Also noticed that when I've looked at buying things there is no postage details available straight away with a lot of sellers which puts me off a bit. Doo just looking for tips people may have that have been using the site for a while.

You often have to ask them, it's hard to automate a process when you don't know who many CDs/records and to where in the world, and if they need to sign for it when it's going Guatemala or Basingstoke, etc etc.

I've ordered a lot of low value comedy records and it was much cheaper to post them off as a parcel using a non-Royal mail, sort of thing you have to arrange.

I've had reasonably good experience buying, one was a little, over optimistic in his grading, and it's seems a bit pricey but where else do you get this stuff these days? eBay seems useless recently.

But I've never sold anything, I'd probably change my mind about it being pricey when I do.

Malcy

Quote from: OnlyRegisteredSoICanRead on February 23, 2020, 06:10:31 PM
You often have to ask them, it's hard to automate a process when you don't know who many CDs/records and to where in the world, and if they need to sign for it when it's going Guatemala or Basingstoke, etc etc.

I've ordered a lot of low value comedy records and it was much cheaper to post them off as a parcel using a non-Royal mail, sort of thing you have to arrange.

I've had reasonably good experience buying, one was a little, over optimistic in his grading, and it's seems a bit pricey but where else do you get this stuff these days? eBay seems useless recently.

But I've never sold anything, I'd probably change my mind about it being pricey when I do.

Yeah some stuff is really expensive. There was a promo cd-r i've been after for years listed at £150 and not even for sale at the moment so decided to try another search online and managed to get all but one track off it. Stuff like that I'll just keep searching for to download.

It's mostly old and rare stuff I'll be looking to buy and as long as it plays I'm not overly fussed on condition.


Pauline Walnuts

Oh, what great timing that one was...