Selling on Discogs and Amazon vs eBay

[moecurlythanu]

My biggest complaint with Discogs is the grading system. They use the Goldmine/American system which omits the Ex grade, intending the VG+ grade to be a substitute. The problem with this, is that Europeans, and many Americans (such as myself,) prefer the Record Collector/European grading system. This leads to confusion, where many Euro sellers think that there's this huge gap in the grading system, from NM all the was to (a European) VG+. If they describe the record in the notes and use an Ex, fine, it all comes out in the wash. Too many times, it's unclear, and I won't buy in most cases if I think it's a Euro VG+. I keep thinking about starting a thread on their boards, but I've already had a falling out with the control freaks at RYM, and don't need more of same.

Then there's this:

They seemed to be more concerned with the "excruciating minutia" in their website,whether there is a period of a comma in a song title on the label, etc.

I'm currently cataloging my collection on Discogs, and I can't believe the number of entries (particularly for US LPs) where the only difference is where some of the print is located on the label, or some other insignificant nonsense. Record collector OCD in overdrive. I just catalog mine under the one that has the most "in collection" hits. That kind of quibbling over insignificant minutiae is baffling...and quite annoying.

[Pr33t]

Hang on. I wait for the payment via PayPal to be received before I ship. What am I missing?

We're talking about buyers who never actually pay, requiring you to cancel the order. There is a minimum of 4 days set by discogs before you can cancel specifically for non-paying, which then automatically leaves negative feedback.

[rottersclub]

So far, I've never had that problem. Mind you, my volume is way less than you heavy hitters. I'm just culling my collection a bit - mostly 90s prog that hasn't held up so well, but is collectible. Ezra Winston, anyone?

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

anybody else having trouble accessing the Discogs site?

[Chain]

They seemed to be more concerned with the "excruciating minutia" in their website,whether there is a period of a comma in a song title on the label, etc.

And so they should be.

Discogs is firstly a Database and as such needs to be accurate.

As a selling platform it's comes a long second after it's primary aim.

[Levgan]

I don't agree about inflated prices on discogs

Jim, you gotta see that migala72 user which keeps flooding my wantlist with outrageously priced rarities every time I check it, not even intending to sell any of them apparently as most of his feedback seems to come from moving cheap CDs.

I still only get feedback about 50% of the time.

My rate on this improved over time, but it's still far from 100%. Some people just never can be persuaded into honoring the transaction and leaving appropriate comments.

My biggest complaint with Discogs is the grading system. They use the Goldmine/American system which omits the Ex grade, intending the VG+ grade to be a substitute. The problem with this, is that Europeans, and many Americans (such as myself,) prefer the Record Collector/European grading system.

This is very annoying indeed. I'm forced to grade my EX records VG+ (which means doing them a disservice IMO) or leave them at NM, but detail the slight imperfections in the description – which I'm doing anyway for all my listings, but not all buyers tend to read small text below the listing. I'm still undecided as to what's the better solution here, so I'm usually listing the "weak EX" LPs at VG+ and "strong EX" at NM. But that irritates me a lot.

[Pr33t]

Jim, you gotta see that migala72 user which keeps flooding my wantlist with outrageously priced rarities every time I check it, not even intending to sell any of them apparently as most of his feedback seems to come from moving cheap CDs.

He is the worst. Best yet, I've tracked a few of the items by putting them in my cart, and he actually raises his prices over time.

This is very annoying indeed. I'm forced to grade my EX records VG+ (which means doing them a disservice IMO) or leave them at NM, but detail the slight imperfections in the description – which I'm doing anyway for all my listings, but not all buyers tend to read small text below the listing. I'm still undecided as to what's the better solution here, so I'm usually listing the "weak EX" LPs at VG+ and "strong EX" at NM. But that irritates me a lot.

I agree with you and Mark. I tend to straddle the line like you suggest - if the record is a very strong EX, I will choose NM and the describe it as EX in the comments. Then anything between EX- and VG+ get called VG+ and then the detailed description. Luckily, I have rarely had an issue any any buyer questioning the grading, and as you said, it was only when they didn't read the description, or worse, didn't actually understand the grading scale as listed by Discogs.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

How have your sales been recently? I was getting 3-4 orders a week like clockwork. However, I haven't had a single sale in more than 2 weeks? Tax season?

[Pr33t]

I've had an order every day since Christmas! I had re-priced about 80% of my inventory in December to be more competitive, and it seems to have paid off. I think it's worth it every 6 months to a year to go and look at what other sellers have added since you listed any given item. Over time, a lot of mine were often too high compared to what had been added after I listed it.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

^^^hey Mike, did you re-price items in a certain price category, or how did you determine what to pick? It seems like a daunting task to go through 1,000 items.

[Pr33t]

^^^hey Mike, did you re-price items in a certain price category, or how did you determine what to pick? It seems like a daunting task to go through 1,000 items.

It's was pain in the ass, to be sure. I just went through my entire inventory, opened up each item to see all the available copies for sale, and adjusted the price if necessary. It seems like there has been a very large influx of sellers on discogs over the past three years, so sometimes when I first listed, my item seemed rare and expensive, but over time my high price was laughable. But judging on how my sales have picked up over that period, it was worth it. Took me about two weeks to fully do it in small blocks, as to not go insane.

[Adm.Kirk]

I've already had a falling out with the control freaks at RYM, and don't need more of same.

Yeah, what is the deal over there? Some admin got his panties in a wad when I uploaded an image of Billy Sherwood's Archived CD that I took off of Sherwood's website. He wouldn't approve the image. Wanted me to scan the damn thing.

I've been thinking doing some selling on Discogs but can't quite figure out how to do shipping rates. Anyone got a good rule of thumb for that?

Bill

[moecurlythanu]

Yeah, what is the deal over there? Some admin got his panties in a wad when I uploaded an image of Billy Sherwood's Archived CD that I took off of Sherwood's website. He wouldn't approve the image. Wanted me to scan the damn thing.

My issues went well beyond that. I've had a moderator who didn't own a record change the title of that record which I had submitted (and own.) I've had the same moderator deny an image upload on my Magic Island CD because he thought the outer was actually an inner. Look at the image history of the Small CD for the full exchange. A different moderator wouldn't approve a correction once, because I wouldn't take the time to also add song titles.

But the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back, was when I submitted an update to the Topper LP At Last, attempting to show the relation between that album and the David M. Dawkins & Rudy Passonno album Mama, Mama. They didn't care about that. The key point for them was the "search hint," which had never been submitted for that release. I couldn't have cared less about such frippery. After a heavy handed move, it was approved by an admin. He contacted me privately and said, "You seem to be very good at being snotty and unhelpful, so perhaps you should not submit things in future."
I replied with:
"Hmmm, let's see: 349 artists added to the database, 1310 releases, 26 profiles, 16 labels, 1029 scans/photos, and 1000+ release corrections. Pretty odd behavior for someone who's "unhelpful," wouldn't you say? I've put a lot of effort into this site, and your database would be much the worse without my efforts. Maybe not in genres that you care about, but it's a true statement nonetheless. My reasons for being here and your reasons for being here are probably quite different.

The only reason I submitted the update to the Topper profile was to show the connection between the Topper album & the David Dawkins & Rudy Passonno album. After the submission had garnered 6 "yes" votes, triticum came along and removed the Directly Related Artists line, and then you approved it. What BS. If you don't like the submission, then deny it. They don't have to be approved, you know.

I really couldn't care less about the profiles, and many of the profiles & label submissions I've done have been an unpleasant grind, leading me to stop doing them on my own. However, you guys changed the rules, and now (apparently, unless I'm missing something) require a profile any time an artist is added. I've decided that if I must submit a profile, it's going to be limited to artist name & location, and you guys can fill in what you want on the rest. It's usually what happens anyway. My only concern is adding releases and scans/photos, so I would be more than happy to oblige your request to cease submitting profiles. Unfortunately, I have a stack of albums, singles, and cassette-only releases by artists that are not in your database, that I have not had time to get to yet. If you could show me how to add those titles to the database without doing a profile, I'm all for it, and I think we'll both be happier in the long run."

There was no reply to that private message from the admin. I was in no hurry to submit anymore profiles, but 7 or 8 months later, things were stacking up, and I decided to try to submit a profile in order to upload some titles. To my surprise, I found that I had been blocked by controls set by the admin, and thus would not have the ability to submit artists moving forward. Well, that makes the site worthless to me, so after I get all affairs in order, I'll be leaving the site altogether.

[moecurlythanu]

Jim, you gotta see that migala72 user which keeps flooding my wantlist with outrageously priced rarities every time I check it, not even intending to sell any of them apparently as most of his feedback seems to come from moving cheap CDs.

Does anybody know who this is? Has to be a big collector to even have those rarities from different parts of the world. The prices are goofy, however. Maybe he's just trying to make groover-paradise look good.

[Adm.Kirk]

I've added a ton of stuff to the data base at RYM too. Sometimes I have no trouble and other times it's a real pain. My reasons for being there is to have somewhere online to have a listing of what I have. I thought about moving it over to Discogs but my collection is just too large now to do such. So I will stick it out.

That's an amazing story you tell. I wonder why they are the way they are. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

Bill

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Yeah, what is the deal over there? Some admin got his panties in a wad when I uploaded an image of Billy Sherwood's Archived CD that I took off of Sherwood's website. He wouldn't approve the image. Wanted me to scan the damn thing.

I've been thinking doing some selling on Discogs but can't quite figure out how to do shipping rates. Anyone got a good rule of thumb for that?

Bill

What are you selling? If it's LPs, I do $4 domestic, $20 international for the 1st one, and $1/$4 each additional.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Jim, you gotta see that migala72 user which keeps flooding my wantlist with outrageously priced rarities every time I check it, not even intending to sell any of them apparently as most of his feedback seems to come from moving cheap CDs.

I don't gert hit by him as nearly as I do by recordsale.de . I wish he would delist that Orange Peel with no cover, it pops up every day!

[Adm.Kirk]

What are you selling? If it's LPs, I do $4 domestic, $20 international for the 1st one, and $1/$4 each additional.

That sounds simple enough. How about CDs? About the same?

[Pr33t]

What are you selling? If it's LPs, I do $4 domestic, $20 international for the 1st one, and $1/$4 each additional.

Jim - USPS upped the rates yet again on Sunday. You should revisit your international pricing - it's up to about $23.50 for an LP. $13.50 for a CD.

[Pr33t]

I don't gert hit by him as nearly as I do by recordsale.de . I wish he would delist that Orange Peel with no cover, it pops up every day!

I wish daily unlisitng was banned. This guy and Blacklight.

[Don Arnold]

I wish daily unlisitng was banned. This guy and Blacklight.

I'll strongly second that! There's several Discogs forum threads on the topic - obviously a history there with this issue. I've taken to simply deleting items from my want list rather than receiving daily email notifications only to see the same cd's relisted, over and over again. Actually (and as alluded to in those threads) blocking offending sellers would be the better way to go, imo.

[Progatron]

I'll strongly second that! There's several Discogs forum threads on the topic - obviously a history there with this issue. I've taken to simply deleting items from my want list rather than receiving daily email notifications only to see the same cd's relisted, over and over again. Actually (and as alluded to in those threads) blocking offending sellers would be the better way to go, imo.

Definitely agree with this. It's gotten to the point where I sometimes don't even look at the daily e-mails because I know it's going to be the same five or six albums relisted by the same few people... and that's not good because one of these days I'll miss something as a result. The whole point of the system is to NOT miss things. It needs an overhaul.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Jim - USPS upped the rates yet again on Sunday. You should revisit your international pricing - it's up to about $23.50 for an LP. $13.50 for a CD.

Thanks, Mike. Are domestic rates the same or did they go up too.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Jim - USPS upped the rates yet again on Sunday. You should revisit your international pricing - it's up to about $23.50 for an LP. $13.50 for a CD.

I went in and put my new shipping rates, and now it says "+ no extra shipping" & I couldn't make that go away, so I put in the shipping terms "YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING SHIPPING(REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE INDICATOR READS" - None of their info seems to be of any help. Any ideas

[Pr33t]

Thanks, Mike. Are domestic rates the same or did they go up too.

I think it was only Priority and First Class that went up domestically, not Media Mail, so I didn't have to change anything.

I went in and put my new shipping rates, and now it says "+ no extra shipping" & I couldn't make that go away, so I put in the shipping terms "YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING SHIPPING(REGARDLESS OF WHAT THE INDICATOR READS" - None of their info seems to be of any help. Any ideas

Sorry, I only have automated rates set for domestic. I always wait to check international shipping and invoice manually.