Needles & Grooves

Common album that can be picked up for $20 on Amazon, yeah... 20% discount. Rare or older album that doesn’t have a problem selling when it becomes available.... I’d try to list at full price, maybe a 5% discount, with the condition noted (obviously)

I'm the buyer in this scenario, so I'm trying to figure out what discount I can ask for. It's a scarce record.

How much of a grail is it it to you? I ask because it’s not wildly uncommon to come across an opportunistic seller who will raise their asking price once you show interest.

This record is at my local record shop, not some online vendor. They always price things on the Discogs high end.

That’s unfortunate they price that way but definitely works in your favor to get a discount, especially if the store (like many do) hold sales to clear used inventory. If you haven’t already, I would draw attention to the split and ask if they would be able to come down on the price because of it. If they’re motivated to sell they should give you 20% off the top since they probably have a 30-50% markup on it.

I dunno, I've proposed 20% discounts on VG+/VG+ items or NM/NM but missing like liner notes and gotten it on scarce-ish records. For visible damage I might go a bit more aggressive to give you something to walk back to unless you think they'll laugh you out.

I think a lot of it does come down to how much you want it though. Like at what point does the percentage discount matter compared to having the wax in your hands?

A NM record with a VG/VG- sleeve = VG. I’m very skeptical of an NM rating - so I’d lean to a flat VG overall, not a VG+.

It’s hard to assign a % since that’s going to vary - and no one prices by Goldmine standard which would probably put it around half to three-quarters the value of a true NM copy. Retail has to factor in what they paid + margin so price doesn’t necessarily equal value.

I assume they didn’t pay more than 30-35% of what they’re asking for (it may have been far less; they said the previous owner just decided to “get rid of all his records” so I assume the shop made him a lowball offer).

They listed it as $150 initially and brought it down to $120 because of the split (they have the jacket listed as VG+ on their Discogs page).

That’s still about twice as much as I’ve ever paid for an album. Discogs median is $93, but the cheapest available in the US right now is for sale for $113.

Right now I’m leaning toward bringing some records and CDs in for trade value, and then see how much they offer me in return. If it gets me close to the amount they’re asking, I may just do a straight trade. Or I may offer a lesser amount (like $80-$90) in cash and see if they go for it.

If they already lowered due to the split it it may be tough but bring your comps and see what happened, I don't think it's that unreasonable to propose 90-100 on that and see if they bite