Discogs - Help, Tricks, Secrets And Tips

Joe Mac said:
In my experience, mainly from VMP damage, as a buyer there actually doesn’t need to be any visible damage on a mailer for warping to occur. The application of head and the pressure caused by leaning or putting something on top during shipping will show itself much quicker on the fragile record inside than on a sturdy cardboard mailer. If there was packaging damage though ask for a photo.

Good luck with the postal claim, they really can be a nightmare. I’d definitely listen to the advice above though, when selling you are a shop and have to look at it as an overall profit/loss situation like a shop would do and less as a collector selling a bit of your collection to buy new records.
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This is most likley the case, as I imagine damaged packaging would have been flagged up straight away.

Yeah for sure, I've made enough 'profit' over the year to justify a loss this time. I have actually had a few issues with postal claims in the past, but I have always been the receiver of the package, never the sender. I will just persevere with it and, you never know, the buyer might accept the partial refund if the record is still playable.
 
I was very frustrated and stressed out when I first started selling things on Discogs, waiting for positive feedback so I knew they received the record ok. Or feeling bad when the post office damaged something and I'd refund or discount something. And at one point I also felt like I was just going to unlist all of my records when I got my first Discogs invoice.

Now, I've learned much and tempered my expectations and its so much better. Its just a hobby and the refunds and other issues are few and far between.

Here are some things I keep in mind and practices I do now to enjoy selling:

1. Most people aren't looking to screw you over. The ones who are are not worth worrying about.
swamp jazz box set said:
The customer isn't your opponent or adversary. Winning against potential 'scammers' isn't the goal. There are no 'tricks' to catch scammers or hacks to get PayPal to not enforce their own rules.
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2. Grade it right the first time. Grade it when you list but also take the time to grade it again before you send it. I've messaged buyers and said "hey this isn't the quality I thought it was, I'm going to throw it in your box but refund you for my error". To me it was better than gambling on whether they would be upset.

3. Pack it right. If you sell, then you probably buy enough records to know when the packing is right, when it works the outside of the box can look like shit when it arrives, but that record is perfectly fine. For example; too much space between records and they move around and get seam splits, or not having padding between records. Use a box (like VMP, Bull Moose, Plaid room) that has overhanging sides that will take corner impact. If you cant get those boxes, I have never had a complaint about the cheap standard boxes because I wrap every record in bubble wrap before it goes in the box and tape each side so it is solid.

4. CYA. I used to say I'm not responsible for shipping but you certainly are and should be to a certain extent. So to cover myself for what's out of my control, I use Pirateship to ship almost everything now because I can get reasonable insurance on Media Mail, Priority and international. I charge $5 to ship one or two records in the US. the cost is $3.11-$3.88 depending on weight. The overage was for supplies and my time as I also take everything to the post office and have it scanned. So now I spend .60 to add up to $100 worth of insurance on every package. Also, if the record is over $100 I send free Priority 2 day, which includes $100 insurance automatically (which Discogs doesn't tell you if you use their service).

Sometimes, because of discogs shipping calculator a 3 LP album bumps people into my next shipping price which is $8, although 3 LP's in one sleeve dont bump the Media Mail price. In that case, I bump people up to priority and they love the faster shipping and I get included insurance.

Since I've adjusted the above, I haven't had a complaint/issue in a long time.
 
Just in case anyone was interested, it appears I have come to a compromise with the buyer in regards to the warped record.

He responded in quite a defensive way, stating he doesn't understand how it could have happened during transit and that warps dont just appear out of nowhere. I sympathised and after a back and forth he accepted a £10 partial refund (22%) and said its good enough to keep anyway. He's going to send me photos of it anyway and I will reply with the photos and videos I took before sending it off (without the warp or noise issue). Just going to mark it down to one of those things and get on with life.
 
Does anyone else keep a 'running cart' of stuff you might buy on Discogs? I usually look mine over and think hard how much I really want something, removing them when the urge has worn off or priorities change.

One annoying thing is when sellers de-list and re-list their entire store, it takes those items out of my cart as if they sold. I can go back to the seller and re-add them. One seller has been doing this NIGHTLY. I assume it's to freshen their listings for the emails that Discogs sends out every day, but it's such a bother.
 
djdavedk said:
Does anyone else keep a 'running cart' of stuff you might buy on Discogs? I usually look mine over and think hard how much I really want something, removing them when the urge has worn off or priorities change.

One annoying thing is when sellers de-list and re-list their entire store, it takes those items out of my cart as if they sold. I can go back to the seller and re-add them. One seller has been doing this NIGHTLY. I assume it's to freshen their listings for the emails that Discogs sends out every day, but it's such a bother.
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I've actually emailed discogs about this issue, less about the cart disappearance issue than about how certain sellers delist/relist their inventory every day so they always rise to the top of the daily email, which makes the email pointless because it's always the same sellers and the same prices who get included as "newly listed" but they're not new at all.

Discogs claimed that "we're working on this issue" but that was months ago and also explained that while some sellers might delist/relist for that reason, others have an automatic inventory system where it does this every day to remove items bought, presumably from other platforms.
 
mingerton said:
I've actually emailed discogs about this issue, less about the cart disappearance issue than about how certain sellers delist/relist their inventory every day so they always rise to the top of the daily email, which makes the email pointless because it's always the same sellers and the same prices who get included as "newly listed" but they're not new at all.

Discogs claimed that "we're working on this issue" but that was months ago and also explained that while some sellers might delist/relist for that reason, others have an automatic inventory system where it does this every day to remove items bought, presumably from other platforms.
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I'll do this sometimes. Not daily, or even weekly mind you, but every so often when I feel the well's gone dry. But when I do, I feel like I've got at least a 75% success rate of a new order within the next few days. So I guess it works, but I agree it makes the e-mails/for sale messages pointless. I don't do the e-mails anymore and just look at my wish list when I'm feeling like it. I don't need any more FOMO pressure than I already get.
 
Finally took the pirate ship plunge but can't for the life of me figure out how to get it to do media mail for me. It seems dead set on priority only.
 
What's the price difference between PayPal shipping labels and PirateShip for media mail?

Edit: Just saw this on Pirate Ship's site: "There are no discounts available for Media Mail so the rates are the same no matter where you buy the postage."
 
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swamp jazz box set said:
What's the price difference between PayPal shipping labels and PirateShip for media mail?

Edit: Just saw this on Pirate Ship's site: "There are no discounts available for Media Mail so the rates are the same no matter where you buy the postage."
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Yeah I saw that too. That's fine. I still can't even use media mail on the site.
 
Is it true that Pirate Ship offers an inexpensive insurance option?
Has anyone had to use it to cover damage in transit?
 
Might be a random question, but a local shop near me listed something on Discogs as a VG+ and cleaned on ultrasonic cleaner. I ended up buying it at their shop because visibly it looked beautiful, but when I got home and listened to it, there's definitely some areas that don't sound perfect but not due to necessarily anything on the surface of the vinyl, but probably because the grooves themselves are a little busted. If I were to go ahead and sell this record myself, should I maybe list it as a VG? Again, visibly it looks great but I also don't want to steer anyone wrong because it's by no means a perfect record. Also a bit upset considering I spent $130 on it (it's a hard to find 90s deep house 12") 🙁

Never sold before and I'm always hesitant because of situations like this
 
mitchplease said:
Might be a random question, but a local shop near me listed something on Discogs as a VG+ and cleaned on ultrasonic cleaner. I ended up buying it at their shop because visibly it looked beautiful, but when I got home and listened to it, there's definitely some areas that don't sound perfect but not due to necessarily anything on the surface of the vinyl, but probably because the grooves themselves are a little busted. If I were to go ahead and sell this record myself, should I maybe list it as a VG? Again, visibly it looks great but I also don't want to steer anyone wrong because it's by no means a perfect record. Also a bit upset considering I spent $130 on it (it's a hard to find 90s deep house 12") 🙁

Never sold before and I'm always hesitant because of situations like this
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This is one of those “if you have to ask you know the answer” questions. If you think it might deserve VG you can be 100% certain a buyer will. According to discogs, VG+ is or approaching audibly perfect. I’d say your selling a VG record. Really, I think you should detail the issue in the listing regardless which grade you select for it.
 
debianlinux said:
This is one of those “if you have to ask you know the answer” questions. If you think it might deserve VG you can be 100% certain a buyer will. According to discogs, VG+ is or approaching audibly perfect. I’d say your selling a VG record. Really, I think you should detail the issue in the listing regardless which grade you select for it.
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Yeah that’s definitely what I’d plan on doing. I think you can also upload audio clips to listings as well which is something I’d also do. I really wouldn’t want anyone else to feel the way I did after listening to it the first time. I guess on the bright side, it sounds great where there aren’t any sound issues, but it seems like every minute there’s a small section that pops for a few revolutions. And nothing against the shop either because they’ve always been good to me but damn, I had a gut feeling something was gonna be off
 
mitchplease said:
Yeah that’s definitely what I’d plan on doing. I think you can also upload audio clips to listings as well which is something I’d also do. I really wouldn’t want anyone else to feel the way I did after listening to it the first time. I guess on the bright side, it sounds great where there aren’t any sound issues, but it seems like every minute there’s a small section that pops for a few revolutions. And nothing against the shop either because they’ve always been good to me but damn, I had a gut feeling something was gonna be off
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I would honestly take it back to your local and discuss it with them. If they don't take a return, maybe they'd give you some money back.
 
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