Discogs - Help, Tricks, Secrets And Tips

mingerton said:
Right, that's why buyers should request that the seller open and ship it separate in a poly-sleeve. Thanks for the advice and I suppose that's what I should do since $25 is not a big hit.

But what I didn't write in my initial post is that I suspect this buyer planned this outcome all along. She messaged me so many times about the condition before buying it that I blocked her. But then she ordered the LP anyway, and regrettably, I didn't cancel it because I assumed something was lost in translation from Polish to English. In a broader sense, what's to prevent a foreign buyer from doing this again and again?

Last, I'm disappointed in discogs CS. I love discogs in every way. But it took four days for them to get back to me and the message is clearly a cut/paste form email rather than an actual response to my query. I understand why they don't want to intervene, but I really expected more help/support, especially given how every month I pay them commissions on my sales.
Click to expand...
Although I haven't sold anything on Discogs, I have sold things for over twenty years on half, ebay and amazon. The VAST majority of my sales have gone smoothly. It's easy to focus on a negative experience, and even to suspect bad will on the part of the buyer, but that's seldom the case. You have to view this in the long term, accept the occasional negative experience as a part of the cost of doing business, and protect your seller rating. And, like @Ethos99 suggested, control what you can control and adjust your practices to try to avoid this situation in the future.

As for Discogs' response, they are only an intermediary and serve both the buyer and the seller in the transaction. Although you pay them a commission, there wouldn't be any commission without a purchase by a buyer. In light of the photo of the damage, which, absent evidence to the contrary, has to be assumed to have occurred in transit, it's unclear what additional help/support Discogs could have provided. And technically, this is a grading issue, as the item arrived with a sleeve condition worse than you described.

I do agree with those who have said a full refund without a return is unreasonable. But, I also think the cost to return the item should be the seller's responsibility when an item arrives damaged. In light of that, I wonder whether simply issuing a refund and moving past this is the better choice. If it's returned, you will still be out both the initial and return shipping costs, but could relist the item. Is that worth it?
 
Yeah, as a matter of principle, I can't imagine that I'd offer a full refund and to keep the record. With that said, for a $25 record, I can't imagine that any solution (partial refund + keeping the record, paying for return of the now damaged record/sleeve) is going to be dramatically cheaper. At some point your time isn't gonna be worth the money saved on this if you "win".

Granted, I'm super risk averse so I really wouldn't enjoy shipping international on cheaper records anyway except in one-off situations - between shipping costs to return and timeframes feels like the likelihood of an unhappy customer is gonna be higher. That's just me though.
 
Last edited:
I’d ignore any speculation about “signs” of a bad buyer. Great buyers also ask questions that can seem annoying before hand. Nervous buyers who ask for clarification can end up being some extra work but they can also be great, smooth buyers who just had a few questions.

All that really matters is knowing what your actual obligations are as a seller and what your actual risks are, so you can offer a fair resolution for both parties and, if needed, put your foot down in a way that is appropriate. Where some sellers get into trouble is when they have personal ideas of what’s fair or makes sense to them and those don’t align with the reality of what their obligations and risks are.

Shipping internationally complicates things* but, essentially, all you need to do is offer a return upon refund or a partial refund, as you have. If the buyer refuses both, your job is technically done, as far as obligations go. If they go to Discogs or PayPal, they’ll give the buyer the exact same options. There is no manner**
in which the buyer can use PayPal or Discogs to force a refund while keeping the record.

*If the buyer is, in deed, refusing to return, it could be because they know it’ll cost them a bit of money to ship back internationally. And they either don’t want to ask you to cover return shipping (or they have and you refused?).

**Sometimes PayPal will refund a buyer on their own dime and you keep the money and the buyer keeps the record. It’s rare but happens.

Now, as far as risk, you are not obligated to help the customer beyond offering those two resolutions BUT you run the risk of getting negative feedback and nasty messages. The former can hurt your shop and the latter can hurt your head/emotions, if you’re a softie like me who hates confrontation and getting angry emails. If the record is $25, it’s possible that it makes sense*** for you to fully refund them and let them keep the record in hopes they don’t leave a negative feedback comment. It’s not easy to quantify but having a lower seller rating and a feedback remark about how you were not easy to work with on an issue caused by your own packing could cost you more than $25 in future sales.

***For some people, the idea that a buyer “gets away” with being unreasonable is hard to swallow but IMO it’s not about them. It’s about what makes sense for you. Going back to the international return shipping note, it could cost you “$25 + original costly shipping + an extra costly return shipping fee + bad feedback + possible further damage to record on return voyage” to receive the item back and keep the buyer “honest”. You have to decide whether losing money and feedback is worth that. That’s a personal question that will have different answers for each person. For me, I’d save my own time and money and refund the person outright. I also don’t sell internationally because of the shipping costs, so I avoid the possibility of these scenarios altogether.
 
All of these responses are really thoughtful. You all have approached this from angles I had not anticipated and have helped me think about it in a more cohesive way.

I don't think I'll block international buyers in the future but I will provide them more information up front. For example, a message that says: "This item is sealed. If sent 7000KM to you overseas, it will shift no matter how will packaged and this may cause a seam split. Do you want me to open this item and ship the LP outside of the cover or ship it sealed? If the latter, you assume the risk of minor cosmetic damage."

I won't post any more on this issue except one more time with an update on how it was ultimately resolved.

Cheers and thanks!
 
mingerton said:
All of these responses are really thoughtful. You all have approached this from angles I had not anticipated and have helped me think about it in a more cohesive way.

I don't think I'll block international buyers in the future but I will provide them more information up front. For example, a message that says: "This item is sealed. If sent 7000KM to you overseas, it will shift no matter how will packaged and this may cause a seam split. Do you want me to open this item and ship the LP outside of the cover or ship it sealed? If the latter, you assume the risk of minor cosmetic damage."

I won't post any more on this issue except one more time with an update on how it was ultimately resolved.

Cheers and thanks!
Click to expand...
Just keep in mind that a buyer can agree to be OK with seam splits but that doesn't override their PayPal buyer protection. They can still open a PayPal claim for the damage and you'd need to provide a refund/return or replacement. Same with similar common disclaimers like "Buyer responsible for any/all shipping risks unless you pay for insurance." You can put disclaimers in your description but any/all buyer protection takes precedence.
 
If you can vote, some yes votes for this would be nice. Moved a crap release that failed removal twice to another master to merge with unofficial release. Seemed like the best spot for it.



Operation Ivy - Operation Ivy

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2007 Vinyl release of "Operation Ivy" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com
 
Noticed someone posted the One from the Vault Dead release under VMP for some reason...It's not a VMP exclusive at all. VMP just sold the release in their store. It's the same as far as I know from every other reissue of this. How does one get this listing removed/merged?
www.discogs.com

The Grateful Dead - One From The Vault

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2021 Vinyl release of "One From The Vault" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com
 
MikeH said:
Noticed someone posted the One from the Vault Dead release under VMP for some reason...It's not a VMP exclusive at all. VMP just sold the release in their store. It's the same as far as I know from every other reissue of this. How does one get this listing removed/merged?
www.discogs.com

The Grateful Dead - One From The Vault

View credits, reviews, tracks and shop for the 2021 Vinyl release of "One From The Vault" on Discogs.
www.discogs.com www.discogs.com
Click to expand...
Oops LOL! looks like ya got your hand slapped Alright...[Cracks Knuckles] Okay, let see if we can walk you through a merge.

First find the page you wanna merge with this page, once you have that release pulled up, go to the address bar and copy down the numbers at the very end of the URL...
CADDEBA8-95C6-46A3-9A9B-2B443658621A.jpeg
Once you have that number copied down pull back up the entry listed here and click “edit release” then once that page loads look for “merge release”
E36DC160-6180-4C3B-923C-ACB4F7369193.jpeg
Then once that page loads...
6A366A81-C1FC-4AC7-BBFA-5996CCC86805.jpeg
Paste that number you copied from the other release page into the “Release ID 2” box where the info should display once both are loaded select the “use this version...” radio box for the version you’d like to keep and in the comments state why the two release should be merged and click the merge release. Everyone will get a chance to vote and seems likely merged together.

If you have any other questions lemme know.
 
Under Settings/Collection/Note Fields, you could create a Field Name: "Genre", type: dropdown, and in the Options area add all of the genres you have, then set the genre for each item in your collection.

And holy shit that sounds like a lot of work, but that's all I got for ya.
 
There needs to be a way to search your inventory on the app. Such a pain. I add my inventory to my collection just so I can search it, unfortunately I forget to remove them when they sell.
 
Not using the app, the best way I've found to sort by genre is to search the genre.

Searching "Jazz" in your collection finds most jazz related albums, but also some false positives, too - like the Queen album "Jazz"


Folders could work, but a release is only allowed to be in one folder at a time, and I have folders for LP, CD, DVD, 7", 10" & 12"...etc.

Screenshot 2021-03-07 074008.jpg
 
LeeVing said:
Not using the app, the best way I've found to sort by genre is to search the genre.

Searching "Jazz" in your collection finds most jazz related albums, but also some false positives, too - like the Queen album "Jazz"


Folders could work, but a release is only allowed to be in one folder at a time, and I have folders for LP, CD, DVD, 7", 10" & 12"...etc.

View attachment 90880
Click to expand...

I have folders for different formats too, so genre folders wouldn't work for me. I tried this and like you said it does bring up a few wonky results but I get a better idea of what I have and it's pretty useful. I missed @dansomeone reply and I'll have to give that a try later when I have some time to dedicate. Thanks!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top