What do you want to see in a new vinyl marketplace?

[nasdisc]

Hey everyone!

I'm new to the community but I've been collecting records for a few years and have been avidly using Discogs to store my collection and as my primary online marketplace. I think Discogs is great and I love the community but I've never found it to be the perfect solution and with the crazy state of vinyl today and the huge influx of new collectors, I really think there's a ton of room for improvement in a new marketplace.

So, I started building one! You can check it out at Nasdisc - Buy & Sell Vinyl Records, CDs & Cassettes
I really think it has potential to fill in some gaps in our current solutions and provide a really cool platform going forward for new features.

In order to accomplish all this, I need your help!

I really want to solve problems for today's collectors and sellers. So what would interest you the MOST in a new marketplace.

Found the perfect place and wouldn't dare dream of leaving Discogs/eBay/etc? I'd love to know why.

-Sim

 

[yukbon]

The biggest problem that discogs (and to a lesser extent ebay,) has is that the search and notification system is kind of trash. Ebay is a lot better than 'cogs in that at least they have a notification system but my ideal notification system would be something that would enable me to search for titles that I'm looking for with some granularity (ie, I'm not just looking for a copy of Bowie's "Earthling", I'm specifically looking for a green vinyl copy of Earthling in VG+ condition or better, and not more than say $150USD) and with a notification system that works and is timely.

 

[nasdisc]

The biggest problem that discogs (and to a lesser extent ebay,) has is that the search and notification system is kind of trash. Ebay is a lot better than 'cogs in that at least they have a notification system but my ideal notification system would be something that would enable me to search for titles that I'm looking for with some granularity (ie, I'm not just looking for a copy of Bowie's "Earthling", I'm specifically looking for a green vinyl copy of Earthling in VG+ condition or better, and not more than say $150USD) and with a notification system that works and is timely.

I hear that a lot!! That's actually how this whole thing started. I built a site called Discops to send text alerts when a release is listed on Discogs at your set price and condition. With the new site Nasdisc you do the same thing with a bid however you attach a payment method so that when a seller decides to accept you buy the record instantly. Alerts are also coming soon if you'd rather not commit to buying it straight away.

 

[waruv]

Hola! Love the Discops/Nasdsic system overall.

In terms of what would interest me the most outside of the notification system (which is the biggie, you definitely know that's your edge in and Discops snagged me several most wanted titles).

• A stronger way to customize the wants somewhere between "this specific pressing" and "any pressing". Yukbon's point is sound on this, but what I find is that Discogs has hundreds or even thousands of listings for some albums based on some real and some imagined differences and Ebay has no real system for differentiating these. The ability to find a copy of Blue by Joni Mitchell in the original press span, or an early repress, without having to dive into nine different filters would be nice. Like, when I'm crate digging, I generally don't care about if that record is a 1971 original or a 1972 repress unless I have reason to, but no marketplace really gives a good way to find that. So if I have a Discogs watchlist I choose the most popular pressing in that time and pray or I prune through Ebay and guess. Discogs does OK with this if you're willing to do the manual filter work but there's no way to track it from there. This may be less important presently but if Taylor Swift is putting out nine versions of Folklore, and someone just wants a Folklore, it'd be nice to be able to have an option for that.
• A bulk "watch" or "ask" option, or even a bulk "sell" option. Ebay has lots, Discogs doesn't, but I know when I was (and am) hunting Jenny Lewis/Rilo Kiley singles, I would have loved an option to put a feeler out there to someone who did what I did five years ago and is just looking to let it go. Likewise, if I want to sell my Queen collection, the ability to post it as a lot to buy and be able to link it to specific items so people who want them can see it would be a difference maker to me. The ability to break items out of said lot after posting would be even better in case a buyer only wants a few of them and makes an offer that's worth it.
• Ease of Crossposting: I rarely sell but if I do, it's probably on Reddit. I know others use Discogs or Ebay or Mercari. There is obvious business reasons and impracticalities about allowing it but making it as easy as possible to take a listing from another site and have it also be able to go on Nasdisc would be a biggie.
• Buy-In of Local Record Stores: Honestly, most of my better gets have been by locals posting on Discogs. I think making a marketplace reasonable enough that a fairly busy record store can jump on there and use it is a big incentive for me to want to look more. This would likely be a more organic thing but a lot of locals are owned by luddites, and I think even Discogs or Ebay has proven to be either too cost-cutty or too complicated/annoying to justify.
• Historical Data: Like, Discogs does okay with this, and you can use Popsike to pull Ebay info, but generally I'm more comfortable buying or selling if I have a decent idea of what fair market value is for it. Like, I go to Nasdisc and to be honest I see a lot of sellers over-asking and a lot of buyers under-asking. Some of it is just the nature of the system but some of it is probably either ignorance or trying to take advantage of not having that in place. Again, I suspect over time you might be able to leverage that but I will generally look at past sales to judge if my personal value of something is off and the variance by platform is a lot.

I probably have more but those are five where I think an upstart marketplace could make waves as the current options just aren't doing it.