15/20 years ago I bought 2h vinyl off eBay regularly, usually for about a £ or 2, the postage frequently cost more than the record! Which would often be sent in a thick card mailer, with the vinyl and inner sleeve out of the outer sleeve as it should be.
Variously described as good to mint, I had very few disappointments out of dozens and dozens of purchases.
Now, something good only for mixing epoxy resin on will often be described as VG+ to NM and goes for north of twenty quid! I then contact seller who agrees to a refund but it’s then a pita for me to send it back so they can wait for a less concerned mark…
Oh and then a CD was about £16! Now they are a pound or two. Go figure…
A seller with hundreds of lp’s up for sale will probably be in the business of selling records. They will be trying to sell every record they have in stock, and obtain the maximum price they can. Plus they won’t have the time to listen to every record.
I on the other hand collect records as a hobby, only have half a dozen for sale at any one time, wouldn’t even sell a record with a visible scratch, I’d throw it away, I can afford to.
Mint or near mint is all I ever buy. Using that mantra I’d say I get about 90% success with Discogs purchases. There are some bad sellers out there of course, but I find most are pretty straight. It helps a lot to have a good RCM when buying second hand. I can’t really envisage subjecting my expensive cartridge to unknown condition records that I haven’t prepared properly beforehand.
I’ve bought and sold a lot of stuff on eBay over the years.
Generally there are few bad sellers, but there are also a few bad buyers.
If you buy 10 items at a nice price and one goes wrong, it doesn’t really matter. If you sell 10 items at a nice price and one goes wrong, it doesn’t really matter.
Depends on the country of the seller a great deal. I find the following tends to be both humorous and accurate.
+------------+---------------------------------+--------------------------------+
| Condition | Meaning (UK) | Meaning (Japan) |
+------------+---------------------------------+--------------------------------+
| New | Maybe returned for refund | New |
| Nearly New | Tatty case/sleeve | New |
| Very Good | Tatty case/sleeve. Grubby disc. | Basically New |
| Good | Bad | Basically New |
| Average | Knackered | Minor scuffs on case/sleeve |
| Poor | No sleeve. Unplayable | Tatty case/sleeve. Grubby disc |
+------------+---------------------------------+--------------------------------+
The generally accepted grades don’t all align with our everday understanding of the terms, especially at the lower end. I’m often reminded of an old Miles Kington article about the book trade. In reference to a particular seller’s grading system, the seller’s own note said “Good” means “not very good”.
I have had the odd bad purchase from Discogs before and found that you should contact the seller and raise an issue. Do this via Discogs order page so there is a track of the conversation. It’s up to you to decide if you want a discount on the price or return the item as not as described. If they do not reply then raise the issue in Discogs. they can follow it up and suspend the persons account if they just ignore it. I found that if the person has many items for sale and a business then they will respond. Like others have said here I usually only but Vinyl as near mint or above, CD’s I do go down to VG+ sometimes and if the seller has a good rating then usually they underestimate the condition and you get better than described. Like someone else said here, Japan is so so much better. Never has an issue and always way better than described or like new and well packaged.
Best of Luck
This is pretty much my view too. One Near Mint record was so warped it went in the bin but overall my success rate is, like yours 90-95%. It’s the price of doing business with old out of print records. Not everyone has a pristine Naim/Linn type system and not everyone is worried about keeping sleeves immaculate. That being said, if a record is described as Near Mint, it should be.
