Buying - or Selling…? How has it gone for you…? I’ll start…
Buying - generally good. Sellers are mostly responsive & helpful. I have even gone International, on occasion - and still good. The odd one is very sloooow to respond - and maybe should just stop being a Seller… Or raise their game…? Quality of Items - both CD’s & LP’s for me - has been As Described - with the odd bad one - which most Sellers will willing refund if you ask.
Selling - well… I don’t have a huge Inventory, but what I have, hardly moves. Price makes little difference, my stuff just doesn’t sell it seems… Not sure what I can do… Maybe just drop the lot at my local Oxfram shop…?
Mostly good here.
I got a black mark from somebody overseas who had not quoted postage costs, I did the purchase expecting something reasonable and got hit with a totally ridiculous amount! I just left it there and bought elsewhere.
As a buyer generally good. In fact just had my worst/best experience. Album I bought got lost in the post . After 2 weeks notified the seller, who immediately responded, notified Royal Mail who ask for 48 hrs to prompt the depot. When it still hadn’t turned up he refunded me straight away, even though he now has to wait on Royal Mail for his own refund.
As a seller, I put a bunch of vinyl and CDs up for sale. Most of the vinyl went within the year (all competitively priced). CDs taking much longer.
When I’m buying I always look at how well and how many reviews seller has. Could be you’re not selling so much because you’ve yet to build up a positive reputation. Bit of a catch 22.
Only ever bought, and it’s been very good. Prices for old and rare CDs are almost always better than other outlets. Ebay can be good, but you can’t always be sure the version they’re claiming to have is the exact one you want.
Only issue recently seems to be that many sellers are in the EU and post-B-word tax and import charges are often prohibitive. Pre-2020, buying from EU sellers was a breeze.
[The forum seems to have automatically redacted (the ellipsis in my post above) my already-redacted reference to a recent change in the UK’s political and economic status within Europe]
The prices for pre-loved CD’s are reasonable on Discogs, but almost always the delivery charges are crazy compared to Amazon marketplace sellers for instance. This makes them not worth the purchase.
I buy a few hundred discs a year. 95% of my purchases are done on Amazon (UK, DE, FR) and 5% (those hard to find CD’s) are bought through Discogs.
I am buying on Discogs since 20 years. 99% of them were as described.
I am very satisfied of Discogs. A great place.
However, with the increase of import taxes and shipping, I am buying less today. Only if I really desire strongly an album. I am not mentally prepared to buy an album which will cost me 4 or 5 times the cost of the item, because of the additional costs . It became ridiculous.
So my research concerns more Europe today.
I have not tried Amazon Marketplace, for a long time now. I have used eBay which can be very good on new releases. On Discogs I generally now stick to buying within the UK, unless I really, really have to… (so Prog Metal then…)
As a buyer and seller, I love Discogs. But a couple of years ago some idiot at HQ decided to introduce a “shipping policies” policy, which is a complete nightmare to negotiate. So setting postage rates if you’re a seller is a hellscape, even within the UK. Despite two years worth of complaints on the Discogs user forums and elsewhere, the company has still not listened to the community and persists with this asininity.
Have to agree with TheKevstar on the shipping policy. Has been a nightmare to navigate and often provides the wrong shipping estimate (or worse still, no shipping cost). Other than this issue, for selling, even rare popular items at reasonable prices can take a long time. In my listings I often state that from 1 to 4 CDs can be shipped for the same cost (virtually anywhere) and similarly 1 to 3 3LPs can be shipped for the same cost. Sometimes it results in more items being sold. I have listed about 300 LPs and CDs at any one time (liquidating a deceased friends collection for his widow) but it can be painful time-wise. I have shipped to Europe, Scandanavia, even South America in addition to locally here in Canada and the USA without issues. Just make sure that the buyer has shipping options to chose from and what the shipping standard is for a chosen rate/destination.
I have bought on Discogs as well, especially for rare items that are almost always grossly overpriced on eBay (even from the same seller). Have found that if the seller has a separate website, can often be cheaper to purchase via their website then from eBay or Discogs.
Out of the approximately 400 recordings I have listed on Discogs over the past 3 years, have sold perhaps 50. As other’s have pointed out, even if on somebodies Discogs want list, no guarantee it will sell (how often Discogs user’s update their want lists may also be an issue here).
So far, the experience with Discogs has overall been good, both as a seller and as a buyer. So I would recommend the site, even with some of the frustrating issues (shipping policy, sending invoices to potential buyers before you as a seller are able to review and correct any errors/omissions, etc.).
Here is a recent example of what I consider to be a poor Discogs Seller, based in the UK.
Ordered CD - Payment accepted. CD not posted. Chased up. No reply. Asked to cancel the Order. No reply. Asked again. No Reply. CD marked as Shipped - saying they shipped it several days ago. Said I asked them to Cancel the order, twice. They said they didn’t see my messages… Dur. But… they refunded me.
Nothing magical - Seller just needs to communicate better.
These things happen sometimes for me too, but rarely, so it doesn’t discourage me from Discogs.
Last time I ordered an lp. Paid it. Then the seller wrote it is unavailable, and he was sorry. But he couldn’t refund me straight. On PayPal the payment was appearing as Pending. For 2 weeks! I wrote twice to PayPal and they answered that all is normal, I have to wait.
2 weeks later I was refunded.
I tend to the view that such things are people/life issues rather than an issue with a particular site. I pick my purchase but also read the seller reviews at length. My first purchase was slow to arrive but not unexpectedly so. My second interaction was wonderful. Sent a photo of proof of posting; genuinely hoped I enjoyed the CD. The seller views for both were absolutely spot on.
A very useful information resource for availabilities and for checking values but after a handful of mis-described purchases around condition of the item, I’ve given up.
While the headline feedback scores can suggest a satisfactory vendor, when subsequently digging I found some recent negative commentary the headline scoring had ignored e.g. poor items/slow delivery/poor comms.
I got refunded as the ticket prices were low but the condition ranking scoring seems to elude some people’s understanding!
I have only been using Discogs for the last 18 months or so and it is now my go to source. I only buy and don’t sell. I like the ability to be selective on what issue / pressing you prefer, especially as I tend to seek out early copies mostly vinyl and certain CDs. It provides a wealth of information and I can and do spend ages digging through!
As yet I haven’t bought any new albums which I tend to buy from my local shops, to support local business. I also have a local shop that has a good selection of good quality used LPs and CDs which I will always use.
So far I haven’t had any difficulties and as others have said I review the seller as much as the product, which I am aware is tad unfair to new responsible sellers trying to establish themselves. Next purchase I will try to be a little more accommodating and give someone a chance and support them.
I don’t use Amazon now unless it’s absolutely necessary as I don’t trust their LP packaging, its horrific! Whereas with Discogs the packaging has been very good (though it does vary from seller to seller), therefore I find that it justifies the cost, within the UK.
Any downsides? Well… I started a list and found that it grew very quickly, so it can impact on your bank account!!!
. After 2 weeks notified the seller, who immediately responded, notified Royal Mail who ask for 48 hrs to prompt the depot. When it still hadn’t turned up he refunded me straight away, even though he now has to wait on Royal Mail for his own refund.
