It’s a question I am asked all the time by people who buy vintage and new vinyl from both places: What’s the difference between the two? I have one full-blown, unrepentant-as-heck, vinyl addict who swears by www.Discogs.com. Says he finds the weirder stuff cheaper there than on www.eBay.com. There is no doubt that Discogs is cheaper both for the buyer and the seller. But in my book Discogs has one massive and so far insurmountable problem—they have not paid someone to write the code that would allow for photos on their site. Until they do they will always be the B, or maybe C team. So I’m supposed to trust that a Discogs seller is telling the honest truth about the condition of a record I cannot see on the site? Please. Anyone who buys a record for over ten bucks on Discogs without asking to see photos either has more money than sense or enjoys risk. Say what you want about eBay and their fees, which are no doubt passed on to the customers, but photos do not lie.
Furthermore, it’s easy to sort out the scammers and amateurs just by looking at the pictures. Anyone savvy enough to take crisp, clear photos, from multiple angles, of the jacket, labels and the actual vinyl, probably has it together and probably means what they say. If you’ve got the goods, particularly with older records, which can be obscenely expensive and fairly fragile at this point (Abbey Road is 46 years old and Hank Mobley’s Soul Station is 55 years old to cite just two examples), photos will tell the story. Not that I’m doing a commercial here for eBay but sellers there learn quickly that the only way to get the price up is to take good photos and be detailed and honest about the LPs they are selling.
All of which brings me to a recent example of Discogs dealings that I think illustrates the path you often trod with many sellers on that site. I ordered a double LP for ten dollars, which in retrospect may have been too cheap and I should have known better. After two weeks went by and nothing arrived in the mail, I sent the seller a message. This is what I got in return.
“Hey there - thought it had gone out because I didn't see it when I looked
for it the other day. I'll verify and get back to you by tomorrow afternoon. It's possible it sold locally. I'll refund your payment if that's the case. I'll let you know as soon as I'm sure what's up.”
Another ten days goes by and no record and no email verifying it did or did not go out. After another prodding email from me, I was refunded my money via PayPal and so the case was finally closed. All of this is clearly a minor annoyance but again a fairly typical example, at least in my dealings, of some of the folks you run into on Discogs. A little more screening of sellers on their part might not be a bad idea. It would be great if they upped their game and really became the site for LP commerce.
