ebay vs. discogs

[MopTopMike]

This is why I think discogs is mostly a web wasteland, polluted with overpriced 45s hawked by greedy sellers. A far larger 'exponential' percentage as compared to ebay. I never really check for LPs, so I'm specifically referring to 45s.

A guy is (trying?) to sell a copy of the Bohemians "I Need You Baby". The listed grade is near mint / mint minus. Price is reasonable for that grade.
However, if you read his own description: small wol, rare garage canadian band from Montreal 1967,very clean copy plays VG+ to VG, vocal distortion especially on side 2

Hilarious! I guess a NM 45 can play in worse condition if you do not have a clue as to what you are doing. It's sellers like this guy who make trawling thru discogs beyond tedious for me.
I'd say the majority of people who post garage / psych 45 list a ransom-like price that will never be paid / met by a buyer. Must not really care to sell the record in the first place.

At least with ebay, the bulk of transactions are auctions and prices for sold records are determined based upon the price willing to pay by the bidders. Yeah, there are overpriced starting bids and buy it now items, many have been there for five years or more. But it is far easier to set search specifics with ebay.

I receive spam e-mails from time to time inquiring as to why I should buy via discogs - is this another recent marketing assault?

 

[jeffs11375]

Well, I guess it goes to prove the old maxim "always read the fine print".

Generally when I am looking for a record I check MusicStack and Ebay first and then Discogs. I've got nothing against Discogs but I guess it is a force of habit. I have a few favored dealers - such as wegotrecords and Craig Moerer so as soon as I see that one of them has what I want in VG+ or better for a good price I usually look no further. But these days now that I am retired I don't buy any big-ticket records, garage or otherwise.

 

[Dave Baldwin]

These days, nobody grades like they used to for one reason or another (except for Barry Wickham and a few other experienced dealers that don't "farm out" their record grading to the 'hired help'). That being said, Discogs is a good place to buy CDs (especially OOP imports) but hit or miss for vinyl. My rule of thumb is that the German and Japanese sellers generally grade more accurately than the Americans...and the U.K. sellers absolutely do not know what a Mint or Mint- grade actually means (I love it when they say "Near Mint...plays through without sticking"...that's a real confidence builder). I generally avoid other Euro-zone sellers esp. from Greece, Italy, France, and Spain (lotsa bad experiences over the years). And the "Russian Federation" sellers are obviously untrustable because Donald Trump controls them (or so CNN keeps telling me). LOL.