Discogs

Overall, Discogs is a good place to get fairly reliable information on records, tapes and CDs. I sell on Discogs, and have found the members to be generally good customers. Using PayPal seems to provide sufficient buyer and seller protection, but I've only sold a few dozen LPs. I do find their review and commenting process incredibly complex and it is impossible to correct a change made by some "expert" you can't contact and can't dispute. I try to avoid participating due to the lack of inclusion among the established Discogs community.

Most items I've ordered are graded incorrectly. But more recently I've ordered from a couple of Russian sellers who are selling bootleg cds that skip and don't play properly. Discogs don't particularly care, and their solution is for me to seek a refund through my bank!

I recently had my first experience as a buyer on Discogs. Unfortunate to say it wasn't a pleasant one.
Long story short, a seller cashed the money and did not ship the order. Delays, excuses, more delays (weeks), more excuses and very poor communication. Ended up cancelling the order altogether and resorting to a credit card charge dispute. Perhaps not directly Discogs's fault but certainly a tremendous lack of control and enforcement of their 'Sales & Transaction Policy'
Unfortunately, bad news spread faster than good news and -lesson learned- I will no longer be purchasing on this site.
What baffles me most is that that particular seller had very positive reviews (over 95%)
This lack of oversight is a killer to the Discogs platform since I am sure there are reputable and honest sellers willing to do good business.

Lesson learned. Buy local.

I have been on Discogs since 2014 and have had excellent service. If you are looking for vinyl, cd's, you should give them an opportunity to provide, but remember, they are a service and not the seller on the item you order.

I've bought quite some vinyls on Discogs.
On the positive side: you can find almost anything worldwide.
The payment system is really bad. There is often only Paypal and sometimes wire transfer but if your money doesn't reach the seller in time you automatically get negative buyer feedback, even if you tell the seller that the money is on it's way with a payment screenshot.
It happened to me while I was waiting for the seller's answers.
That seller also had free shipping until I submitted my cart, then he added shipping costs.
The seller also offered retrieval but when asked about this he did not reply.
I had this experience with seller Dr_groovy who didn't answer my questions and after wasting a lot of time not answering I wired the money anyway and informed him with a payment screenshot.
Even though he knew the money was wired he still gave me negative buyer feedback anyway, when he got the money he sent the items but there was no way of giving negative feedback to the seller.
This seller had 99,5 % or so positive reviews but no wonder because negative feedback could not even be submitted.
I sent a couple of emails to Discogs but deafenig silence from their side. Nothing. No answer at all.
I even found that Discogs somehow deleted my messages to and from that seller Dr_groovy. I had to check my email account to retrieve the emails.
I sometimes buy from Groovesland Berlin and except for the stress I get from the payment system that seems to work out.

If you've only dealt with quality sellers on Discogs i can understand you having a high opinion of the site. But all it takes is one run in with an abusive seller for you to realize how vulnerable you are as a customer.
You have ZERO protections as a buyer aside from disputing the charge with your payment provider. The only protections seems to be for the sellers in the form of "seller terms" which they claim are "binding". From what I can tell there's no such "binding" agreement in favor of the buyer. What this has led to is a rash of sellers who send out damaged merchandise and then refuse a refund based on their seller terms. This system is so ripe for abuse it's no wonder so many buyers return to eBay for the peace of mind and the sense that they're buying from a reputable merchant.
Again, you can find amazing sellers on Discogs that run their business as well an any honest brick and mortar store. If the feedback system wasn't also constantly abused you might be able to tell the good ones from the bad ones. But the reality is that Discogs often removes negative feedback from both parties, essentially rendering the system useless. A corrupt seller can fly under the radar for years before they get enough direct complaints to have his account suspended.
So in closing, if Discogs is going to take a commission on every sale, like eBay, they need to start protecting their users, like eBay. They shouldn't be able to have it both ways. Either you're legit or not. And despite all outside appearances, DISCOGS IS NOT LEGIT. Use eBay or support your local record store!

Great access to plethora of music with knowledge, reviews etc from contributors

However, as a site it's badly disposed towards smaller buyers and sellers - admin staff strike people's accounts without plausible explanation, suspending them from activity often mid purchase. As a 100% buyer, with well over 600 purchases my account had been suspended for no reason given.

Forum is awful too - opinions are shut down and often ops are victimised. Deplorable service in some ways. Leaves a bad taste in mouth. Seller/ buyer feedback system is also open to abuse

If stick to just buying and selling - it's very good. But other activities such as submissions are also a minefield and not worth the hassle

Sellers generally good but never go for a few points below 100% and stick to sellers with under / around a 1000 odd sales under their belt.

I just purchased what I thought was a Box set of 3 disk and when this came it only contained 1 cd. I messaged the company and they said it was only supposed to ever be one disc! Beware!
THIEVES!

Like Amazon.com and Paypal, Discogs belongs in the same category of online third-party selling platforms which exists to profit off the hands that feed it: the vendor. All conflict resolution automatically defaults to the customers who have quickly learned how to manipulate, lie and cheat sellers who are trying to conduct an honest business. If you have goods to sell and you have integrity, stick to your local flea markets & Craigslist, because the internet belongs to the thugs and criminals.

Terrible experience as a buyer most of the time. Sellers grade incredibly loosely, selling damaged/dirty/scratched music as VG+ so frequently I either only buy NM- or just brace to receive garbage. The worst part is there is no real recourse for a buyer other than a return. If you leave negative feedback, the seller will retaliate and leave you negative feedback so just have to deal with the terrible experience. Sellers move on to rip off the next person because there is no safe way to leave honest feedback. Sellers seem to know this and fully take advantage of buyers.

I've been using Discogs this past year to expand my record collection, and I see no reason to give it a poor review. Any and all sellers I've bought from have been clear in their contact, truthful in their descriptions of their products, and swift with deliveries. And if there is a poor seller, they will usually have poor reviews, so you know you should avoid them.

Ordered 3 records from 3 different sellers, never got them had to jump hoops to get my money back. For one of the records I never got my money back. If you're looking to do some online shopping for records AVOiD this website at all cost I promise that record you really want, you can find somewhere else and if you can't make a personal trip to the seller to obtain it. Worse online shopping experience I've ever had and the 1.8 star overall review determines that it's not just me. I really wish I had looked up the reviews prior to using this website oh well 30$ lesson.

These people allow the sellers to steal your money for a product you're buying and leave it up to the same seller to make things right.If they decides not to respond back to you, you're out of your money with no product and the fee for shipping is very expensive. I would never wish what happen to me on any honest buyers. I wanted the christian music so bad I over paid for the shipping never receiving anything.not even a refund.

As a seller, and reading other reviews, I can say that Discogs SHOULD change by somehow either allowing sellers to post photos of their media, or a link for photos. That way a buyer can look at the actual LP or CD, etc, that they are interested in. Grading LP, is especially hard since it is a subjective system. I may think a record looks NM (Near Mint) while someone else may say it is only VG (very good). As far as sellers scamming potential buyers, there are scammers and thieves in almost every area of our lives now-a-days. Do your research before dropping hard earned money on that record. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is. Ask the seller for photos, scans, whatever. Sure they can still bait and switch, but look at their reviews also. I WANT people to look at my merchandise. That way, they'll come back again.
Just as a buyer, be cautious. And remember Discogs is not an Amazon or Ebay. It's more of a sellers marketplace, not necessarily a "retail" site.

I recently joined Discogs to buy a record (LP) that wasn't available on eBay. So far, I've only bought from 3 different sellers, so I have no selling experience.
It's important to note that Discogs is just a marketplace and each seller has their own policies in regards to shipping and payment. Usually, shipping rates are not automatically generated and you have to read the seller's policies located further down the page.
So far, so good! I use Paypal for buying online; it's more secure and if items do not arrive- you can dispute with 45 days (maybe longer now).
Price-wise, it's fair. You might find lp+shipping cheaper on eBay, or not.
I love the feature of being able to have your own collection page. It prevents me from buying the same LP twice.