Discogs

I've been a Discogs user for many years. I buy more than I sell. Many of the sellers I've done business with range from private sellers to dealers to small businesses who also operate brick and mortar shops. I find that Discogs does a very poor job regulating shipping practices. Many sellers gouge the cheapest and most economical domestic shipping method, Media Mail. Lots of sellers tack on a few more bucks to make-up for fees they incur. Discogs should set the threshold for fair and honest shipping so that this unfair and unethical practice stops. If sellers really want to get back fees just increase the cost of your item... not shipping. There's also serious issues with sellers of all kinds poorly grading records. You wonder if they even checked the condition before listing. These sellers with countless negatives and neutral feedback marks should just be banned. Why is it ok to let a poor seller like that continue to do bad business? Consumers are honestly too naive or just hope to be the one out the bunch to have an acceptable experience. I find that several sellers I've bought from though are nice, fair, and honest people. I also find it most cumbersome to add releases to Discogs. There should be a way to scan the media so that all of the data gets entered in accurately and efficiently. Discogs needs to do a better job at regulating scalpers. If the media is 2 years old or less they should require it only be sold for the suggested retail value. Any account attempting to sell 3 or more copies after 2 years for 50% more than the original retail price should be suspended. All sellers should be required to provide clear terms. Discogs should really have a standardized template that all sellers must agree to. It's disappointing that Discogs offers a "make offer", but if a seller declines they are unable to counter offer. Sellers should also have option to initiate a bundle discount for customers buying multiple items. It's ridiculous Discogs hits sellers with this high fees when there's so much room for improvement. I'm grateful for the vast knowledge base that is Discogs. I do like how fairly easy it is to find all the different pressings, versions, and more.

Many items are listed with no shipping price. You have to order then wait for an invoice before you know how much it will cost.

The first time I ordered a record I waited a few days, got the invoice and paid it. However it looked like the payment didn't go through so I paid again. I looked at my Paypal account and it turned out I had sent two payments. This is the first time this has happened to me on any site. If this happened on eBay you would get a message saying you had already paid. The fact that you can pay for an item more than once is ridiculous. I can't think of any other site where this could happen.

I gave them another chance and thought this wouldn't happen again. I paid for a record and a few hours later got an invoice even though I'd already paid. This site is confusing as hell and not remotely user friendly. If and when I figure out what's happening with this record I think I'll quit while I'm ahead and delete my account.

One more thing - there are no pictures of the actual item you're buying. You just have to hope the seller is being honest when he/she says the item is in excellent condition.

Update - to add to the above, the users in the forum are very rude, or at least the ones that replied to my query. I was told "the problem is in front of the computer", the meaning being that I'm an idiot who can't operate a computer. No, the problem is the site. I've ordered hundreds of items online and I have never come across another site that would even let you pay for an item twice. Also I offered a criticism of the website, not of any of the members, and I don't appreciate personal insults.

I enjoy the discogs community and have found many good sellers on there. But what you need to realize as a seller or buyer is that YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. Also that this site has pimped the knowledge and man power of a good-natured collector and seller community for their own gain. Customer service is horrendous. Seller service is as bad or worse. Takes days to repsond. I have had my discogs payments held by discogs (and still being held!) for over two months. I have sent every form they have asked for, some multiple times. They closed the problem as solved when it wasn't. I give them official bank statements, they want other statements. ENDLESS! TWO MONTHS PLUS and the complaint is STILL ONGOING, NO RESOLUTION. Most frustrating experience of any site I have ever dealt with. I am actively looking to take my store and sales elsewhere. I will still buy from the good sellers I found (who are all independent and have nothing to do whatsoever with "discogs" really is), DIscogs a site that lives off the service of others, they provide next to nothing themselves.

I have bought many many records from this site, and rarely are there problems. Only a few times have I gotten poorer quality music than described.

Reply to Discogs Comment on 05/13/2020:

Thank You for responding. I did not know if your company Discogs would or even cared since it appeared that Discogs originally reported my review for an infraction of TrustPilot Guidelines... Don't Figure...

Also I did just speak to my son-in-law and while your apology to this issue is appreciated; it appears that this scrutiny of behaviour has been an issue for several years with this individual and his accounts have still not been restored as you have mentioned in your response.

If in fact Discogs apology is sincere and the issue is as you mentioned "unintentionally caused'' & ''incredibly disheartened''.

Then Discogs resolution of not only your response to better interact / communicate with a diversity of individuals but also to reactivate my son-in-laws his account has still to come to current attrition. If you need to personally contact me then by email or phone; just let me know how to communicate further. As of my last conversation with my son-in-law the accounts are still suspended and nothing has changed; inclusively ''Nik" responded 2 days ago that the database access would not be restored...

Response From Latest Discogs Communication from (05/18/2020) via TrustPilot & (05/20/2020) via Discogs Customer Service Complaint Site.

I tried to contact Discogs Leadership and incredibly ''(Nik)'' responded as if he had no idea what the problem was and that my son-ín-law's Discogs account was intact and unblocked... What A Blatant Lie... I cannot believe that internally they allow this individual ''(Nik)'' to reply to management complaints when he himself is the reason for the discrimination.

He must not be aware of the movement of ''See Something - Say Something'' = dhs.gov/see-something-sa / Official website of the Department of Homeland Security.

I highly recommend that Discogs Leadership really take this issue serious because it will not go away as they believe it will by avoiding a fair resolution.

Discogs is a respectable worldwide portal for purchasing and selling music. The catalog is extensive and accurate. The sellers are professional

Discogs is a site to avoid, if you are a professional or a collector avoid the discogs site and I'll tell you why. First of all, all the descriptions of the various albums, singles, etc. they are not written by professionals in the sector, but rather they are written by any user who registers on the discogs platform, users even without any experience, without any knowledge of the sector and without any knowledge of the history of the band and the album or single, reason for which on the discogs site most of the album information is completely wrong, full of nonsense, just compare some official sites of music bands with discogs to understand that discogs is full of completely wrong descriptions and nonsense. Even worse for purchases, in fact the discogs site is highly discouraged and dangerous for purchases, the reason is simple, the discogs site does not protect the buyer in case of scams or problems with the seller, for example for material not received and not shipped by the seller or for material received but not compliant with the order, or for unauthorized transactions, etc., assistance on the discogs site is completely non-existent. Every user who purchases on the discogs site must estimate that he is dangerously exposed to economic and financial risks... so to conclude the question is... the discogs site is a reliable site to find information and to make purchases?! Absolutely not! If you want to find certain, safe and reliable information, contact an expert in the sector and do not rely on the nonsense published on discogs and written by any inexperienced user who signs up on discogs, and to buy rely on sites that assist and protect the buyer in case of scams or in case the seller is unprofessional and fair. Avoid discogs! Best regards.

I'm a seller on Discogs, so first I will note that many of the 1-star reviews for Discogs are disgruntled former sellers who couldn't be bothered to set up their store for automatic shipping prices - something buyers at practically any other online marketplace would naturally expect. The current 63 million item listings suggest that the sellers who remained were able to figure it out, and that includes myself.

Overall, you won't find a more outstanding and complete database of music anywhere else, and it only gets better by the day. This alone should merit at least a '3' in anyone's book.

But look, some folks have gripes about the attached marketplace. I get it, from both the seller's and buyer's perspective. But the bright side is that it's fairly straightforward to size up a seller before one buys. A buyer can read comments from previous buyers and make a good judgment. Is some seller feedback removed that shouldn't be? Yes, and it's usually because of Discogs' idea that the buyer and seller should communicate before negative feedback is left. Some will understandably disagree with this approach.

As for whether a buyer would have an overall good experience on Discogs, I can only refer to my best friend who is a collector and major buyer there. He runs into issues with perhaps 10% of the sellers he's not previously acquainted with, and these tend to be mislistings or incorrect gradings. He thus tends to gravitate to buying from particular dependable sellers. I wonder if there's really a music marketplace that can deliver results any better than this.

I honestly do think Discogs deserves a 4 out of 5 overall to say, yes, it's not perfect and aspects can be made better, but what's there is quite amazing and works well most of the time.

THIS IS A ZERO STAR REVIEW:

In February of 2019 I purchased 2 records from a seller on Discogs who advertised them as both playing great. Once I got the records I couldn't even get through the first track on side 1 and 2 of one of the records because it had so many skips and jumps. The mistake I made was for the first time in my life I used a credit card for paying opposed to my usual 16 years of using PayPal. ( I believe PayPal would have paid for the return shipping.)

It's been very, very stressful for me since I first let Discogs know of this situation. There's absolutely no backing whatsoever from Discogs and they fully side with the seller. In other words a seller can advertise whatever they want, lie about it and when you, the buyer purchase an item based on what you have read from the seller's description you get something that's complete crap. Then you become a victim and the seller is praised for their lies.

Sure, the seller said he would refund the records once he received them, but I why should I have to pay for shipping them back.

I fully disagree with this! I've purchased something with the understanding that I'm going to get what I've read in the description. If that is very incorrect, I don't see why I should be responsible for paying for shipping on something that was advertised very falsely to begin with.

I got nowhere with Discogs on this matter and even the Attorney General's of Oregon tried and got nowhere as well.

In August of 2021 I paid for a Donna Summer acetate from a seller on Discogs. It ended up that the seller 'didn't even have' this item to begin with and wasted my time. I left appropriate negative feedback, without using any any rude or cuss words.

I've noticed that Discogs removed my negative from his feedback forum but his negative feedback for me is allowed to stay on my feedback forum; yet I've done nothing wrong and he's the one that falsely advertised something that he didn't even have.

Why people trust Discogs is beyond me.

I have been collecting vinyl for several years now, and Discogs has been my go-to for finding less-common to rare vinyl.

Firstly, their database is very expansive, so it is usually quite easy to find a specific pressing of a given album, and I love their setup to build a "my collection" list of my personal collection, as well as a "my wantlist" that includes the option of having them email you when items I'm looking for show up online... It's not perfect, as you can't set a price limit so that you're only notified if an item shows up for sale within a given price range, and it isn't great if you include readily available items in your wishlist, but for items that only show up occasionally it's an absolute blessing!

I don't know what it's like to be a seller on discogs, but as a buyer I've been very happy. I have personally purchased several dozen different records on discogs, and have only ever once received an item that I was less-than-satisfied with (it was a low-value item for a gift, was listed as VG+ and was more like G+). All my other interactions have been great! Note that most sellers grade their vinyl visually, so if you are incredibly stringent on what you expect for NM/VG+ then contact the seller to ask questions first, although many sellers actually grade their vinyl low to prevent complaints from the pickiest of collectors - most of the VG+ I've purchased has been closer to NM.

Obviously this is a marketplace, so you need to use some common sense when purchasing, but sellers need to have their account linked to a confirmed PayPal account so it's way safer than, say, craigslist.

I would highly recommend purchasing from here, or at least using their database to generate a "my collection".

Take this as both a review and call to action of sorts, I'll keep them both short.

I've been buying on Discogs for about six months now. My typical transactions go like this... I buy a record based on the listed condition, usually Near Mint, but on occasion Very Good Plus; about 5% of the time my expectations are actually exceeded; and about 20% of the time I'm satisfied, to varying degrees, with the condition of the record. This leaves a huge majority of transactions (roughly 75%) that range from unacceptable to infuriating depending on how badly the seller's condition grading squares with (or doesn't square with) reality. I've received "Near Mint" records with huge gauges in them and other "Near Mint" and "Very Good Plus" records with a litany of other condition issues that, by definition, should not under any circumstance, be found on such records. Not to mention that they are nearly universally filthy (disgusting even). When I receive these types of records, which is most of the time, I contact the seller immediately. Basically, their response is always the same."I'm really sorry, I don't know how that could have happened. Let me give you a full refund, you keep the record." In other words, here's your money back and a small (and totally useless) gift, now please keep you mouth shut and don't give me negative feedback. This same situation happened so often, I began contacting the seller ahead of time and asked them to confirm condition or cancel my order. That has totally solved the entire problem and now everything is perfect - NOT! I still get crap most of the time. Sometimes sellers won't confirm the condition and will cancel the order which I appreciate since it saves me some aggravation.

If you're still reading this (thank you), you must be asking yourself, "then why do you bother?". The simple answer is this, Discogs has an amazing selection music at typically reasonable prices. I use it as a supplement to my local record shops and thrift stores. You have to wade through a ton of crap, but get luck sometime. It's totally frustrating, annoying, and can drive me totally crazy, but unfortunately, there's nothing quite like it and I at least see the promise of what it could be.

My call to action: HOLD SELLERS ACCOUNTABLE. As I mentioned, I ask sellers to confirm condition prior to shipping - consider that you're proverbial two strikes. If you do that and still get rubbish, DON'T BE BOUGHT OFF, LEAVE FAIR BUT NEGATIVE FEEDBACK.

I'm hopeful that if enough people start doing this, Discogs can turn this thing around. Personally, I have one foot out the door and another on a banana peel so I'm another bad transaction or two away from swearing off of it.

Lastly, I'm pretty sure my experiences are similar to a lot of other buyers. I would be very suspicious of anyone who claims all is good at Discogs.