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Hey Vinyl Collectors! Discogs kinda sucks...
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- čas přidán 17. 08. 2024
- As I say in this video, I've been spending a lot more time as a buyer and seller on Whatnot. If you want to check it out, you'll get $15 just for signing up. That's almost a free record. whatnot.com/in...
There are tons of videos on CZcams (including on this channel) talking about how Discogs is an amazing tool for vinyl collectors, but there aren't really any videos shining a light on how massively flawed the site is on just about every level. As a heavy user of the site for a decade, I outline my biggest gripes with Discogs, and share ways that they could make the site better. The opinions are all based on facts, but they're still just my opinions. I would love to hear your opinions in the comments below.
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I am a diehard discogs supporter. I hate ebay and most other sites. I find that discogs consistently has amazing support, user base, and communication that I can't find elsewhere. This is why of course I totally agree with so much said here. Relying on this website for buying and selling for so long has made me realize these flaws and jeez they can be annoying. I'm not gonna lie and say that it isn't the best at what it does in so many categories, but that fact alone means that it's flaws hurt so much worse. I don't want a different platform, I want a better discogs.
Well said, I agree.
Why did I download this WhatNot app??? LOL I don’t have a clue how to use this app and it’s about as far as you can get from an intuitive user interface. I’ve tried multiple times to link the $15 credit to my new account and it doesn’t work, for whatever reason. I really don’t like Discogs much either but this app just seems like a brand new headache that I don’t need since I don’t even know where to begin on WhatNot.
@@TempestGarden You should probably avoid. Its super addicting and there will be less people bidding against me on records 😂
I must be using a counterfeit Discogs site!
Garbage , I know sellers on there wanting ridiculous prices they just leave the records on there hoping some idiot will come along and pay his ridiculous prices some for instance one or two real prices around 3k because these are extremely rare fare enough but this person wants 6k the site itself is not worth even bothering with the amount of fraud on there and discogs are so uncaring and the site doesn’t work correctly just forget it , I have tried to sign in it says almost there eh? As if I am a new customer registering so I go too the form for finding out what’s going on and that is full of the little red stars even though I filled the form in perfectly, then I try almost every way of signing in humanly possible but I get almost there , I was told to change password that worked I successfully changed it I try signing in and I get almost there ffs , so now two days later I think ok I’ll try to register again and all I get then is yes you guessed it almost there !!! So I now think I can’t take it so press here too delete and guess what I got almost there , so I have now got membership too a useless site that I can’t delete and can’t use can’t do anything I am at risk and Cabot do anything about it
You nailed it with every point. My biggest problem you didn't address however is when sorting by lowest price it doesn't factor in shipping. It will sort by lowest selling price but at the end of the day it's the total cost that is important.
Even when I use the USD filter to get rid of records from England it will still show records from Japan or Spain. I'll see a US record for $10 bucks at the top with $5 shipping and then immediately after that I'll see another $10 record but from Japan with $30 shipping and then another after that for $12.99 with $5 shipping from US. They shouldn't list things like this, it makes it very confusing and annoying to look at.
Let us sort by total cost, discogs!
Great points in this video. I am a Discogs user too but is definitely like to see some improvements:
1) a better app. It constantly has bugs in it.
2) being able to search your inbox or sent items for a seller or item.
3) ability to watch a particular item from a particular seller
4) pictures of the actual album you are buying
5) being able to see the sales chart in the app.
As far as I know you can see the sales chart by tapping the min med max prices!
>>> 3) ability to watch a particular item from a particular seller
...you could just put it in your cart
4) ask the seller for pictures. Discogs isn’t eBay. It’s a database with a marketplace attached.
I don't think WhatNot is the future. It's combining FOMO and Ebay bidding into millennial live stream bites. Great for sellers as, in my experience, the records sell for more (sometimes a LOT more) than usual because buyers are caught up in the moment and the pace of the sales drives that mania. I have had great experiences buying on both ebay and discogs. I use them about 50/50. I am more discriminating on what I decide to buy but for what I am collecting it is far superior experience that I can do on my time. I also know a seller that has a user designated to be their up bidder on WhatNot to keep those prices high! Feels very high advantage for sellers and not buyers.
Interesting video! Definitely a worthwhile conversation. Also, isn't everyone waiting to be bought in some way lol, I agree they are looking for someone to buy them out and could be curbing changes because of that. Also, curious how you know they aren't interested in updates? I mean I suspect they don't for the same reasons you have. Just wondering if you have a source at Discogs or an article that confirms that?
re: pictures on discogs: totally agree. It would elevate it a lot.
My comment about them not being interested in updates is based off of the decade of use where there has been a lack of meaningful updates that people have been requesting.
@@TooManyRecords Fair, I’ve used it since 2010 ish and see SOME improvements on mobile, especially the last few years. The site on my laptop looks relatively same tho that’s for sure. There’s something I like about it in that state though, it feels very no frills database and that appeals to me. They could still do some great saved preferences that would speed up the experience!
This ☝🏻. Not a fan of Whatnot either. I’ve seen the vinyl streams including this guys and I was shocked and even confused by how much some of the records were selling for. I almost felt bad for the buyers as it felt a little exploitive. And sure, Discogs can get better as with many other websites, but I love it for what it is. I’m grateful it even exists.
@@Samuel-eu2pf I don't think it's fair to say it's exploitative. I start everything well below the going Discogs rate. If it goes over Discogs price, that's the price someone is happy buying the record at. A record is worth what someone is willing to pay, end of story. I have lots of records that sell for well under the "going" rate on there, it all tends to balance out after a stream, at least in my experience. I also list everything I'll be auctioning ahead of time, so people can do their research on the price they're comfortable paying.
@@TooManyRecords Based on this video you clearly love Whatnot for reasons you’ll never share with your audience. I think anyone who’s been collecting for a long time knows exactly what’s going on in these streams including yourself.
This feels like a sponsored ad for whatnot
I talk about Whatnot because I enjoy using it and it helps me support my business.
Thank you for mentioning the scamming of listing albums lower then valued it’s happened soooooooo many times, and the accounts keep popping up after being blocked effecting the true sales of the album and new buyers first experience of being scammed.
I echo what you said about the filters. Thank you for using your platform as a voice for us the vinyl community Matt!
I just signed up for whatnot through your link and I can’t stand it. What is it supposed to be? How is this convenient for buying records?
I complimented the experience, but it is a fairly specific one and takes a bit of getting used to. You can see what upcoming vinyl shows are happening and you can join them, and in the shows you can (usually) see what records they'll be auctioning. It's a big difference to go into a show where the host is engaging and entertaining (Noble Records, Yellow K, etc.) or one where it's someone fumbling with their phone for an hour -- but ultimately it can be a lot of fun if you're in the right room. It's not a substitution for Discogs if you're looking for a specific record, but it's a good community that's growing and can lead to some fun impulse buys and steals.
Absolutely spot on Matt. I’ve said it before but my biggest gripe is with the filters and why I can’t filter my wantlist. The fact that other platforms are coming along might just give Discogs the kick up the arse it needs! Well we can hope eh!
As a big vinyl fan it baffles me I’ve never used discogs. However it also makes a lot of sense because every time I’ve tried to use it I feel confused and turned off by it’s design
It definitely isn't intuitive.
people end up paying way more on whatnot I just stick to discogs :c
Occasionally! There are tons of times I get things (and sell things) for way under value.
100% disagree that WhatNot is the future. I've tried it several times and it simply takes too much effort from the purchaser. I'd much rather have the catalog approach of Discogs. While I agree with many of your gripes I'm still a major fan of Discogs despite the shortcomings. They are located here in the Portland area. Perhaps we could encourage them to create an advisory council that might help prioritize their backlog of feature requests.
It's more than clicking and buying, but it's community focused which I think is way more appealing to me. Vinyl is a community, we love to talk about it and share things about why albums are important to us and Whatnot allows us to do that in some way.
Discogs used to have an office in Portland but last I heard they're all remote and scattered around the globe.
@@TooManyRecords I'm not sure about it being scattered around the globe. Job postings are for remote jobs within certain states only. I'm Canadian, skilled and passionate about the hobby and share many of the same ideas about improvement. I was told they only hire from the US.
Just want to add a comment on WhatNot. Its a fantastic tool for Sellers, but its nearly impossible to find a "good deal" on there as a Buyer. Any record even remotely notable tends to sell for over market value. If you're on a budget like most people, not the best place to buy.
I don’t know if your complaint about missing sales history is true, I haven’t seen that. My sales go up eventually. The REAL issue is that the sales history doesn’t go back more than the previous 20 sales. So the highs, lows and median are only recent, and therefore drive up the prices over time without showing the whole picture.
Awesome and thank you for sharing your information. I am new to discogs but I’m 62 and have collected in the “hands on” store shopping level for 5 decades now. I too am not sure about this site or it’s layout but I do go there for info. Thx again and I do enjoy your work
A few more things I miss a lot on Discogs:
- filter items for sale in my wantlist by country. This is possible for the general marketplace, but I don‘t want to look for random stuff?
- sort by pricing with shipping (and tax) included. It can‘t be that hard, surely?
- auto-number tracklists when adding a release
- release editing could be made so much more intuitive, it‘s nuts
- make artist page updates more automatic. Why do we need to go through every. Single. Release. manually?
- have the app and the website offer the same features
>> - auto-number tracklists when adding a release
Pretty sure thats possible
@@scmkar kind of, just numbers 1-n, not with sides etc.
Great video! I'm quite new to the Discogs phenomenon. In fact, I've only bought about 3 records off there in 10 years. I use it as a resource every day and I've started cataloguing, but I just don't feel confident buying off there. Also, being in Australia, most of the stuff I want is overseas and the exorbitant shipping usually kills the vibe! Another thing is, especially with Australian based vinyl sellers, is that they LOVE their inventory so much that they just don't want to let it go! Their prices are usually always at the very top of the range and even well above it! So, I just can't fully participate in the Discogs machine. I guess if it was modernised, with more scam protection and yes(!!!), photos...it would be a little more attractive. However, overseas shipping is the biggest setback. I saw a record in Greece yesterday with $1000 shipping!!
Same problem here. I live in Europe and shipping sometimes is the same or more than the record itself
discogs pisses me off. it needs some tweeks.....ive noticed some cool things added here and there........like now you can pick an album "randomly" from your wantlist. (kind of a cool way to buy something). but overall it just needs to be more intuitive.
I think that you nailed it when you said they are just biding their time until a buyer for the site turns up. It just doesn't make sense not to invest the money they are making into implementing changes (like the ones you highlight) that users have been screaming about for years, which would in turn make them more money.
It's still a useful and valuable source of information and they can probably limp along in the meantime because there's no viable alternative. Shame.
the classical section leaves a LOT to be desired
THAT PUSH NOTIFICATIO THING. FAX! YOU KNOW HOW MANY RECORDS IVE MISSED AND WOULDVE MISSED BECAUSE I DONT WANNA KEEP CHECKING THE "100 Items available in your wantlist" EMAILS? BRO!
While Matt makes a lot of good points in this video and he is right that Discogs could be a lot better and more up to date. However, you have to consider the audience that Discogs attracts compared with Whatnot. I haven't used Whatnot but just from what Matt said it sounds like it's aimed at a younger audience. While Discogs will attract those new(er) collectors I can imagine a majority of the audience is older people around my Dad's age (60)and they won't have the same problems with an older look/feel to the design. In fact, they would probably prefer it. To qualify this I'm a former Music Business student who has been building up a music business for a year or so. You learn a lot about markets and how they work in the music industry. Also in terms of Business model Discogs might invest the minimum into the design of the site, auto updates etc to keep overheads down and maximise profits. Does it make for the best product? No, but unless the competition catches up or takes over they are unlikely to change. They may even be able to coexist alongside a much larger Whatnot because there might not be a lot of cross over in terms of their target markets. So, in summary do better Discogs but also don't hold you breathe that they will.
Well I'm 64, and the Discogs site is so off-putting to me it scares me. I've never bought anything from there because it looks like a teenagers bedroom to me. I clicked on this video to search out alternatives to it. And of course it's riddled with scalpers and hoarders.
Yes! I mostly use Discogs for cataloging my collection and wantlist, but even that leaves a lot to be desired. It's slow and clunky, and I desperately wish they would update it.
Yeah, Discogs' interface is a bit dated but I still find it to be the best option for sourcing the lowest prices on records. Whatnot auctions tend to start the bidding price just a few bucks under the cheapest Discogs option, then the bidding inflates after that.
Every seller is different. I tend to start my auctions at half of going rate (for the most part) and lots of sellers do $1 or &10 starts.
@@TooManyRecords Yeah, I'm starting to realize the more I use it that it's dependent on the seller. I suppose, as a buyer, there are some good deals to be snagged.
Mhh, yeah, how much do you pay exactly to Discogs to run your commercial business operation? Listing is free, you only pay 8% for an sold item. Compare that to a physical store.
Good points all. I'd like to add the stupid shipping by weight mandatory configuration that you need to complete or you can't sell anything. It is SUPER complicated, and in fact, I got it set up back when they made it mandatory but then postage went up and I haven't gone back in to manually tweak each of the weight cutoffs. So, I lose about a buck every time I sell a record. This is my own fault, and some day when I get a couple of hours I'll work on getting those fixed.
I understand why they did it-- they want to get to click to purchase and quick checkout, so the postage needs to be already set up for that to work, and I have a lot less of the hanging around for someone to get the invoice to pay. They just pay immediately.
Whatnot seems like a fun way to buy records, but (for me) not a great way to sell records. Unless you like livestreaming an auction to sell records (and a lot of folks do). I want a store in place that I can manage and have latent sales. So, I use both eBay and discogs for that reason.
For sure. Whatnot has to be something you're into to get value out of as a seller. I personally love it. I find lots of deals as a buyer though, not always, but enough to keep me engaged.
I definitely agree with the preset filters (I use the same exact filters as you) and the option for pictures in the listings would be awesome.
There is zero buyer support from Discogs. I’ve had a few very bad experiences from some very dishonest sellers who’ve sent me damaged albums and then I’ve had a big argument to get them to accept the album back. Then I’ve seen them re advertise the same album ready to ruin someone else’s day! There is no way to send photos of the proof of damage via Discogs.
You made some really good points and have some valid criticisms. I agree with the majority of your suggestions. In particular the ability to add any vinyl pressing of an album without adding all the CDs, etc too or doing them one by one is one I have felt often.
I would also like an option when adding an item to my collection to just add a vinyl copy without having to note exactly which pressings I have. Just as an example, I have a copy of Deep Purple - Made In Japan I bought at a garage sale in the 90s for 50 cents. When I went to add it I had to figure out which pressing out of hundreds it was. It's a 50 cent album I'm never going to sell. I don't care what pressing it is. I'm not even sure the cover and the records are from the same pressing (which is another common thing they should have an option for). For cheaper records it might be helpful to add that option for selling too.
Adding pictures is kind of a can worms in itself. It's *really* easy to hide small imperfections in a picture. I would want a better system for settling disputes over condition in place before adding that feature. I still wouldn't trust it enough that it would change how I buy but I can see why other people want it.
Unfortunately What Not is not for me. I'm not interested in options and I already spend more time watching CZcams videos than I should so I don't want to add more watching to my life. I'm glad it's there for others though. Hopefully it will be a wake up call to Discogs to step up their game.
FYI: Regarding Easier Wantlist Additions, the feature you are asking for already exists. On the Master Release Page you can filter the releases by format, label, country, year, or keyword search. You can then click on the black Add To Wantlist dropdown and add all/only these results from the filter to your wantlist.
For example, let's say there are 79 releases total. You filter to vinyl only and there are let's say 16 vinyl versions, when you click the Add To Wantlist button you will have two options: add all versions to wantlist or add 16 results to wantlist.
Hope this helps!
Can’t help the shake the feeling that many of the points raised in this vid are taken from various people online who do not know and do not take the time to learn how the site works…
My guess with Discogs is they seem to have gotten too big, too fast and weren't prepared, which makes "Catching up" and making a lot of the changes you mentioned (and I agree with) a monumental task where what is probably needed is a complete new site/app from scratch. The migration of ALL that data to a new build would take a herculean effort. Doesn't mean it shouldn't happen, and needs to happen, but just saying. I've seen a few cases like this over the 26 years I've been online where you get these portals/database-driven entities that become dinosaurs and don't keep up.
I dread to think how much data there is and the format it is stored in 😂
@@sjfaux89 It's a huge amount of data. I've been spending the last few months trying to import it into an application I'm developing and it's massive.
The answer to “why don’t they do x” is always: Discogs has no real competition. No incentive to improve. They make their money either way.
While I've had good luck buying on Discogs, I would like the option to exclude certain sellers form my search or at least have a "seller rating" filter. There have only been two times that I've gotten records that were in a condition well below described and a few "Sorry, that item isn't available" responses within minutes of purchasing but it's frustrating finding the right condition/price of a record and then seeing that the seller has 500 reviews and a 84% rating. You have to work really hard to earn a rating that crappy.
well said, hopefully discogs watch this video & address some of the issues. One gripe I have is the youtube player, its glitchy as hell & errors all the time.
And no mention about their terrible auto-shipping platform that they enforce all sellers to use, and that most sellers don't even bother to check the actual shipping price and just overcharge the buyers... ?
In May 22 Discogs raised the sellers fees and this goes also on the SHIPPING charges. To that add the recent taxes and the banning of unofficial releases (and some releases that are officials, but Discogs mods don't like) No wonder their sales dropped down drastically during the past few years. Now they just sent a letter in which they ask sellers to charge more, to cover the expanse. I.E. they are rolling the inflation over the buyers. This meanas that many sellers are going to stop their activity on this site and this will make many releases to be unavailable. Buyers on their side, will buy less and less, because the total cost of buying on discogs has gone way to high!
If there are any Discogs workers here who read this, I must say - Remember what happened to Tower Records and why did it happen!
(Hint: no, it wasn't because of Napster or Kaaza downloads at all)
* I've been using Discogs since 2001and now use it less and less.
Auto-shipping is the worst especially if the buyer lives outside the US. I live in Canada and sellers charge me the same rate if I live in Japan. Dumb, silly, stupid.
I feel like the primary problem with them not updating anything and making the overall experience better is that there isn't a competitor. There isn't any major buy/sell site that does all the things Discogs does. Sure eBay has the buying/selling aspect, and whatnot has that as well. But the cataloging, pressing database, and overall package that Discogs provides isn't really available anywhere else. When you control that market, they don't see the reason to spend money to improve it because they know people will use it no matter what. So until another Discogs-like entity pops up, it feels like it'll be like this. No compeition=No incentive to improve.
100%. They're a monopoly. ReverbLP started but then died. Nasdisc is great, but the userbase is too small. Whatnot is awesome but not really a direct competitor.
What's always been maddening for me is the Discogs started as a dance music catalogue and trading site, but there's never been a way to wishlist a specific mix of a track. So you either stuff your wishlist with multiple issues of a release or you only wishlist the most common version and maybe risk missing out on a cheaper option. I tend to do the former which also means that when I get an order in, I've had to become pretty disciplined to remove all instances of the other variants of a recording - Otheriwse I'll invariably end up with buying another version of the release with the same mix on it that I forgot I already owned...
Additionally, multiple wishlists would be nice. I mostly buy 90s/00s dance 12" singles, but on occasion I'll pick up an LP - however I don't wishlist LP's due to the ridiculous bloat in results it creates. Having the option to search the marketplace for a specific wishlist, and then have Discogs report how many releases a seller has in the current searched wishlist and also state how many they have from your other wishlists would be so helpful.
Discogs definitely needs an overhaul and your complaints are 100% valid. I haven't purchased from Whatnot yet but have sat in some auctions. It's a cool concept and I imagine I'll eventually buy something when something I want/need becomes available, but it's not a good replacement option for someone trying to track down very specific items.
Oh no, never said it was a Discogs replacement. Discogs is still essential, it's just flawed.
Agreed that Whatnot will never replace Discogs or eBay because people, myself included, like to shop on their own time and not have to log in to shop when a vendor wants to conduct an auction. In addition, like you said you can't track down specific records. The Whatnot model of sale is just not conducive to a much larger scale than it already is.
That thing about the prices history kills me. It's about years they're manipulating the whole market (and collecting) and I still cannot understand if they do It on purpose, for some sort of revenue or if It just happens cuz they're dumb. Unfortunately I think it's the 1st and I do think it's time for a serious journalist from a serious music mag to investigate on it.
I think they crossed the line with that and, if they're actually somehow making money out of it there's room to bring them to court.
I’m so so happy that someone in the community as prolific as you is finally commenting on this. Thank you!!
I couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore. Every year I think "this is the year they'll make positive changes" and it never is.
After a decade of collecting I FINALLY joined Discogs and had to add over 1,000 records. I’m honestly surprised I didn’t quit cataloging halfway through. Such an archaic, user unfriendly system BUT it’s nice to have my collection and want list with me everywhere I go. Does anyone else have recommendations for a different cataloging site or app?
There's no other site which is why it's a lazy monopoly.
My favorite records I have purchased were from Discogs and the now defunct Reverb LP.
Personally I appreciate how "early web 2.0" discogs still looks, similar to wikipedia or craigslist it's refusal to radically redesign it's interface to something flashier has had the silver lining of preserving the timeless integrity of it's data. A web design that "knows it's place" in that it doesn't let a brand get ahead of it's utility.
That said, I have run up against several of the problems that you list. And while it's probably not the most helpful suggestion to a busy record store owner, the discogs API potentially solves a lot of these problems by giving you the ability to code your own interface for their data that displays it however you like. There are already client libraries maintained for most popular web development languages, so I assume that there are vendors out there who have developed their own front ends. I think that's the best solution: Let discogs be the data warehouse, and let us just pick whatever open source web app front end we want to connect to it with.
Very good points! What i'm also missing is being able to use a filter for the wantlist mails. So they would just show you a list of the newly available records you're looking for from your country or continent for example.
I agree with almost all of what was discussed but at the same time it’s not a paid service and seems like it’s more built for private sales and not for record stores to use for pricing of items. The fact you have a free service like this that can at least give some sort of gauge on price is a positive that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
My gripe for years has been about the results returned from my want list. I have no interest in paying international shipping for anything so why can't I filter the results returned to me to show only US shipping or only show VG+ or better quality or by price range.
As for slow loading and servers going down... are you sure this isn't the result of your internet connection? I can't remember the last time the site was down for me and it certainly loads as fast as any other website where I live.
And it doesn't say "delivered" when you track your order. It only goes to shipped then you never know when it arrives until it is in your mailbox.
I've certainly had problems buying on Discogs. However for cataloging, I really do think it does it's job well.
It's a huge pain in the ass trying to find the right version of very popular releases. I wish you could add the master release to your collection as a placeholder. I have a whole crate of records that aren't in my catalog yet because I know it's going to take me 30 minutes each to figure out the pressing.
I totally agree with your critiques of discogs as a user experience, it leaves a lot to be desired. Whatnot seems fun and everything and it's perfect for someone like you... but for regular people, I'm not sitting on a stream to sell my obscure records for modest sums. It's not worth my time. And discogs can't be replaced by whatnot due to its encyclopedic user generated information. That data is incredibly valuable and the main reason that discogs will never die. It might be sold but it'll never die.
I never said Whatnot should or could replace Discogs, nor that Discogs should die.
@@TooManyRecords You said Whatnot is the future of buying and selling records, so I was commenting on that. And I know you didn't say discogs should die, sorry if it came off like I was attributing that to you. That wasn't my intention. I shouldn't have commented at all, I guess. I'm not trying to be a prick, I thought I was throwing in my own two cents.
@@flower5185 Always comment! I love everyone's perspectives. I just wanted to clarify.
I dont know what it is with Discogs but I rarely have a good buyers experience on there.... especially compared to Ebay which I find to be the total oppisite. The lack of item photos is such a fundamental problem. I also feel like many of the sellers on Discogs are as jaded as the site itself.... The quality control when it comes to accurate grading is so far off the mark in my experience. The reasons I love ebay are the photos, the sellers description (if thorough) combined with their feedback make for a more accurate grading system. If its clearly a newbie or someone looking to shift junk its usually really obvious by the listing descriptions. And if theres a problem, which after many years of buying on there I have rarely come across, it's easy to solve due to their built in proceedures that generally work in favour of the buyer. As long as you do a bit of research on the seller (feedback, buyer comments, check their other listings to make sure theres some differences in their grading, etc etc) its seems to be a waaaaaay better bet than buying on discogs. For me personally anyway.
Honestly as a new record collector I really mainly use Discogs as a database site to check on different varients of like CDs and records like certain country releases and stuff like that so I usually just by my records from like local independant stores if they have the ones I want
Just saw your video today. I buy and sell on Discogs and I have the same 'love-hate' relationship with them - good video ! My biggest complaint is their feedback system - it's so archaic. There are too many sellers with 100% ratings who are selling 'Mint' records that wouldn't grade (VG). You leave negative feedback and then you get negative feedback in return. Next you go to buy a record but you don't have a 100% buyer rating so the seller won't sell to you. Then Discogs removes the feedback and we're back to where we started. I have a number of friends who have had bad experiences on Discogs and won't touch it now. As a seller that drives me crazy. Discogs needs to fix this if they want to attract good experienced buyers.
Less than an hour after watching your video, I get a notice from Discogs that they're increasing their selling fees from 8% to 9%. Most buyers are alarmed when I tell them it's 8%. It wouldn't be so bad, if they made some improvements. As far as I'm concerned it's got worse. I've been using the site from almost the beginning and I've never been asked or sent a survey about "what would you like to see improved?". I've been put on the Contributor Improvement Program - what a joke. My brother and I have made over 1,000 contributions - what a thankless job. We don't make contributions anymore. It must be nice to get a free database that you can go ahead and sell to the highest bidder. I could go on but that's enough for now...
I am a new collector of about 9 months and want to sell many of my CD's and LP's but simply setting up the shipping seems a pain in the back side. Dp you have any video's on how to set up basic shipping in the US? Love your video's
You nailed it brother! I just had a real bad experience with the purchase of Alice Cooper's "Along Came a Spider" - not a cheap record! I'm not naming names publicly, but it is the main reason why I buy so little from them. My sister sells a lot on What Not. I love the fact that you can ask questions live about the condition, and ask the seller to see all sides on the cover and LP.
With the new master page, you can filter for vinyl variants and then add all results to your wantlist. The only good feature that change brought 😂
Hmm, I don't think I saw that. Still, should be a one button option from the main release page. "Add all vinyl to collection" "add all vinyl to wantlist", etc.
@@TooManyRecords the way it is now does give you good flexibility for mass-wanting though. I have filtered out just the digital versions to add all physical variants to my wantlist a few times now. Would be difficult to have pre-made buttons for all options. But I agree, the most popular formats could have a fast-add button.
Once you buy a copy how do you get all the other variants off you want list? Do you have to go one by one to remove them?
@@TheAboriginal1 no, there is a button somewhere on the master page to remove all variants from the wantlist
@@strupp1 thanks - interesting
I'm a discogs supporter, but I must admit four of my last five purchase experiences have sucked. One was purchased, only to have it refunded days later -- with no notification. Had I not gone back to look what was taking so long, I would never have known.
Also, bought a Pink Floyd The Wall in December. It was shipped TEN DAYS LATER.
One more annoying issue is the times you purchase a record, only to have it refunded days later because someone at the store sold it but didn't update their account.
It's stuff like this that makes me want to look at it elsewhere...
"Waiting to being purchased by a larger company. " - 100% on board with this thought.
It is scary that discogs has so many issues but is the end-all-be-all for pricing.
Bwahaha, people have been saying THAT about discogs for over a decade.
Google/Facebook/apple/Warner/eBay/Amazon/Netflix/are going to snap up discogs. Any day now….
I love Discogs, I buy, I sell. I am in Austria, as a jazz collector in Austria, there is no way around Discogs and I love it.
Hi Matt, thanks for this interesting video. A couple of miscellaneous thoughts: 1. I won’t buy records off Discogs because (a) there are no pictures and I want to see what I’m buying and evidence the record actually exists, and (b) there is no accountability from Discogs if the transaction goes wrong (whereas I think they, rather than the consumer, should bear the risk that scammers are operating on their platform) 2. We are probably all guilty to some degree of having a cheeky look at Discogs while we are browsing in a record store but really this is quite rude behaviour most of the time! If you need to look at Discogs to understand whether you want to buy a record you are holding in your hand I think that’s a bit sad (although there may be exceptions particularly with high value records). Greetings from London!
I often look at Discogs in a record store less to look at the pricing but more to read comments about a specific pressing quality.
What about their and pp commission when you sell???
What's so necessary about Discogs? Particularly when it comes to used records, selling price boils down to was a buyer is willing to pay. I can safely say that I've never purchased anything on Discogs -- when I want to buy a record, I either go to one of my favorite stores or to ebay. That's it. I have never felt like having a "meaningful discussion" about why someone feels a record should cost X number of dollars, I just want to know what so-and-so is asking, whether or not they might be flexible on that price (occasionally) and how much shipping is going to cost. That's it, that's all.
Those are some really good points. I don't sell on discogs anymore...I only use it to look up prices and even then I double check solds on ebay and use both sources to come up with a price. I've done 2 whatnot auctions and so far its pretty easy once you get going.
I also really think High prices should not be visible, only low and median. A lot of sellers are creating fake accounts to inflate the prices and create a "precedent" that its gonna fuck with the price a lot.
At very least the graph showing history of sold prices shluld also be displayed on the page of the record itself, so peoplrle can realize that if till two months ago the record was sold for 5€ for over a dechade, there's absolutely something wrong if someone bought it for 80€ once last week.
This mostly applies to EDM music were records don't get mass pressed in huge quantity.
My recent experience has been disheartening. I've begun to notice that I sell a bunch of records one day, then a bunch more the next day. Then days go by and I sell 0. Then suddenly I sell a bunch one day, then 0 again. It's almost as if my records for sale are only being viewed or offered on specific random days. Anyone else with a similar experience ?
I agree that Discogs has certain shortcomings and could be much improved. Interesting that I see different problems because I am looking at it from a buyers perspective. For example the newish postage regulations that leave some records out of my reach because the seller is not set up to ship to Canada, or calculating insane rates.
However, after watching this clip I had a look at Whatnot. Not that I could see much because I don't have an account, but based on what I saw from the outside I can tell you I will never have an account on that site. Obnoxious format, geared towards sellers to make a buck with auctions to drive the price (up). How are the fees collected? Added to the buying price or taken from the seller? Don't like sites short on important information before you sign your life away.
Online my vinyl purchasing is about 50/50 ebay and discogs. I will say ebay has its issues but I feel more confident with my purchases most of the time over there. Seeing the record with detailed photos on ebay I have been fully satisfied with my purchases 90-95% of the time, every once in a while there is the over graded record or other issue which most sellers will work with you on. On discogs you cannot see photos most of the time and some sellers don't have a description of the record they are selling. I have been burned a few times on discogs so I will message a seller for more info/pics of the record before I purchase and have found greater success this way, the only issue is now you need to wait for a response and sometimes sellers never get back to you. For every record I have missed out on for a seller not getting back to me there have been probably 10 records I have been fully satisfied with upon receiving them in the mail.
Great video. Discogs has begun to annoy me too. I hate that comments aren’t actual reviews - if it is a hot record or limited you have to wade through tons of ‘i hate flipper comments’ just to find out if the pressing is any good and then you run into what you mentioned about what setup they are listening on. I would like to see a box to notate if something is still in print or not - smashing pumpkins for example - their albums are still in print - they sell out quickly - but they are still in print. I think that would let people make more informed decisions on whether they want to spend the money on something.
This. This to the moon and back. People are treating the review section like their Twitter feed. 99% of comments shouldn’t be there. You can report them and they do get removed but it’s a King Canute-esque task.
Not to mention the greed of some sellers. I came across a record that went for $13 at the highest. The seller is asking $100. I reached out, thinking maybe they meant to list it for $10. Nope.
The search could use some work too. I've been using it for at least a decade, and as you mentioned, nothings really changed.
Aspirational pricing will always exist, I just ignore those huge outliers.
The pictures of the actual record you want to buy is such a crucial and integral part of every site dedicated to sales.
I bought a few records that were erroneously graded, so I paid more for cheaper records, and that's a scam, a scam that Discogs seems to go along with.
Some sellers are kind enough and send me pics, others stop replying after one message so I have no incentive to buy their items because of poor customer service that's becoming more and more common.
One more thing that should improve the transactions is to make mandatory shippings with tracking number. I know the shipping costs will increase but I'm sure everyone would prefer to have some sort of certainty about their package than waiting for it with the uncertainty.
My biggest complaint about Discogs is the snobbery of some of the comments and the passive aggressiveness. I’ve added info or a photo before to be told “that’s incorrect, it should be this, please edit or delete’ - like, do it yourself if your that revved up! Or say ‘hey, actually it should be this, I’ve updated it for you’. Zero sense of community.
Agreed.
I've been corrected so many times on my submissions and felt attacked at first. But the data would get ugly quick if they didn't enforce submission guidelines.
@@recordstoregeek Its just not a friendly way to conduct things though imho. It takes the same amount of time to notice an issue and correct it as it does notice one and tell someone they’re wrong and tell them to correct it 🤷🏻♂️
The experience has kept me from making any edits or submissions, and unfortunately probably many others
@@sjfaux89 this is one criticism I can get behind. I was tagged in a forum thread talking about file submissions and how you need to include a download link in the submission notes (not the public note's), with how you can only add one file type and put it this way. Going down the thread, it was essentially just a "slagging match" as we say in Scotland. It's just passive aggressive nonsense with a redundant threat of "we'll take your submission privileges away" since I've only ever submitted 4 songs in almost a year of collecting (it wasn't only me who was tagged, however they missed out some of the biggest offenders)
I find it pretty irrelevant and pointless to add a submission for each WAV, MP3,FLAC etc version when, now a days most file sites actually just let you pick what file type you want from the same listing. So It makes more sense to add what's offered in the same listing. Not only that, you'll have inflated catalogues for record labels, when its the same song 7 times with the only difference being file type. Its not exactly like LPs with different pressings, sleeves etc where it actually makes a significant difference. You wouldn't add a separate listing for a X2 LP set because ones 33rpm and another is 45rpm. So I don't quite understand the logic.
Same applies with adding a download link to submission notes as firstly, discogs doesn't sell digital files. It says so itself and secondly, no one is going to see it unless the click "edit release" which they wouldn't unless they are going to edit the release themselves.
It seems pretty useless set of guidelines imo.
There’s a good reason when it comes to selling vinyl (which I don’t do a ton of, but I do some) I use eBay. It’s just easier to sell, and as a seller I like to have as many pictures of things as I can.
I’d be curious why you think whatnot is the future of buy/sell for vinyl, too. As a consumer it’s fun to get in on some auctions on there for sure, but there’s no true marketplace to search out a record. You also can’t (as far as I know) see sales data for what things sell for.
Well, the sales data stuff is still sketchy due to what I talked about in this video. Whatnot is just a more engaging way to buy and sell, which I think is future-forward compared to the archaic stylings of Discogs.
Its pretty cool for a free site. Use it all the time. Could it be better? Sure couldn’t anything?
I don’t agree it sucks.
My top gripe is not being able to specify territories in my wantlist. I don’t want to see the same listings over and over where the overseas shipping costs are more than the actual record.
Definitely agree.
The fact that you will occasionally get a "special offer" (or five) from Harry's Razors & the like after making a purchase makes me think they are as solvent as we'd like to think. But, every point you make is valid. The thing I'm scared of the most is them taking a bigger cut. Not because I am really a seller (sold one CD, yay me), but because we all know that just means that the retail prices will be adjusted to account for the increased fees.
For me that I live outside the USA, Discogs has been more useful for get european and japanese pressings for cheaper prices than imported copies located in the USA plus direct shipping to my country, while for american pressings eBay is far more useful.
My personal complain so far is that multiple shipping addresses can't be saved on the Discogs app, since for the albums that I buy from sellers from the USA or worldwide that doesn't have direct shipping to my country I have to use a mail box service located in Miami that then ships the ítems to Chile, and on the app I can't even change the shipping address without typing it letter by letter every single time, at last on a PC that's not an issue.
Me too. Used the site for years. My bug bare is sellers who only do visual gradings. All vinyl should be play graded! Every incorrect graded record I’ve received wasn’t play graded. Fortunately the better sellers will play it if you ask. If one doesn’t I look for another copy.
I have a love/hate relationship with Discogs. I agree with pretty much every criticism you have about the sight. For now as a seller I'm sticking with them because I have a strong customer base and a 100% feedback rating (6,666 feedbacks). Lately, probably due to slacking off on listings, my sales have been slow, particularly on my higher priced collectibles. That being said, I'm probably trying out eBay in the near future for higher end items. Also, looking into Whatnot. Discogs, please get your act together. Changes are desperately needed.
6 6 6 6
the number of the beast
@@TooManyRecords Now up to 6,667. Whew!
So far I haven't had any problems yet. I price my albums above the price because it costs me too much to send them. I am very honest about what I offer because most of my records that I have 99% of my albums have been played once or twice since I bought them. Why? I am a musician and only bought them to learn one tune when I played with bands. I am 75 years old and bought most of them in the late 60's. or when they came out. Remember this.''Even thieves have to make a living ``.
I’m so happy this video came out, I love this and everything is so true. Discogs needs all this
Discogs is wonderful for the common vinyl lover, not for the audiophile. Is a fantastic site where you can get a lot of data about different pressings, in which year was made each one.
Where do you buy used audiophile vinyl ? I ask because I sell audiophile records on Discogs but I get concerned about their rating system when it comes to selling records of this calibre.
Totally agree with the presets. I did use to hate not having pics, but Ive come to embrace the simplicity of it.
Ditto
All legitimate gripes. The app is not great either. But in the end, Discogs is a major net positive. My collection would not be where it is without it.
I agree, I'm grateful -- but I think we need to be critical.
definitely have complaints about Discogs, but many more complaints about whatnot to be honest. Maybe I'm just not watching the right channels or goin on at the right time
Gotta watch my show ;)
@@TooManyRecords I will definitely try to catch it. The ones I've watched tend to have basic 10-15 dollar records or modern re-issues I have a hard time getting excited about, don't give details about which pressing they're auctioning off and don't describe the condition very well. For the ones that did have good records like The In Groove, people would bid considerably more than you can buy the records for on discogs or eBay which really surprised me.
I personally never buy albums online I always try to find them in store.
good airing of grievances. Festivus lives on in January! yeah, discogs isn't changing. its good for what it's good for. best aspect of it is if you are lucky enough to bundle stuff you want from a single seller. I don't use it too much. The last three purchases I made months ago, the seller tried to ship my order with one of the items missing. They typically will message me oh, sorry we no longer have that item in our inventory, but we are ready to ship out your order without it. Basically I placed the order for that item that is missing and the other items are add ons. How freaking annoying is that? Sellers listing stuff they don't even have.
And now this to deal with ... RIP DISCOGS
"Discogs is raising the selling fee to 9% of the item and shipping costs. We understand this fee adjustment will affect your business and we are here to help you navigate the change.
One of the easiest things you can do to maintain your margins is to increase your prices. We created a guide to help you manage your inventory during this transition, including:
Tips for adjusting the price of all your items by a simple percentage
Calculations that illustrate the impact the new selling fee will have on typical prices
Data that may help you update item prices individually
Tools and processes for updating your inventory"
They then try to say offer free shipping to avoid paying more fees.
So buy the time you have fees taken on the record, shipping, then tax, then pay for postage its not even worth selling.
Just realized that with the "accurate sales history" it would be great if we could also filter that data. I don't want to see that a mint copy sold for $200 and that a poor copy sold for $8. I want to know how all copies in similar condition to that copy I'm either interested in or selling is going for. We should be able to filter the value for condition, is my point.
100%!!
Like you I’ve been using Discogs for over 10 years and have a 5000+ collection. What I find crazy about Discogs is in the early days of being a user I added 5 releases (I admit I was green) and had people make comments on my submissions , and I made corrections. Because of this I was suspended from adding anything on the site until I had enough votes on releases. 10+ years I’m still suspended and after multiple contacts to Discogs admins over the years nothing has changed, so I’ve given up and my workaround is I add another territory release to my collection and add notes . The stupid thing is I could be adding so much more accurate releases to the database to make it more complete. Some in my collection I can’t add at all because no one has added the release at all. So frustrating. Like I say I work around it but it’s unbelievable that 10+ years have gone by and an account remains restricted awaiting votes
I've worked for an online retailer for 15 years who were the first in their space, and I think we probably had - at least for the first few years - a similar journey to Discogs. Born from a couple of guys in a pub realising they couldn't do something online that they felt they should be able to and building it just for their own use, the original code is a bit janky and was never written with the intention of (a) being able to add endless updates on top and (b) becoming a huge business. At some point the fact they're the first doing what they're doing neans that, almost by accident, they hit a huge growth spurt that they can't really keep up with and weren't prepared for. As such they're left with massive technical debt and so improving even basic things becomes a huge problem, with bits of code linked to all kinds of other modules that it shouldn't be - if you change this you're gonna screw up this, this and this too. So at some point they have to decide to invest in a rewrite of the code and essentially start over... except Discogs has never done that (I don't know for sure... but one look at the site tells you that). It's insane to me that they're now a huge global business, the biggest in second hand vinyl sales (I assume? Ebay maybe?), and still have such a basic and flawed site. Would it be a big job to rewrite the code and fix all the bugs, add all the extra features it's crying out for, and give users the site they deserve? Sure. Should Discogs have the money to do it? Oh god yes. Would they make even more money after they've done it? Hell yes. The only reason I can think they're not doing it is that the current owners are more interested in waiting to be bought out. Janky code or not, their brand name and user base should ensure a huge payday for the owners at some point.
It has its moments, but I was surprised how many records aren't listed. Also, I've had very back luck with vinyl purchases. Not only were they not VG, they were the worst condition records I've ever encountered - such that I didn't know it was possible to allow records to get into such terrible condition. By contrast I've bought three LPs via eBay that were listed as in Good condition. They were NM. Go figure.
I am a music lover, have been for decades. I would not call myself a collector, I guess, but I have bought many records. I used to be excited going to record stores to browse and buy. But after several overpriced records in rough shape, I have cut way back. I guess for now I may be in the minority, until more folks feel like I do, prices will not adjust. I appreciate the insight on record pricing, now it makes sense.
solid comments...what i don't like about discogs is their disregard for 45 picture sleeves (or art or title sleeves) and lack of packaging guidelines...my suggestions go nowhere including adding swaplist items by simply changing a listing price to "trade" (with a "make offer" option possible) and allowing users to build swaplists (not enough profit i guess, or consideration for the collectors who literally created their extensive data bases)...🎸🎶
All they gotta do is hire new talented designers (brand, web, and creative), developers, engineers, and marketers to help with this issue… and fire their current staff cause if Discogs still looks the same since 2013, nothing will change and we shouldn’t expect any form of improvement. Also, hiring these types of talent comes with a big price, so if Discogs has that money to spend on hiring and actually paying these people well, then yes, Discogs needs to rebrand themselves ASAP before another alternative replaces them.
I agree it is a necessary evil. I use it quite a bit but also get super frustrated every time. My main issue is not the app itself but I guess more of some of the users. I hate seeing this... Low $19-------$38-------$63 High and the starting sale price is $141. Some people completely disregard the price range and just post records for sale 2x-5x the highest it's ever sold for. I am new to Whatnot, how do you find record sellers on there? Also when do you sell on there and how would I get notified? I appreciate the content!
My biggest gripe is the protection of buyers. I have had my bad feedback removed when I had a terrible experience multiple times which has completely turned me off. The only thing discogs has going is its collection of data. If ebay or whatnot captured more details about pressing/condition they could easily take over discogs. I am actually surprised no one has bought them out yet. I honestly think their lack of updates to the site is they are just waiting to be bought out. Maybe we should crowdfund the vc for our own takeover.
Chances are you feedback was not following the rules. For example did you contact the seller first to let them know there was a problem before leaving FB? If not it’ll be removed. You are obliged as a buyer to communicate with the other party just as much as you are as a seller.
@@Jayfive276 Yes both times I was communicating with the seller. The only reason I left the feedback was because the 90 window to leave feedback was ending and seller didnt refund me what he promised so I felt my only recourse was to warn other buyers. Its been 2 years and he never did pay me the $25 he said he would I paid to ship a broken record back to Europe. Probably still has flawless feedback too and other buyers are getting terribly packaged records because my feedback was removed. I hardly use discogs for purchases anymore so its all good.
Really interesting info. Also people maybe should consider that if a record lists for 75 bucks and is selling for 28, then that's what the record is probably worth.
I have been using discogs a lot lately why because I live in Australia and I don't have a choice as living in Australia suxs for finding vinyl I want
All the 7 and 12 inch singles I bought on line I've never seen in Australian record stores or record fairs not once ever
Yes u are right it's a pain in ass to ask for photos of sleeve and condition of vinyl
Sadly some sellers lie about vinyl as u can get a photo of vinyl it may look ok but when u get it it's stuffed
The sad part is when u get a record that hardly plays at all the seller wins as discogs and paypal don't care or don't believe u
But saying that I have had a few sellers who were so cool to me
One guy in UK 🇬🇧 sent me this very rare 7 it was Spanish pressing when I mean sent he sent it to me 4 free I was blown away so in life there's the good and the bad with everything I guess
I think we need to make a data base and list all bad sellers make it public as there stealing our money and need to be shut down
I completely agree! I do feel like they are sitting back and counting their phat stacks of $$$ and don't care about making real changes. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on it, Matt!
Haven't gotten on whatnot yet, but I don't really feel like "tuning in" to something in order to buy something I want. I've had creators mention their streams and what they're selling and all the new user benefits, but do I ever "tune in"? no. Also I don't see WhatNot coming up with a database of nearly every single piece of physical music ever created. Not like they can't, but I don't see it happening.
I love Cogs but I'd say the only flaw is its pissy mods/contributers who change things, like for example when I put up my own releases on there from my record label, a few of them swooped in and started changing the name of an artist that featured on one of my tracks. I had a full blown argument with them and was put on a CIP ban. So I signed up under another name and edited it back to how it was and luckily its stayed that way.
Other than that I like the site and hope it stays true to its originality. I don't want flashy graphics and social media type gimmicks I just want to see information on the vinyl I'm buying which Discogs gives me :)
I quit using this bullshit site because half the sellers won’t send pictures like why? I ask so nicely and they either don’t respond or ask me why I am asking for pics. MAYBE BECAUSE IM SPENDING $500 ON IT LIKE WTF