Selling on Discogs - HELP!

[Ken Ward]

After a few crap responses last year from buyers I was blacked by e-bay. Long story so will not dwell here.
After finishing my MA last month I now want to get back in to selling, but impossible through bay, so need other vehicles.
Where else to sell a variety of stuff? Lots of classical, but a mixed bag really. I need the cash and the space.
How is discogs for selling? and are there other avenues I should explore.
Gumtree is out but I could do fairs. If pushed
Need help asap! Thanks chaps.

[pitch]

I only sell on discogs now. Just make sure you price competitively checking out the other sellers - considering postage too (if you are the only UK seller you can charge a bit more and still be the best buy when comparing with say US options with high postage).
I always describe conservatively so that any dissatisfied buyers are unlikely.
I review prices every now and then - reducing them over time as required to sell. Keep checking that you are one of the lower priced options - the market place is fluid and you can find prices do change.
I recommend it!

[Plainstone]

Lots of classical

describe conservatively

Especially true with classical. Even a tiny bit of noise can be a deal breaker.

[Sonovox]

Especially true with classical. Even a tiny bit of noise can be a deal breaker.

I have had only good experiences with Discogs, but the records do only trickle out over time, there was no big bang = lots of space.

I grade pretty conservatively, but I've found a couple of times recently that a couple of different buyers were unhappy with records I graded VG, both times played OK with minor noise on my deck, but they were finding skips. A refund or refund offer does the trick in those situations. I reckon I'm only going to bother with VG+ or above in future.

[Tinhat Toyboy]

Discogs can be a little slow for classical and you may have to make more than a few listings yourself before selling which is a major pain. A significant amount of my few Discogs classical sales come from cross promotion with my eBay buyers. There are more classical sellers at fairs than there used to be. Croydon has some and the Tonbridge Audio Jumble has loads.

[stupidnation]

A significant amount of my few Discogs classical sales come from cross promotion with my eBay buyers.

Just out of interest how do you do that? I find Ebay tend to block any links and generally make it hard to have a good old chat with a buyer so any advice / hints / tips on that would be great

[Tinhat Toyboy]

Just out of interest how do you do that? I find Ebay tend to block any links and generally make it hard to have a good old chat with a buyer so any advice / hints / tips on that would be great

Attach a sticker with a bit of blurb and my Discogs URL to the packing slip that goes out with every eBay item.

[Magoorty]

Is there a way to make sales uk only? Whenever I put it in the description, people roundly ignore it.

[Paul-K]

is discogs hard to add changes to? like different colour vinyl or later pressings if the info isnt on there already

[bennyboy]

The submission form can be a bit fiddly, but you get used to it fairly quickly.

[markie]

I have basically stopped selling on Ebay when I discovered Discogs. I have around 500-600 records listed at the moment and the orders keep coming in, although sometimes nothing happens for a whole week. I'm definitely not the cheapest but certainly not the most expensive seller. Throwing out stuff for peanuts does not give you a general good impression I think. I find that especially rock and psych related items sell easy. I list hardly anything lower than VG+ and add little descriptions to give a better idea of the condition of a record. Also it helps when you communicate with people who order from you. More than once I have added records to an order when I told people that they can order more stuff for the same shipping. Discogs is super easy and quick for listing items but adding releases yourself is quite a pain and very time consuming.
I think you can often get a better price for stuff on Ebay since you attract a different kind of buyers there and there's ofcourse the element of bidding involved but Ebay to me has become too much trouble and the fees suck.

[Fortunate One]

I too was given the boot by the 'bay ('for below standard seller performance') so switched to Discogs and have had some very impressive sales ever since without the hassle. It seems to attract the genuine vinyl lover rather than the glut of time-wasters you get on ebay! The listing is all done for you...and is free! No photos. You only shell out if you sell. That said I have a batch of stuff that I feel would sell much better on the 'bay. Anyone interested in teaming up?

[Dr Victor X Storm]

Great - so discogs is the place where people who can't grade head to when they get kicked off ebay

[Fortunate One]

Great - so discogs is the place where people who can't grade head to when they get kicked off ebay

Huh?! That's quite a simplistic reaction to us Discogs converts! Care to elaborate?

[The Divine One]

Great - so discogs is the place where people who can't grade head to when they get kicked off ebay

No, Discogs is the place where people who can't be bothered with jumping through ebay's hoops, seller performance levels, paying a percentage of the postage, getting chargebacks off chancers, not being able to leave negative feedback for buyers and paying fees to list records and a higher final value fee (10% v 8%) go.

Obviously you don't get the random auction frenzy rush (like the odd time you might sell a Michael Jackson picture disc for £394) but, as mentioned, price your records fairly and the orders trickle in, in a nice leisurely fashion. And if they don't, lower the price. And if they STILL don't sell... They were probably shite to begin with.