▲ 5 r/discogs
Advice for a newbie seller
Hello! Although I have been playing and collecting records for over 60 years, I have never sold a record on Discogs or even graded a record. I am about to start selling some of my records and would like some advice both from sellers and buyers.
I am not looking to squeeze the highest grade from a record; instead, I am aiming for a buyer to agree that my grade met their expectations. Here are some questions that, if you were to answer, would help me out.
- Looking back to when you sold your first record on Discogs, what grading errors would you want to avoid?
- How did you train yourself to distinguish between NM, VG+, VG, G+, and G? Were there particular examples, exercises, reference records, videos, or articles you would recommend?
- Do you visually grade first and then play-grade each record or do you play-grade only some?
- Which small things might cause beginners to overgrade a record: fingerprints, surface noise, spindle marks, label wear, writing on labels and covers, etc.?
- How do you handle borderline cases? If something looks VG+ except for one small flaw, do you call it VG?
- Should a brand-new seller be more conservative? Is grading a borderline VG+ record as VG a good way to start?
- Do you supplement your grades by actually describing the individual defects in your listing rather than depending entirely upon the grade?
- Do you have any special kind of a setup for grading, such as special lighting or magnification?
- What does someone with a lot of experience see that a beginner sometimes misses?
- Would you recommend selling some inexpensive records first to establish a reputation before listing more expensive records?
- If a buyer disagrees with your grade, how would good sellers handle it?
Did I leave any questions out that you think would be helpful?
Thanks so much for sharing your experience with me and anyone who might read this post.
u/TruthHonor — 2 days ago