Selling and Buying 78s on eBay: A Few Thoughts
Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2014 11:03 am
Recently a forum member posted a link to a particularly dumb listing for a lot of records on eBay -- no picture, no titles, no grading, no real description of the records being offered. Having become just a little addicted to buying records on eBay, I've been thinking about the qualities in a listing that make me more likely to want to buy a given record, and the (negative) qualities that make me want to steer clear. Here goes:
1. Show the Record!: A lot of sellers, even some highly regarded ones, tend to show pictures of the label only, often with the rest of the disc masked by a sleeve. Reputable sellers can be trusted to provide an accurate grade, but it still seems pretty obvious that a potential buyer has a better chance to make an assessment of a record's condition when there's a clear photograph of the entire record, preferably taken in a good strong light that shows a record's gloss (or lack of it). The condition of the label is secondary, at least to me. I think most of us buy records to play more than to admire the label, and while the condition of a label can be a clue as to the condition of the actual disc, the grooves are what matters most. Sometimes I'll pass on a record I might like, especially if it's not inexpensive, simply because I can't see the darn thing.
2. Grade Carefully, Give Full Descriptions!: Grading is complicated by its subjectivity -- one person's VG+ might be another's plain old V. It's tough buying records when you can't pick them up and examine them. Recently I got a record from a seller I like that had been graded V++. One side was true to that grading, but the other side was badly stripped and no better than G -- and that was the side I bought the record for. We resolved the issue cordially, but a more careful grading (and a picture of both sides, not just the shiny one) would have prevented the problem in the first place. If there's anything especially notable about the record, make a note of it -- the more information, the better the chance of a good sale.
3. Wipe Those Suckers OFF!: Another one I was disappointed with lately was a scarce title described in the listing as V+ and a "great player". Again, the picture showed the label only, so I went by the description and grading when bidding on it. It's on the Harmony label, and those and other Columbia client labels of the mid- to late '20s tend to stand up to years of careless handling better than most, and often play well even if they look bad -- so I'm not shy about buying them even if they're said to be V. This one arrived really dirty with what looked like the gritty dust that comes from being stashed for years in an old basement. It's certainly not a "great player", and what's especially irritating is that the seller, an experienced one who handles a lot of scarce records, had apparently graded it as such having played it, possibly a few times, without cleaning off the grit. I don't know why a person who knows his records would do this. The result is the kind of distortion that comes from playing such a dirty record, grit ground into the grooves. It took me only a couple of minutes to clean it properly, but the damage is done and can't be fixed.
4. Keep Your Shipping Costs Down!: Sellers can charge whatever they want for shipping. I don't know about you, but to me it seems as if the common charge of $4.00 is a pretty fair baseline, usually enough to cover proper boxing/packaging and Media Mail postage, and many sellers manage to include tracking at that cost. Call me cheap, but when I have to pay $6.50 (which doesn't even include tracking) for the same packing and boxing that others do for four, I'm gonna consider that extra $2.50 as added to the price of the record, and bid accordingly, or maybe just skip it.
Time was when every roadside junk shop had a stash of dollar 78s to pick through, but what with people selling their junk on the internet, those shops are few and far between now. I don't mind paying a little more online for a title I want, but it's a lot easier to do when sellers are conscientious about how they go about it. Thoughts?
1. Show the Record!: A lot of sellers, even some highly regarded ones, tend to show pictures of the label only, often with the rest of the disc masked by a sleeve. Reputable sellers can be trusted to provide an accurate grade, but it still seems pretty obvious that a potential buyer has a better chance to make an assessment of a record's condition when there's a clear photograph of the entire record, preferably taken in a good strong light that shows a record's gloss (or lack of it). The condition of the label is secondary, at least to me. I think most of us buy records to play more than to admire the label, and while the condition of a label can be a clue as to the condition of the actual disc, the grooves are what matters most. Sometimes I'll pass on a record I might like, especially if it's not inexpensive, simply because I can't see the darn thing.
2. Grade Carefully, Give Full Descriptions!: Grading is complicated by its subjectivity -- one person's VG+ might be another's plain old V. It's tough buying records when you can't pick them up and examine them. Recently I got a record from a seller I like that had been graded V++. One side was true to that grading, but the other side was badly stripped and no better than G -- and that was the side I bought the record for. We resolved the issue cordially, but a more careful grading (and a picture of both sides, not just the shiny one) would have prevented the problem in the first place. If there's anything especially notable about the record, make a note of it -- the more information, the better the chance of a good sale.
3. Wipe Those Suckers OFF!: Another one I was disappointed with lately was a scarce title described in the listing as V+ and a "great player". Again, the picture showed the label only, so I went by the description and grading when bidding on it. It's on the Harmony label, and those and other Columbia client labels of the mid- to late '20s tend to stand up to years of careless handling better than most, and often play well even if they look bad -- so I'm not shy about buying them even if they're said to be V. This one arrived really dirty with what looked like the gritty dust that comes from being stashed for years in an old basement. It's certainly not a "great player", and what's especially irritating is that the seller, an experienced one who handles a lot of scarce records, had apparently graded it as such having played it, possibly a few times, without cleaning off the grit. I don't know why a person who knows his records would do this. The result is the kind of distortion that comes from playing such a dirty record, grit ground into the grooves. It took me only a couple of minutes to clean it properly, but the damage is done and can't be fixed.
4. Keep Your Shipping Costs Down!: Sellers can charge whatever they want for shipping. I don't know about you, but to me it seems as if the common charge of $4.00 is a pretty fair baseline, usually enough to cover proper boxing/packaging and Media Mail postage, and many sellers manage to include tracking at that cost. Call me cheap, but when I have to pay $6.50 (which doesn't even include tracking) for the same packing and boxing that others do for four, I'm gonna consider that extra $2.50 as added to the price of the record, and bid accordingly, or maybe just skip it.
Time was when every roadside junk shop had a stash of dollar 78s to pick through, but what with people selling their junk on the internet, those shops are few and far between now. I don't mind paying a little more online for a title I want, but it's a lot easier to do when sellers are conscientious about how they go about it. Thoughts?