The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Drives me nuts when an eBay record seller only mentions the title on one side of the record! (And yes, it's a record recorded on both sides)

Thanks for letting me vent... Carry on.

It IS annoying, but I have the Rust discographies so for me this is easily overcome.

Or they don't list the titles/artists but the photos are too fuzzy to read the labels.

Most of these shoddily listed records are being sold for too much anyway. "I have these 100 year old records in good for their age" $50 for a lot 10" The post is often accompanied by 1 blurry photo

At least you get the titles. I see ads where they mention a few of the labels ("HMV", "Decca", etc) with no artist of titles mentioned at all!
And when the price is high because the records are old (but worthless).

I'm also irritated when they post photos of only the record labels, and not the entire record. Or they do photograph the entire record but the photo's are too dark, to bright or too out of focus to make a good assessment of the condition.

But my biggest pet peeve with record sellers (especially on Ebay) is inaccurate grading. Records with visible (and audible!) wear graded as E or higher, or failing to mention defects such as deep scratches, needle drops, (hairline) cracks, etc.

I recall going though lots of crates of records at a church fete to find one 78 that interested me (I don't think it was anything special). I indicated to the seller that I wanted to buy it, and placed it on top of a crate packed with LPs. While I was diving into my pocket to get the money to pay for it, the seller picked up the record to look at it, then - with considerable force - banged it flat on top of the crate of records! I envisioned he had broken it in front of my eyes, or the very least seriously cracked it. He was quite surprised when I picked up the record to check it - fortunately no damage was done. I then gave him an education on how fragile 78s were and how he very nearly broke the record. He appeared quite shocked when he realised his carelessness.

Another time I found some 78s in exceptional condition in a charity shop. Two problems - disks that normally would sell for $2 were priced at $15-25. Second problem, some idiot had put the price stickers - with permanent adhesive, in the middle of the playing surface. I tried to educate the manager how he had damaged the records, but he couldn't care less. I think he thought I was trying to argue the price down. I would have bought them at one or two dollars, but given they were essentially one-sided now I didn't care, and left them in the store.

On the subject of trying to argue the price down, someone at a record fair was aggressively haggling over a record which he wanted, but only if it was at half price.
Eventually the dealer lost patience, broke the record in half and asked the haggler which half he had in mind. I didn't blame him.
If there is a moral to this true story, it is that if the price is reasonable, pay it.