Let's talk about Discogs

[Mark_Spit]

So I've had a Discogs account for sometime now , but never really used it. Then about a month ago I found a few 12" singles that I've been looking for from a local seller who also happened to have a large collection for sale as well. I hastily perused his entire EDM section (over 4000 records ) and found much more than just what I wanted. And with prices on average of between $2 - $4 each, it was easy to fill my cart up pretty fast.

This brings me to the elephant in the room.

All these years I've been going to my local record store - Play de Record - for my record purchases, but now after finding how convenient and cheaper Discogs is, I really don't see myself going there as much if at all any more. Play de is still a great place; the owners are awesome and I try to support small, local businesses when possible. However I have to go where my wallet dictates which is sad because I've been going there since the very first week they opened many years ago. This has me wondering how many other crate diggers have gone primarily online. Out of the three major DJ specific record stores we've had here in Toronto, Play de is the last man standing and it would be a shame to see them go the way of the cassette.

With Discogs, I can take as long as I want to browse "crates" of records. I also don't have to wait for a listening station and I don't have to worry about occupying said listening station for too long holding other people up. Instead all I do now is head to Youtube to preview a track and 98% of the time it's there regardless how obscure.

Between the convenience, price, fast turn around time due to a local seller, using Discogs has not only been a pleasurable experience, but an addictive one. Within a month I've placed 2 orders of 9 and 10 records repsectively and had them delivered to my door in two days from Quebec! I've promised myself to cool off until my B-Day in May to splurge again so I'll try my best to stay off the site .

Discuss!

[pete]

Yup. You can find everything on discogs.
Which kinda defeats the attraction of classic digging in record shops.
As i don't buy the latest releases, i usually buy second hand. either online (ebay mostly) or supporting a local record shop (which is a 4hr+ round trip away).
I also love looking at the prices of records in my collection on discogs.
Such as a 12" I hunted for ages and paid 30$ for 20 years ago can be found for $1, whereas a album I got for free is now worth 200$.

Never sell my precious though, from my cold dead hands and all that.

[setback]

I live in London and I used to shop in berwick street soho new and old (temporarily under reconstruction) and also soul/dance music exchange in notting hill gate (was also in Berwick street). you could get cds at mid (9-12) and low price (1-6) all the time. Old tunes Berwick street also reckless records.
New shops was blackmarket of course d'arblay street off Berwick st, Sister Ray (since moved to smaller premises) and you wouldn't believe it secret shop HMV who have moved since and probably don't stock much if any vinyl. reckon down the road opposite darblay has good underground cd selection.
Discogs I use to locate details of cds and vinyl but never really bought through the post cos I got enough cds now and im on up to date downloads (wow syd Arthur), seen prices suspiciously low and high on discogs but I reckon offer a fair price to ensure delivery. Kickass website for research though. im gonna find me all an artists albums and preview on you tube.

[andymunro]

I've bought a few CD singles off discogs of tunes that i've loved from my clubbing days, classics on the liverpool afterhours scene, I love discogs for that! I don't use it often, once every couple years, but when I do I always end up spending a fortune! Round my way there are no record shops, I'd have to travel into the city centre to 3 beat, and that's known more for the latest vinyl than older stuff.

It's a shame record shops of old have died out, but I'm glad of the resurgence of vinyl that makes me think my dream of opening a record shop one day might be feasible.

[Eggy]

Play de Record is a great little shop. Got a bit of nostalgia reading this thread.

[mitchiemasha]

A lot of the second hand shops put their prices up, got fussy over stock and stopped buying bulks, cherry picking from them. When a shop has multiples of a 12" at first it seems logical to stop buying, instead of taking in the full bulk and selling them off at a reduced price.

If they don't buy them the owner will likely give them away to a friend. That's your copy less likely to sell.
Many of us would buy a lesser release from a label we collect simply for owning it.
Stock turn around. It keeps people in the fun of buying and selling, collecting.

I'd of even took poor condition records to take them out of circulation.

When my local record shop put the prices up, i stopped buying. £4-£5 for a second hand average release was simply too much. The songs would be good songs but commercial and in there many, these should of been £2-£3. People would simply buy bigger bulks not spend less. It feels better to walk out of the shop with 10 new tunes to mix, not 4. The shop would always do offers when buying multiples which always felt good too. This is why discogs feels so great. When i looked the other day I nearly started collecting again. It's so tempting.

No reason a successful discogs seller couldn't turn into a shop. If you're having to wait for listening booths or worrying about holding them up, the shop must be doing OK so isn't going to disappear soon.

[dlove]

for what I'm looking for, I find discogs to be super-expensive, especially for the modal jazz, exotica, ect, as most of it is sold from the US, as well as being super-rare. also, with the reggae i want, even some UK based sellers are charging £80 a 12". for this kinda stuff, i have no problem going to re-issue label sites instead.

a lot of record shops have discog accounts, and I hear what you're saying with the final demise of the local record store, but when you're coming from a place such as North East Scotland, we never had many to begin with, so i'm very happy with online buying, as it saves me having to travel to buy music.

[Dr_Herringbone]

Discogs is very convenient for finding specific stuff, but living in Ireland, postage is the killer. The best and worst thing about discogs is that I can do my record shopping from my desk at work.

Local record shops are great because when I go digging there, I find the stuff I never realised I wanted.

[Mark_Spit]

Discogs is very convenient for finding specific stuff, but living in Ireland, postage is the killer. The best and worst thing about discogs is that I can do my record shopping from my desk at work.

Local record shops are great because when I go digging there, I find the stuff I never realised I wanted.

I found I did this on Discogs as well. Saw a title or name that sounded cool, checking it out on Youtube and liking it enough to add it to my cart.

Never sell my precious though, from my cold dead hands and all that.

Yeah, same here. I have records I barely play, yet still wouldn't let go of.

Ironically my local paper had an interesting article about our local record stores this week, unfortunately Play de Record wasn't mentioned.
http://www.torontosun.com/2017/03/05...and-well-in-to

[DTR]

We get almost all of our vinyl from discogs now, ever since our local independent closed down nearly ten years ago.