Discourse on Grading Vinyl...why sellers need to Play Grade!!!

@voodoofunk

Good original post.  I have spent the last couple of years going through my record collection which consists of LPs I purchased and records collected over the last seventy years by my father and other family members which they handed over because they were getting out of vinyl.  The first pass was a general screen of physical condition, program, and recording/pressing quality. I cleaned anything that looked at all sketchy, and sold to Easy Street or gave to Goodwill over 100 albums that I knew I would never play again.

My second pass through the consolidated collection I have been cleaning, listening to, grading, and cataloging on Discogs every record I have.  During this careful evaluation I have experienced many cases where the visual inspection of a cleaned record doesn’t match the the sound quality I am hearing through the speakers, sounding either better or worse than I would have guessed or rated based visuals alone.  So, 100% to your original point.  Discogs’ grading system references sound quality as well as visual condition in their grading guidelines, and I try to pick the lowest grade for appearance or sound quality when assigning a rating to my records.  

This has been a labor of love for me involving several hundred hours for a heavily curated collection. For a professional record trader/dealer, I think it would not be possible to do this for every disk they handle - I just don’t.  For any used title that they are selling for say >$150 I would hope that they would play it first (aka as Better Records claims to do).  But for standard used fair which is now going for $10-$20, I don’t see it.  If you are buying out of someone’s private collection, I would expect that they have listened to it and are grading accordingly.

Easy Street, my neighborhood record store, has had turntables on hand that they will let you use to listen to used disks before you buy, and I have found some spectacular sounding records that way.  For mail order, no can do.  You pays yer money and takes yer chances.

kn

Is there a list of known reputable online record dealers? I mean reputable in the sense that their business practices are fully vetted.

It seems to me this industry badly needs an operator certification, possibly awarded by a non-profit with a board of reputable audiophiles. A standard of practice relating to method of grading, cleaning, customer service and more could be developed, where dealers or individuals could apply for the certification and enthusiasts could buy with confidence.

Does this line of thinking make sense to anyone else?

Result might be to remove bad actors from the scene, bring confidence to the marketplace, provide a place for widows (estate attorneys) to turn in time of need.

I would be honored to participate in some way, though my qualifications fail me on most levels. If only I were Tracking Angle, then this might happen. Are you here Michael Fremer?

I avoid buying strictly visually-inspected albums on Discogs since I have found sellers who listen to their entire catalogue and grade accordingly. My go-to sellers both vacuum clean and then do a listening inspection to everything they sell.  It took me a few years to find them, but these sellers exist and I'm happy they do.

I have been buying records for better than 60 years. Both lines of thought are mostly correct. The experiences expressed are valid. The one I find absent is that you can purchase a brand new shrink wrapped album that has one or more of the defects listed. Records are an imperfect medium. Buy only from merchants with a solid return policy. I have a satisfaction guaranteed or a money back return policy. Yes, you will pay less than $5 for shipping costs. My eBay account has zero negative feedback. Sold over 1000 records from my personal collection and have about 3000 to go. I visually grade, but if a potential buyer requests a play grade I will oblige.  I've been at it several years and hope I live long enough to be able to liquidate the more rare and "collectable" titles. My wife and daughters will not be able to sell them even though I'm attempting to teach them how. The used market contains many titles that newer collectors would only be able to find pre-owned. The newer reissues have a digital step somewhere unless they state an all analog (AAA) pressing. 60's and 70's pressings are the best. Digital copies started appearing in the mid 80's. Mobile Fidelity even started a digital step around 2010 or 2011 (to the best information I can find). Happy collecting all!

Visual grading via the Goldmine scale has been the accepted standard for decades and this will not change. Play-grading is impractical for both seller and buyer. Sellers don’t have the time unless they can charge you a premium (see Better Records) and many buyers, like me, do not want the seller to play the records they are buying because of the risk of damage due to a misaligned cartridge played on a dirty record. I use a vacuum RCM and a US machine on used records before playing a used LP and only occasionally is there damage not revealed in a visual inspection. Sometimes you have to return a damaged disc, if the sale price warrants, or if not, just toss it. This is all part of the adventure! If you don’t like it, buy new or get another hobby!