USED RECORD GRADING- What's the Problems?


There seem to be many disconnects and bad experiences between sellers and buyers. Would the secondary market benefit from a new, and revised, grading system (beyond the Goldmine standard) that combines a visual-grade and a play-grade? Also, would it help to have grade tiers that are more granular like is used for coin and stamp grading? Or will this market have to rely on trust in the seller? Let me know your experiences and thoughts. 
voiceofvinyl

Showing 1 response by whart

Good luck w/ that. Even play grading is subjective. In some cases, I'd prefer that the seller not play it or purport to clean it. Just spin it to tell me whether it is warped. I had one seller tell me when i asked about warps: "You'd have to be an idiot to sell warped vinyl"
Guess what? 
I try to do the due diligence before I press buy- i have a dialogue with the seller thru the messaging system if a platform or via email if a store. The responses are often telling. 
I consider myself lucky. I've had some misgraded records but overall, I've come out OK on balance. I also do a serious cleaning when they arrive or at least before they get played. And sometimes re-clean, which can help remove grunge that sounds like groove damage. Sometimes it is groove damage.