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Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Let's Talk About... Record Hunting: Shop Global, Support Local

Posted by Andrew R Tonry on Tue, May 17, 2011 at 12:58 AM

1discogs.jpg

Apparently we've got a sweet little online-music startup in our backyard. Who knew?

Discogs.com starts essentially as Wikipedia for albums. The crowd-sourced content has piled up to include over 1.9 million artists, 2.4 million albums that've been released on over two-hundred thousand labels. Vinyl re-pressings are also cataloged.

But what really makes Discogs.com worthwhile is the marketplace. It too is crowd-sourced. Think eBay, but if instead of auctions there is only "buy it now."

The marketplace has grown especially popular for overseas vinyl traders, as evindenced by the many prices that pop up in euros and pounds (which are quickly converted to dollars). To try it out I went searching for a few pieces of vinyl that I've had my eye on forever: Funkadelic's Maggot Brain and Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Vinyl copies were super-easy to track down—much faster than on eBay.

I also tried a few newer and local bands: Nurses and the now-defunct Hunches. There were two vinyl copies of Nurses' Apple's Acre, though they weren't good deals. A much smaller run, the Hunches' Exit Dreams was readily available and cheap. There were no copies of Exit Dreams on eBay, meanwhile. Discogs.com also had a copy of the rarer Home Alone 5 EP.

On a very quick, unscientific comparison, Discogs.com's prices came out to be about the same or slightly cheaper than eBay. I'm sure the potential deals vary, depending on what you're looking for. In my small sample-size, however, I found Discogs.com to have more copies readily available for sale. Plus there's no waiting for an auction to end or the pain in the ass of being out-bid by four cents at the last second.

The company is small—just seven employees and growing. Psyched to have them here in Portland—surely I'd rather support local business, even if I am buying globally. And god knows, if I've got any choice I surely don't want to pour any another damn dollar to a company put Meg Whitman on the map.... Anyway, onward, Discogs!

 

Comments (3) RSS

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1
Check out www.gemm.com . GEMM is a marketplace too and unlike Discogs they process and guarantee your payment independent of the sellers and their policies. They rate sellers based on the outcome of transactions. They monitor and remove dishonest sellers.
Posted by Amy Swiggett on May 17, 2011 at 9:06 AM · Report
2
Another Tonry post about a website, but without a link. Sharp.
Posted by Garbage Monster on May 17, 2011 at 3:23 PM · Report
3
Thanks for the post, Andrew!

Here is the url: www.Discogs.com

We are always monitoring for and removing any fraudulent users. The database and marketplace are growing each day, and the site is easy, fun, and safe for everyone. Check us out! - Discogs
Posted by Discogs on May 18, 2011 at 10:13 AM · Report

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