eBay and/or record buying horror stories?

[Homefromtheforest]

So a month ago I bought a supposed "M-" LP from a Japanese seller on discogs that claimed it had OBI and insert as well.  A few days ago it arrived in a piece of cardboard that had been folded together and taped up; like a used garbage dump piece of cardboard.  So hardly any corner or side protection at all.  Miraculously the record survived but upon opening it the album had no insert and no OBI and the vinyl was covered in marks and scratches.

This reminded me of the time around 15 years ago where an eBay seller sent me an LP wrapped in plain brown paper - no cardboard at all!  The record of course was in 3 pieces..thank goodness it was only a $5 Peter Nero LP that I bought because of Barre Phillips's presence.

Anyway I thought this would be a fun forum for people to share their record buying disasters or horror stories!

[spinlps]

Worst recent experience was an order from the Vintage Trouble site. The LP arrived in a large brown envelope with no cardboard support or even bubble wrap. Thankfully, the LP arrived intact!

[Homefromtheforest]

Well an envelope sounds slightly sturdier then regular brown paper ;)

[clifford_thornton]

I don't know where to start but things happen often.

The most terrifying - and miraculously the record arrived unscathed, jacket was fine, everything in great shape - was going to the post office to find that the Abdul-Hannan LP I'd bought was shipped in just a plain Priority Mail envelope. I guess the dude had 'never had a problem' but holy sh*t!

also Discogs is very nearly wild west in terms of grading and so forth, much like eBay was 15-18 years ago.

[JSngry]

What's this Peter Nero record with Barre Phillips? Was this an RCA MOR job, or what, exactly?

[Homefromtheforest]

I think it was on RCA if memory serves correctly; possibly called "on tour"?  Never did bother buying another copy..took the ugly experience as an omen perhaps ;)

I don't know where to start but things happen often.

The most terrifying - and miraculously the record arrived unscathed, jacket was fine, everything in great shape - was going to the post office to find that the Abdul-Hannan LP I'd bought was shipped in just a plain Priority Mail envelope. I guess the dude had 'never had a problem' but holy sh*t!

also Discogs is very nearly wild west in terms of grading and so forth, much like eBay was 15-18 years ago.

yikes!  I bet that Abdul Hannan record cost more then $5 too!

[clifford_thornton]

yeah, it did.

[Big Beat Steve]

Like others mentioned above, not all that rare. I don't buy records through the web that often anymore so my BAD experiences (usually eBay-related, and all of them involving shippings from the USA) all in all date about 10 to 15 years back. But still ...

1) Would you believe a 50s LP arrives safely overseas if it is put between two layers of crumbly polystyrene (each of them about 0.3 to 0.5in thick only) with no other protection (least of all cardboard) and just some tape around the edges? No? Well, it didn't. The corner of something else visibly dinged it at an angle so the record was cracked from the edge to almost the center hole.  Took me a while to find another affordable copy on eBay.

2) A case like the one mentioned by others where just the flimsiest of flimsy packaging was used - cracked again. Not a major record, just a "nice to have item" but anyway ...

WTF did these geeks do when common sense was distributed? Gaze into the great white open all day long??

3) Or that other case when - taking the plunge EVENTUALLY -  I DID bid on 78rpms on U.S. eBay and actually won 4 of them, and then after payment nothing happened. Inquiring ... complaining ... seller said sorry, am in the middle of some deep personal trouble but will sort it out alright at once - I swear and I promise, and so on. And within a couple of days around that very date he racked up a total of some 30 or 40 NEGATIVE feedbacks with extremely outspoken comments (apparently some US buyers were less patient). Pretty soon afterwards his account was barred but needless to say the goods NEVER arrived.

Personal shit can happen but this is no excuse. I remember a similar situation where I had won an auction for Vol. 5 of the Down  Beat Record Reviews (year)book (fans know how expensive and sought-after they are). Again, nothing happened, and then all of a sudden a mail came from a third pary saying sorry, my dad who had put these up for auction had died and now I cannot get the estate sorted out with all that heir business etc. O.K. so we'll wait .... sometime later still nothing happened and the promised update on the state of affairs did not happen so here I am asking again. Things went to and fro a couple of times, but eventually the book DID arrive and I thanked when leaving feedback. Though judging by the feedback from others even intra-US shipping had been very slow. Getting hung up in estate clearance matters about just some stack of old books if you're the only daughter and therefore just about directest relative to the deceased, though, I dunno ...

I won't mention all those cases where airmail shipping was promised (and paid for) but surface shipping was used and shipping therefore took ages because in the end the items all did arrive (apparently surface shipping ain't that bad - or wasn't then, service-wise). In these cases I never bothered to raise hell about a shipping cost refund because it was not worth the hassle to me (and in most cases did not even leave negative feedback either because in these days retaliatory feedback to the buyer still was something to be reckoned with on eBay) but yet I wonder if these were just attempts at cashing in fast on shipping or utter cluelessness as to the ways of the world outside the US ...

Edited August 27, 2015 by Big Beat Steve

[colinmce]

Though I don't really buy vinyl I often have the opposite problem with CDs-- they're packaged so thoroughly and tightly that you risk damaging them just trying to get the packaging off.  Recently I had a guy roll about 50 feet of packing tape around bubble wrap around the CDs.  I get wary using scissors and pulling runs the risk of bending digipacks or breaking jewels.  People need to relax.

[clifford_thornton]

Digipaks are really the bane of my existence these days. They easily wear on the corners, get gouged in the mail, and the trays come unglued or splinter. Barf.

[Homefromtheforest]

I've had the occasional LP with beyond excessive packaging.  Like layers upon layers of bubble wrap taped super tightly all around and then wrapped in plastic and then cardboard and then more taped plastic, etc.  Yes safe packing is crucial but when it takes you 30 mins to get to the actual record..well..

[clifford_thornton]

I don't mind quality packing, ever.

A friend of mine had some rare record delivered in a small, handmade wooden crate. Shipping cost was the same.

[Homefromtheforest]

Wow!

 

well it gets to a point where it's taped so tight that you worry about cutting the cover with a knife or bending the cover if you are using your hands to undo the tape..that's my only beef

[aparxa]

or getting yourself cut in the process...

 

[Big Beat Steve]

A sharp-edged cutter used with care (which can be done) works wonders there, both on excessive LP wrapping and on opening sealed CDs. And excessive wrapping certainly is preferable to ANY broken LP due to shoddy packaging.

As for CDs, what I find most annoying when it comes to their sealing are Italian CDs with those tax or mechanical copyright (?) stickers taped across the opening flaps of the jewel cases and leaving nasty glue marks very difficult to remove!

[jlhoots]

A sharp-edged cutter used with care (which can be done) works wonders there, both on excessive LP wrapping and on opening sealed CDs. And excessive wrapping certainly is preferable to ANY broken LP due to shoddy packaging.

As for CDs, what I find most annoying when it comes to their sealing are Italian CDs with those tax or mechanical copyright (?) stickers taped across the opening flaps of the jewel cases and leaving nasty glue marks very difficult to remove!

goo - gone

I hate cracked CD cases.

[erwbol]

The Italian stickers are small, but annoying. And what about those idiotic stickers Americans put along the top of all CD and DVD releases? The longer those have been on the harder they are to remove.

[mjazzg]

Package just arrived from US. Should've contained LP and CD but only the LP in it. Not surprising considering that the package was open and you can see where the tape has been sliced open across the width of the box (customs or postal service?). The LP only survived through luck as the poly sleeve was partially secured by tape inside the box. Otherwise empty box.

chalk this up to bad luck and reflect on how many international packages arrive complete and safe

And yes, I too hate those US CD closures. How don't they drive you all mad? 

[ombudsman]

My most painful casualty was about 15 years ago. A package coming from France with 3 records arrived in sort of a "U" shape with the outside dirty. My best guess is that it was on the ground over some sort of channel or on a curb and it was run over by a tire of a small forklift or something, and someone picked it up, looked at it, shrugged their shoulders, and threw it back in the outgoing mail. I lost a copy of "Violostries" by Bernard Parmegiani (musique concrete) in that package, which is still yet to be replaced.

I had a laughable overgrading incident recently with Yorklyn Records. A record listed as NM/VG++ had water damage on the cover with some missing art and disc so obviously trashed I wouldn't even risk my needle with it. And then the guy claims that he specifically, carefully checked it before putting it in the mail. I had some leverage since it was paid for by cc, eventually getting my money back minus 8 bucks of overpriced shipping for no rational reason.

I've been having pretty good luck with discogs. On ebay I tend to be wary of newer sellers; a lot of younger clueless people have gotten into the game in the last few years.

[Homefromtheforest]

Ouch!  And "violostries" is such a nice record too yet :(

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Well, I hate to say this, but I've NEVER experienced a problem buying a record by mail.

However, when buying an LP right there, live in the shop, in Harrow in 1969. I managed to acquire Al Casey's Swingville LP 'Buck jumpin' only to find, when I got back home to Brighton a few days later and played it, that the LP had a hairline crack right through. When I played it, I could hear sixty-six clicks per minute, worked out where it was and found it after close examination. After a few years, I got a tape recorder and taped it, because it was sounding more obvious by then, and just played that. And then a CD in due course.

It wasn't a lot of money, as I recall; I was on the dole then and couldn't afford big money and had visited Dobells earlier in the same trip. But it was... how the bleedin' 'ell could you do this to yourself, you cretin!!!!!!

But it's still one of my favourite albums ever.

MG