General vinyl talk here.

Moderators: lazyben, static14, texasvinyl

#107984
Is it common practice in negotiating a fairly high dollar LP with a seller on discogs the seller asks to complete the purchase outside of the discogs site to get around their fees? (and in my case pay with the "friends and family" option on paypal... to get around more fees)

The seller has great feedback and has been communicative so I'm not super worried but I was just curious if this happens regularly.
#107986
I'm sure you'll be ok with that seller DH, but I've never been asked by anyone on Discogs or eBay to conduct a private transaction on an offer or a bid after the fact. The only time I've ever done a personal "friends and payment" deal is at this place with two sellers that have been around here a lot of years.
#107988
All the time. As buyer and seller.

The friends and family thing you have to be careful with, it's basically wiring money. Once you hit "send" the transaction is final and can't be canceled. If the other person keeps your $$ there's nothing you can do.

So the 3% PayPal fee gets you buyer protection.

The 8% Discogs fee doesn't get you anything.
#107989
texasvinyl wrote:All the time. As buyer and seller.

The friends and family thing you have to be careful with, it's basically wiring money. Once you hit "send" the transaction is final and can't be canceled. If the other person keeps your $$ there's nothing you can do.

So the 3% PayPal fee gets you buyer protection.

The 8% Discogs fee doesn't get you anything.
This. I'd offer to split or pay the PayPal fee with the seller. Especially if I hadn't worked with them before. There are plenty of ways to propose that without being accusatory and putting the seller on the defensive.
#108017
So I don't use Paypal to directly send any one money that often but the last time I used it there wasn't a prompt to pick friends & family or business transaction. How do you select that now? I have the same fear using the friends and family section
#108032
Just to pile on to the discussion: this is common in a lot of collecting circles, but I usually prefer offering to pay the seller's paypal fees rather than send something friends and family to an unknown person.

@inksb - I believe it's just called "paying for an item or service" rather than "send money".
#108052
Offering to pay the paypal fees just to have some piece of mind is something I need to do in the future for sure. Thnka for the tips everyone.

Looks like the seller removed his listing for the LP on discogs, AKA, he's not intending to sell it to someone else which is good.
#108056
DigitalHiss wrote:Offering to pay the paypal fees just to have some piece of mind is something I need to do in the future for sure. Thnka for the tips everyone.

Looks like the seller removed his listing for the LP on discogs, AKA, he's not intending to sell it to someone else which is good.
Let us know how it goes!

Also...what didja get?
#108097
Mateo Sanboval wrote:
DigitalHiss wrote:Offering to pay the paypal fees just to have some piece of mind is something I need to do in the future for sure. Thnka for the tips everyone.

Looks like the seller removed his listing for the LP on discogs, AKA, he's not intending to sell it to someone else which is good.
Let us know how it goes!

Also...what didja get?
Mint copy of Doris Norton - Artificial Intelligence (1985). The press release for the album is included as well...the thing that pushed me over the edge to buy really. Like 99% of her stuff, it is coming in from Italy...

Mannequin records is supposedly re-releaseing this at some point, but for some reason I have the urge to get OG Norton pressings as well. They are on odd, small Italian labels so I'll probably never see any in the wild here in the US.
#108392
I received the LP today-looks good. (The press release is 10 pages long and looks really interesting...but it is all in Italian! I don't speak Italian! Still cool though.)

Lesson learned: offer to pay the paypal fee so there's some level of security.
#108398
DigitalHiss wrote:I received the LP today-looks good. (The press release is 10 pages long and looks really interesting...but it is all in Italian! I don't speak Italian! Still cool though.)

Lesson learned: offer to pay the paypal fee so there's some level of security.
Congrats! That's a win by any measure.