I just received a message from Discogs that they will be forcing sellers to list their shipping policies (i.e. set shipping prices per item, or weight etc). "Shipping Policies will be a requirement for all your listings in the marketplace by October 1, 2020."
This is a bad idea for individuals like myself who are selling only a handful of items, shipping costs vary greatly depending on the actual package weight and destination, as well as the shipping method chosen. Discogs seems to want to be like eBay with strictly enforced shipping policies, no flexibility. I've been using eBay for years but have lamented every change that was made to all their policies, ideally they should just but out and leave the shipping as a matter between the seller and the purchaser. As a result I have yet to bother to list anything for sale on Flee Bay.
Comments about Discogs shipping policy changes seem to have been all negative so far, many sellers will stop selling if this goes through. There are rumours that Discogs is to be sold, it's about corporate greed rather than about the music. Discogs built their site for free with data contributions from users and sellers like us. I appreciate the information gleaned from the Discogs site but it was put there by ordinary people like us. As Discogs wants your sale listings to be the exact version listed (it's their way to build a comprehensive data base for free) if it's not there you have to add it. I've spent hours adding information to help build the site and just to be able to sell an item that wasn't previously in the data base. I have many more items to list but will not bother until this thing is resolved.
I miss the simplicity of the old GEMM site, you just had to list the Artist, Title, Format, Country, catalogue number, condition and price., all text based, not fancy enough now days I guess.
This is a bad idea for individuals like myself who are selling only a handful of items, shipping costs vary greatly depending on the actual package weight and destination, as well as the shipping method chosen. Discogs seems to want to be like eBay with strictly enforced shipping policies, no flexibility. I've been using eBay for years but have lamented every change that was made to all their policies, ideally they should just but out and leave the shipping as a matter between the seller and the purchaser. As a result I have yet to bother to list anything for sale on Flee Bay.
Comments about Discogs shipping policy changes seem to have been all negative so far, many sellers will stop selling if this goes through. There are rumours that Discogs is to be sold, it's about corporate greed rather than about the music. Discogs built their site for free with data contributions from users and sellers like us. I appreciate the information gleaned from the Discogs site but it was put there by ordinary people like us. As Discogs wants your sale listings to be the exact version listed (it's their way to build a comprehensive data base for free) if it's not there you have to add it. I've spent hours adding information to help build the site and just to be able to sell an item that wasn't previously in the data base. I have many more items to list but will not bother until this thing is resolved.
I miss the simplicity of the old GEMM site, you just had to list the Artist, Title, Format, Country, catalogue number, condition and price., all text based, not fancy enough now days I guess.