I'm through with Gemm
sabadabada
5,966 Posts
Its one thing to say an LP is "excellent" when its really "very good," and I would consider "very good" to be just that; not perfect, but clean and clear with perhaps a pop here and there or some light noise on one or two tracks or in between tracks. But how can somebody, in good conscience, call an LP "mint" that has obvious visual defects - like a big scuff across one side - and plays with constant noise (like it needs a good cleaning). Mint, they called it mint, and to me "mint" means clean and shiney like a new coin. (mint = just minted). I also was looking at records from another dealer on Gemm, and when you go to his grading page, he grades "sealed," "mint," "excellent," "very good" - with very good being the lowest grade he gives and equals visualy and audibly crapped out "scratches, background noise, skips." So I could contact the seller and complain, maybe get my money back, have to send him the record back and stand in line at the post office, but I really dont have the time or the patience for that. So fuck it. I'm done with Gemm.
Comments
B.glad you are unhappy, too bad your still breathing
I'll just go ahead and call your bullshit now, since I'll be leaving early today.
This will have me laughing for the rest of the afternoon.
thats not true, Superflyrecords "VG" is almost always excellent after a good cleaning. And guys like Allan Bastos, Plainmusic, and JandL always have good grading. Plus the fact that Gemm/Mara is charging 1 1/2 price or more for LPs you would think they would at least get the quality right.
Plus, I'm saying this was an LP graded as "mint" that turned out to be a "good" I understand that when you get into VG and VG+++ minds can differ, but mint is mint.
gotta agree on Superfly, I even buy VG- from that dude without reservation. I have bought dozens of records from him with no problems...
Sorry man but I have gotten seriously wrecked records from these dudes under the grades of "EX" and "VG++++"
Yeah, of course, there are online sellers who come correct,
grade conservative, etc - but to expect a random seller to
grade a clean record as "VG" is wishful thinking if you do
any kind of internet buying. Hell, "VG+" is suspect in my
experience. I try to only buy above "VG+" unless I'm desperate.
Im surprised at that. I cant remember getting a poorly graded record from him, however his prices are high, and I know he was selling bootlegged copies of
cause I bought one and could tell from the way the cover was printed and I told him I would keep it at 1/3 price becuase it was a good bootleg and he fessed up with some story about how the records were real but the covers were all damaged so he had them remade or some other bullshit. But every few weeks he would have new copies of the same three or four records for sale, this being one of them.
Of course, like most Brazilian dealers, the excuse was "you cannot find these records clean in Brazil anymore! They PLAY excellent!" which, if it's true, is fine by me - as long as the grading and pricing reflects that reality.
thats what im saying. there are like three dealers I will buy from based on a very good +++ or excellent grading. But i thought i would take a chance on a "mint" grading from someone else. And I'm saying that 'Mint" is "mint" end of story. No "mint +++" or "very mint".
bonfa/deodato OST "Gentle Rain" its not even a brazilian pressing and came from a stateside dealer.
heres a nice youtube clip of the opening credits and title track i posted last week.
Tell that to Mylatency!
Agreed (and I would think most folks would agree with this as well).
Yeah, of course - in fact, we had a discussion on here not too
long ago where I pointed out that sellers who use "Mint" make
me nervous, because rarely is anything "MINT" and if a seller
looks at a record and sees NOTHING wrong with it, then they most
likely just don't know how to grade at all. NM makes me more
comfortable than MINT. Anyway, yes, you were right to expect an
extremely clean record if it was graded Mint. The whole VG debate
was an offshoot of something you said early in the thread.
Mint
Near Mint
Mint-
1. Mint
2. Mint-
3. Near Mint
this is a trick question isn't it?
Can I point out that gemm is not a seller and gemm does no grading. If someone sold you misgraded records then cross that seller off your list not the web site he advertised on.
I once had to try to return records that were completely trashed to a seller. When I took a closer look at her grading system it was like this:
N+ (New Plus)
N
N-
M+
M
M-
NM+
NM
NM-
EX+....
That was way back in the Goldmine days.
More resently I've seen this grading system
M then graded 1-10 such as M (7) Meaning it wasn't as mint as a mint 8 but minter than a mint 6
Then the same 1-10 then is used for NM, EX, VG...
The Papudinho isn't a real bootleg, because the records (vinyl) are original.
Two sellers I know met Papudinho's wife and bought from her about 80 coverless copies of
the record that still were in the record company cardboard boxes.
These sellers paid for someone to print new covers; this is why they look shady.
And the sellers let everybody, who was interested in buying the Papudinho's album, know
that the cover was not OG.
Peace
Never used Gemm.
Possibly
Absolutely not.
Can't remember what record is the one you want.
Is it the one with the white cover or the psychedelic cover?
Peace
Absolutely not.
I'm talking about the sellers who bought the coverless records and made the fake covers,
and not about the seller who sold it to you.
Peace