Do you use Discogs for cataloging your collection? (RR)
waxjunky
1,849 Posts
I'm going through my collection and getting it all catalogued in Discogs. It's a bit daunting to tackle all that data entry, but it's also been cool to learn once and for all what pressings I have of certain records. I find the info to be pretty reliable.
Despite almost three decades of collecting, I only have about 1,000 titles to catalog. My collection has shrunk a bit over the years, especially since I've instilled a fairly strict $10 rule (if it's not worth at least $10, then i really don't have space for it on the shelf or in my house).
I'm trying to really curate everything down to a nice manageable collection. The thing that's compelling about Discogs is that it can calculate and track the total worth of one's records (at least relative to the Discogs marketplace).
There's quite a gap between the min/median/max prices. I'm assuming that since most of my vinyl is NM/VG+, my collection is probably worth about 75% of the max Discogs price.
Thoughts?
Despite almost three decades of collecting, I only have about 1,000 titles to catalog. My collection has shrunk a bit over the years, especially since I've instilled a fairly strict $10 rule (if it's not worth at least $10, then i really don't have space for it on the shelf or in my house).
I'm trying to really curate everything down to a nice manageable collection. The thing that's compelling about Discogs is that it can calculate and track the total worth of one's records (at least relative to the Discogs marketplace).
There's quite a gap between the min/median/max prices. I'm assuming that since most of my vinyl is NM/VG+, my collection is probably worth about 75% of the max Discogs price.
Thoughts?
Comments
The plan is that anything I can't be bothered to even record in discogs should probably be set free.
I lack the patience to properly catalogue the mintness of a lot of the cheaper stuff though and have also found myself falling into extremely dark holes when searching through fifty different pressings of a record for the right one.
It has a lot of flaws and is time-consuming, but it's still probably the best option out there and I appreciate what they are doing. I still need my own private data-base software, I think.
As a buyer, it's a bit of a pain that between eBay and Discogs, all casual sellers, and quite a few full-timers, assume that every one of their records should sell for whatever the absolute top price is on either site; they don't even average and it's almost regardless of condition nowadays. People assume top dollar for very pedestrian stuff due to these sites and the on-going "vinyl resurgence."
If anyone is interested, there is a recent interview with Discogs' CEO on "The Vinyl Guide with Nate Goyer" podcast that is worth a listen.
GJ
Joined on March 10, 2013
I started to use it to catalog my records, but as others have said it can be a daunting task indeedy, I have maybe 1/10th of my collection cataloged (if that) and with multiple variations of almost every album, it can be hard at times to pick the record/cd/cassette/flexi/vhs/dvd etc.... you have, at first I went and logged a bunch of my 2 Live Crew tapes/CD's/Albums but after blindly doing it I realized that I didn't track some of them properly and just guessed at what they were (Skyywalker Records vs Luke Records releases) and had to go back_pull the actual album check UPC's/labels/versions and such to make sure I was adding the correct versions of what I had. adding some things is easy as there may have only been 1 pressing or one version released, I couldn't imagine trying to add something like Fleetwood Mac's - Rumours or Led Zeppelin - IV with the MILLIONS of pressings they have listed over the decades.
over the last 2 or 3 years I have been adding new purchases that I pick up and wish i had something like Discogs back in the early 90's or late 80's before i really started collecting so i could've added things as i bought them, looking at stacks of records and thinking about sitting down and wasting hours of time adding them 1 by 1 doesn't seem fun, but i am going to a Record Fair here in Halifax tomorrow and adding the few records i buy seems easy right now (god only knows if i'll get all my collection added, but i doubt it)
i also like that it adds a dollar value to what you have as well so i can compare sealed vs unsealed records and VG or NM+ albums and know that my Jungle records are worth more than i thought they were and that some old hiphop albums aren't as rare as i thought they were, i browse Discogs a lot of the time just to learn new shit read more about bands/groups/crews and look into other members, when i find something new i like i can go and see if they have any other albums as well that my local record shop might not carry (i do wish that they still allowed bootlegs to be sold though, honestly - but meh!)
part of me also likes when i have something in my collection that isn't on Discogs and i get to add it - it lets other people know that there's more out there then what is showing just on the site. and the app is getting better as well, they recently changed the way you view your collection and i hate it, it takes a long time to load and shit is straight up discombobulated and hard to find records in your collection....but my understanding is they are working on it.
So most of my new purchases are in there.
As I use it purely for my own interests, Im not obsessive about having the right pressing entered.
This happens especially for common soul funk stuff where I have say the Australian pressing and it's not listed and I can't be bothered entering it.
I also look up prices for stuff so l ist things that I'm not that into anymore like a lot of UK Hip Hop that seems to go for money. This way I'm slowly cataloguing my whole collection. However, I can't see myself in a rush to do this. It's more a cathartic thing that i do when i have some free time. Which these days is not very often.
That being said, I'm wayyyy too lazy to enter my entire collection. It's something I will have to do in order to let my kids get a grip on what they are inheriting. I'm estimating by the time I'm 60, my collection will be worth over 100k (that's if they don't take a nose dive in worth like baseball cards.)
I added about 5k of my collection acouple of years ago, and the usefulness has been very valuable for me since. Beeing able to search through my own collection, from checking when I'm uncertain if a record is either on my wantlist or in my collection allready (yeah, age is messing up my recollection of records aquired 2 decades ago) to looking for different versions of songs or if musicians pop up on different records. Pressing wise I try my best to add the correct one, but when it comes to cheap records with 100+ pressings, I tend to not be too picky and just add the most common. It's also pretty cool that you can automagically add stuff you buy through discogs, so that helps a bit on the workload.
I started adding my collection about 6 years ago, so some of the records were not in the database. It took me a bit of time to add stuff, but one of the main problems were (and probably still is) how anal some of the dudes on there are. Almost beeing banned for making a mistake on the 20th addition for the day, small things like typos and missing info. I had some kind of thought that the database was work in progress, and like wikipedia, people would edit or make additions when they felt it was needed.
I do keep my collection private tho, because there can be a fair bit of weirdos contacting you about the more rare or local stuff.
What I feel is kind of missing from discogs is the community feel. They have their forums, but if they had only a tiny fraction of the comments, reviews. lists and ratings as youtube, it would've taken it to another level.
Their wantlist-system also could do with a makeover, adding some kind of rating or grouping system. I use it to tag all kinds of interesting stuff, so it's a fair bit of fillers I'd only buy for dirt cheap or just add to an order to save on shipping cost, but it ends up weighted the same as 10+ year top wants. I'd probably buy more and better records if they did, and I'm probably not the only one who stopped checking their new additions spam because of it.
Just my 2 cents.