Some questions about Music market on eBay

[chicweb]

Hi Guys,

I hope you have a very great start of the year. From my part, sales are not going well, but my guess would be that the holidays cost a lot, people will soon be starting to buy more. (Maybe also, my market are not the best right now).

So, here's a quick questions.

We started listing some music CD. Now, I know, this market is over-saturated and in decline. I tried using the tracked shipping, but I'm not sure it will be possible domestically for those items. We will skip the bubble wrap on the case and only use the padded envelop. That should go through letter mail.

What are you thoughts about the CD music market? Is there specific genres that sells more? I'm thinking that maybe Jazz would still sell a lot? Wasn't there a bit of a come back from physical music media lately? People being tired/bored of only streaming music?

Next, we started adding some vinyl records. We have 850 vinyls we got from someone. They were stored in their garage. We are cleaning them, testing them, one by one. We are also trying to remove the smell from humidity...

Lot of fun. But, is the market for vinyl records is the same as CDs? I've heard they are coming back. For those items, I use tracking, because we send with vinyl records mailers.

Also, we take some time listing every defects we hear while listening. We undestood that collectors are very specific on what they want, so we prefer to be very careful and make sure everything is listed and shipped properly.

Basically my questions:

1. Your thoughts on the music CD/Vinyl Records market ?

2. Any ideas how to remove smells from vinyl records? We are using a closed container with a box of baking soda. Seems to work pretty well. Any other suggestions?

3. Oh, and why is there a mandatory fee for Auction in the Music section?

Thanks all 🙂

[chicweb]

Oh and sorry for my english mistakes here and there. Not my first language, as you could understand. 🙂

[mrdutch1001]

vinyl has been "making a comeback" supposedy for the past 20 years...and THAT (back in 2004-2014) was when I was selling MANY, MANY vinyl LP records...in recent years not so much...the eBay market is flooded with vinyl and many are being "dumped" cheap...

we Canadian sellers have NO economical shipping method for vinyl(USA has cheap "Media Mail" rates for vinyl).

I have been disposing of vinyl locally...

for me, eBay is no longer viable for anything vinyl, but for the rarest and/or hardest to find of vinyls in specific genres...

For myself vinyl "has had its day" and I am now down to the final few hundred from an original 11,000 vinyl LP records back in the late 1990's...

as to your specific questions: I never had to deal with "smells" in vinyl as I always bought and sold vinyl that was free of odours(never owned ANY vinyl that was in or came from such environments).

and I know nothing of a mandatory fee for items listed in the Music section- I list only on.CA and use my monthly free listings allotment(I do not have an eBay store)

[chicweb]

I saw their shipping rate.... 6$ for shipping a vinyl record domestically in the States... That's just CRAZY.

Also, the UK seem to have very very low shipping rates internationnally.... They are flooding the music CDs categories a lot with very cheap 6$ shipping too....

[mrdutch1001]

I also do not waste my time on any vinyl that  is less than Very Good+/Excellent condition...specifically anything that had more than minimal surface noise... anything with "pops"/"crackles",etc found itself donated to the nearest thrift shop...

[chicweb]

We will see how it goes. Right now, we have some records with some cracklings/pops but we put them aside for the moment. We only added one that we think might sell, still a good VG and we describe which songs have minimal noises.

We might even add "Good" conditions eventually, we will see. We don't really care if they sit there for a very long time. At the very least, we will make bundles or we will sell them with the Fair or Poor grades for crafting.

We are not really looking at fast sales. Even if it takes months, that's OK. I think the vinyl records category is way less crowded than the CDs tho.

[mrdutch1001]

Because I have been selling vinyl on eBay since 2004, I am no longer interested in waiting "months" or "years" for the rest of my vinyl to sell here on eBay...what doesn't sell in first 6 months of 2024, will gradually go to a local vinyl dealer.

[chicweb]

Understandable 🙂

We are new at selling, so we are still full of hopes and magics. LOL 😉

But I understand where you are coming from, of course.

[flipistics]

Definitely send CDs lettermail in Canada.  For lower priced ones (say $20 and under), I wrap them in a piece of 1/32" packing foam and put them in a bubble mailer. For more expensive ones, I'll sometimes use a Uline CD mailer and then put that in a bubble mailer.  Unless it's something rare, you're mostly going to be targeting the Non-US market.  Anything really common or lower priced should probably just be bundled.

[reallynicestamps]

but I'm not sure it will be possible domestically for those items.

Domestically you can use Letterpost PLUS Registration.

The price is the cost of shipping ($3.19 for up to 200grm) plus $9.75 for tracking plus the usual sales tax and fuel surcharge.

The shipment must be under 2cm thick to qualify.

Don't use Registration outside of Canada. It's not reliable, even to the USA.

We have an extension on the  USA Tracked Packet promotion that gives us a substantial (53% ?) reduction in cost until March.

Or you can buy discounted postage stamps here on eBay . You have to buy Registration at the counter anyway and the envelopes look pretty.  I couldn't possibly tell you where those discount postage stamps are available . *cough*

[reallynicestamps]

The US market is the largest in the world.

And we are competing there with domestic sellers.

But.

Shipping overseas is much more reasonable by Canada Post than by USPS .

And US sellers are notabley xenophobic and paranoid about selling overseas.

So.... have you considered selling to the European Union, UK, Japan , and Australasia?

Remember , if if the cost of shipping seems high, the buyer is paying it  not you, and the buyer can't find it in their own country or they would not be searching for it online.

About 6% of my sales are overseas, without trying, and I can't recall ever having an objection to the cost of shipping.

I probably could list on dotDE and dotFR, since I can read both languages. I have from time to time listed on and dotUK , dot IE , and dotAU.