@nuclearomen wrote:
tyler@ebay brian@ebay brittanie@ebay
On the other subject of Item Specifics for Music > Records category, as an expert in vinyl (my knowledge on the format is extensive is what I mean, I’ve been dealing vinyl over 25 years now, I’ve manufactured it, released it, distributed it for 25 years, did label / distro + I also did many art works and layouts for the format over the years for bands and labels).
The item specifics for Music > Records category that ebay made are ridiculous. But let me explain why, not just saying they are ridiculous just to do so or because I had to update tons of listings, the points I make here are justifiable and valid!
Ebay changed the REQUIRED specifics and added Required + ADDITONAL specifics. OK, but the new fields under REQUIRED are not only dumb they have either no business being the specifics at all or should not be in the REQUIRED and/or they repeat twice and then again in additional fields. Half of the ADDITIONAL specifics SHOULD be in the REQUIRED and some of the REQUIRED should be eliminated altogether and/or in the ADDITIONAL. Let me explain: In the REQUIRED now states that fields of MATERIAL, INLAY CONDITION, CASE TYPE, and TYPE are required, all new specifics ebay made and placed in REQUIRED.
MATERIAL: this should be ELIMINATED completely. The options ebay gives are just silly, there is no way to actually know the exact compounds and resins vinyl manufacturer used to make the make the vinyl and the options of PVC, Shellac, Victrolac, Vinyl are the dumbest things I’ve ever seen! This will not only lead to confusing to sellers, it will indeed confuse buyers, there is no reason this option should have been created, no one searches for this through ebay search, no one asks this of vinyl purchase, most 99.9% of people don’t even understand that and how vinyl is made from resin compounds and the resins used vary greatly between time periods of the formats existence, type of vinyl being made, color and process a vinyls needs to go through and determine the resins used, opaque or not, if the vinyl has high fidelity mastering and if the vinyl was made from traditional glass master or used newer technology called DMM (Direct Metal Mastering – it’s a newer process around about 20 year now, it’s the same process used to make traditional glass master but the process is reversed and it’s done on metal plates instead of glass, the result is superior sound quality but a lot extra to be done, generally between $300-$500 extra to have DMM the master being supplied for duplication also has to be sound mastered for DMM).
CASE TYPE: Should be eliminated or at least moved to ADDITIONAL section. 90% of vinyl is made with a cardboard jacket, be it single record jacket, gatefold (deluxe) jacket, tri-fold jacket etc… it’s always cardboard 90% of the time. The other options vinyl manufactures offer are CASEWRAPPED – this is cardboard, but it’s wrapped in material, that material can be extensive, from cloth bound to leather and faux leather, to felts, so on and so forth. The next is HARDBOUND jacket, this is same as hardcover book, option that is not used often but is done, awfully expensive. The last is DIGIPACK jacket – ultra rare and usually never done, again, awfully expensive, usually only done for the format of CD’s where the cost is much less. The options ebay supplies here are relevant to vinyl for packaging, but they shouldn’t be REQURIED but rather ADDITIONAL. Other vinyl’s (usually very, very cheap productions) are made with a Paper Sleeve these days, much more relevant with old vinyl or old 45’s that were made/distributed for juke boxes and then obtained by collectors later. 7” EP’s were the most common to have Paper Sleeve, especially older 45’s (big center hole) and even still used today for 7” but most labels take more pride in the what they release and have a single cardboard jacket made these days or even gatefold.
INLAY CONDITION: again, shouldn’t be REQUIRED but ADDITIONAL specification. Also here ebay needs to change the options provided they are not only flawed but do not allow seller to enter custom condition, something that should ALWAYS be able to do. Ebay supplied options on Mint to the grade of Worn, but the second option supplied after Mint is stated incorrectly, it’s listed as NEAR MINT (NM or M-) no such grade!! The grade is supposed to be (M – NM) not (NM – M-) – lol… who ever made these obviously doesn’t know what they are doing or talking about! Also, the option missing that needs to be added is the option of NEW – why? Because grades should only be used to represent pre-owned vinyl. Many sellers like myself, only sell NEW vinyl, meaning unused/unplayed = NEW, this is also true for the fields of Sleeve and Record Grading, those options should also always include the option of NEW – ALL my listings for vinyl have NEW and only NEW – we do not grade new unused/unplayed vinyl – only pre-owned vinyl and vinyl that contain jackets where damaged occurred during shipping (i.e. dented corners / creases / tears to the jacket – Vinyl itself is Mint/NM) – in all truth NO vinyl should ever receive the grade of MINT state – this is grade reserved for the most extreme cases where most expects will never rate vinyls as Mint state because there is always some flaw, be it most miniscule you could think of and not even noticeable by most. Most people rate NM – M
TYPE: Needs to be eliminated altogether, because it’s already stated under the field of Duration, it’s the same thing as Type, if a Duration is LP or Double LP or EP, etc… then the type is the same.
FORMAT: NEEDS to be required of course, but the fields need to be expanded and/or allow CUSTOM input, because there are things not listed like SHAPPED VINYL or VINYL FLEXI’s as an example.
ADDITONAL specifics that SHOULD be REQUIRED specifics:
Record Size: Options in this field should also be expanded or allow seller to enter CUSTOM. It has most common sizes supplied but it’s still missing some oddity sizing such as 8” and 9”, 13” and 15” vinyl (yes, they exists, odd and rare, but none the less).
Speed: RPM: (pretty obvious)
Style: Required has Genre, but Style is just as important as Genre, especially for Metal where tons of style (sub-genres) exist.
Edition: (pretty obvious again)
Language (obviously)
Features: (obviously, go hand in hand with Edition)
ADDITIONAL requirements that SHOULD be removed altogether:
Catalog Number (not needed when your listing edition, releasing label, year, etc…)
Color: it’s stated usually in the listing title and the description, I always photograph the actual vinyl (see my listings) but many sellers use stock photo of the album cover only and no specifics or description…so I understand why ebay placed it though.
MPN: Manufactures Part Number, this should be REMOVED because there is no source or database that records MPN’s. They were instituted for the vinyl manufactures to be able to catalog the master plates and if there was issue with the pressing and masters need to be remade. Only people who have these numbers recorded are the manufactures and the labels who order the pressings – where that number isn’t even needed, only the labels catalog number and original order numbers are needed to repress vinyl from the same master. The series of numbers and letters etched on a vinyls center around the label means many different things, they tell what manufacturer pressed the vinyl to the engineer who cut the master…all of which is great blank aera in the industry for non-information available. Some experts know where a vinyl was pressed based off the number but these numbers were never recorded and change often and are very hard to trace in many cases.
Fidelity Level: This needs to be REMOVED completely. Most sellers won’t even known the correct answer and in turn will leave confusion with buyers, opening sellers up to INAD claims.
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Edit: A reply to your comments can be found here
I'd like to add, most 45s don't have an "Album Name" which is a new Required Field. However, some 45s mention on the label the name of the Album they come from, but most are just A&B Song Titles. So this field could be very confusing.
I think it's very redundant to fill this field in when it's already a part of your Listing Title and most likely you Item Description body.
