Guidelines for selecting and  buying records online
A short guide on choosing the best vinyl records to win or buy on Ebay

The great thing about getting records at Ebay, is that you will always be able to find the record you are looking for and at the right price. Unlike a record store where you can physically examine and listen to a record, at online shops you will need to do with the description and scans/photos provided by the sellers.

This guide is intended to help you to assess the condition of an LP album or record based on the descriptions and scans provided by the sellers.
(Searching and finding a record is a different topic which I will address in a future article)


First impression of the listing:
- What is your first impression of the seller's listing? Does the listing look professional, does it have all the information you are looking for.
- Is the item's listing a description of the record being sold, or is the seller trying to explain the payment and shipping conditions.

How to examine the record's listing
- Look at the photos or scans of the album cover: How does the album cover look like: does the album cover have ring-wear, seam-wear, does it have stickers or writing on it.
- Try to get a close look at the record's spindle hole. Signs of wear near the spindle hole, may indicate that the record has been played very often and perhaps not treated very careful
Grading/conditioning section
How serious does the grading/conditiong section look like. It is insufficient to grade a record using only codes like NM or VG+. The seller must give more detail why a record or cover was rated at VG+


Examination of the photos
- Is the scan/photo used by the seller a photo of the actual record or is this the photo of a stock item.
- How is the quality of the photo, is the photo bright enough to see sufficient detail on the cover, or is it too dark to see anything? Are the images sharp or are they fuzzy or blurred.


Ask the seller for information
Dont hesitate to ask the seller any questions about the album or record. Seller's are happy to answer these, and if they dont I am sure you will find a seller with the same record

Seller Feedback
You a seller's recent feedback to find out: seller's reliability at grading and describing a record, the shipping speed.