Record Scratch on "Mint" vinyl

[shamrocks]

10 hours ago, V3XED said:

Also the reason I ask about how it would be currently graded is I like to keep my discoggs catalouge up to date and as descriptive as possible. And who knows, far down the road I could resell.

You should inspect this record at the time you list it then, shouldnt you? Plenty of listings are like "visual VG+, plays like M-" or something like that. Buyers appreciate that detail.

 

Also, I only list as mint if its sealed or I have visually inspected an unplayed record (I believe it can still be mint) but I almost always list conservatively. I got burned once with listing a lathe cut as "Mint" because i had never taken it out of the sleeve. You can imagine how that went down

[Shelby]

56 minutes ago, shamrocks said:

You should inspect this record at the time you list it then, shouldnt you? Plenty of listings are like "visual VG+, plays like M-" or something like that. Buyers appreciate that detail.

 

Also, I only list as mint if its sealed or I have visually inspected an unplayed record (I believe it can still be mint) but I almost always list conservatively. I got burned once with listing a lathe cut as "Mint" because i had never taken it out of the sleeve. You can imagine how that went down

Oh man that sounds terrible (in regards to the lathe situation) I can only imagine what they thought they were getting.

[Oblivions]

98% of lathes I get skip or have gunk in the grooves or are so dangerously shaped and have such a dangerously small lead in area that I wouldn't dare place the needle down on them. 'Bonus 8" die cut lathe' quickly stopped being a preorder perk for me after I almost decapitated my cantilever on a tear drop shaped one.

[shamrocks]

1 hour ago, ✦ S U N S H I N E ✦ 日 光 ♡♡ said:

Oh man that sounds terrible (in regards to the lathe situation) I can only imagine what they thought they were getting.

well it was a bit hard to write the whole "i mean lathe cuts are literally made of paper plates" email but live and learn i suppose

[dobyblue]

On 8/23/2018 at 11:23 AM, swb said:

The short answer is that Mint means everything (audio, surface appearance, etc) is absolutely perfect, so, if everything isn't absolutely perfect, it is not Mint.

The longer answer is that Mint means everything (audio, surface appearance, etc) is absolutely perfect, so, if everything isn't absolutely perfect, it is not Mint.  All joking aside, no one can really argue whether a record with visible scratches is or isn't Mint, because it's clearly not. What they can do is rope you into a sub-argument about whether it matters, whether it means you only care about looks and aren't an actual music fan, etc etc. 

IMO, when people use Mint, they are using an unofficial abstraction of the grade that basically means "NEW" or "Hey, this looks practically new, gimme a break over here!" and they do it because they want to sell their record quick and for as much as they can get for it. There are also some sellers who might be genuinely naive to the standard grading definitions or who have developed their own grading system pre-internet and everything above VG is Mint to them, etc.

If I'm selling a record, whether it's brand new or only played once or 100 years old, and it plays with no surface noise but has visible scuffing, it is VG+. I'm not a huge bulk seller but I sell a fair amount of records and I've had no trouble moving VG+ graded records that are priced well. I've never had anyone contact me to say I overgraded a VG+ record but I have had people (nicely but incorrectly) tell me the record was way better condition than VG+. Someone left a review once that said "LP was better than Mint!" which seems impossible but was a nice feedback comment. 

I sort of agree with the opening line in that you can use "SS" (Still Sealed) instead of Mint for a record that's still sealed, because then you can't verify the surface condition of the record or play-grade it. Without a "SS" grading you'd have to list most records from United Record Pressing in Nashville as "PLONF-POF-SCOPTM" (Possibly Loads of Non-fill, Possibly Off-centred, slim chance of playing to mint)

lol