Mastering Online Vinyl Shopping: Tips for Discogs and eBay Success

You can use the digital search function at the top to explore tags, genres, and locations. This can be particularly useful if you’re aiming to purchase something from your local area, for instance.

As is typical with collectible items, Ebay can be a mixed bag for deals (and the occasional scam). It serves as an excellent platform for purchasing extremely rare or pricey items, or conversely, a plethora of budget-friendly records that may be worth the risk. Personally, I’ve had great success locating jazz records and albums from other less mainstream genres here, but if you’re in the market for something highly specific, you might find Discogs to be more effective for tracking market trends and identifying competitive prices.

Vinyl Me, Please operates a record-of-the-month subscription service that also allows you to buy single records. This service is appealing due to its limited edition pressings of well-known classics and contemporary records across various genres. The team behind it has a refined musical taste, ensuring you receive a record that’s likely to resonate with you. When purchasing singles, I appreciate these exclusive pressings, which make it unlikely that your friends already have that particular version in their collection, even if they own the original album.

Those who recall the era before streaming services are likely familiar with Tower Records, which is still operational! This record store is an excellent option for discovering upcoming vinyl releases and exploring pre-order options, as it serves as a major distributor for nearly every significant release available. Perhaps it’s just my nostalgia for the ’90s speaking, but browsing online at Tower Records is a pleasurable experience, allowing you to see the latest music trends and new releases hitting the market.