Where to sell vinyl records: Discogs, eBay or a local shop
Updated August 2026 · 7 min read
Every option here trades money against time, and the right answer is usually more than one of them. We do not buy records, so the comparison below has nothing to sell you — it is the arithmetic as it actually works out.
- Records over about $30 repay listing individually. Below that the money is real but the hourly rate is not.
- A shop pays 25–40% of retail in cash and more in credit — fair for bulk, poor for your best few.
- eBay reaches further and charges more; its advantage is bidding on genuinely rare records.
- Know the value before any conversation. That is the whole difference in the offer you get.
The five options, compared
Fees change and differ by country, category and account — the eBay figure is the standard US rate without a Store subscription, charged on the whole order including shipping and tax, up to $7,500 of it, with the fixed part dropping to $0.30 on orders of $10 or less. Check the current rate before you count on it. Note also that eBay’s final value fee already includes payment processing, while Discogs charges the seller fee and the processing separately — the two headline numbers are not comparing the same thing.
| Where | What you get | What it costs | How fast | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discogs | Closest to market | ~9% seller fee + payment processing | Weeks to months | Anything over about $30 |
| eBay | Market, sometimes above | ~13.6% of the order + $0.40, processing included | Days to weeks | Rare records where bidding helps |
| Local record shop | 25–40% of retail, cash | No fees, no shipping | Same day | The ordinary majority of a collection |
| Shop credit | 35–50% of retail | Only spendable there | Same day | If you buy records anyway |
| Consignment | 50–60% after it sells | The shop's cut, and the wait | Months | Good records, no rush |
Discogs: the collector market
Discogs is a database first and a marketplace second, and that is exactly why it pays well: every listing is attached to a specific release, so a 1977 first press is not competing with a 2011 reissue of the same album. Buyers there read matrix numbers and pay the difference.
The cost is patience and admin. You grade, photograph, list, pack and post each record yourself, and a fair-priced listing can sit for months before the right person finds it. That is fine for twenty good records and unbearable for four hundred ordinary ones.
eBay: reach and auctions
eBay puts your record in front of far more people, including people who are not record collectors — which cuts both ways. On a common album that means nothing, because the buyer pool for a common album is already saturated. On a genuinely scarce record it can mean two determined bidders and a price no fixed listing would have reached.
Grading culture is looser than on Discogs, so descriptions carry more weight: photograph the runout, the label and any defect, and write what you actually heard.
Whichever platform you use, look at completed sales, not active listings. Anyone can ask any price; only sold items tell you what the record is worth.
A local shop: speed, at a price
A shop hands you cash today and takes on everything else: the storage, the pricing, the months of waiting, the records that never sell. That is a real service and the discount is a real price for it — commonly a quarter to two fifths of what they expect to charge, with store credit paying better than cash because it comes back to them.
It becomes a bad deal in exactly one situation: when the pile contains a record worth several hundred dollars and the offer is made on the pile. Shops are not obliged to point that out, and the good ones often do — but the responsibility for knowing is yours.
Before you carry a crate anywhere, photograph the labels. The app names each pressing and shows what that pressing sells for, so the offer you hear has something to be compared against.
Open in the App StoreFree to try, iPhone, no account.The split that actually works
For almost every collection the answer is a split rather than a channel. Sell the top slice — the records worth more than about thirty dollars each — individually on Discogs, where the pressing is understood and the fee is lowest. Move everything else in one go to a shop or a bulk buyer.
The threshold is about your time, not about the money being equal. A $20 record still nets more online than a shop pays for it, even after fees — but that difference has to cover the listing, the mailer, the postage and the occasional return, and it works out to an hourly rate most people would not accept for any other job. Listing a record takes the same few minutes whatever it is worth, so the effort is constant while the return is not.
What to keep out of the bulk pile
Anything on a label you do not recognise, anything sealed, anything with an obi strip or an insert still inside, first pressings of records that mattered, and anything the app flags with a range that surprises you. Those are the records that pay for the afternoon.
Common questions
Is Discogs or eBay better for selling records?
Discogs for anything where the pressing matters: the buyers there know what a matrix number is and pay for the right edition. eBay for records where competition drives the price — a genuinely rare item can go higher at auction than any fixed price you would have set. Fees are lower on Discogs, reach is wider on eBay.
How much do record stores pay?
Commonly 25 to 40 percent of what they intend to sell the record for, in cash, and more in store credit. In-demand titles they know will move can reach 50 to 60 percent. That spread is the shop's margin for storing, pricing and waiting for a buyer.
Is it worth shipping records myself?
It depends on what your time is worth, not on the maths alone. Selling a $20 record online does net more than a shop pays for it, even after fees — but it costs you the listing, the mailer, the trip to the post office and the chance of a return. Around thirty dollars is where most people find that trade starts being worth making; below it, the hourly rate gets thin fast.
Should I sell the collection as one lot?
Only after you have looked through it. A single price for everything is priced on the average, which means the few good records subsidise the rest. Pull those out first, then sell the remainder as a lot with a clear conscience.
Do I need to grade records before listing them?
Yes, and honestly. Grading is the entire basis of trust on both platforms, and a generous grade comes back as a return — which costs you the sale, the shipping both ways and the feedback.