Reselling

Discogs vs eBay for Selling Vinyl: Fees, Rules & Profit

· 10 min read · By the Friends & Family team

Discogs charges 9% plus PayPal's fee and eBay charges 13.6%, but fees aren't the biggest difference for a flipper. Only one of them lets you sell a limited pressing before it ships.

16-bit pixel art of a splatter vinyl record, sealed records and a shipping box, with two glowing price tags comparing where to sell

If you're weighing Discogs vs eBay for selling vinyl, here's the short answer. Discogs is usually a little cheaper, and its sales history is the best price check for a specific pressing. eBay reaches a bigger general audience, with 136 million active buyers in the past year, and it's the only one of the two that lets you sell a record before it ships.

That opens up a simple split: sell on eBay while a limited pressing is still a pre-order, and use Discogs once copies are in hand. Still working out which records are worth flipping at all? Start with our guide to whether reselling vinyl is worth it.

Discogs vs eBay at a Glance

  • Selling fee: Discogs charges 9% on the item price and shipping. eBay charges 13.6% on the total sale (item, shipping and sales tax) up to $7,500, then 2.35% on the portion above that.
  • Per-order fee: eBay adds $0.30 on orders of $10 or less, or $0.40 above $10. Discogs has none, though its fee has a $0.10 minimum.
  • Listing cost: Discogs listings are free. eBay gives you 250 free listings a month, then charges $0.35 each.
  • Payment processing: On Discogs, PayPal's processing fee comes on top of the 9%. On eBay, there's no separate processing fee.
  • Fee cap: Discogs' fee maxes out at $150. eBay's has no cap.
  • Pre-orders: eBay allows them under its presale rules. Discogs doesn't, because the record has to be in your possession.
  • Pricing data: Discogs shows the last 30 sales on each release. eBay lets you search sold items and has a free Product Research tool.
  • Buyer protection: eBay's Money Back Guarantee covers 30 days after delivery. On Discogs, problems are worked out on the order page and can be escalated to the payment provider.

Fees change, so check both fee pages before you list.

Fees: What You Actually Keep on a $100 Record

Say you sell a sealed record for $100 and charge $6 shipping, so the buyer pays $106 before tax.

Discogs:

  • Selling fee: 9% of $106 = $9.54
  • PayPal processing at PayPal's published PayPal Checkout rate (3.49% + $0.49): about $4.19
  • Total: about $13.73. You keep about $92.27 before paying for postage.

If the buyer pays by card, PayPal's standard card rate is 2.99% + $0.49, which brings the total down to about $13.20. Discogs points sellers to PayPal's merchant fees page for these rates, so check what your own PayPal account is charged.

eBay:

  • Final value fee: 13.6% of $106 = $14.42
  • Per-order fee: $0.40
  • Total: $14.82. You keep about $91.18 before postage.

Sales tax nudges both totals up. eBay charges its percentage on sales tax too, and on Discogs, PayPal's fee comes out of the buyer's gross payment. With 8% tax on the order, the buyer pays $114.48, eBay's fees rise to about $15.97 and Discogs' to about $14.03.

So on a mid-priced record, the fee gap is only a dollar or two. It gets much wider on expensive records. The Discogs fee stops at $150, a cap you reach once item plus shipping hits $1,666.67. On a $2,000 sale before tax, you'd pay Discogs $150 and PayPal about $70, roughly $220 in all. eBay would take about $272.

A few more eBay fees worth knowing:

  • Sellers rated Below Standard pay an extra 6% of the sale in final value fees the following month, rising to 7% after four or more months in a row.
  • If your rate of "item not as described" return requests is rated Very High in a category, sales there carry an extra 5% the next month.
  • If you ship to a buyer outside the US without eBay International Shipping, there's a 1.65% international fee.

For the rest of the profit math, including your buy price, shipping and whether the flip is worth your time, see our beginner's guide to reselling.

Can You Sell Pre-Order Vinyl?

On eBay, yes. On Discogs, no. For resellers, this is the biggest Discogs vs eBay difference.

eBay allows presale listings as long as you:

  • Say it's a presale in both the title and the description.
  • Clearly state the date the item will be available to ship.
  • Guarantee shipping within 40 business days of purchase.
  • Set a handling time that includes the time it will take you to get the item.

In practice, 40 business days is about eight weeks. If the record won't reach you and ship back out within that window, it's too early to list it.

Discogs works the other way. Its Seller Policy says that by listing an item, you confirm it's currently in your possession and available to ship at the listed price. The exception is for sellers who use third-party distributors or fulfillment centers, and even they need every listed item to be part of a confirmed inventory. "Requires Stock Check" is a listing violation, and accepting payment for a record you can't fulfill is against the rules.

That matters because a hyped limited pressing can sell out and start reselling long before it ships. When we wrote up the GTA 6 limited-edition vinyl, it was already listing on eBay for nearly double retail, with two months to go before it ships.

One caution: only presell a record you're sure you'll receive. If the retailer cancels or delays your order, you're the one who has to answer to your buyer.

Price Off Sold Data, Not Asking Prices

Asking prices tell you what sellers hope for. Sold prices tell you what buyers pay.

On Discogs:

  • Sales history shows the last 30 prices a release sold for. The release page displays the lowest, median and highest of those 30 sales.
  • When you list, Discogs suggests a price based on the condition you select and recent sales in similar condition.
  • A listing priced far above sales history with no explanation can be removed as a "joke listing."

On eBay:

  • Search the record and check Sold items (it's one of the options in Advanced Search).
  • Use Product Research in Seller Hub. It's free and covers the last three years of eBay sales. It shows average sale price, the sold price range, average shipping cost and sell-through rate.

Check both, since each one only shows its own sales.

List the Exact Variant

On Discogs, different versions of an album are separate releases, grouped under a master release that works like a folder of variants. A version counts as separate if the artwork is different, or even if it looks the same but came from a different pressing plant.

You have to list on the exact release page, or the listing can be removed. Before you click Sell, make sure the copy in your hand exactly matches the database entry. Then price it off that release's own sales history.

On eBay, buyers find you through keywords, so put the details in the title: the color, the store it's exclusive to, the limited number and "sealed." Collectors pay for the exact version, so make it easy to find.

Grading Sealed and New Records

Discogs uses the Goldmine Standard. Mint means "certainly never been played, possibly even still sealed." Even then, Discogs says Mint should be used sparingly, if at all. Many dealers won't grade anything higher than Near Mint.

Being sealed doesn't make a cover perfect. A Near Mint LP cover should have no creases, folds or seam splits, so check the corners and seams through the shrink wrap before you pick a grade.

Condition moves the price a lot. Discogs says VG+ is generally worth 50% of the Near Mint value, and VG about 25%.

On eBay, describe corner dings and shrink tears plainly and photograph the actual copy. Under the Money Back Guarantee, a buyer can return an item that doesn't match the listing even if you don't offer returns, and too many of those returns raise your fees.

Shipping Vinyl Without Damage or Surprise Costs

  • Media Mail: USPS Media Mail covers sound recordings, including albums. It takes 2–8 days, starts at $4.39 at the Post Office and is subject to opening and inspection, so only ship qualifying media that way.
  • Packaging: Use stiff LP mailers with stiffeners. Damaged corners lead to returns.
  • Discogs ship times: State your ship time in your Seller Terms. If you don't, a buyer can request a cancellation if the order hasn't shipped within 4 calendar days of being marked Payment Received.
  • Build costs into shipping: Both platforms take their percentage on shipping too. Discogs doesn't let you add its fee or PayPal's fee to the buyer's total, and it says handling costs belong in your shipping price.

Buyer Protection and Returns

eBay's Money Back Guarantee covers items that don't arrive, arrive damaged or don't match the listing. Buyers have 30 days after the actual or estimated delivery date. You pay return shipping on not-as-described returns, while change-of-mind returns follow your own return policy.

Discogs doesn't mediate disputes over condition or shipping. You and the buyer sort it out on the order page, and if that fails, it can be escalated to the payment provider. Your Seller Terms need to say who pays return shipping. If they don't, you do.

For sealed limited editions, the risk to plan for is a condition dispute, so take clear photos of the corners and seams before you ship. Also keep in mind that a flip is only low-risk when the retailer you bought from accepts returns. Neither marketplace's buyer protection helps you if a record doesn't sell.

Which Should You Use?

Here's how the Discogs vs eBay decision usually shakes out:

  • A presale or a hyped sealed release: eBay. It's the only one of the two where you can sell before the record ships, and it reaches the bigger audience.
  • A niche, catalog or collector pressing: Discogs. Collectors search there for exact variants, and sales history supports your price.
  • A high-value record: Compare both. The Discogs fee stops at $150 once item plus shipping tops $1,666.67, while eBay keeps charging 13.6% up to $7,500.
  • A quick sale: Try a local record store or a collector group.

Listing on both? Delist on the other platform the moment one sells. Discogs requires every listing to be in stock and available at the listed price, and overselling a limited pressing leaves you refunding a buyer for a record you can't replace.

How FNF Members Decide Where to Sell

Our vinyl resell group helps you make this call. Every Vinyl Kings call comes with where to sell: Discogs for collectors, eBay for a bigger audience, or a local record store or collector group for a quick sale. Before a call goes up, the team checks what similar releases sold for on eBay and Discogs, how fast they sold and how committed the fan base is.

Vinch covers Magic and vinyl for us and collects records himself. He's one of 20+ expert staff who answer questions 1-on-1, so you can ask about a pressing before you buy.

One member vinyl flip: a Taylor Swift Toy Story Limited Vinyl x2, bought for $42.99 and sold for $200.

"Only cook group you will ever need. Always in the know of what is selling and the best when it comes to vinyls and card market. Been in since Jan 2020 and looking for another 5 years+" — YoHero, Whop review

Vinyl & CDs come with Friends and Family Complete: $17.50 a week after a 7-day free trial, billed through Whop. The plan also covers the rest of our reselling group. For more on flipping records, browse our vinyl guides and videos.

Sources

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