How does the site work? Venerable Music will run monthly static auctions from many individual sellers. As with traditional mail auctions, all items from all sellers will be listed at midnight (EST) on the 16th of each month & will close at midnight (EST) on the 15th of the following month. Prospective buyers will log on to the site and have the ability to add interesting items to a customer bidsheet. At any time during the month, the prospective buyer will be able to place a bid on any item for the exact amount they would like to pay (as long as it is over the sellers minimum bid price). After submitting the bid, the prospective buyer will be able to check the bidsheet to see if their bid is currently the high bid (Yes or No). If won, the bidder is responsible for the entire amount of his/her bid on all items that he/she is the high bidder on plus the total amount of shipping + insurance (if needed) calculated by number of sellers won from & number of records (see shipping cost tables below). At the close of the auction, Venerable Music will bill the total amount of winnings at one time & clear the completed orders for shipping. If the buyer decides he/she would rather pay by check, money order or paypal – a separate invoice will be sent either by snail mail or email. Once the payments have been cleared, the seller will have the opportunity to apply his/her credit to winnings, request a payment via paypal or receive a check via snail main (which will only be available to sellers with $100 or more in their account).
If I am the only bidder on an item, will I win it for the minimum bid? No – you will win that item at the full price of your bid. In every case, it is in your best interest to only bid what you would be comfortable spending on a particular item. We feel that this keeps the integrity of the auction in tact. Without this system in place, we tend to see items sell for both more and less than they really should. This also discounts the practice of schill bidding or other attempts to inflate prices. It also deflates the compulsion to bid at a price higher than you are comfortable with expecting to pay less in actuality.
Will I be able to return a record if I am unhappy with the grading? Yes! All of the sellers currently listing on the Venerable Auction site will have agreed to guarantee their grading. By this, they will require that the buyer will return the record at buyer’s expense & Venerable Music will credit the buyer account (or send a refund check) for the amount of the record in question plus a portion of the shipping price (or all if only 1 record was included in the shipment). At that point, Venerable Music will bill the seller for the refund of the item.
What if the record is damaged or broken in the mail? In every case, the seller is responsible for getting the product to the buyer safely & securely. For any order totaling over $50, insurance will be automatically purchased for the buyer & it is the seller’s responsibility to purchase the insurance from the postal service. If the payment was made with a credit card, at the seller’s request, Venerable Music can grant a refund to the customer & bill the seller directly. Please note that because we are dealing with experienced sellers, we are expecting broken record to be a rare occurrence. We reserve the right to ban any buyers or sellers that become habitual problems.
What is a seller’s store? Each individual seller will also have the ability to list items in their store at a set sale price. There is a nominal $.15 fee for listing an item & absolutely no other recurring fees until the item sells. Store items are first come, first serve & can be added to or purchased from individual stores at any time during a given month.
What does Venerable Music charge for listing items? Venerable Music charges are very easy to understand. 1) Any item sold at or under $100, billed at 10% (minimum $.45) 2) Any item sold between $100 & $250, billed at 08% 3) Any item sold between $250 & $500, billed at 07% 4) Any item sold above $500, billed at 06% 5) All shipping Charges are billed at 03% 6) Any payment originating from outside of the US will incur a 1% currency conversion charge 7) Any item added to store $.15
Please be aware that the credit card companies take a significant portion of these (up to 03%) for the merchant fees. Similar to Paypal fees, sellers will be able to avoid these by requesting a monthly check if their accounts are over $100. These fees will automatically be deducted from seller accounts when buyers are billed.
What are the advantages of selling my records on Venerable Music Auction as opposed to other online auction sites?
There are many advantages to selling your items on the Venerable Music site. The foremost advantage is item visibility. Unlike other online sites, the Venerable Music Auctions is geared toward listing 78 rpm specifically. Prospective buyers will be able to sort all of the auction listings by Artists, Genera or Label & Number. All auction items will run for one full month giving ample time for every prospective buyer to browse the listings & place their bids. On top of this, we encourage you to set minimum bids that you are comfortable with. There is no economic benefit for listing an item at $9.99 as opposed to $10 or higher. Our bid what you pay system also helps our sellers realize higher prices on more than just the cream of the crop of rarities. Finally, you will enjoy greater savings than on any other online site. There are no listing fees & no recurring store fees as well as the ability to avoid paypal fees by requesting that a check be sent when your account balance reaches $100 or more. We are also working to provide more seller perks such as free insurance on packages totaling under $50 as well as discounts on cleaners & shipping/packing supplies.
How do I become a seller on the Venerable Music auction site? Simple, click on the ‘Register’ Link on the top navigation bar & fill out the application. Most importantly, we are looking for sellers with some experience in grading & packing.
Record Grading with Venerable Music Auctions – Record grading is a tough subject for most as we all tend to see/hear things a little differently. Venerable Music auctions will adopt a E+ to G- grading system (actually E++ will be the highest grade possible), E+ being a nearly new record & G- being a wall hanger. Just as with mail auctions, each seller will develop his own reputation on grading & bidders will adjust appropriately. There will also be numerous defect codes available from a drop down menu that will aid in bringing light to any minor or major imperfections found.
Venerable Music Takes Responsibility – Unlike other sites that take no responsibility for poor sellers or deceitful buyers, we take the stand that it is a privilege to trade on this site. We will not stand for shady practice by either party & will have no problem banning sellers or buyers with habitual complaints filed or habitual complainers! We want to build long standing working partnerships & are looking for the same in return. As of now, the Venerable Music Auction site is launching with a core set of functionality, but we are already working on upgrades to come along in the coming months.
Buyer Feedback On Sellers One of the next systems we will be improving is the buyer feedback system for sellers. For now, Buyers will only be able to leave generalized feedback. In the future we'll be working on a system where buyers can rate sellers on Grading Accuracy & Packing Safety as well as their overall experience.
Free Insurance For Sellers with 10 or more Positive Feedback ratings Once a seller receives 10 positive feedback ratings, all packages sent totaling under $50 will be automatically insured by Venerable Music. Any customer filing a claim on a package as lost or damaged will be reimbursed directly from Venerable Music. Please note that if a package at a higher value is shipped, it is the sellers responsibility to use the funds provided to purchase insurance for the package.
Listing items by Lot or as Miscellaneous Item To start with, all auction listings will be for single records or single sets. For this style, listing things such as individual record numbers & grades will be required data fields. In the future, we hope to allow listing records in lots or miscellaneous items (such as books, sheet music, record catalogs, nipper memorabilia and such) with a more open style data field (and different shipping price guidelines).
Including 45rpm Records in the Auction? We’ve been kicking around the idea of expanding the site to include a section for 45rpm records as well to try and broaden our appeal. No definite plans have been made (and this would be a way in the future addition), but we’d love to hear if you think it would be a good idea!
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