Attention record sellers: There is an epidemic of vinyl sellers on Ebay who give anything and everything high marks, thinking that offering a return for refund will make everything OK.

The thing is, it wastes time and money for buyers. It is also unfair because it artificially raises prices/bids. As an honest seller, do you want your genuine VG+ competing with someone else's pretend "mint" copy of the same record?

What's the solution? Do you have to ask every seller if his/her claims are legit before bidding? Will that be productive? Isn't that just a little bit offensive?

There are shades of opinion. Some records look better than they play or play better than they look. And everyone makes a mistake now and then. However, if it is obvious that a seller has given a record an inflated grade to encourage bidding, I will leave negative feedback.

Starting 27 March 2009, I am also making a point of highlighting accurate grading in feedback to help respectable sellers stand out. I encourage everyone else to do the same.