Vinyl Wolf
Vinyl Wolf is the rare record location service for iPhone from Revival Records. It users crowd sourcing to locate your rare and longed after vinyl. It’s like having a pack of wolves hunting down your records. All you do is given them the scent….and off they go. Below is a brief guide on how to use the app. Please do contact us with any questions or feedback.
The first screen. From here you can add a want, log a find or go to your account to see your current wants and any finds you have matched up.
If you haven’t signed in, you will be asked to first. Sign in lasts until you sign out again, or delete Safari data, in which case you will need to sign in again.
You can also see various information pages from the home screen by touching the ‘i’ icon.
The Add Want Screen. This screen is where you add the item you want located.
Enter the artist and the title, being careful with spelling and syntax. Include ‘The’ in group names (for example ‘Monkees’ is different from ‘The Monkees’ and may not be matched). Select the format you require. LP, DLP (double LP) etc.
The Catalog Number should be entered if you are after a specific release. Usually you would add a catalog number but you can just leave this field blank if you don’t care which release you get.
Sleeve and Vinyl condition are the minimum condition you are looking for, for the price you are willing to pay. You may get a better quality match if you are willing to enter a lower quality at this stage. Mint copies are very rare, but if you will accept nothing less than perfection (and why should you) then enter Mint here. Gradings should be based on Record Collectors grading system.
Enter the maximum price you are willing to pay. You may get offered a match for less than this value, but you will never have to pay more than this. Remember, reasonable postage and packaging costs will be added and should be agreed with the seller beforehand.
You can enter additional notes to help the finder decide if the match is a good one or not.(special characters will be stripped so steer clear of those)
When done you will be able to choose an image. We bring back an image from Discogs.com, which is usually fine. Sometimes the image is wrong, or can’t be found in which case we use a default generic image.
You can either accept the image shown, go with the default generic image, or choose/take your own photo. Images are used to help the finder decide if he/she has found the correct record.
If your record has a particular sleeve, perhaps a special edition, try and use an image to reflect this and mention it in the notes.
Having the option to choose a photo you have saved from the Internet, or perhaps take a picture of a friends record, covers all likely bases.
Once you are happy with the image, select it and it’s job done. Your record is being hunted down. You’ll receive an email with your new want’s details.
If you’re at a garage sale, car boot, up in your attic etc. and you find what looks like an interesting piece of vinyl, you can instantly check if somebody is actively looking for it.
From the “I’ve Found” screen enter at least the artist and title. You can add catalog number and specify the condition if you want to really narrow down the results. The first option though, generally, should be to check on artist and title alone. Other factors can then be used to decide if you have a good match or not.
If there are one or more matches you’ll see a list from where you can check buyer details, price, condition etc. and mark the record as found.
Once you do this, you are committing to sell the record to the wanter at no more than the price indicated. It is up to you and the buyer to work out postage and payment.
Both parties will receive an email with instruction on what to do next. Vinyl Wolf just brings wanters and finders together - it is your responsibility to complete the transaction.
Once the buyer and seller are happy, payment and record received, then you should mark the item as complete in the ‘Your Account’ section (more on that later) at which time both buyer and seller rating will go up by one. This is an important factor in deciding to match or not. The more completed purchases, the better.
Buyer and Seller have 28 days to complete a transaction after which time the item will automatically become unmatched. (see the FAQs)
From the Your Account section of the app you can see your Wants List and your Current Finds or simply log out of your account.
You can see the details of any want you added and, provided it hasn’t been matched by another user, you can delete it if you no longer want it. If it has been found and matched this will be indicated by a green tick, as well as by the email you will have received when it was matched. From here you mark your want as ‘Complete’ when you have received your record and you are happy with it. Once you do that, the seller (or finder) will get an email to let them know you are happy, and they will mark it complete their end. That way both seller and buyer ratings increase.
It is important to mark your wants and finds complete when they have been matched. Once matched, after 28 days they will be deleted if they haven’t been marked as complete.
That is it in a nutshell. A simple concept but a very powerful tool. See a record, instantly know who is looking for it and how much they are willing to pay. Armed with the facts you can make decisions on whether to buy the record or not. Happy hunting!
For more information see the FAQ section.
