Do photos of my packing actually count for anything?

They carry weight when they were taken before the parcel left, and when the buyer already had them before anything went wrong. A photo produced after a complaint answers the complaint; a photo the buyer was already looking at answers nothing, because nobody had a reason to stage it.

Can I state in my terms that transit damage is not refundable?

Sellers try, and it tends not to survive contact with a payment dispute: the buyer paid for a record in the condition described, and the platform or the payment provider decides the case on that. Good packing evidence is worth more than a disclaimer.

Who is responsible when the packing was poor?

In practice the seller is the one who has to resolve it, whatever the carrier did. That is the uncomfortable part, and it is also why evidence of good packing is the only thing that changes the outcome — it moves the question from your judgement to the carrier's handling.

What should I photograph, and when?

The record in its mailer, the stiffeners either side of it, and the filled parcel with the flap still open — then the sealed parcel with the label readable. Four photos, taken in the twenty seconds before you tape it shut. After sealing, there is nothing left to show.

Does Discogs keep any of this for me?

No. Discogs has a tracking field on the order page and a message thread, and that is the whole record of a shipment. Photos live in your phone, unless you put them somewhere your buyer can see.

A record arrived damaged.
How do you prove how you packed it?

Almost always, the answer is a photo you either took or didn't take, days earlier, in the twenty seconds before the parcel was sealed.

If it happened today

1

Ask for photos before you answer

The record, the sleeve, and — the one people forget — the outer packaging as it arrived. Corner crush on the mailer tells you the parcel was dropped; a split seam with intact corners usually does not.
2

Find what you have from your side

Photos you took while packing, the tracking history, the dispatch date. Whatever exists already is worth more than anything you write afterwards, because it was made before there was anything to prove.
3

Answer quickly, even without a conclusion

A buyer who waits opens a payment dispute, and the conversation moves somewhere neither of you controls. Saying you are looking into it, on the day, keeps it between the two of you.
4

Claim with the carrier if the packing holds up

Most carriers want the damaged packaging kept, and a claim opened within a short window — often days, not weeks. Ask your buyer to keep the mailer before it goes in the bin.

Why the timing of the photo is the whole thing

Two sellers can own the same four photos and be in completely different positions. The difference is not what the photos show — it is when they appeared.

A photo you send after a complaint is an argument. It arrives on the day it is needed, from the person it helps, and everyone reading the thread knows it. It rarely ends the discussion.

A photo your buyer already had, from the day you posted the parcel, is something else entirely. Nobody photographs a well-packed record on the off-chance it breaks three days later. Its value comes from having been made when there was nothing to prove — and that is a property you cannot add to it afterwards.

This is the part that cannot be fixed once a record is broken. Everything else on this page you can still do today; this one you either did before sealing the parcel, or you didn't.

What good packing evidence looks like

The record out of the sleeve, or the sleeve separate, if that is how you ship.
Stiffeners on both sides, visible as two, not implied.
The filled mailer with the flap still open — this is the one that matters.
The sealed parcel with the label readable, which ties all of it to that shipment.

Four photos, no staging, taken with the phone already in your hand. The point is not photographic quality. It is that a sequence exists, that it is tied to a tracking number, and that somebody other than you saw it before anything went wrong.

Where Sillon fits

Sillon is a €9-a-month tool for Discogs sellers that does exactly this one thing, as a side effect of doing something else: when you post a parcel, you note the carrier and tracking number and add the photos, and your buyer gets a link showing what is on its way. The photos reach them on dispatch day, in the ordinary course of the sale, with nothing defensive about it. If a record then arrives broken, the evidence is already in their hands and neither of you has to take anyone's word for anything.

You do not need Sillon for any of this. A phone, a folder per order, and the discipline to send four photos with every dispatch does the same job.

See what Sillon does See what your buyer gets

Questions

Do photos of my packing actually count for anything?: They carry weight when they were taken before the parcel left, and when the buyer already had them before anything went wrong. A photo produced after a complaint answers the complaint; a photo the buyer was already looking at answers nothing, because nobody had a reason to stage it.
Can I state in my terms that transit damage is not refundable?: Sellers try, and it tends not to survive contact with a payment dispute: the buyer paid for a record in the condition described, and the platform or the payment provider decides the case on that. Good packing evidence is worth more than a disclaimer.
Who is responsible when the packing was poor?: In practice the seller is the one who has to resolve it, whatever the carrier did. That is the uncomfortable part, and it is also why evidence of good packing is the only thing that changes the outcome — it moves the question from your judgement to the carrier's handling.
What should I photograph, and when?: The record in its mailer, the stiffeners either side of it, and the filled parcel with the flap still open — then the sealed parcel with the label readable. Four photos, taken in the twenty seconds before you tape it shut. After sealing, there is nothing left to show.
Does Discogs keep any of this for me?: No. Discogs has a tracking field on the order page and a message thread, and that is the whole record of a shipment. Photos live in your phone, unless you put them somewhere your buyer can see.