A price comparison is only useful if you can trust it. This is the transparency piece on exactly what Rekord does between you pointing the camera at a record sleeve and the price list appearing — including the parts that usually end up in fine print: how fresh the prices are, why a price sometimes differs when you click through, and how the service is funded.
Step 1: Identification
When you scan a cover, the image goes to our server, where an AI model reads off the artist and album title — only text actually printed on the sleeve; the model is instructed never to guess from what a cover "looks like". The answer is then verified against the Discogs database before you see it: if the AI's reading doesn't match a real edition there, you get a help view instead of a guess. Discogs is always the source of truth — the AI identifies, the database verifies. If you search by text or audio recognition instead, the flow passes through the same Discogs verification.
Step 2: The store checks
Once the record is verified, we ask stores and marketplaces about that specific record — live, while you watch. Which stores depends on your market: in Sweden that includes Bengans, Ginza, iMusic, Tradera, Discogs and eBay; in Germany JPC and others; equivalent lists exist for the Netherlands, the UK, the US, Australia and Japan. Each store returns its lowest price on a listing that strictly matches artist and album — if we can't find a confident match, we show a search link instead of a price. An honest "search yourself" beats a price for the wrong record.
How fresh are the prices?
Store answers are cached server-side for one to four hours per store — it spares the stores' servers and keeps the app fast. Discogs market data is fetched live on every scan. In practice: the prices you see are from the last few hours, usually from right now.
That's also why a price can still differ when you click through: the store may have sold the copy, changed the price, or stock several editions where our match referred to a different one. Shipping is always added at the store. A price in Rekord is a fresh snapshot, not a binding offer.
What you see beyond prices
- The rarity badge is built from Discogs collector data: how many own the record versus how many want it, plus market supply. The logic is described in the guide on what drives vinyl prices.
- Exact pressing lets you search by matrix number and barcode to pin down a specific edition with its own market data — see the runout guide.
- Price watch checks your watched records against the market and emails you when the price drops below your threshold.
How Rekord makes money
Three sources, none of which touch the results:
- Affiliate links. Some store links earn us a commission if you click and buy — at no extra cost to you. Which stores pay commission never affects which stores are shown or in what order: the list is decided by your market and sorted by category and price, full stop.
- Ads on the web. The web version shows discreet ads (Google AdSense and the occasional store banner). The apps are completely ad-free.
- Nothing else. We don't sell placements and don't charge stores to appear.
The guides you're reading also contain affiliate links to Amazon for accessories — always labelled as ad links.
Privacy
Scans aren't tied to any identity, and analytics run on GoatCounter — a privacy-friendly tool with no cookies, no IP tracking and no ad profiles. History and favourites are stored locally on your device, not with us. The web shows a consent prompt for ads because AdSense requires it; decline and you get fewer/non-personalised ads.
When it goes wrong
No identification is perfect. If the AI misreads a cover, or the Discogs match points at the wrong edition, the "Wrong record?" link sits on the result page — reports go to manual review and get fixed. Store checks can miss too: a store that changed its page structure temporarily shows a search link instead of a price until we've repaired the fetch. Our rule of thumb throughout the system is the same: better to show less than to show wrong.
In short
Scan → AI reads the cover → Discogs verifies → stores are asked live per market → you see fresh prices, sorted by price, with no paid placements. Commission and ads pay for the running costs; the results are untouched. That's the whole model — and it fits in one sentence precisely because it should.