This policy is part of the Cratemint Marketplace Terms (marketplace-terms.md).
It sets out what may not be listed or sold on the marketplace. Sellers are the
merchant of record and are responsible for the legality of everything they list.
1. Prohibited items
1.1 Bootlegs and unofficial pressings
- Bootleg, pirate, or otherwise unofficial pressings may not be listed or sold.
- An "unofficial pressing" means a record manufactured or distributed without the authorisation of the rights holder, including unauthorised live recordings, unofficial reissues, and grey-market pressings.
- If a seller is not sure whether a pressing is official, the seller should not list it.
1.2 Counterfeit items
- Counterfeit records, including fakes and forgeries that imitate an official release, its packaging, or its labels, may not be listed or sold.
- Misrepresenting a pressing (for example, listing a later reissue as an original) is prohibited and is also a grading and description breach under the marketplace terms.
1.3 Stolen goods
- Stolen records, or records the seller does not have the right to sell, may not be listed or sold. The seller must own the item and have the right to transfer it.
1.4 Promotional and not-for-resale vinyl (nuance)
- Records marked "promotional", "promo", "not for resale", "for promotional use only", or similar carry a genuine legal and policy nuance. In some cases the rights holder restricts resale of these copies.
- At launch, Cratemint's position on promo / not-for-resale vinyl is [VERIFY WITH COUNSEL]: the draft default is that clearly marked not-for-resale copies should not be listed, but this must be confirmed by counsel, because promo pressings are widely and openly traded in the collector market and a blanket ban may be both wrong and unenforceable.
- Until counsel confirms the rule, a seller listing a promo copy must disclose the promo marking clearly in the listing.
1.5 Other unlawful or restricted items
- Anything whose sale is unlawful in the United Kingdom, or which infringes a third party's rights, may not be listed. Counsel should confirm whether any further categories (for example, items subject to specific media or content restrictions) belong here.
2. The catalogue data boundary (sellers list records, never data)
This boundary is a hard constraint of the whole product and is restated here so it is unmistakable on the marketplace.
- Cratemint's catalogue is Cratemint's own ETL copy of openly licensed (CC0) data dumps, combined with a separate art crosswalk. Cratemint built and owns this copy.
- The Discogs API is never called, and Discogs "Restricted Data" (images, marketplace and pricing data, user data) is never used. Discogs data enters Cratemint only as CC0 dumps that anyone may use, and as a seller's own export of their own inventory or collection, which is the seller's own data.
- Sellers list physical records only. A seller sells the physical copy in the seller's possession. Nobody sells catalogue data, database records, images, or metadata through the marketplace, and no listing may purport to transfer any such data.
3. How a listing is reported and removed
- Any user can report a listing that appears to break this policy (for example, a suspected bootleg, counterfeit, or stolen item, or a misgraded or misdescribed copy).
- A reported listing is reviewed. Cratemint may remove a listing, cancel an associated order, and where appropriate suspend the seller's account or withhold funds, consistent with the marketplace terms and the dispute policy.
- Removal of a listing does not by itself resolve a buyer's refund rights; those
follow the platform return floor and the dispute process in
dispute-policy.md.