CD buffing - what's your opinion?

My wife says the exact same thing.

 

Never heard of this. The second hand CD stores I know only buy CDs which are scratch-free.

It seems quite pointless to me to try to repair scratched discs, given the low value of a used CD. The only exception would concern very rare CDs.

 

I think there are a couple of collector mentalities at play here. One I would call the ‘pure’ collector and the other the ‘profit’ collector. I think one finds pride and enjoyment in simply owning a particular item. The other owns them to reap profit in the future. I don’t have a problem with either. I kind of get what each of them do but I have no personal interest in it.

Maybe if we thought of these collectible CDs in terms of other collections like stamps or coins we would understand more easily. I mean if you are a coin collector you don’t seek out a particular rare coin just to spend it and like wise with a rare stamp, you are not acquiring it to put it on an envelope and send it out.

 

I have the ZDAG 101 machine that is mentioned in this review.

I think I purchased it for about $120 on eBay. I purchased it initially to repair video games but have used it on many CD's and DVD's as well. It provides three levels of polish grit and will not only make the disc functional but in most cases it will take out all of the scratches and the surface will look brand new. I find that it was a good choice above the hand crank units that leave swirls of scratches and of course the multi-thousand dollar units.

Most of the discs I ran thru this unit were Playstation 1 discs that had a black surface which would show any imperfections quite easily yet most of the time I would get a nice glossy black finish after cleaning that was impossible for me to tell that it wasn't a mint new disc.

 

Yup. If you bought that rare stamp with the upside-down plane, I kinda doubt you'd immediately slap it on an envelope and send it to Mississippi!

 

Lets say you had a choice between two of the same used cd's in a store.

One was buffed with buffing/resurfacing marks or one that was stone mint and like new like it came from the factory. Both the same price, which one would you pick to take home ?

If one cannot understand why someone would rather have a cd in the condition it came from the factory, there is nothing we can do to convince you why. You just don't get it, don't want to or just like the argument.

When a cd was made new, it did not have those marks so why would someone "want" them ? I am sure if you had the choice I mentioned above, any of you would pick the "like new" one for the same price. I have seen this many times in the store myself and always pick the nice one.

Why would someone want a resurfaced, buffed or scratched disc, when most any disc on the market (other than the big priced rare ones) can be found in like new condition for the same price ?

I don't see what's hard to understand about not wanting to own a resurfaced disc. You don't have to, as you can find a nicer one for the same price or even cheaper if you have patience.

BTW: I have yet to own or see a buffed/resurfaced cd that looked mint. You can always tell it has been buffed/resurfaced, always! Mint is from the factory and no buffing/resurfacing machine can make a cd look that good. It just wont happen.

 

It all comes down to your eyes.

Azurdisc does a great job, but you can still tell it has been done. They have a much better machine than yours.

 

Now listening to Rosanne Cash's "Interiors" on the I-Tunes in my I-Mac

Some of us are only in it for the music.

 

Geez, where you been?

 

And some of us apparently have no concept of protecting an investment.

 

Exactly!

See my post above, Robin. If you are buying it anyway, why not get better condition for the same price ?

No need to settle.

 

Are you making a point?

I don't think there would be too many SH Forum members who dislike music, right? CDs remain the primary consumer format for recorded music. The earliest CDs are important. Artificial restoration of a collectible CD is wrong in the same way that sanding antique furniture would be wrong. It is a shame that so many here apparently cannot grasp this very simple concept.

 

I will respectfully disagree. It is totally okay to sand and refinish antique furniture you own. You can do anything you want with it including sell it to someone else as long as the person has been totally informed about the condiiton and circumstances of what you are offering for sale and it is acceptable to them. Likewise with a CD. If you want to have your CDs buffed then buff them. It you want to sell the CD then inform the potential buyers of that fact and it is entirely up to them as to whether or not it still holds value. If within your own sensibilities this is not proper then at least you can make the choice not to purchase but that in no way makes anyone else wrong that wishes to do so.

I don’t choose to buff/resurface CDs but I have as I said earlier recently come across a couple and I sold these with the clear description that I felt they had been buffed. It didn’t seem to be an issue for the prospective buyers and I did price them what I felt was appropriate to that condition which was less than market for a similar conditioned non-buffed CD.

 

Tierra y Libertad!

Yup.

Judging from some recent threads, I'm not so sure.

I do believe that as of March, 2011, illegal downloads are the primary consumer format for recorded music.

To you. Sorry, but it's just the roll-out of yet another audio format. Seen what a first issue LP copy of Columbia records original "South Pacific" goes for these days?

Ya mean if it's ugly and the varnish has begun to peel and I own it?

Must be some of them Anarcho-Syndicalists we've all been hearing so much about recently.

 

A couple of quick questions: Are cds as valuable as lps? If they are, why?

 

No way.

 

Thank you.

 

Why wouldn't they be equally valuable to someone focused on collecting CDs as to someone else who is focused on vinyl? Why would someone consider one or the other more intrinsically valuable other than by their own personal taste or bias?

 

They were general questions.

 

They used to advertise it. Family Video also buffs them.

 

I can't tell you how many discs I've recently purchased as NM that are, in fact, buffed. Some better then others, but they NEVER look good. To those that say a "light polish" make dics look new - you are not looking closely - hundreds of tiny swirls across the surface of the disc.

After buying a "buffed" CD from an ebay seller recently (I specificly asked if the disc was buffed - reply - "NO!") and I asked for my $$$ back, I was told that "the seller" had just spent a lot of $$$ on this buffing machine and I had better believe he was going to use it. Well... good for him, but I ain't buying them. This seller made an "investment" and wants it to "pay off".

This seller, like many, simply will not tell buyers they use a buffing machine - That's my problem. If they say anything they call it...polishing or reconditioning. It's the same process and does the same damage to the disc.

Down with buffing!!!

 

While I only have a couple of buffed discs in my collection, I only get annoyed when the seller doesn't state that the disc has been buffed, or refuses to not buff the disc regardless of condition!

 

I bet I could tell. Look under a bright light - Swirl city!!! Which is fine for your own use. My problem would be with sellers using the machine to make "collectors gold". A Mint or NM condition CD is M or NM - not a V or VG disc that has been buffed.

 

"lots of Targets and early Japan for US CD's that have often needed it" - No, please stop! I won't be able to sleep tonight!!!

"It's a shame there was never a way to do this with records" -

I'm sorry, these are your discs. Enjoy!

 

There are many examples where "I OWN IT" does not equal "I'LL DO WHATEVER I WANT WITH IT". While this doesn't apply to collectible CDs as a legal matter (historic buildings, etc), it certainly makes sense to take care of one's own property. Sure, there are fools who take a $15,000 chair with patina (so ugly!) and sand it down to make it look good. Ooops. Someone just blew through some serious coin. Yeah, that's so bold and smart! But hey, it was their property.