Downsizing CD Collection?

Reminds me of a story one store owner told me. He had one customer who would sell him stuff then re-bought everything he sold the previous week. It happened often enough. We thought it might be for cash flow reasons; short one week so would sell stuff, get some money from work, then rebuy sort of scenario.

 

The idea of shedding that much recorded music gives me heart palpitations, but I suppose such is the rhythm of life... Or something like that.

Out of curiosity, is it enough to simply have pictures of a given collection for insurance purposes or is an itemized list really necessary? I've been leaning towards the latter given that mine has been rapidly expanding, but it's no small undertaking at this point.

 

Most vinyl records have little value. Sure if you got the first pressing of the UK mono of Revolver it could be worth a bit but those albums are few and far between. Even with the retro craze going on with vinyl most lps are $10 and less. And when the vinyl bubble burst most lps are going to be worth even less.

 

No idea on the rules in the US, but my friend in the industry up here in Canada said I should definitely keep a list of individual items. It took me awhile to do that for my lps and I used discogs.

For my cds I bought an affordable cd cataloguing software which used my computers camera as a scanner. Just read the barcodes and it looks up various sources and there you are. There are a lot of options software wise these days and it really doesn't take too long. You can even buy a scanner or in some cases use your phones as the scanner. It goes by pretty quickly.

I'm pretty sure you can use Discogs to catalogue cds as well but I found it much better and easier to use a dedicated program.

 

My CD collection has been ripped for years and the first thing i do with every CD i buy is rip it to my digital system.
Its automatically backed up and i manually back up to another HD and others stored at friends for safe keeping just incase.
I don't store anything on sites or clouds.
I have one CDP/Transport in my home just incase anyone feels the need to play a CD.
It hasn't been used for ages tho.
I made a massive mistake in the 80s selling most of my large LP collection because of CD.
Spent years buying it all again on CD and then again on vinyl.
Thats the reason why I can't sell or give anything away.

 

Only one way to find out...can I borrow a match...?

 

You may need additional insurance rider if you have a "collection".

 

I'm not sure even an itemized list would be sufficient, without receipts, credit card statements, appraisals and the like. All those rare CDs would be like so many copies of Jagged Little Pill to an insurance claims adjuster.

 

Where would one even go to get CDs appraised in 2017? I just imagine someone looking at walls of discs, pausing thoughtfully, and going, "I'll give you tree fiddy."

 

Downsizing?, heck I'm up sizing my cd collection, thanks to cheap thrift store finds!

 

The best thing to do, for anyone who is worried, is to call their insurance company and find out what the policy is.

 

Discogs is one place. If you used a cd cataloguing software that retrieved prices from Amazon sites that would also provide you with an estimate.

 

I suspect you're right

 

A person's better off having never had a collection at all. It winds up owning YOU. I know this first-hand. Maybe it's best to just throw everything into the sea...

 

$10 multiplied by a thousand or more LPs adds up to a tidy sum. I recently valued my collection on a spreadsheet and current replacement cost approximates to a mid range Porsche or the cheapest 911. Even several thousand CDs at say $2 amounts to a useful pile of cash.

 

That's just cruel to the whales who will end up trying to cart around 8 copies of every Beatles album, torqueing off their spouses with incessant talk about how the mono version is superior...

 

As Thoreau wrote in Walden, a man is rich in proportion to the things he can afford to let alone.

 

A billion of something times one cent adds up to a tidy sum, it still not worth much. And most lps are worth LESS than $10. Also I would say you would have trouble selling most cds for $2 a piece. However, let's say they are worth $2 a piece. How would you sell them ? Take them to a used store ? Well you would have to find one that would take cds, and was willing to take several thousand of them, willing to pay cash and then loading up you car many times to take the cds to said store. You could sell them on ebay but that is even more time down the drain. Packing them up, writing the address, taking them to the post office ... all to sell $2 cds. You would be better off working at burger king.

 

Think I would rather spend my time selling on Ebay than working at Burger King. Out of all those CDs I would bank on a few falling into the rare and collectable category. Not all CDs are worth only $1 or less. Sell the ones that are worth something and give any left to a charity shop.

 

Yeah that would be the thing to do and is basically what I said in my original post. Most records/cds are worth little to no money.

 

Buy Jazz Sleeve CD jackets and ditch your jewel cases. You'll be amazed how little space your collection takes up and you get to keep them all.

 

That may apply to CD but not records unless you have just classical or Streisand or Herb Alpert. If you have rock or pop in nice condition most appear to be worth a few quid at least these days . I've seen certain CD titles listed at very high prices. High Street dealers where never best place to sell music and want to cherry pick collectables at rock bottom value.

 

I am getting rid of any cd that I also have ao vinyl (aside from reissues/super deluxe editions). Actually making me feel good to be a few Ikea towers less of cds. I can't say I have played a physical cd in years and have come to the conclusion they just aren't necessary for me anymore.

 

I've got about 200-300 CDs and a couple box sets that I want to get rid of. I want to pare my collection down to stuff I really like. I've tried selling some of through the classifieds, yet there's usually no interest even for rare items. IME, taking CDs to record shops has been hit or miss since they won't accept everything, while Half Price Books almost never offered anything over $10. To anyone who has sold CDs on eBay, what would be an ideal number to put in a lot without spending too much on shipping? I remember selling a lot of 100 or so CDs a few years ago, yet it cost roughly $50 to ship them (IIRC, that was the cheapest price the PO gave me when I brought the box in). Just don't want that to happen again.

 

New thread on cleaning vinyl using 12% whale-blubber formula solution going live in 3...2...