Used CD market

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Joey_Corleone, Jan 19, 2018.

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  1. rjp

    rjp Senior Member

    Location:
    Ohio
    my local shops will not even give 10 cents for an alison krauss CD.

    i think its her voice, people, all people, can only take that syrupy sweet voice for so long, after that it just becomes basically unbearable to listen to.

    the last time i went shopping i think you could buy every CD she ever made for a dollar, of less.
     
    aoxomoxoa likes this.
  2. Planbee

    Planbee Negative Nellie

    Location:
    Chicago
    Holy hyperbole, Batman!
     
  3. MichaelXX2

    MichaelXX2 Dictator perpetuo

    Location:
    United States
    The CD market is definitely a great place for a disgruntled former buyer of vinyl. There are so many great CDs around, lots of "holy grail" 80s CDs, available for $10 or less!
     
  4. Jeff Kent

    Jeff Kent Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Kisco, NY
    People scoff at me for buying 10+ CDs at a time and question some of my choices. The way I see it, I want the store owners to see that there's still an interest in the format and to keep stocking them.
     
    tmtomh, PhantomStranger and fluffskul like this.
  5. Galley

    Galley Forum Resident

    Greenville must be an outlier, because we still have a bunch of stores that sell used CDs, and prices are typically $4-8 each.
     
  6. Joey_Corleone

    Joey_Corleone Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Rockford, MI
    Well, let me clarify. In my case, there are 2 really good used record stores near where I live. They both primarily deal with new and used vinyl, but both also have used CD's. The majority of those go for $6-8 I would say. My Eric Clapton bargain was in the $1 bin with a bunch of garbage / very common stuff from the 90's.
     
  7. It's all about real estate prices. Music stores catering to CDs have all but disappeared in the more affluent, expensive areas of the country. If they are still around in those areas, they've raised CD prices and converted mostly to vinyl sales. On the other hand, used CD stores mostly survive these days in states with less expensive real estate and cheaply available retail space.
     
    Dave and MusicMatt like this.
  8. hvbias

    hvbias Midrange magic

    Location:
    Northeast
    Classical CDs is another where the majors seem to be happy getting very little money with these big 20-100 CD box sets. Some of the best sounding and greatest music ever recorded in my collection came from these boxes. All around it's a great time to be a music fan.
     
    patient_ot likes this.
  9. steelydanguy

    steelydanguy Forum Resident

    Interesting thread.

    I believe these are good times to be buying used CDs *if* you happen to live somewhere near a good record store that sells used CDs. That is far from a given in 2018.

    I've lived in different parts of the country and often hunt for CDs when traveling, and I can say that there are definitely places where the second-hand CD market is lacking or even almost nonexistent. And it's not necessarily the biggest cities that have the best used CD options. My current home -- the very large Washington, D.C., area -- has at least one very good second-hand CD store, but the options are somewhat limited after that. Thankfully, though, I do have that one very good option.

    Overall, yes, if you are lucky enough to live in an area that still has a quality store or stores selling used CDs, the selection and prices are pretty good these days. Vinyl is hip in 2018, whereas CDs generally aren't. And CD collectors can benefit as a result.

    I see that some people have mentioned that they've made good used CD finds at thrift stores. I have to admit that I haven't done much hunting at places such as Goodwill. Perhaps I'm missing out. I think my concern with thrift stores is that the condition of used CDs could be middling to poor, but perhaps I should give such places a shot.

    It should be noted that I also buy a lot of used CDs online. The convenience and selection can't be beat. However, I still very much enjoy going into brick-and-mortar stores, where part of the thrill is that you never know what you might find. I also like being able to visually inspect CDs myself -- the disc, the inserts, etc.

    The photos below are of CD Cellar, a quite excellent used CD and vinyl store in Falls Church, Va., in the Washington, D.C., area.


    [​IMG]


    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2018
  10. patient_ot

    patient_ot Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    I wish more stores in my area stocked new and used CDs but many have been getting out of the CD business entirely or only have a small selection nowadays. There is one large store in my area that has a huge selection of CDs but they are cutting things down also. Last year they had a big CD sale and you could see lots of over 30 types loading up.

    Most of my used CD buying is online. Some record stores are still taking CDs and selling them on their store websites rather than just putting them on eBay, Discogs, and Amazon. I prefer this since the prices are usually better and I can combine shipping. Earlier this week I got a package of half a dozen jazz CDs for $3-$6 a pop from a store in another state. All in top condition, all the versions I wanted and correctly listed. My guess is some of this store's customers are ripping their collections and then trading them into the store in bulk. That means more great CDs for me :goodie:
     
  11. Last year I purchased a number of used CDs from a specific eBay seller, I had great luck for months. Then 4 straight purchases were screwed up and I don't feel like messing with it any longer. As far as local stores, only one is still open as far as I know and I haven't had any luck there in the past year and I have been driving by without stopping. For me the golden age for used CD purchases has apparently passed but it was great while it lasted. I may try garage sales this spring but I don't think many people bother with trying to sell CDs at garage sales here, hope I am wrong.

    I mostly listen to discs still, CDs, SACDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray but my collection is huge so I am planning on selling more than buying but I can't resist buying something new to listen to when I find a deal.
     
  12. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Over the last year or two I've got used to CDs costing around 50 pence, sometimes £1 for good ones and occasionally three or four for a pound, prices in 2018 seem to be getting lower, last Sunday at the carboot sale the first stall had a nice selection, a proper collection, 4 for £1, things like Floyd, Motown multi disc sets, decent mainstream titles in nice condition, on the next stall I pulled out 5 metal CDs, price 50 pence for all five, I didn't think things could get cheaper until another seller I regularly buy things from offered me the pick of his CDs for free, unfortunately only one title I wanted, but free is free. I believe we are in the middle of "normal" people dumping their physical media collections en masse, except vinyl, grab those cheap CDs and DVDs while you can they won't be around for ever.
     
    Joey_Corleone likes this.
  13. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    kinda of sad the devaluation of music.
     
  14. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    Or a golden opportunity to buy.
     
  15. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Cheap as chips.
     
  16. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Looks like Spock is checking out the place. Quite abundance of CDs
     
  17. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    A used CD seller told me how he has to turn away hundreds and hundreds of people selling their used CDs, many of them great albums because they're all in CD sleeves instead of their original packaging with their booklets, covers and such.

    So many CDs are lost to the 2nd-hand market, because people tossed their cases, and you can't really sell back just the disc to a store.
     
    Galley, Dave, tmtomh and 2 others like this.
  18. Mr. LP Collector

    Mr. LP Collector Forum Resident

    Good replies here, will reply to this quoted one here.

    Several years ago I generally bought a 10 or 12 pack of cd jewel cases for $4.99, at times you could catch a store who was running a sale on them for say $2.99 a pack, like Radio Shack used to do about two times a year.


    One of the things that hurts as bad as the chain record stores either dropping cd's or just dropping out all together is the ability to buy JUST the CASES!

    Now that KMart has pretty much called it a career, you can't hardly find cd cases at Target or, believe it or not, Walmart. Fortunately I've done good by buying them by the case from Amazon as I've been buying them at cheapo pricos! But I don't back off buying them at all. A few record shows I do, I sell as many cd's as I do albums. But those people I've known for years, actually a decade or more. And yes, I replace cases when condition warrants it. You don't want to put stuff for sale on your table when the cases are cracked to hell and they come in two pieces. Not good salesmanship AFAIC.

    Then again, that's just me.
     
  19. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    Yes, it's easy to get new cases (I think office supply vendors still sell them in bulk online and there are specialty sites too like Sleeve City and such). But the problem @slop101 is referring to isn't the lack of the original jewel cases - it's that a lot of people in the '90s saved space by ditching not only the jewel case but also the booklets and inserts, saving only the discs. Even the more responsible folks who kept the booklets still often ditched the rear inserts, because they were larger than the discs and booklets and a lot of the binder/wallet storage solutions didn't have pockets big enough to hold the rear inserts.

    It's a shame, really - such discs are useless to collectors and have only minimal value even to people buying them just for the music. Their only real use is if you have a badly scratched copy with the original inserts, you can get one of those naked discs dirt cheap and swap it for your damaged disc.
     
  20. There are a couple of power sellers on eBay that seem to specialize in selling caseless CDs.

    I agree this is probably the best time to pick up cheap CDs. Many normal CD owners are starting to cave and dumping their CD collections at once. There is still a healthy used market for CDs absorbing the supply, but that probably won't be true in a couple of years.
     
  21. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    CD Collection
    How many do you have.
    Below a hundred ?
    Over a hundred?
    500
    1000
    ......more ?
     
  22. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    Since joining this forum, over a few thousand. I used to have just the 90s Roxy Music remasters. Now I have a set of early West German discs, with a couple of US Warners thrown in.
     
    alexpop likes this.
  23. TheSeldomSeenKid

    TheSeldomSeenKid Forum Resident

    I might own about 60 P-FUNK Related Albums on CD alone, so mosdef over 1,000 CDs by now, not even including Box Sets. I am starting to sell off a few CDs & Vinyl on here recently, and had Cassette Tapes as a teenager with CDs too expensive in the mid-late 1980s, that I was considering selling, but now reading that the Cassette Tapes are Analog, trying to decide if I want to buy a decent Cassette Deck as I build a System, and keep most of my Cassettes, but just getting into Vinyl, might mean it is time to just sell the Cassette Tapes, but need to look more into how they would sound being Analog.

    With getting the Cars Catalog on CD from Mofi and DCC, there is no reason for me to play those Cassettes though. Althoughm from a Collectors's Standpoint would never sell my Talking Heads Cassette Tapes and The CURE's 'Standing on the Beach, Staring at the Sea' that had extra songs that was not put out on the CD version.
     
    alexpop likes this.
  24. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    A thousand's a tidy sum.
     
  25. slop101

    slop101 Guitar Geek

    Location:
    So. Cal.
    Right around 2K CDs
    (and around 300 vinyl records)

    Though I don't really listen to my actual CDs much...
    I've ripped the CDs to a couple ipods that I keep in my car, which is how I listen to music there.
    And at home, I'm pretty much listening to my vinyl records - or if I'm in the kitchen, cooking, I'll stick one of those ipods in a speaker dock.
     
    alexpop likes this.
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