Does Amazon not carry CDs anymore?

Discussion in 'Music, Movie and Hardware Store Guide' started by Time Is On My Side, Oct 28, 2018.

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  1. Time Is On My Side

    Time Is On My Side Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Madison, WI
    I am finding it increasingly difficult to find new versions of CDs on Amazon USA's website. For example, Blind Faith. The CD is there, you can purchase it. But it's $45. If you go and look at the different CD versions, I think the one you are actually buying is the SHM Platinum. Why don't they list the Deluxe Edition or the 2001 remaster? Is it just that these go out of print and they quit carrying them? Likewise, Bruce Springsteen - Darkness on the Edge of Town for $15 for the original 1984 CD. I want the 2014 remastered one, but it's $22 or something. Why? Is it out of print that the prices shoot up? I could see if these were vinyl and OOP that the price would go up...
     
    905 likes this.
  2. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    Of course Amazon still sells cds, though sometimes their search engine is wonky. I just searched for Blind Faith, though I'm not sure what you are looking for since you said "new version." I did notice that the "Amazon's Choice" listing indicates the cd is available for $11.19 but when you look at the various purchase options to the left it appears that the cd will cost $42.52 and, if you click on that price, you are taken to the 2013 SHM cd listing.
     
    audiomixer likes this.
  3. wwaldmanfan

    wwaldmanfan Born In The 50's

    Location:
    NJ
    If something is out of print, you can't expect them to have it new. They do list other options from outside sellers, who ask whatever they think the market will bear. Try Discogs or eBay.
     
  4. Jeff Kent

    Jeff Kent Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Kisco, NY
    Be aware that that the CD you're looking at may be new or may be an Amazon Marketplace third party seller...or a CDR copy. They usually distinguish between New copies and Used copies from another seller.

    Iron Maiden - Killers (new reissue)
    https://www.amazon.com/Killers-Iron...iden+killers&qid=1540737827&sr=8-1&ref=sr_1_1

    Iron Maiden - Killers (1998 reissue)
    https://www.amazon.com/Killers-1998...iden+killers&qid=1540737885&sr=8-2&ref=sr_1_2

    Iron Maiden - Killers (used)
    Amazon.com: Buying Choices: Killers
     
  5. MARTHY

    MARTHY Forum Resident

    Not everything is available from Amazon, as difficult as that may be to believe. I want the 2-CD Beatles Sgt. Pepper's 50th Anniversary, but all Amazon carries is a $36 import. I have to buy the American CD set from a seller on Discogs, available for less than half the import's price.
     
  6. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    Again, it's Amazon's search results wonkiness. If you poke around a bit, you will find the US 2cd edition for $19.99
     
  7. 905

    905 Senior Member

    Location:
    Midwest USA
    I've had issues in the past with this. Sometimes I'll even do a Google search for a CD at Amazon after checking Amazon itself.
     
  8. avalanche

    avalanche Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    I have a ton of trouble finding the right versions using their mobile site. If you can get the UPC from Discogs, use that number to search Amazon for your preferred version. UPC search also works on eBay.
     
    Crimson Witch likes this.
  9. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I agree that the listing process for Music at Amazon has gone bonkers. This is apparently managed in part by bots and with respect to 3rd party sellers they were and maybe are still allowed to create their own listings to match a particular item. Of course there is no consistency in the title listings so Searches become very difficult. Also there seems to be serious errors in the association of particular items with respect to links.

    In consequence you need to search using all kinds of different search terms to find items.
     
  10. Amazon's internal search engine is very unreliable in finding specific CD versions. It appears that the search engine often ignores a large chunk of what they carry. The same thing happens for specific movie versions some of the time. You are better off occasionally using Google to find what you are looking for on Amazon.

    Searching by UPC code works most of the time.

    I believe Amazon is biasing search results in favor of products they directly carry and with higher profit margins.
     
    Dave S and ClassicalCD like this.
  11. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    I don't doubt that but the problem is bigger than that. More and more I see incorrect links and images for items. I saw Bob Marley credited as the composer of a Mozart opera, I saw a CD listing with the image of Mens shirts and so on. Also 3rd party sellers often list with kooky misleading or vague titles. It's a total mess.
     
  12. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    You are correct, and it's surprising that Amazon isn't more on top of it. A recent example of mine: I didn't remember the name of the cd reissue for the recent Al Green singles collection, so I simply searched for Al Green. After filtering for just cds and then sorting by release date, I could not find the listing for it. The most recently issued cds are supposedly from 2016. Then I searched for Hi Singles after finding the thread here about the release and I found the listing for the compilation. It seems like the cd was not being sold by Amazon directly but they did have the mp3 download available for sale. Curiously the artist listed was Al Green, so I don't know why the search didn't find the listing. This was about a week ago. I just repeated this task again and the results were similar, though now it seems like there is only a cd available from Marketplace sellers and the digital download is gone.
     
  13. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    Agree with both of these comments. I think part of the issue is that some 3rd party sellers seem to be creating new, separate product listings on Amazon for CDs already in Amazon's database. In other words, you do a search for an album, and you get the main Amazon listing, which includes most of the CD and vinyl (and Amazon mp3 and streaming) versions all in the one listing - but then there are one, two, three, or more separate listings that come up in the search results, each with just one version (CD or vinyl).

    I don't know why Amazon doesn't consolidate these into the main listing, or delete these "rogue" listings altogether. And I don't think these separate listings are necessarily from malicious or especially crafty sellers - to the contrary, they look to be listings created by sellers who don't know what they're doing, similar to when new discogs users enter a new CD or LP variant of an album into the discogs database and forget (or don't know how) to link it to the Master Release for that album.
     
  14. I always try to find the UPC and use that for my search on Amazon, even then it may also show an unwanted version or two so I have to be careful but other than rare or OOP CDs, I can almost always find what I am looking for. That doesn't mean it will be an acceptable price but at least I can see what Amazon and third party sellers are asking.
     
  15. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic

    I and quite a few others have been sending Amazon notices for at least 3 years about all the glitches and problem policies of item listings with no reaction or change. In fact everything has gotten worse.
     
  16. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Amazon uses an ASIN. Yes but like the ISBN it assumes that you know the precise issue/edition not just the title and author/artist. Also it does nothing for the normal interested customer who wants to see what is available in a slightly broader way.

    What are ASINs, ISBNs, and UPCs?
     
  17. n.phelge

    n.phelge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas
  18. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    Considering their origin as a bookseller, Amazon has always been notorioualy unreliable differentiating between editions, pressings, translations, country of origin, etc. (Which should have been a clue that Bezos was never interested in books.)
     
  19. Correct, the markup on books provided the discount angle, and the margin float needed to build the business.
     
  20. bug2362

    bug2362 Forum Resident

    Location:
    West Seattle, WA
    I find that Discogs is a great place to find out of print cd’s . Unfortunately they don’t have images associated with the listings, so I often confirm with the seller it is the particular catalog # etc I’m looking for
     
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  21. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    Excellent advice. I often message the seller asking - very politely - if they can confirm the crucial details of their item to ensure it's the same pressing/version as the discogs entry they've listed it under. Once or twice I have not gotten a response, in which cases I've not made the purchase. Every other time, however, I've gotten a response within 24-48 hours (sometime in just a few hours), and the seller has been very nice about checking. Usually it is indeed the correct version, but a couple of times it hasn't been. It's saved me (and the seller) a lot of hassle in those cases, and every time the seller has thanked me for asking.

    As with most purchases on the internet, a little communication goes a long way.
     
    bug2362 likes this.
  22. Mr. LP Collector

    Mr. LP Collector Forum Resident

    One thing I've noticed about Amazon--the $3.99 back catalog cd's are disappearing. It wasn't that long ago that Linda Ronstadt's back catalog on Asylum for the most part was $3.99, no more. About two years ago I splurged on some $4.99 Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, and Grace's first solo lp, prices have slowly been climbing, some cd's aren't being stocked anymore by Amazon, I think.
     
    905 likes this.
  23. They aren't profitable anymore with so many customers having Prime service. Amazon rarely drops their CDs these days below $6 for any reason unless it's an add-on item.
     
  24. grandegi

    grandegi Blind test maniac

    Location:
    Rome, Italy
    This
     
  25. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    More wpnkiness at Amazon: Searched for a music artist without limiting it to a category. Search results showed several cds first, then some dvds. Clicked the drop down menu to sort by release date and got an error message that there was nothing matching my search. What?
     
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