Why are CDs so cheap!!!

Hey all,

So I had been exclusively buying LPs and while at my local record store noticed the CD selection was good and very cheap! In the last few weeks I've picked up 50+ CDs with cases and inserts for under $100, mostly at thrift stores. It's not uncommon to find desirable albums for $1 in great shape!

Essentially your paying less than 10 cents a song and can convert them to MP3 files if you want. How are more people not doing this? Obviously there aren't to many since low prices indicate low demand. Was this the case with records when CDs dominated 20-30 years ago?

Looks like buying CDs now is the music bargain that may not last, since streaming is the it thing now.

 

It all depends what you are looking for.

 

Welcome to the forum.

 

The odds of me finding a CD that 1) I want, 2) is likely to sound at least as good as the vinyl (or doesn't have a vinyl equivalent) and 3) is cheap, is not particularly likely.

Don't get me wrong - I still do occasionally buy CDs, but what I buy is almost never cheap, even if used.

 

It's a good time to be buying!

I do caution anyone willing to listen, it's the year 2019 very few CD purchases you make today will be worth what you paid for them in even a years time. Of course will always be exceptions as nothing is absolute...but all they will is exceptions to what is now the norm.

 

Everybody keeps saying this, but the ones I really, really, REALLY want are hardly ever found at rock bottom prices.

 

even if I don't want to buy a CD most of the time I cannot pass up the outrageous bargains these day...: )

 

Used CDs are an awesome deal .... i went back to vinyl around 2014 .... but still keep my eyes open for things that i can´t find on vinyl .... these are the glory days for cheap CDs for sure!

 

The real question is...
Why is vinyl so expensive?

 

Buyers market in general.

My used CD to vinyl purchases have effectively reversed in the last seven years or so, as a result.

 

I’m loving the days of inexpensive CDs!!
I was just recalling in 1986 when I first started getting into CDs and how hard it was to feed my appetite at $16.00 a pop on income from a part time job.

 

My collection is fairly small ~100 LPs and ~60 complete CDs and ~75 loose CDs, so finding new to me albums isn't difficult. I literally went to 3 thrift stores in 3 hours time and picked up 30 albums for under $40. CDs also allow you to buy an album you may not like and lose very little.

 

CDs now remind me of the vinyl market when I started buying in 1990 or so. Glad I bought all the records I did when nobody wanted them! I've been kinda priced out of vinyl these days so I'm buying CDs like I never have before!

 

My experience as well.

 

Not what I would call cheap ($299.99 on the low end). One of the titles I had been trying to license from Universal since 2017:

Torch Song - Exhibit A

 

The Quietus | Opinion | Black Sky Thinking | Perfect Sound For A Little Longer: In Defence Of The CD

 

CDs and other physical media are being deprecated by the industry in favor of downloads and especially streaming media, where they can make more money with less overhead. Some consumers favor this because they're less encumbered by stuff. I can relate to this because my house is stuffed with too much stuff, and it gets in my way, but I still prefer physical music media. I've been thinking about the feasibility of a local digital music server system. I'm not on board with commercial streaming services.

 

I went in my local Salvation Army store on Monday and found Tommy, Live at Leeds and Who's Next, MCA CDs, for $2 each. I already had them, so left them for someone else to luck upon.

 

ummm.....supply & demand?

 

People are ditching their CDs (and DVDs), I love it.

 

CDs are much cheaper than vinyl ever was. If you figure '90s CDs were $16 a pop and those same CDs can be found used for $2 now. So about an 1/8 of the price. I work with a guy, and he's buying them up. And they're pretty good albums as far as selections goes. Used vinyl in the '90s was $3-5 for most records in VG condition, but they were sold new for $8-12 through the '80s & '90s, it's not even close to the bargains. This is about 1/2 price, maybe 1/3. Cross-comparing formats then to now, you get a similar disparity. CDs were $16 in the '90 compared to a used $4 record. So about 1/4 of the price looking for a bargain. Buying a used CD at $2 now compared to $25 for a vinyl record, it's less than a 1/10th. Even sillier is that often, the physical CD is cheaper than the cloud based file today. The CD has just lost that much demand.

The real bargains in the '90s were the availability of vinyl pressings in VG+ condition for well under $10. I would say, $6 was a good price. The Beatles stuff always held their value and I never found many mono pressings. But everything else was easy to find. If you waited long enough, you'd mostly come across well cared for pressings pretty cheap. Today used vinyl is selling for close to the price they sold for in the '70s new.

Here's something I wonder about. I bought a lot of new records in 1989-90 really cheap. Record stores were discounting them 1/2 price to make room for CDs. Did Best Buy offer close out prices for new CDs when they stopped selling them? From a logistical stand point CDs are easier to deal with being smaller. But even though I buy mostly vinyl, I think I might have missed some bargains with new CDs. SACDs didn't seem to be liquidated like vinyl in 1990. If they were Hybrids, they just put them in the CD racks. The ones with DSD only layers as I recalled were lowered to CD prices and were bought by those savvy enough to recognize a bargain. But, it was not more than 20% off the original pricing.

 

I too have been wondering about / waiting for the CD blowout sale bargains. I bet there are warehouses full of Tower Records, Sam Goody, The Wiz, and Coconuts dead stock

 

If I go to the supermarket with the sole intention of buying a cheap CD then I can do so. If however I am looking for a specific title by a specific artist (as is the case 100% of the time) then I end up spending a fortune. My last 5 CDs cost me $180 in total...

 

Exactly. When sales drop off, you find out just how little they will charge you for a product.

 

Supply and demand, as others have already mentioned. Personally, I'd have to dig through so much uninteresting and horrible crap (i.e., boy band schlock, Smash Mouth, Crazytown, ABBA, etc.) to find some remotely interesting stuff, especially at thrift stores.

For the past couple years, I've been hitting some rare and hard-to-find releases on CD's for much cheaper whereas getting it on LP is nigh unobtanium without spending gobs of cash. Examples include Motorhead Japanese pressings, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer first pressings, a Rammstein Maxi-Single exclusive Australian tour, Voivod first pressings, etc.