Why are CDs so cheap!!!

It’s outdated technology. It’s still my preferred way of listening to music though.

 

I was definitely not paying $16 a pop for CDs in the '90s (the Best-Buy/Circuit City/Target price wars usually put them around $9-$14).

In any event, I think supply/demand answers all questions here. CDs were manufactured in a quantity to satisfy the demand of consumers in the 1990s, which was many times larger than the demand for CDs today. Even in the 1970s, vinyl was not manufactured in the same degree of quantity as CDs in the 1990s.

However, as myself and others have noted, plenty of CDs that we might like to buy are not cheap, even used. Why? Probably, because not many were made. Obscure prog rock from the early 2000s, for example, was just not manufactured in anything close to the same degree of quantity as Superunknown or Dookie.

 

Because `people` are basically stupid, and believe whatever they are told.
If they are told that Cds are worthless, then they give them to charity shops, or sell them for 25p at boot sales.
If they are told that `streaming` is the way to go then they purchase downloads at poor bit-rates, so they are actually buying nothing.
If they are told that `Bose` or `Bang & Olufsen` are `HI-Fi` then they buy that brand.......Haha.
If they are told that a vinyl reissue is worth £25 then they will buy that....Hahaha....
Sorry I have to stop now, as I cannot type for laughing....

 

I think I’m still paying what I have done for years for new CDs. About £10-12. Box sets and deluxe editions can be quite pricey too. But I too see lots of second hand CDs in charity shops for 99p. More often than not they’re not worth that, IMO. The ones in my local charity shops anyway.

 

Umm I paid €18 for The Specials album this morning, the lp cost me €20 last week!

 

Neither my wife's car nor her laptop will accept CD's. I play them in my garage and my pickup, but I've not bought a CD in decades. And nowadays if I want to listen to music that I don't have on vinyl, I just use pandora or Amazon Prime music on my phone and run it to whatever hi-fi I'm around via bluetooth.

CD's have no real value to most people nowadays. They are not as bad as VHS tapes - yet - but are getting there. Streaming is killing everything except vinyl. In a real way, they don't even compete with each other, really. I think of vinyl as a beautifully restored MG TC and streaming as a generic, fully loaded modern SUV. They both get you there, but one is about the experience of the trip.

 

Because people aren't buying them!!

 

Just out of curiosity, what were they?

 

me too! and then you have ebay stores running buy 3 get 2 free deals or buy 2 get 2 with free shipping so you pay a shade over 2 bucks for a cd

 

Yard sales. Thrift stores.
I’ve probably increased my CD collection by 500 plus, paying an average of $1.
All three Beatle anthologies, Jeff Beck remastered Truth with bonus cuts, Moody Blues two CD best of with deeper cuts, Brad Paisley, jazz and jazz-fusion, all kinds of great stuff.
I remember paying $9-12 for new CDs back in the day, so....

 

Estate sales are how I built up my LP collection to over 3000 back about 15 years ago. People were practically giving away vinyl.

I got a lot of 70's direct drive turntables at the time as well. Never paid more than $30.

 

What's with all this frantic rummaging and desperate searching ?
Practically every CD under the sun can be bought dirt cheap (or in the case of the 'exotic' - at a reasonable price) from Amazon. Just a push of a button away. Easy peasy.
Just fill yer boots, boys !

 

Presently out of favor

 

Show me 2nd hand cd stores with cheap prices in Poland and I will gladly pay them a visit.

 

The only CD's I own that I really cherish are the Pink Floyd "boxed sets" that my daughter got me for Christmas in 2017. each LP sized box came with dvd's, blue rays, custom marbles, a scarf, book of art devoted to the album, documentaries on dvd and the CD's.

I'll have those for quite a while. My daughter worked for Warner Records at the time.

 

This is why people are clamoring to get into the US. Cheap CD's.

 

Oh Happy Days

 

The problem I had with CD's was that a CD cost the same as a good movie on DVD, and sometimes more. I could never justify buying a new CD when that difference was staring me in the face.

 

Because it's suddenly popular again, the record companies are cashing in ca-ching ca-ching

 

often cheap CD's are ****.
Not always..
Often

I never found a GOOD MADE CD for little money.
Try to find me some nice MFSL/APO sacd?s...
I would like it a lot...

 

Some rare OOP albums (when you want mint or excellent condition the cost is high) and deluxe boxsets. I only ever buy used if the item is OOP or unavailable to buy sealed. For instance I paid £25 + £11 p&p ($46) for Bob Catley's OOP Middle Earth CD from a seller in Italy. That's $46 for one used CD. Then there's £159 ($205) for Macca's Red Rose Speedway deluxe boxset etc.

 

A good CD will be played many, many times. A film once maybe twice tops. They are completely different things. You're on a music forum, do you not like music??

 

Yes nobody wants them now. Most of the Goodwill stores in NYC won’t even bother with them anymore.

 

I have a brand new BMW X1 on Order which I will hopefully take delivery of next month.........it has a CD player fitted!

 

10 CDs for £1.25 in one of the local charity shops. All the usual dregs, but had some cool finds there over the last couple of years.