BHF? BHF pricing strategy was based on the popularity of the band. Top ranked artists such as The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac were priced at £2.99. Middle rank artists were priced at £1.99. And lowly ranked artists were 99p. I once saw a beat up copy of Tango in the Night for £2.99 (of course, many ebay sellers struggle to flog good copies for £1 plus shipping). The Beatles Love can be bought on ebay for as little as 99p plus shipping, so it is not surprising that it doesn't move for £2.99.
When I did some CD pricing for BHF the rule was generally that 1 CD albums are 1.99, 2 CD are 2.99 etc. But I'm pretty sure a Beatles album would have an extra quid at least. The manager did have a "Robbie Williams/Westlife etc" goes straight out into the box for World of Books to take policy, although that was never entirely followed because different volunteers, stock levels etc.
Most singles that I see are in those jewel cases designed for singles., although I once came across a stash of singles by indie artists such as Elliott Smith. I wish I bought some of them now.
Maybe you are right although I did buy a mint Japan for Europe copy of ELO's Balance of Power for 99p. Maybe the manager thought ELO were as bad as Robbie Williams, Westlife, etc. Of course, my local BHF became a clearance shop before it closed with 1 CD 50p and 2 CD £1.
Some bright spark in the Cats Protection League wants us to stop selling CDs and turn our shop into a boutique store selling ladies' clothing.
I think it depends a lot on the manager, the regional manager, the sales targets for CDs they've been set that month, the amount of stock that store has, etc. to be fair. I don't think there is one rule for the whole country.
My local one looks like it's a female clothing store, even has a board asking for volunteers interested in fashion, apparently it also stocks CDs, but I've never made it past the threshold because of how it looks, I guess dresses sell faster and for more than CDs and records though my cat prefers LPs for sharpening her claws and they really should take her preferences into account.
Wait a minute, what's a beagle doing working for cats? Is it an undercover infiltration, well your cover's blown now.
Just picked up a minty Tony Bennett Ultimate SACD today (even has the cardboard slipcover!) for £2.50 at my local BHF.... Figured it was worth the punt
Our local Cats Protection is the saddest charity shop in town. About 5 CDs, a mixture of Readers Digest discs and old copies of Microsoft Encarta, barely any childrens books or games, just dowdy women’s clothes (seemingly no mens) trashy books and rubbish homewares, and it smells kind of odd too. I’ve pretty much stopped going in. The Red Cross shop right next door is one of the best, though. The CDs aren’t cheap (2 or 3 quid), but they reliably have something interesting, and all the clothes are arranged by colour, which against the white walls gives the whole store a pleasant rainbow aesthetic. Most recent finds from there were Bowie’s Heathen (2CD Deluxe) and a latter-day Divine Comedy album. Our BHFs (we have 2) are above average for CDs - they seem to do £1/£2/£3 prices, with usually only trader trash at the lower price point. I’ve had plenty of treasure from them - ABBA’s The Singles fatboy, Breeders, Eric Dolphy, Daft Punk, Suede, Neil Finn, Teenage Fanclub, Ben Folds and some more. They do occasionally get those reconditioned CDs in shrink though (Replay?) which I refuse to have anything to do with.
Yes, you can understand the logic. More customers, more donations = greater revenue. Plus, unsold items can be sold as rags. It's not all plain sailing however. The key to s successful shop is having good quality donations worth buying, whether they are clothes or CDs.
Another key is having volunteers that are ruthless about throwing the real rubbish away, unfortunately if you don't get many donations this is difficult. Sorting media is complicated because of its high volume and wide range of values. The amount of space available for storage can also dictate the rate at which goods must keep moving out, which in turn can reduce prices.
I think sorting anything can be complicated if you have no real experience of it. A new Sue Ryder charity shop opened in my area. It looks great, but is there anything of real quality? The CDs are more or less what you would expect of a charity shop, apart from some obscure bagpipe CD that is a Japanese import (cost 2,500 Yen when new in 1991). I saw a Supertramp Breakfast in America, but they wanted £4 for it and I wasn't prepared to take the risk (sleeve wasn't brilliant). £5 for Bread's Manna.
Oh I love when the old price tags are kept on CDs people get rid of. It blows my mind how expensive some discs were when they first came out.
In this case, the price is printed on the rear artwork, which is quite common in Japan (either the rear artwork or obi). It would have been about £10 at the time or £21 today.
I love seeing CDs that someone paid $25-$30 for back in the day now just sitting in a charity shop for $2.
In this case, 50p or just under 1 Australian Dollar. I've seen more desirable Japanese imports in charity shops, mostly classical CDs, but one time Tracy Chapman's debut. If you are persistent, then you can build up a large collection of CDs from charity shops that cost only about 5% of their original value in real terms. Even better if you are a movie fan, since I've seen DVDs sold for 10 for £1 and the titles are better in general. Even Blu-rays can be had for 2 for £1.
Never really bothered looking at the movies in charity shops since I don't bother with DVD any more and they never really stock Blu-Ray.
Yes, not a huge movie fan myself. Well, not enough to justify a huge DVD collection, which is what I fear I would have after spending £10. Even new DVD boxsets are sometimes dirt cheap.
Today: British Sea Power - Open Season - £1 Grandaddy - Signal To Snow Ratio 2CD - £2 Alex Webb & The Copasetics - Call Me Lucky - still sealed, £2 A quid premium on 2-disc sets and sealed items it seems.
