Amazon UPC searches

Wondered about people’s experience with searching for specific CD titles on Amazon via UPC.

I’m hunting some early releases that have unique UPC codes. So after searching on Amazon I get the title and ASIN - and then I can view the used listings.

I’m wondering if people have bought in this way and whether the listings are accurate (ie, titles listed for a certain UPC really do carry that specific UPC), especially for the high volume charity sellers.

 

So I’ve just ordered some original Elton John releases using this method (UPC searches) as a test and I’ll report back how it goes.

 

Let us know. On Discogs people will list under any darn variation if it matches their artist/title, either because they don't know better or because they don't care and don't think anyone else does, either.

 

Amazon's UPC-tagged database for music products only goes back so far to a certain date before becoming unreliable. I want to say 1988 or 1990. Anything officially released after those dates, the UPC is more or less guaranteed to be correct if it's not an item page generated by third-party sellers. That doesn't mean the seller automatically listed it under the correct UPC.

Most of the remaining sellers on Amazon code their stock by UPCs - the changes to the CD requirements have driven away most anyone that isn't a larger corporate entity.

 

Here’s my first report. And it was a success!

Quick background: my strategy was to identify the unique UPC code for an early CD issue for specific mastering I’m seeking (using discogs), then search for that UPC on Amazon, and buy from one of high volume charity sellers (who generally never are able to answer questions about specific items). My theory is that the high volume charity sellers are scanning the UPC to create the listing.

For this experiment I targeted the first MCA US release of Honky Château. On discogs this has a unique UPC distinct from all other issues. Bought from a large Goodwill seller on Amazon after searching that UPC, and it arrived today, a near mint copy, the exact edition I was seeking.

Will give update on the other two titles when they arrive.

 

Data point #2: success. MCA first issue of Madman Across the Water arrived from a super-large Amazon seller. Again, got the version I was targeting.

 

Data point #3: Success! Polydor for US Tumbleweed Connection arrived, almost mint — again the exact CD that I was targeting.

So bottom line: if you can establish that an old barcode exists for only the edition(s) you’re seeking, then you can make it work searching for the UPC in Amazon. The leap of faith is that the UPC search yields an item, but amazon doesn’t provide the UPC anywhere in the listing.

 

If you plug in an item's Amazon code, ASIN, into a site like camelcamelcamel, that will tell you the corresponding UPC for the item.

The ASIN is always listed on an Amazon page under Product Details.