Article on selling used CDs

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Francophile50, Jun 27, 2020.

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  1. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    Crimson Witch likes this.
  2. Pipian

    Pipian Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Personally, I’d probably stick with eBay to keep the widest possible audience. (Amazon I’d be a bit wary of. I sold a few CDs there some years back, but their percentage cut was a bit larger than I expected.)
     
  3. Dillydipper

    Dillydipper Space-Age luddite

    Location:
    Central PA
    Well, obviously they need to remove Amazon from the article to keep it up to date. And maybe, re-title it to include "other than those Amazon bastards" in the heading.

    But it's a good article to remind people how many options are out there, they may have not thought about. The market is in flux right now, and people who don't even consider backing-up their own discs on hard drive or servers, are starting to see their collection as the albatrosses they really wouldn't be until they reach near-death, and are suddenly obsessed with cleaning house before the grandkids do.
     
  4. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    I was investigating Decluttr and it's too difficult to use. They don't even have a way that you can type in an artist or a title. You can either drop-in an image of the album or use the barcode. Who keeps the bar code? they have like over 700,000 listings so how could you wade through that? People who want to create websites to help people find product need to make it friendly. This is why eBay is King. You can search different ways people list things.
     
  5. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
    Unless I missed it by scrolling too quickly (?) no mention of Discogs, the largest online database.


    Occasionally have found new items
    (only sealed CDs) from third party sellers on Amazon, but primarily deal only with domestic (U.S. & Canada ) sellers thru Discogs.

    A local record store that buys near-mint CDs (of desirable titles) and offers 5 dollars each, which they turn and sell for 7 only buys in-person.
     
  6. broshfab4

    broshfab4 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Long Island, NY
    I just use my local record store for the few I need to get rid of. No stranger danger problems, the store knows what it is and we agree on the price right then and there.
     
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  7. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    You're getting a good deal. I'd be happy to pay those prices. I'm still trying to figure out discogs it's a bit of an enigma and I'm trying to figure how to look things up titles effectively. How to figure out good sellers from Bad sellers.
     
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  8. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    Most record stores around my area won't buy CD's anymore unless they are top shelf highly desireables such as MFSL gold disks. Sad to say, almost no one wants them anymore unless you practically give them away and even then that may not work since most stores have too much CD stock as is that they can't move.
    IMO in order to sell cd's online you need to sell a bunch of them as a lot and include a hot collectable jewel along with the dogs that no one wants. Or else you have to severely undercut your asking price. A glance at discogs for any given cd will show lots of copies for sale of any given item, you have to undercut the lowest price or it'll be up for sale forever. I would think Craig's List would be the best way to sell off a big batch and most profitable with no internet business or shipping fees but you'd better be prepared to give a lot of them away to get rid of them. If you can get 20 cents on the dollar on average for your cd's, you're doing REALLY well. If anyone has success stories selling their CD's online and not taking too much of a loss, I'd love to hear about them.
     
  9. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    Unfortunately for sellers it's a buyer's market. You have to give good deals or you're not selling your product. I know this and I kicked the sellers no offense. What I am buying pretty much I can sell. I don't want to sell. I'll be using these thing for years. This is why I'm getting great deals on import CDs and taking advantage of those. I just have a strong feeling that this market is going to dry up and all the good stuff will be rare and sparse in the future.

    I hope my buying trend comes to an end soon but while there is great deals I find it hard to say no.
     
    owsley likes this.
  10. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
  11. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan

    Well I don't typically sell, I'm a buyer.

    Discogs has a rating system. Seller's profile contains info such as how many items they've sold, approval rating (I only buy from sellers that have a 99% approval rating or higher with high sales numbers.
    * a seller with 100% positive feedback who has only sold one record is not a safe bet because they lack a solid track record. I look for 99.5% positive feedback or higher when their sales are in the hundreds, 99.O % or higher if their transactions are in the thousands. Familiarity with the site rules is helpful because you want to deal with sellers who are good at following those rules. I always read customer feedback comments, to get an idea of how professionally the seller conducts their business.

    Discogs has a pretty good search function, but sometimes in order to get all of an artist's releases to come up it is necessary to be specific with titles and format. * also, if you type one letter in a name incorrectly, it won't anticipate what you meant to type - it just won't show any results at all. But I have found it much easier to use than Amazon or EBay.
    There is a community forum there as well and some contributors can be helpful in answering questions there.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2020
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  12. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    Some have said CD's will make a comeback but I'm not buying it. Some rare titles I'm sure will be worth more for if you hang on to them but the overall interest in the cd medium is dying. Everyone is either happy with Itunes mp3's or hi-res flacs of their favorites. It's all thumb drives and cloud now and will be for quite some time. Rare cd's you mention can be easily ripped and copied if you find someone who has what you're looking for. I still love CD's but buy very selectively these days.
     
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  13. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    Okay thanks I'll give it a shot. But you're wrong about eBay. Do you know how many top-dollar sider man comics I bought for cheap?
     
    Crimson Witch likes this.
  14. Ro-Go

    Ro-Go Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hudson Valley
    Since Covid Times, I've expanded my cd library by more than 500 discs through Discogs and Ebay. If you're looking to expand, Discogs is the way to go. Multiple sellers who will combine shipping. So I've gotten multiple 10+ cd orders, averaging $3 / disc shipped. The key is to spend the time perusing each seller's catalog, if you have the time.

    The hard to find stuff can be found on both sites as well. So glad I paid $23 for Van Morrison's A Period of Transition.

    I have yet to have a failed transaction, though I don't scrutinize the media. I've just gone down the rabbit hole of expansion through this site, Discogs and Wikipedia. A small diamond in the rough of living during trepidatious (or, terrible for some) times.
     
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  15. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    I understand. I'm buying CDs not to make money but to enjoy them and after I die if they get tossed in the trash who cares?
     
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  16. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
    Oh I only meant for finding music CD titles, Discogs is easier than EBay because Discogs seems to have more on offer, more sellers - at least that has been my experience.
     
  17. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
    CDs won't ever make a comeback to the level they were at during the height of their popularity, that is true.
    But neither are they going away entirely. Vinyl has remained a niche and so will CD.
     
    owsley likes this.
  18. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    I'm doing the exact same thing that you're doing but I haven't increased my library by 500! I have certain sellers on eBay and I just contact them and say how about these 10 CDs would you take this for them or ask them how much they would ask. They advertently charge me $4 , $5 or $6 dollars a CD that includes shipping!

    And I have been listening to CDs non-stop not because I want to listen to music as much as I need to check them to make sure they play well. Oh I'm expanding my library is well I probably had it at least a hundred are so CDs in a past few months.
     
  19. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
  20. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
  21. owsley

    owsley Senior Member

    Location:
    Boston
    Agreed. There is still a demand for cd's since they're so simple and easy to use. I think going forward they will be primarily used for multi-media box sets (ie. vinyl, cd, blue-ray) and for more obscure older vintage music that is not popular enough to be licensed by Itunes/Apple and of course for 'grey area' legal and bootleg releases
     
    Crimson Witch likes this.
  22. Francophile50

    Francophile50 The man with the satisfied ear. Thread Starter

    Location:
    Concord,CA
    Really? I haven't been buying long but the purchases I've made from Europe and Australia have taken just a little over a week that's including clearing customs to get to me. I'm super impressed with overseas mail.

    Domestic mail USPS has been smooth to a nightmare and everything in between. It's hit-and-miss. You would think that something from within my state we get to me quickly but sometimes it could take longer then something coming from Europe
     
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  23. Crimson Witch

    Crimson Witch Roll across the floor thru the hole & out the door

    Location:
    Lower Michigan
    Interesting. Things are changing rapidly, day-to-day, and as current pandemic conditions change regionally. I know that as recently as Michigan's lockdown period (which ended June 1st) there was no overseas coming out of Germany or Japan. That may have changed as I have not kept up. Also, my local record shop's distributor here in the states has not been getting product from abroad except from a couple labels in the UK.
    Things aren't like they were before the virus, but it can all change on a dime.
    I am not particularly eager to find out for myself which countries are a safe bet and which aren't - I just stay for now with domestic delivery, with which I have had good luck so far albeit slightly longer deliver times for non-essential goods since the pandemic started.
     
  24. lv70smusic

    lv70smusic Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco, CA
    I agree. Music should be purchased to be enjoyed, not as an investment. And if you're lucky, you will have a friend or family member who also loves music who will want your collection when you die.
     
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