Are CD's Pretty Much Worthless Now or Am I Over Obsessing?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by DJ Phoenix, Jun 28, 2011.

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  1. DJ Phoenix

    DJ Phoenix New Member Thread Starter

    I just took over 70 cd's to Amoeba Hollyweird, as i needed some cash, and was cleaning out some of my huge collection. Anyways, brought them some OOP stuff, as well as some pretty good titles, and the lady(and some of you are going to laugh @ this), only offered me $50 cash, and $68 trade.

    I said, "Umm..hon..thats less than a dollar a disc...this cd right here alone sells for $40 bucks, this one for $20+, and a few others are OOP as well. Infact, I bought one of these cd's here for $22 bucks, and you only want to give me less than a buck for it?", she flipped out on me.....am I over obsessing about this, or are cd's pretty much worthless now? I mean, Amoeba keeps crying about how they want cd's....but they dont want to pay anything for them apparently.


    I just laughed @ her, grabbed the cd's, took them to another store, and they gave me $120 for them......:righton:

    Am I wrong thinking cd's are pretty much useless now? Even the guy @ the second record shop said he doesnt sell that many cd's anymore...a lot more vinyl......but jebus.......less than a buck each Amoeba wanted to give me.....
     
  2. BluesOvertookMe

    BluesOvertookMe Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX, USA
    I would have given you $140 for them probably.

    Except for Raised on Radio. :D
     
  3. No used store is going to pay anything more than a $1 or $2 for most CDs. The whole model right now is predicated on people en masse dumping their CD collections without culling out the valuable ones. There is no profit in it for a store to buy your $1 CD and sell it for barely $4, that hardly covers overhead. If you want the maximum value for your valuable used CD's, sell them individually yourself.
     
  4. jfortun

    jfortun Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    It probably didn't help that you called her "hon".
     
  5. jl151080

    jl151080 Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    I've been selling a lot on Amazon marketplace recently and have sold some titles for decent money. I think you'll always lose with stores, since they will want to make a profit.
     
  6. houston

    houston Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas, USA
    right, why quote the lady that you can get $22 for one? if so, do it, Amoeba probably gets more people unloading cd collections, and doesn't need to offer more than they did....and yes, cd's are basically worthless now, at least, 98% of them
     
  7. sgtmono

    sgtmono Seasoned Member

    I learned this long ago.

    However, for CDs that will only sell online for a few dollars anyway, I bring those to the used shop. Not worth listing them online, dealing with shipping, etc, if you're only going to make a dollar or two per disc. Time is valuable, too.
     
  8. houston

    houston Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dallas, Texas, USA
    she may have been Vietnamese, and thought he was saying "kiss" :winkgrin:
     
  9. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    For me the rule is:

    Run-of-the mill stuff - trade in locally for $2/each. Sometimes I get more than that, which is nice. I don't think I ever got less than that.

    More expensive stuff - sell here

    Works great.
     
  10. autodidact

    autodidact Forum Resident

    A lot of CDs were worthless when people paid $12 for them. :)

    What I'd like to know is how companies in UK are selling CD's for a buck or less on amazon marketplace plus $2.98 shipping, then sending them to America, i.e. myself. I keep checking my wish list and grabbing these things when they become available. And sometimes they do cost $2-3 plus shipping. But all around, I can't see how they aren't losing money on some of these offerings, and making nothing on the rest.

    Oh well, their loss is my gain. The discs themselves are usually near mint (though the cases are often scuffed). That's worth something to me.

    It is probably unwise to count on any decent resale value for most CDs heading into the future. Suggestion: if you can get so little for most of the CDs, sell the ones that are valuable on your own. Donate the rest to a library, if the music is good.
     
  11. Myke

    Myke Trying Not To Spook The Horse

    This. sorry Keith, couldn't resist. :laugh:
     
  12. Saint Johnny

    Saint Johnny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Asbury Park
    You think CDs are worthless?
    When I worked at a used record store in the early 90s. My boss would not offer more than .05, .10 cents, at most for 98% of the vinyl that came through our doors. I saw him repeatedly either pass on large whole lots of records, or decline to buy any if someone was even slightly indignant about what he was offering. He'd say, "Go sell em yourself".
     
  13. MikeyH

    MikeyH Stamper King

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    Unless the store has a really good buying policy, you got the average rate.

    Most stores have an average buy and average out the sales to make sure they make their overheads.

    Amoeba seldom look up a disc. That's a lot of reliance on the buyers' knowledge.

    Yes, most CDs are essentially worthless, to answer your question, in the general marketplace. Might be different in ten years.
     
  14. Driver 8

    Driver 8 Senior Member

    If you've got a CD that you think is worth $40, why are you selling it to Amoeba? Do you expect them to give you $20 for it? More to the point, why don't you sell it to someone who will pay $40 for it?
     
  15. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    One more thing - sometimes less is more.

    In other words, rather than take 70 CD's in at once, break it up into 3 or so smaller groups. I've found that the less work a clerk has to do at one time, the more generous the offers. About 20 CD's at a time is my limit.
     
  16. Saint Johnny

    Saint Johnny Forum Resident

    Location:
    Asbury Park
    :agree: This is why I decided long ago, to never sell anything. :biglaugh:
     
  17. floweringtoilet

    floweringtoilet Forum Resident

    Location:
    Warren, RI, USA
    It would have been fine at Soundgarden in Baltimore, MD.
     
  18. seed_drill

    seed_drill Senior Member

    Location:
    Tryon, NC, USA
    I just went into a store that had walls of cassettes as dividers. That will probably be cds in 10 years (provided such a place still exists).
     
  19. To answer the original question - yes, basically worthless AFAIC.

    I've been buying music since I was a kid in the '60s. I've literally contributed thousands of dollars to the music industry out of my own pocket. With practically everything now digitized and freely and easily available through various channels, you think I'm going to lay out any more of my hard-earned cash for music at this point in the game?

    To any businesses still selling CDs as their primary mode of profit, I wish you a lot of luck...
     
  20. dirtymac

    dirtymac Forum Resident

    Location:
    Exile, MN
    I've been getting $3-$4 for quite a few relatively ordinary CDs at a shop in Minneapolis this year.

    It'll all depend on where you're at, what you've got to sell and what a given market needs.

    Generally speaking, though, they sure don't sell for much now, do they?
     
  21. You've got to remember...these stores are trying to make a profit. They'll try to give you the lowest trade-in value they can, then sell to another customer and make profit margin off that sale. The sensible thing to do is to cull out all the truly collectible items from the stuff you want to sell and put those out through an outlet that will give you actual collector value on them, like E-Bay. The less collectible items you can sell to brick and mortar stores like Amoeba. Another possibility is using this Forum's own Marketplace section to sell to other members. In any case, good luck with your project!:wave:
     
  22. DJ Phoenix

    DJ Phoenix New Member Thread Starter

    I understand all that...believe me...but just being "fair" to someone...is that too much to ask for?

    The cd i said was "worth $40" was something Ive seen sell for not less than that a few times on Ebay("Devo Live"). had she offered say $10-$13 for it, i wouldve jumped @ the chance. No, I didnt sell that one to her. The guy @ the second record store was fair...thats all I wanted.....not too much to ask for IMO.

    Im done buying expensive discs/records...no point in it.....
     
  23. 5-String

    5-String μηδὲν ἄγαν

    Location:
    Sunshine State
    My two local record stores do not buy cds anymore, except for some extremely rare stuff.
    Consider yourself lucky.
     
  24. MikeyH

    MikeyH Stamper King

    Location:
    Berkeley, CA
    I used to buy for a store here, and there was no way I could adjust the agreed prices by more than a small %, under certain rules.

    You might be able to argue prices in a smaller, knowledgeable collector store, but not in a business. The ratio is 4-5x on used product across the board, so you will be lucky to get $1 for anything that might end up in the $3 bin, even though it might start at $5 in new condition.

    You hope that on average someone comes in with a box of blue notes or psych vinyl to help now and again. It still happens. But a lot of lower level stuff does get turned away now as store space is more of a premium (you want to put out product that sells, not product that doesn't).
     
  25. stereoptic

    stereoptic Anaglyphic GORT Staff

    Location:
    NY
    These are the rates that most used CD stores are going to offer today, otherwise they will wind up the topic of another thread: "My local independent store is closing this week".
     
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