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

Recovered? When will that be, and who is going to buy them at that point? The older collectors dying off, or on fixed retirement incomes? Or did you mean a sudden renaissance of kids who download everything for free? Unlike vinyl which has some collectability depending on the type of music, cds are only going to go in one direction in price....:thumbsdn:

 

I can’t imagine why you would think that prices for used CDs will recover. What in this economic and techological climate indicates this will ever happen. Everyone speaks of the resurgence of vinyl but in the end it is a miniscule percentage of overall sales of albums. Additionally what is the value of vinyl to trade in right now? What do you get $1 or $2 an album. I don’t see CDs ever recovering in a significant way.

 

They're worthless. Send them all to me and I'll dispose of them for you.

 

Tell that to Dixon's who generally charge between $12-$15....your post can best be described as misinformation.

 

MORE than decent money on Amazon Marketplace, on a weekly basis.

 

One day, this deflation will end. It just cannot be an aprupt development.

The current popular mp3 download format has not incorporated the benefits of the CD just yet. It's not lossless and it does not offer any tangible artwork nor info on who plays what.

Only if the next big mainstream music format will also include those benefits of the CD, the used CD deflation would not end.

At this point in time, people are still buying new CDs even - and most of them are not in the landfill business ;-)

 

CD sales have been declining fairly dramatically, double digit percentages, annually for several years extending prior to the ecomonmic downturn. Downloads are increasingly available for purchase at CD (16/44.1) quality or better (up to 24/192) and in a number of cases PDF files of the complete booklet come with them. The album artwork can also be easily downloaded and displayed in a much more dramatic fashion on an HDTV or even an iPad. Optical disc technology in general and CDs in particular may not now be dinosaurs and extinct but they will drift into a small specialty niche market, like vinyl, in the years to come.

 

They pay $44 for the Beatles Stereo Box but only $28,75 for the Mono Box. And they pay $11 for the old Blue Album CD but only $2 for the remastered CD. Strange.

 

My local cd shop owner low-balled me when I tried to trade in a few used cd's several years ago. I was a regular customer there and known by name. My perspective then and now is if you have a small business you learn who your regular customers are and treat them right. Now he's soon to go out of business and I hear he's had two cars repossessed and about to lose his house. He's closed 3 other stores that I know of. He's not much of a businessman.

 

Beware of selling to Second Spin , I sent them a bunch of DVDs and they didn't give me credit for 2 of them, claiming they were not in the box......which was not true,I packed the box myself.

 

I will never ever sell my Beatles CDs ...

 

From the other side of the fence, virtually every customer that comes in the door believes they are going to retire from their collection of late 70s Beatles pressings because they watch Antique Roadshow.

I have to tactfully remind them that most of The Beatles catalog sold millions of copies of each for 30+ years and that their own copies are played to worthlessness.

 

My advice to the OP? Don't be such a crybaby. Used record stores aren't in business to make you rich. You seem like a fairly seasoned collector, so you should have no reason to be offended when a store offers you less for a CD than you think it's worth. I'd hate to see your face when you try to trade in your used car on a new one. Retailers buy used goods for less than what they're worth so that they can make money by selling them for what they are worth. Seems simple to me.

If you're convinced these "hugely OOP" and "big-time OOP" discs are so valuable, put them online. You'll find out what they're worth pretty quickly.

And yeah, your cause wasn't helped at all by being so condescending with the clerk. Just an FYI.

 

What were the CD's that were worth $ 20-40?

 

That being said , I don't think your gonna get an offer of 5 cents for your Used car. I wonder if there are any consumer protection laws protecting unknowing customers?

Someone at Newbury Comics told me that the old Factory label New Order albums fetch a hefty price and some guy walked in and sold off a bunch of them. The employees scooped them up at a very generously low cost.

Is it all fair game when you walk in or does some kind of morals enter the picture at some point?

 

Are you suggesting there should be a law to prevent a store from offering $.50 for a used CD?

So what? If the seller was really concerned about being ripped off, they would have done some research online or gotten multiple quotes.

This isn't lending, financing a house or some other type of major financial commitment. Morals have no role in this type of business transaction.

Clerk: "hey, I'd really like to give you $5 for this New Order CD, it's one of my favs"
Customer: "that would be great! I am really getting a fair price, I paid $18.99 for that back in 1995 at my local Tower Records".
Clerk: "sorry I can only give you $.75 for it today because we already have 6 copies on the shelf, and New Order does not sell as good as it used to"

What is the problem here????

 

Trust me, I have run a business for 23 years and there is no such word as Morals in
the business world.

 

First off ,it was vinyl and it all depends if they gave him a Nickel for vinyl that could fetch upwards of $50 -$100...yea I find something wrong with that.

 

So why are you suggesting that CD stores should offer more money based on morals? Or did I misinterpret your post?

 

See post #98.

 

So you would be able to prove that the person/clerk that offered $0.05 knew ahead of time he going to sticker it on the shelf for $100? If so, that store takes a risk offering $0.05 if the customer has the slightest clue it's worth more. The customer can always refuse the offer, and now the store has less inventory to sell.

 

Dixon's will sell a new release for $12, a pseudo hip title for $14 and a 'deleted' title for slightly more (but no one ever buys them). Look below the display racks for literally thousands of $3 and $4 cds. A lot of their prices are total fantasy but they're actually good titles and we've all gotta dream.

PS Dixon's didn't close their Prahran shop because cd sales were booming

 

I was just saying , should morals or whatever ....feeling like you might be ripping them off might make you (the retailer) feel guilty.....I dunno.

I understand they need $$$$$ to stay in business, I just never understood giving someone a nickel for a box set that they can turn around and sell for $20 plus.

How about at least a dollar for that or even 50 cents ....not a Nickel .....can't buy anything for a nickel anymore.

 

They should offer $1 for a CD copy of R.E.M.'s "Monster" CD that they have 23 copies of already? A nickel or straight refusal is their best option, they have to stay in business, pay the employees, insurance, light bill etc.

Most CD shops are familiar enough with their own inventory, customer traffic, and local demand to determine if they should pay $0.05, $1 or $4 for a CD. "Morally" you can't override that.

 

Now a days none of these clerks know ,they just enter it in a computer. So really it's the management or owners of these establishments.