Compact Disc Settlement: $12.60 Each

Just read in the Chicago Sun Times that CD buyers who applied for a share of the price-fixing settlement class-action lawsuit will be awarded this amount if approved by the judge.

Wow, a whole $12.60 for overpaying for cd's over a 5 year period!

 

Gee whiz. That's enough to buy one whole CD. Used.

 

If you do a search, you will find that this was discussed a while back.

 

Yes, but not the settlement amount. $12.60? The max was to be $20. Guess we're screwed again, surprise, surprise!

ED

 

If you only bought one cd you might be a winner other than that: forget it.

I didn't apply anyway.

mud-

 

I got a tax refund check from the IRS last year because of some mistake I had made.

$1.27

 

If it's only a measly $12.60 a person, maybe it would better to do what they would've done had too many people applied, use all the money for music education. Considering the state deficits that are sweeping across the country, people's aversion to taxes, and slashed education budgets (and music programs are easy targets), it wouldn't be a bad idea.

 

Actually, it will allow me to special order an $11.97 list price CD through my friends at CD Warehouse or get 1-2 used LPs. I may just end up replacing my CD-R of Bing's "I'm an Old Cowhand" CD on ASV with the actual CD as it is an excellent collection of his western material.

 

Gosh, I just can't wait for that check to arrive in the mail!

 

My sister and my mother thought that this is funny.

 

I think I deserve a double share.

 

I thought you and your crack team of lawyers got a separate settlement (everybody else's $7.40). Maybe Ven was holding out on you.

 

I'd make an effort to spend it at a high quality independent retailer if I knew where to find one.

 

$12.60!!?? Really??

Can I retire now?

 

Gee, that'll buy me 2/3 of the cost of a brand spanking new Cee Dee! WHY BOTHER?!?!?

 

Wow, that comes out to half-a-cent per CD for me!

Still, I fail to see how anyone can claim they were gouged on a pure luxury item like a CD. As much as we like to bash the big, bad record labels, either you thought the CD cost too much or you didn't. By definition, any CD you purchased was not too expensive, regardless of the machinations behind the scene.

We're not talking about food, shelter, medicine, electricity, insurance or running water here. It's like claiming you should get a refund because the theaters overcharged for the movies you attended, or your designer underwear was ruinously expensive.

 

I think the problem is that the record companies were found to be colluding to artificially inflate the price of CD's and keep them above a certain price point, in which case they would have been breaking the law, in the US at least. So, yeah, they should pay, but really - $12.60? It should be more like $5 per disc purchased, and then I would be getting a pretty hefty sum.

 

Yippee.

 

Granted, the record labels can act in tandem to not compete with each other price-wise, but even then, the decision is always the cutomer's to make.

If I buy the remaster of Peter Gabriel's SO for $15.99, then I've stated in no uncertain terms that it's worth $15.99 to me, even if it might have cost only $9.99 without the alleged collusion. I just don't see the legal basis for damage. CDs are not baby formula, gasoline, or car insurance; no one has to buy a CD.

 

So what you're saying is, either buy it or leave it? Are you really saying $15.99 is worth it for Peter Gabriel's SO remaster, if all other remasters are priced indentically? You never had the choice to say that may be too expensive, because they were all jsut as expensive. Do you see my point? How do you really know what it's worth, if there is no real price competition?

 

Wrong thread.

 

But I do know what it's really worth -- exactly as much as I was willing to pay for it; in this case, $15.99. I can argue that it's only worth $9.99 all day, but then why did I buy it?

I have to heat my home, buy baby formula, and fuel my car regardless of how much it costs. If I found out the regional energy company, grocery and discount stores, and gas stations colluded to ensure these staple goods never fell below a certain price, I'd be angry and expect some sort of prosecution.

But I don't need to buy CDs, concert tickets, or designer underwear. Those goods can be price-fixed all day; I would just purchase fewer units, based on whether the luxury item was worth whatever was being charged. If I genuinely felt the prices were unjustified, I wouldn't buy any at all, just as I didn't buy any $100 Rolling Stones tickets, or any $15 cotton briefs.

On the surface, this settlement seems another example of our culture-wide abdication of personal responsibility. Someone else made us pay more than necessary for a completely unnecessary item? Call the lawyers.

 

The Sherman Anti-Trust Act was enacted in 1890 and applies to all commerce, not just "necessary" items. Maybe we abdicated personal responsiblity a long time ago?