Examples of ridiculous CD prices

I feel fortunate that they are still alive and well at my two go-to shops here.

Example: I snagged a Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells promo, on vinyl VG/VG+ for $3 a few months back. So not all Barbara Streisand and Barry Manilow.

 

I've streamed a version of it to hear it but I would like this mastering but nooooo...that's not happenin'

Even the more standard CD releases for this title are upwards of $150 so unless one falls out of the sky and into my hands this will be no more than a passing thought.

 

I assume you didn't major in Business or Economics?

 

Are there any examples of any of these $900.00+ CD's actually selling?

 

A bad economy is going to cut down on buyers and it is also going to increase the amount of items that people are looking to sell, which drives down the prices. The buyer may know he will sell it eventually, but if he is already sitting on a lot of inventory, you come to a point you want to hang on to as much cash as you can. Especially now when a health dept. lockdown could close you up for who knows how long.

 

“The economy is really bad right now so I am going to pay you 1/10 of what your items are worth so that I can then turn around and sell them at slightly under retail value”. How does that sound like legitimate, ethical business practice?

 

The thing with US coins is that you can look up their values. There's no way $50,000 for a Proof 5c 1867 nickel was a lowball offer. It would need to sell for $70,000 at auction to make the seller over $50,000 (assuming the auction house take 20%, which isn't uncommon).

 

I said it before: selling to a dealer is a last resort (except for donating them to goodwill). Dealers will always offer you below market values because they have to make a profit themselves. Maybe the offer was low because the dealer didn't actually want the items you took. You only have look at the anount of space these things take up to realise a dealer would want items they could sell for between $10 and $20 (basically audiophile titles) rather than $1 or $2 (especially if they have half a dozen other copies of the same title in the store room).

 

How do you know your items are worth 10 times what they offered you? Have you looked at completed listings on eBay?

The reality is that maybe 98 percent of CDs are next to worthless now, but there is a small percentage that can fetch good money.

 

I agree. The difficulty I have is knowing the difference... I have a wall full of cds and probably near 1000 in boxes in the loft. I very rarely play them and could use the money but have no idea of the value and no real clue how to find out other than going through eBay completed listings for each and every one (and even that is fraught with anomalies). For instance, I have all of the Miles metal spine complete sessions sets listed on page 1 of this thread (incl OTC and the complete Cellar Door). I have the Coltrane complete Impulse recordings. But the difference between those (admittedly crazy) Amazon prices and the median sales prices on Discogs for what appears to be the same item is immense...

I have a very good head for vinyl prices as that has been my main passion for decades. But cd prices? I really have no idea...

 

I judge value based on how much I pay for items. If I have recently bought a boxed set for $100 off of eBay, then my local shop offers me $10 for it a couple weeks later, who is really at fault? How much do you think the shop will turn around and sell the item for? I’ll tell you - they’re going to look up how much the box is going for on eBay and price accordingly.

 

Then why not sell it yourself? I don't see shops as places to sell stuff, but places to pick up bargains, or hard to find items at a reasonable price. A couple of years ago I was in Glasgow, Scotland. A store had a selection of CDs by The Fall. Starting price £8.99. No thanks. However I pleasantly surprised to find some early Japan manufactured CDs by The Police for £2.99 each. Foolishly, I did not pick up an import 2CD of Hawkwind's Space Ritual on One Way for £5.

 

I would start with the most obvious desirable items. The median price is the one where the item will sell. If you are not quite sure about parting with the item, then price it a lot higher. If it sells, then the higher price will make parting with the item easier. And you can always reduce the price. Accurate grading is the key. People will do repeat business with a seller who knows what they are doing. The more run of the mill CDs are harder to price if you are not a regular collector (same with LPs: I'm sure stores have to deal with people with their beat up Beatles records).

 

It's not only RC/Roadrunner. Lots of early OP death metal in general is pricey. As an example, look at the releases on Turbo or JL America.

And don't get me started on OP Black Metal. There are plenty of cds in the 20+ range, but OP vinyl by Emperor, Mayhem, Burzum, etc usually hover around 4 digits. One only needs to look at the discogs highest seller each month to verify it. I couldn't imagine paying 3k for a nice copy of Dark Medival Times by Satyricon.

Misfits and Samhain prices make most of the above sound like a bargin. Some of those releases have sold for 10K plus, with a handful going for over 20k.

That said, I'm glad I bought quite a few of the pricer metal Cds back in the 90s and early 2000s. That Immolation one has eluded me as I didn't get into them till I saw them on a bill with Immortal/Satryicon/Angel Corpse. Its the only Immolation missing from my collection.

 

That sounds like a killer show. The only time I saw them was with Oppressor, Brutal Truth, and Cannibal Corpse. Immolation had these cool black light things on their speaker stacks. I spent every last dollar I had on Brutal Truth merch that night and got the Immolation cd a few weeks after. I haven't seen a copy of Dawn of Possession for under $60 lately.

I want to say I saw Angel Corpse a year or so later with Incantation. Angel Corpse's drummer was SICK!

 

You saved yourself 5 pounds. One Way's reissues were crap (they were a couple of hours away in the state capitol Albany).

 

I thought that Space Ritual One Way was the best digital mastering (or at least a decent one), although it might have been only one person here claiming it to be the best digital mastering. Anyhow, it was gone on my last visit in August.

 

It was a sick show. I was up against the barrier at Chicago's HOB. It was 2000, Satyricon headlined, so this would have been the Rebel Extravaganza tour cycle. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw that immolation disc in the wild.

 

I think you need to read a little more about ethics. And a lot more about business. A lot.

 

The 2001 UK EMI is the way to go. 3 bonus tracks and a great booklet.

 

I'm looking for that Immolation CD, too, and you're not kidding. I was lucky to nab as many 90s death metal CDs as I can but there's still many I'm not able to get, such as Asphyx, Pungent Stench, Malevolent Creation's Retribution, Gorguts' The Erosion of Sanity, and many, many more.

 

“Some men, ya just can’t reach.... that’s the way he wants it... that’s the way he gets it”. - from ‘Cool Hand Luke’

 

Are you sure?

Maybe you just got all the easy to find stuff for cheap and now collecting is getting more difficult.

As a CD dealer who buys collections ... I'm giving away or throwing away more CDs than I'm actually listing online.

 

anything over 2 dollars.