Quite! Whether their demise is imminent or their popularity is on the rise, now is the time to stock up! Thrift stores are bursting at the seams with great bargains.
I started to buy CDs in late 1984, and I recall them being around $15 a pop usually. I never paid $25 for a non-import CD and don't recall seeing any in the DC area - maybe those were the 1983 prices? By 1986, you started to get super-discounts. I remember the Wiz expanded down to DC and they had "loss leader" new/popular CDs for $10!
Wasn't there a thread a few years back that claimed all the labels would formally bail on CD by like 2018? Something like that...
2020 -- CD's Gone By 2020? or maybe 2012 -- "CD-format to be abandoned by major labels by the end of 2012..."
I remember getting Graceland in '87 and it was def. in the 20s. I also recall Sam Goody selling CDs in the $24 range in the 90s. But I also bought CDs at The Wiz in NY - they definitely were cheaper. The mall record stores were really high. The film All things must pass does a good job covering the fact that CD prices actually rose through their heyday.
To be clear: I don't argue that some places didn't charge $$$ for CDs in the earlier years. And of course, mall stores kept their non-sale prices high... forever. The handful of CDs you can still get at FYE at like $19 each. But in my experience starting late 1984, I never experienced relentlessly high prices - meaning that I never had a situation where it wasn't easy to get any non-import I wanted for $15 or so...
...because nobody wants them? I'll believe CDs are back when UK supermarkets start stocking them again.
The used CD market (at least for the two records stores that I frequent) has been amazing for the last few years or so. I picked up a good bulk of Peter Hammill's 70's to early 80's solo output on CD and it may have cost me no more than $20-$25 for the entire bunch (7 titles)....and all in perfect condition. For those who continue to dump their entire CD collections.....please continue for my benefit.
On the other hand, US supermarkets stock DVDs/Blu-rays, and that market has really cratered. I visited Las Vegas last weekend and the used media stores are bursting at the seams with DVDs/BDs because they can't get anyone to buy them. When I last visited Princeton Record Exchange, they had a sign essentially saying they weren't buying DVDs/BDs anymore because they had too many already!
To me, garage sales are like thrift stores: while you might hit the jackpot, you're more likely to come up empty. Or maybe I just have bad luck, but I've found almost nothing of interest via either of those outlets...
What you said. I love vinyl, and am lucky enough to own a decent turntable to play it on, but when the price differential between LP and CD becomes three to one, I go with the latter. I did exactly that with ‘The Boy Called If’ earlier this week. And you know what - the CD sounds fabulous.
Where in Memphis (or online) can i pick up new records for $17 - $23 that I'd actually want to listen to?
Back in the Fall I picked up a lot of children's DVD's for my daughter at $1-3 during a 1/2 off sale. DVD's and their insignificant useless packaging are a pain - I don't collect movies but did manage to compile a collection of maybe 150+ over the years and finally just pitched all the cases and put the DVD's in old CD binders. They keep taking CDs though - they have to be selling them especially so many between $2-4. Over the past few years I notice more and more people digging in the CDs. Seems like at least 3x the amount of people on average from about 5 years ago. I have a box of about 100 CDs I was going to drop off there. I know some of them are not up to their standards as far as surface scratches, but hell with it - if they give me 5-10 cents a CD they can afford to go through it and pitch what they don't want. I have been buying so many CD's over the last 2-3 years that I keep having to cull the herd on my collection of stuff I don't listen to or just do not need.
Not surprised. The Zia locations I visited in Vegas just seemed overwhelmed with used DVDs/BDs - I suspect they probably won't buy back much either!
I bought a bunch of Blu-rays in Vegas because Zia had some super-cheap stuff that appealed to me - mainly 3D releases.
I have bought plenty of <$20 new LPs during the past few years. I have also bought good amount of new CDs priced between $10-15 a disc. In other words, the price disparity is not that great. Note: some of these CDs have nice packaging and thick 20-50 page booklets included. In the “non-collectible, common albums” used market, there is a huge disparity. Used CDs can often be had for $1 to $4 each. Used LPs keep going up on price, even for common-as-dirt titles.
Wasn't there a specific legal wrangle that started around that time, to force labels to start offering the lower-tier prices on some older catalog? Sometime around the mid-'80s I remember Columbia putting "Nice Price" stickers on some more established titles, as they had in years before with LP's. Only in this case the "Nice Price" was around $11.99 MSRP, discounted to $10 in most cases. This past year I watched two major-label new releases (London Grammer and Birdy) put out single discs at $29, and $26 respectively - single discs, non-"deluxe" versions. What, I wonder, made them think they should price new product so high, in this age of far more reasonable major-label releases?
I find it refreshing to read an article about CDs and other media that just strikes me as common sense and down to earth. No hot takes or sensationalisms. Very close to how I feel about it as well.
