Resale value of standard CDs

Bear Family sets should hold their value.

I suggest everyone on this forum buy up Bear Family boxes, and show your dedication to music as well as the CD format!! Spend all of your money, plus charge some on credit cards as well.

This is about music right!

 

99.9% of consumers don't care about gold/silver, regular/audiophile, whatever.

 

I have stopped trying to cash in CDs and DVDs - a lot of hard earned money went into buying them (especially some of the DVDs). Now, they want to give me $1-$2 or maybe $3? No way. So now, I - 1: Keep the CDs or DVDs 2: Give them to a friend 3: Donate them to a library in my state that doesn't have the title (what I have done with most of them). A quick check on the state-wide library catalog, then I'm off to donate to a local library that could use the title.
That bottom really did fall out around 2005.

 

This is what I normally do, either they go to the Goodwill or my local Friends of the Library chapter (who have a big sale twice a year), and then when I itemize on my taxes I take the charitable deduction. I check out loads of CDs and DVDs from the library so I figure it's my small way of giving back. If I do take them to a store I'll take the better credit price and get a few new things (I like to delude myself that I'm actually reducing clutter this way).

 

I can always tell what titles the local used shops aren't taking by what's on the shelf at Goodwill. There seems to be a major glut of 90's-00's pop, and Sting's "Brand New Day" seems to be the modern equivalent of those Percy Faith and Enoch Light LPs.

I usually go the "store credit" route at the used cd store, as you typically get a little more for your trade-ins that way, but you still don't get much.

 

REM - Monster is the Herb Alpert & the TJ Brass of today.

 

All this talk is making me want to go to Record and Tape Traders! I think I will visit there today.

 

No. Used cd stores typically pay .50 to $1.00 if they even buy them at all.

 

It would be nice to head on over to Amoeba later today and browse around. But it is hard to find a real deal there anymore. At least it is when you already own most all of what you want to own.

 

I don't think there will be a rebound. This isn't just a change in format, but a huge sea change in hard vs cloud storage. When vinyl got dumped for CD, that was a format change; same with VHS to DVD. The future has nothing to do with hard copies at all beyond niche markets for collectables.

 

LPs were never as cheap as cds are now ... even in 1990

 

It doesn't look so cool anymore to have walls and walls of CDs, those tin discs in plastic cases stamped out by the millions. LPs don't look so cool either unless your collection is loaded up with the really good prime stuff.

I want only one wall at the end of my room to be music, and not two walls or any of that nonsense. I also have a walk in closet that has CD racks nailed to the walls on two sides. I like how I can close that door and have it hidden away.

 

LPs were $3 to $6 for the good ones, and that was 1990 prices.

So you are correct, this is a big washout of a physical media format, with only the best rarest holding its value.

I really thought it would go on forever and ever.

 

Most will pay around a dime a record. If both the seller and the buyer know they have something special, they may go higher.

 

I don't see any chance for prices to rebound either but I think we might be at the bottom or close now. If I think about it, I will stop a few garage sales this week and see if any CDs are being sold.

 

This is why I sell off my CDs myself. I made a cool $400 at the last record fair, for a $40 stall fee.

 

Some vinyl records either took years or were never released on cd. Everything is available for download .. somewhere.

People want space now. Clutter is more offensive than pornography.

 

No, I think value on the common junk will continue to fall until even thrift stores decline to accept them certain titles.

There will be titles commonly seen in the trash with nobody bothering to salvage them.

As a matter of fact, record companies are likely as we speak grinding up cases of unopened product in an effort to save the value of the ones currently at retail, or what is left of retail.

Can you imagine what it is like to grind up 75,000 copies of a Bonnie Raitt or Janet Jackson album on CD? I'll bet it is happening every day now, dozens of titles that stalled out at retail almost over night.

 

Back in the day, every used CD shop in Salt Lake (where I used to live) had about 10 copies of REM's Monster and Public Image Limited's 9. I still see tons of Monster CDs even now!

 

No need to exaggerate Just because sales are down does not mean the general public is not buying CDs...just fewer of them. I agree about the element of risk

 

I'm seeing needle drops out there in blogs for downloading. The only question is flac or mp3? You pick your format.

Rare soundtracks, rare groove soul/funk? Or would you prefer country records that time forgot about? Or classical works from the mono era? It is no longer just about live Floyd and Stones boots.

It's all shifted to downloads in one form or another.

And I get horrible back pains anytime I even think about moving.

 

A lot of over-manufacturing of CD's happened in the mid-90's (at the height of the CD boom). It's those titles that are now being offered used on amazon---for literally pennies.

 

That's not true

 

In my store, I pay $2-3.50, and sell single discs for $7 -
but if you pick out 4 cds you get them for $5 each.

I don't think my markup is crazy at all.
Crazy: that's the rent I pay for >800 square feet retail space.

 

Fewer of the CDs being bought, and fewer members of the public buying. Do the math on that.

You can't buy what you already bought can you? And if you have a 15 million seller, then you must reach the end at some point even in a very robust CD market.