Resale value of standard CDs

I got rid of around 1000 CD a couple of years ago and I also realized how worthless the media had become. I was able to sell around 300-400 at not less than 2 euros per unit. I sold a few hundreds at second-hand stores and it was almost as I was giving them for free: CD for 0.50 euro and cd-single for 0.10 cent

As several have done, I preferred to give the rest. But even then... I tried donating some CD to a public library (including some big names and rare imports in mint condition) but they could not accept them on account of strict legislation on CD renting I ended up throwing away what I could not give...

 

How are you really doing? Have profits declined year after year, but you still can pay the bills so it is worth it?

I have sold a lot of records to people in GA. And they say that titles I have on hand are very hard to come by there, you know, Zappa originals on LP, and stuff slightly off the main st.

Do you head out to other cities to get stock for the store, or is it all walk ins?

 

Almost all walk-ins. I buy stuff from other dealers to fulfill special order requests.

I used to hit thrift stores but they've been pretty barren the last year, so I gave it up.

Also, I moved in with a girl only a mile from the store so going thrift-ing became "out of the way". We broke up but I rented a room similarly close by.

My sales were up 30% Feb 2011 over 2010, can't complain.

 

Who cares what's cool? Most apartments I go into these days don't have a single piece of artwork on the walls - just a widescreen TV. We have 22 framed pieces in our living room alone (I just counted over the weekend after getting a few things reframed and rearranged).

I have my collection in the entrance foyer/music ghetto of our apartment and I don't want it to creep into the living room. But I love seeing living rooms filled with records and CD's. Absolutely love it.

 

A friend is selling his house and when everyone who looks at it goes through, they can't believe they see a big stereo and an organized collection of music neatly displayed; It's like no one has that anymore and that's a shame because that makes a home IMO...)

 

That's more reasonable than I've encountered -good for you and I hope your business continues to succeed.

In light of this devaluation, what I don't appreciate is local merchants clinging to a $8.99 price while offering $1.50 - $2.00 in exchange. $5 - $7 seems more reasonable - they'd move more product.

 

I was at a used music store after work this evening. Most CDs started at $7.99 and went to $12 for most releases. Rarer items get the Ebay value but vinyl is still generally cheaper than CDs at this store. I picked up 7 NM classical LPs from the mid 50's through the early 60's for $15 and a single Bjork DTS DVD-A of Selmasongs for 10. All in all a great day at the shoppe. Buying price for the shoppe? $.50-$2.00/CD. Their mark-up is substancial but one can find a rare gem now and again and they have lots. I don't mind supporting them.

 

I would think so too. There is a range of prices in NYC and some shops still cling to the $7.99 and $8.99 tags for fairly standard product. I will say that those shops generally have a better-looking selection - places like the basement of Generation Records on Thompson Street (although there's very little in the racks that interests me personally). I know the Academy stores price to sell. The guy who runs the vinyl shop on East 12th Street once explained to me, "I'm not running a vinyl museum here."

 

It's not cool in your home, but cool in others' hahahaha.

I had mine in the living room across one whole wall. It has since been moved into other areas. The collection has grown over the last five years even.

I have great works of art all over the wals as well. A John Lennon drawing he did for me & signed to me, etc.

But to look at others living rooms filled to the brim is one thing, and having that space clogging up your mind is another, so it seems you agree.

My mind does not like to think about records and CDs all the time, and when it covers a wall, it does get in your mind all the time. I like to go into a record room and be in that enviroment, I love it. But there is something I don't want to see all the time, just like you huh!

 

Most stores don't take vinyl trade-ins, even stores that sell vinyl. FYE for example.

It's hard to dump 'em on an auction site too, since the packaging needed to mail them is too expensive and vinyl weighs too much.

 

I suppose I was sounding hypocritical, but if you saw how we live you'd understand. It's a small Manhattan apartment; we have the "living/dining" area divided-up into Living/Dining, Entrance/Music Foyer and Master Bedroom Suite! So my music collection actually is in the living room... as is our bed.

I love NYC, but it's not a place to move if elbow room is your priority.

 

Welcome to the big city!!!

I live in Los Angeles, now known for sky high rents, and short shift living spaces.

My music collection is mostly in bedroom at one end, a rectangular bedroom which is odd, but makes for one end (and half the room) of a large room like a music room.

I look forward to music server with all the CDs on it, and vinyl mostly all one sees. I have a small shelf/show case with sliding glass doors shows off paper cover type issues like Zappa Lost Episodes and Bowie Ziggy EMI box type deluxes which are fun to look at. But this tin discs in plastic cases gets me depressed, and thinking there must be more to life than tin discs in plastic cases?

 

I know what you're saying and I should qualify my "love" of visible collections - I've always had mine well-organized. I wouldn't want a living room filled with ramshackle Ikea storage units teetering at 120% capacity. But an organized collection in nice built-in cabinets is a beautiful thing... if the room can accommodate it. That depends on size, wall space, layout, the number of windows and door openings, etc. A lot of living room spaces aren't suited to it. My collection is organized, but unfortunately I've outgrown the space and the clutter is taking root.

Someone above compared clutter to pornography and it's a great comment on modern living. But I'd choose music clutter over a soulless, clinical apartment devoid of anything that reflects my personality.

 

Yes but how many tens of thousands of titles are worth 50 cents compared to anything people actually want.

The reason you don't notice it with vinyl is there has been two decades for the stuff to fill up landfills.

 

There are plenty of people with emptiness all around them. You can see in their homes that they have very little personality on display.

Every drawer and upper shelf in my apt. has something cool and interesting in it, imo. One drawer has "Planet of the Apes" Super-8 film reels in those little color printed boxes, as well as concerts footage I shot in the 70s that remains unseen, another has concert ticket stubs from shows I'be been to going back to 1972. All kinds of media formats, way up there is a 100 piece collection of Creem magazines, a 100 piece Mojo collection of early issues. Tubes of promo posters from record releases. My kitchen cabinets at the top level are not dishes or food, but rock books collected from thrift stores and close-outs.

I think you'd find my apt. a fun and neat place to flip through the goodies. I am located on the second floor above retail space, so after 5 or 6pm there is nobody below me or on either side. That means I can play George Jones old Musicor LPs, Rolling Stones boots, or Motorhead at ear splitting levels with no complaints.

It's been a blast, but the clutter is taking root as well, and sometimes I want some blank white wall space to look at.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C7OpOg_zw4

 

Me too! I have 25 feet of continuous racks of CDs housing over 5,000 titles in the living room. Each day, when I come into the room and see it...it makes me very happy.

Interspersed throughout the wall, in open spaces are 8-tracks, cassettes, odd shaped CDs, longboxes, and other artifacts of recorded music history. Meanwhile, other the opposite wall, stands tall Paradigm speakers and a lot of electronics. This stuff has been making happy all my life and probably always will.

 

I think that used stores that offer low prices on everything they purchase don't always get the best and most interesting discs. Many sellers will find a better way so sell their primo stuff. So those used stores tend to have a boring selection. I avoid those stores.

There was a pawn shop that used to have some interesting titles. They have lowered what they pay to a pittance (25 cents) and their stock is just junk. I think that smart music store owners can still do well.

If i am selling some discs I'll first go to the stores that offer a reasonable price and bring the rest to the lowball stores or else to Goodwill.

 

Really? What proof do you have that CDs are bottoming out? I seem to recall that there were very few people buying vinyl before. How do you know that there aren't people like you buying the most popular titles up now for CD just as you did for vinyl?

 

The $3-$5 I mentioned earlier in the thread's mainly for trades it's a little lower in cash.

 

A change in format is a change in format. You'll have some people that will want to have "cloud" storage (oh how that sounds silly to me) and, yes, that will appeal to a lot of people just as some people only want to watch their TV shows online--it's an example of providing a variety of means of storage but storage (which is what cloud type stuff is) is different than content.

This reminds me of people predicting the future about ANYTHING and always being quite wrong.

By the way one of the appeals of CDs at the time included the fact that they took up less space than vinyl (aside from all the hype of the sound).

As for the scene in "Back to the Future II" with all the laser discs (I don't recall seeing any CDs in the pile)--very few people like laser discs.

 

Well, we are talking about "common" and "mainstream" CDs here. Collectable, 1st edition CDs do have a market for sure.

 

Definately not true. In 1987 the shop that I worked at took all of the new records from the racks, imports and domestic, and put them in cardboard boxes under the racks, which were now filled with CD's, and marked them all $1. I bought as many records as my 18 year old budget could afford...which wasn't much.

 

A sad state of affairs.

 

Cloud is an amazing thing, they have finally figured out a way to charge you again for your music already purchased. This was a tough thing to come up with this time and should make a lot of money for content non-owners.

Previously it was very easy to charge the customer over and over again for their music, this time was a real struggle bless their hearts.