The rising tide in the bargain bins

I recently went to my record store when it reopened and eventually gravitated towards the bargain-basement bins. I'm not a huge fan of looking through there but I came up empty finding what I was looking for in the regular bins.

I started looking through them out of boredom and came across quite a few CDs that I'd heard of but never wanted to invest in. they were normally price $1 but were on sale for half price so for me to find something for $0.50 I could take a chance on that.

I'm not certain if it was only this store or the market in general but there were a lot of certain artists it seemed like they were dumping their entire catalog or maybe the majority of their catalog that just wasn't selling any longer.

These were some of the artists that I saw many titles and numbers of. Maybe you could add to the list and give some type of explanation as to why these artists titles are no longer popular.

Among the artists I saw were: U2, Sting, Elton John, Annie Lennox, Eurythmics, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, REM, Britney Spears, Thomas Dolby, Aerosmith, Crash test dummies, No doubt, Elvis Costello, Shania Twain, Enya, Josh Groban, Madonna, and many more I can't remember at this moment.

 

Assuming you're serious-

They all sold a ton of CDs. CD sales are now 5% of what they were during most of those artists' periods of strongest sales, the other 95% is streaming. The supply of common used CDs- keep in mind CDs vastly outsold LPs in their heyday- far outstrips demand.

 

Lol. Why would you think I'm joking? I bought 40 CDs. Ten were Barbara Streisand but they didn't have many of her titles. I looked through what seemed like 5000 CDs. I could have picked up 50 of any title easily. I wonder what will happen to all these CDs.

 

It's going to get worse when it becomes difficult to buy players. That time is coming.

 

Lol. Are you going to be that guy holding the sign reading "The end is near!" with the compact disc symbol on it?

 

I was at the Amoeba Hollywood store a few moths ago (before the closing) killing time. I was in a Brit Pop phase listening to Oasis, Super Grass, Blur etc. at the time. Going through the CD section I picked up quite a collection for around $25.

 

They're finally selling for just a few dimes more than what it actually costs to manufacture them. Great time to buy ! Unfortunately, excepting Madonna and Elton, we can add Billy Joel, Celine Dion, Bare Naked Ladies, and Michael Bolton to that list of artists I will never listen to. Still, I'm happy you found music to enjoy at such a steal.

The only way you could've done better would be to have had someone pay you to come and take them away !

 

When "that time" comes, my friend, music is going to be the very last thing on your mind. Trust me.

 

In terms of what will happen to these CDs - not sure you meant this in a philosophical sense but, like us, many of them will be forgotten forever within a few decades (or far less in some cases). This is not necessarily a bad thing - everything changes and renews, only some things endure for future generations. Not everyone can accept this easily since it brings up aging and mortality. Within music circles, this can be especially amusing (or depressing) to watch in real time as Elvis, Beatles or Stones fans see the adoration of their idols decay along with them and “rage against the dying of the light” by insisting everything new is crap compared to the classics.

In fairness, I should note that I am also one of these old men shouting at clouds...

 

Lol. I did see Bare Naked Ladies in the lot. The only unfortunate thing is you have to really look close at the CDs cuz a lot of them are messed up. I'm only halfway through listening to the CDs I picked up and a couple of them are so bad I couldn't clean them or fix them so I have to take them back and try to exchange them for better copies..I can fix the jewel cases but if there's something inherently wrong with the disc there's not a lot I can do.

For me this is a good time to listen to artist for nothing and determine if you want to buy more of their music.

 

what seems to be becoming a bit more difficult to find are original issue (non-remaster) CDs

 

You mentioned Aerosmith and Elton John as examples. I'd hazard that the CDs you saw for .50 were not their 'classic' or best selling albums but later ones...at least thats the way it is around here in the CD bins!

 

Nope. I still get them, and like them. But I do wonder . . .

 

That's what I'm after.

 

That's because the venture-capital types are rabidly combing the bins and buying those up to turn around and sell them for two and three figures apiece. Watch how fast they go on Discogs and Ebay nowadays.

 

Yeah exactly. It's stuff from 10 years ago or so it's not the classic stuff or the stuff that's always seems to sell. And it's not even really great artists. There's no Beatles or Elvis in there.

 

Well here's to the venture capitalists. I'm glad they snapped it up and sell it to me for more because if they didn't snap it up someone else would just buy it and own it and not sell it. I've been buying Target CDs and Japan for America CDs for five bucks or maybe a little more and I'm happy to do that. If I can throw a little money some way to some guy who's working hard to look for CDs for me I'm happy to do that.

 

You have a great attitude !

 

Thanks. I support what I believe in. My friends are going out and getting takeout at restaurants and I'm going out and throwing money to my record stores and people promoting physical media.Worst case scenario I can cook at home but if the record store goes away then what?

 

No I wasn't being philosophical about this. At some point the record store is going to hold on to them so long and if they figure they can't sell them they may gather them up and send them somewhere. I know Half Price books used to send them to a distribution center and they would redistribute them throughout the country depending on where they think they could sell better. But many of them will probably get crushed because there's just no money in moving them around.

I noticed many of these are club CDs. I don't care, but some people might and those might be crushed. I didn't even know that used record stores sold club CDs. I was just thinking if they sold a million copies of Bare Naked Ladies top CD and now nobody wants it, do you think someone will want it in 10 years?

 

However, it’s not just the artists that you might find lingering in the bargain bin, but some of their titles that are not scarce...
I’ve seen these same artists there, but for these unloved titles:

U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
Sting - Brand New Day
Elton John - The One
REM - Monster
Aerosmith - Pump
Elvis Costello - Mighty Like A Rose

 

Also, we’re the CDs a little too used... slightly scuffed...?

 

Oh definitely. That's why I bought 40 CDs because I can determine whether or not I want to keep the CD or even buy more of the artist music if it's cheap enough. Like I said I bought 10 individual CDs of Barbra Streisand and she has 38 albums. If I really wanted to I can buy lots of her music and have her entire catalog for little money.

I'm not a fan of U2 so I skipped on their titles. But I didn't see any of the earlier work. I bought a Blues traveler CD. I bought Elvis Costello Spike. I don't own any Elvis Costello but maybe if I like that I'll buy more. I bought a REM IRS compilation made in Holland for $0.50. I bought Aerosmith Get a Grip CD. I bought Elton John Made in England and Songs of the West coast. I bought three sting CDs can't remember the titles at the moment.

 

Oh yeah a lot of the CDs were effed up. But many of the ones I picked were in pristine condition and even then there were a couple with a light scuff or something where I can't play it. Many of them had food all over them and I just cleaned them and they work fine. Several of them look like they were used as coasters.

 

It's basically just a repeat of what happened with LP bargain bins in the old days, right? Even though there are some good albums in there, they sold in such high volume during the CD boom the demand will likely never catch up with the supply. I'm guessing more than a few stores have started to toss some of those titles.

This reminds me of a funny post from several years ago - someone posted a display that a store had made out of used overstock of REM's Monster. It was in a thread on common used CDs that's floating around somewhere on the forums.