Why do sellers still charge so much for certain cds and cd box sets?

I'm speaking about the music not so much the format. However, I see your point if it's not about the music per se

 

The answer is simple. As long as there are people who do want to spend the money if they really want something this is the narket. A lot of people only want to part with a rare item if someone is willing to pay the right price. Otherwise they simply keep ig in their collection. They can do this, because they do not really need it for income.

So face it, if you want rare items you either have to pay or get lucky.

 

Respectfully, I for one find it odd that you somehow believe that your personal opinion should be the standard for how two individuals agree on what price to negotiate a sale of an item that has nothing to do with you. I apologize if this sounds harsh, but why you think any buyer and seller would care one iota whether you think their agreed-upon price is too high is truly a mystery to me.

 

If a rare item is fairly priced or underpriced, most probably you'll never see it available for sale, because it sold fast. So if you don't search actively and wait patiently, but you need to buy certain rare CD easily, your most common option is to buy something overpriced (because that's the reason it's available).

 

I also think that a lot of these really rare items are sold by dealers straight away to people they know are looking for an item. As a result only the overpriced items (mostly from private persons) appear on the selling platforms.

 

I do find items secondhand and sometimes decide to put them up for sale. Sometimes the ones I think will go for decent money do and other times it’s vice versa. I don’t sell things for silly prices and I don’t give them away, either. If they don’t sell, I don’t mind, which takes pressure off and keeps the fun in it. I keep an eye on what sells - I try to be the only person selling the item if possible.

I don’t know about economics or business. I’m trying to help listeners buy music they want. It takes me time to find and research it.

My interest is a hobby only - I do realise that some people have deep pockets and others won’t bid because the auction didn’t start at 0.50 cents. If it’s worth at least $50, it goes on at that price. I’m not wasting people’s time. It also shows I’ve researched it - others prefer clueless sellers so they can tell their friends they got a bargain.

It’s a strange little sub-world where logic and manners are, often, sadly also absent.

 

You sometimes have no choice. If you sell cheap because you favour someone else a bargain, there is a realistic chance the buyer is someone who in turn does sell it full price. Happened to me recently with a batch of comic books.

 

I’ve just sold a CD of Olivia Newton-John’s Physical album for £35. And that’s not a particularly high price...


It’s a mad world, isn’t it?

 

If people want to spend their money that way then who are we to question that?

Personally I don't, I'm prepared to wait for a reissue or buy a download, I'd maybe go to £25 for something I really wanted.

But I sell things on eBay all the time and it's suprising what some things will go for. I list them at a reasonable price and if people want to bid on them it's their choice. Pays for the hobby.

 

As others have noted, it only takes a small number of buyers to drive the price of a scarce CD through the roof. As long as four or five buyers replace the four or five who buy copies at high prices over six months or so, the price will remain sky high.

But being able to sell a dozen copies for high prices per year doesn't necessarily translate into being able to profit from a dump of hundreds (or thousands, pre-streaming) of new copies of that same title into the market.

 

Lol I don't care what others agree on, I was just as you said, stating an opinion about cd prices online in 2021. That's pretty much what every forum and social media is about nowadays, opinions. As it relates to me, I certainly do care if a cd is an over the top price. Wouldn't you?

 

I know of someone that has their whole CD collection for sale at prices that represent an attitude of 'I don't want to sell this but if someone is willing to pay me this much, I'll do it'.

 

I guess they really wanted to get a physical (physical) copy.

 

Yeah, it's interesting that Physical as an example is unlimited streaming on Amazon, 7 dollars for the Mp3 download, 3 dollars for the vinyl and hundreds for the cd. On eBay it's far more reasonable but still around what you received or more. So clearly, it's the format and not music that's keeping the prices high. Which is even more intriguing because the cd is doing terrible out there at the stores. So it's the format and if it's out of print.

 

In the U.K. I don’t think the album is even on Spotify, so people may be more likely to seek out the CD here.

I do try to price my CDs fairly. There’s a guy on eBay who has the CD I just sold for £120. Needless to say he’s had it for a while.

 

Not one of the Bowie Brilliant Live Adventures by any chance?

 

Some excellent cds are no longer in print. Supply and demand dictates the pricing. A smart seller will undercut the competition and still make a profit. There's no need to extort people though.

 

I was collecting CDs quite voraciously pre-lockdown but it just got to a point where I wondered if I needed to be paying £18 for essentially a booklet with a couple of pictures. I like them, but I genuinely don't think they have the value that people are asking for them - a few quid I can throw my chump change at and collecting is a lot of fun (a bit like Panini sticker books, yeah) but I don't have a high paying job so I DEMAND lower prices!

 

Supply & demand. You mentioned it in a way when you brought up "rare" & "out of print". Case in point; the 1st 2 J. Geils Band albums are fairly scarce on CD, & I'd been looking for them for a while. A local music store had their 2nd album on CD used, but NM for $40. However, they also had a brand new copy of the "Original Album Series" of their 1st 5 albums on CD for $25. Even though I had the 3rd, 4th & 5th albums in that set already, guess which 1 I bought?

I sold off a lot of my vinyl for a good price due to rarity, including a still sealed original copy of "Introducing The Beatles" & 3 M/NM Beatles picture sleeve 45s. Had $1 in them all from years ago, (the 70s), sold them for $3,000 back about 20 years ago. Didn't feel a single shred of guilt about the 3000% percent profit I made either.

Nobody should be forced to sell something non essential for a price the buyer thinks should be "fair" to them in order to appease someone with an arbitrary idea that something costs too much. We're not talking about something essential to live here like food.

And the idea that the owner/producer of the product in question should crank more out to lower the secondhand price is just silly. If they're going to do something like that, why not put out a limited quantity & sell it for the going rate themselves? More profit for them that way.

 

The correct price of any asset is what someone else is willing to pay for it, because all asset prices rely on subjective assumptions about the future.
And like a blind man who doesn’t know where a wall is until he bumps into it, markets cannot know exactly how much people are willing to pay until they go a little too far and say, “Ah, in hindsight, that was the limit.” source

 

At the end of the day, you either want it, or you don't.

There are certainly records that fall into this category also, certainly not just cd's.

Get a price on an original Ford AC Cobra, and compare it to the release price.

Some things are seen as collectable and wanted, and some aren't.

 

On eBay, if I see multiple sellers for the same overpriced item, I look for one that features "Make an offer". That person will usually accept less money, because the competition almost ensures they're not going to sell their copy for the higher price. I get a bargain, and they get a reasonable profit.

 

Yes, I’ve set the ‘make an offer’ thing up on most of mine. A good idea.

 

I get the point, but I wouldn't assume the demand would be for another 5,000. It could be something where it's 20 people who missed out driving the price up trying to get it so printing up an extra 5,000 would be a huge money loss.

I'm surprised for these super deluxe items that labels aren't going the crowd sourcing route to make sure they can max capitalize without over producing.