Ho do you set the amount for used cds?

[porcy62]

I would like to offer some cds here, but I haven't any clue about set the price.

I saw that someone uses the amazon price as reference and then sets a discount, would it be ok?

[clifford_thornton]

I just offer at what I think would be a good deal, usually half to 2/3 what the new price would be.

[porcy62]

I just offer at what I think would be a good deal, usually half to 2/3 what the new price would be.

And what about for the OOP stuff?

[Dan Gould]

I think the smart thing is to do similar research - ignoring the sellers that come up with $500 prices - and make a reasonable offer for the OOP items to the board, if you want to sell on the board and not pursue the last Lira as it were.

[Hot Ptah]

I have found that the market for used CDs is not all that favorable. Maybe it is the economy. maybe it is downloading taking over from owning physical product. You have to almost give them away to get anyone to buy them, on any online forum. What seems common to me is that a seller will list their CDs at $7, then drop the price several times until they are at about $4, just to get anyone to buy them.

If they are out of print, it does not seem to matter all that much. People still will not pay much for them. Maybe if you had a pristine 78 rpm record from 1928 you could charge a higher price, but just to say that your 1992 issued CD is now out of print--it doesn't seem to matter much in terms of what people will pay, from what I can tell.

I see that you are in Rome. Now if you had the Horo LPs in good condition, that would be another story. You could charge more for Horos.

Edited March 23, 2010 by Hot Ptah

[porcy62]

Lp a part, in wich I have a good experience, expecially buying them, I always sold my cds to record shops in order to buy vinyl actually, I got a credit for them and when I found something good I use the credit. Now my fave record shop closed down and the others haven't got any interesting stuff, nor Horo at all, and they usually pay 2 euros for cd, that is frustrating. I mean that I prefer to sell them here, at least someone will listen to them!

[Ken Dryden]

That's a good start, though you also want to note the condition and to which countries you will ship, what typical postage charges will be (most people will have to contact you for an estimate), what type of payment you except (Paypal is generally preferred by many people), if you offer insurance in the case of large orders. Also be sure to list the label.

You also want to be certain that you are comparing the exact edition of a CD to the one you see at Amazon. Many CDs have come out in several different editions with the same title, with additional or bonus tracks, different packaging or liner notes, etc.

Good luck.

[clifford_thornton]

If they are out of print, it does not seem to matter all that much. People still will not pay much for them.

Occasionally things like Hat Hut and FMP CDs go for serious change, also small-label things that were around for only a minute. MFSL CDs also seem to do well. But a lot of those things I would expect that you'd be keeping and not selling!

[felser]

I would like to offer some cds here, but I haven't any clue about set the price.

I saw that someone uses the amazon price as reference and then sets a discount, would it be ok?

I think that is a good approach, tracks pretty closely to what I do, and I have been able to sell a lot of CD's to members (and buy a lot of CD's from members!). Do whatever you can to keep the shipping charges low, especially in bulk. Amazon Marketplace charges $3/CD shipping on top of the prices for used CD's, so if you are both coming in well below the Amazon prices and well below the Amazon shipping, you should do OK as long as you have titles people want (no Kenny G around here!).

[skeith]

Who you callin' a Ho? boy

[Rooster_Ties]

Check Amazon's used marketplace (already mentioned), but also check half.com (which is at least as good, and sometimes even better than Amazon's used stuff, depending on the title).

And for potentially more pricy things that aren't totally uncommon -- there's 30 days worth of sales data from eBay (sometimes useful for checking some more common OOP stuff, like BN Conns and such.)

[connoisseur series500]

I always good deep discounts to Amazon pricing. Used cds are hard to sell and you have to discount, otherwise, you won't turn them over.

[Ken Dryden]

It really depends on how badly people want an out of print CD. While you probably can't get a premium price within a bulletin board, it is possible to sell stuff through Amazon and half.com. For example, I sold Out of the Blue: Live at Mt. Fuji, which I had picked up at a used CD store for $2, for around $20 on half.com. I've had luck with other long out of print CDs as well.

Just don't try to sell Amani A.W. Murray's CD here, you'd be lucky to get the postage, if that.

[Shrdlu]

Something like a U.S. Blue Note CD would be almost worthless secondhand - not worth the hassle of listing, getting payment and mailing, but if you are talking one of those rare Japanese CDs that were only available for 6 months, then it would have some value, especially if it was the only CD version of the album.

I am glad that we are no longer in the early CD days when CDs like the JRVG of "Blue Train", and the U.S. CD of "True Blue" were going for $50 on eBay.

[David Ayers]

I had long thought CDs would become basically worthless and that is what has happened. Yesterday in London 100s of new RVGs were on sale for £3 (a little over $4). It's starting to get that you just can't give it away. Collectables such as Mosaics and Japanese issues aside, pre-owned prices have to be fairly token. Younger people don't collect CDs - that's something their dads did - and people who did collect them now suddenly don't want them all and are trying to dump large quantities. Those same people also buy far fewer. The problem seems to be not the price point (you'll always sell some things) but the dead stock you'll be left with after the few choice items go. We might guess that 10 or more years from now, when most CDs will be OOP and everything harder to find,that prices will go up, but if you compare to LPs, where there is a market for some good quality original pressings, it seems probable that CDs (which are never 'original' and have unattractive packaging compared to records) will never make much of a comeback. Brian Eno in a recent interview compared selling recorded music - he didn't just say CDs - to selling whale oil, meaning that the market for the product has ceased to exist. When I saw all those BN CDs for $4 yesterday there were some I didn't have: but I didn't even buy one.

[bakeostrin]

Like any other collectible, it depends on what you are offering. Some great jazz is widely available on CD, so does not command that high a price. Other, more obscure , less available material commands a premium. If one offers material that is widely available, it would have to be at a deep discount and, even then, might not move because there may not be much of a demand for it (the listening audience does not need to buy the material).

If you are offering some Verve Elites (which still sell at a premium on e-bay or amazon, that is one thing). If you are offering the 6th reissue of an otherwise excellent Blue Note session (say, "The Sidewinder"), that is another. Although "first pressing" CD's may come into vogue at some point (if they haven't already).

[AmirBagachelles]

Get comfortable with your own monetization plan -- how much do you need asap, and what has the ability to bring about a fast sale (good OOP box sets, limited edition discs, notable masterings). For the rest, it looks like amazon marketplace at set-sale prices is the way to go. The seller gets a big (biggest?) audience and can see the pricing queue; you price according to your plan in terms of your patience or desperation. I have sold a load of stuff here on the board the past few years, sporadically and mostly using fast-sale prices and because I can control some of the timing variables. I am a little less desperate than I was a few months ago, and for the stuff that has not sold here, I will maybe cut my prices one more time and then move the load to amazon, to put it in front of more eyeballs. And I would never sell a whole collection at once except to pay off gangsters.