The Great CD Sell-off

[Jim Alfredson]

Is it just me or is everyone selling their collections off on here lately? Seems to be a lot of activity in the Offering/Looking For forum. Everybody ok or is this a sign of the general crappy economy? Or is everyone moving to harddrives / iPods?

[Chalupa]

LOL. When I read the title of this topic I assumed that you were getting ready to join the sell-off as well.

[GA Russell]

For me it's the economy. My music is far more valuable to me than money, and I would never sell anything if I didn't have to.

[connoisseur series500]

In my case, it isn't due to economic reasons. If anything, I'd prefer to wait until the economy improves and I could get better prices. I simply got tired of having all these cds around me--most of which I don't even listen to. I decided to pare my collection down by 25-35%. I'm still working on reducing it down to these levels. I don't copy any of the stuff I sell. Once it is gone; it's gone!

[papsrus]

Whenever I unload CDs, which isn't all that often, it's not really for economic reasons. Don't really make all that much money selling used CDs for around $5 - $10 a pop. It's more to clear shelf space of stuff I'm no longer interested in, or eliminate overlapping material, and get those CDs into the hands of someone who might enjoy them.

I've never sold stuff that would be considered valuable, I don't think -- except for some free jazz box sets.

[JSngry]

Maybe people just getting tired of too much of a good thing that's not always a GREAT thing.

That's why a lot of this stuff was in the position to be reissued in the first place, if you know what I mean....

[sjarrell]

With the iPod, I never play a cd anymore. I've cleared out loads (for economic reasons), but can't let go of all of 'em. Yet. When they're unplayed, it's silly to keep 'em around...

[Dan Gould]

No I-Pod and not the slightest interest in owning one. When I sold off my collection in 2008 it was purely for economic reasons - as well as the fact that I could save burns and live without the actual disc (I don't care if anyone thinks this is wrong, unethical or heaven forbid, illegal) and it was the same when I liquidated the vinyl earlier this year.

Now that I have strong hopes for my income going forward (just got my CSR license from the state of Florida, btw), I still have no great urge to buy as I once did. That urge seems entirely to be a thing of the past.

[mikeweil]

I too, sell stuff, though it's not music that would be of much interest here, and the shipping to the US would be too expensive.

It's because I need shelf space and want to get rid of CDs I do not listen to any more, and to reload the buying budget. 

[BFrank]

I recently unloaded 2/3 of my vinyl collection (800 LPs) - just no room and I don't play them anymore. One of these days I'll have to part with the last 1/3, too.

I had a buyer from Amoeba stop by and he picked them up. It would be WAY too time consuming to try and sell them here or anywhere else. I feel that I got a fair price from them, too, which I took in credit as opposed to cash (apparently very unusual for an acquisition of this size). It's going to be nice to have a long-term credit there.

[David Ayers]

I'm trying to figure out what is happening to CD 'collectors'. I find it noticeable that big label reissue programs (jazz and classical) have slowed down in some cases to nothing. All majors still attempt to promote current artists though. Is the whole model of having a *large* collection of historical material becoming a thing of the past, I wonder? Yet reissues still come, some even at premium price from companies like Mosaic. I can't quite figure out exactly what is happening. Whatever else is going on, it does seem that quite a few people are starting to look at their massive piles of CDs and LPs and seeing Imelda Marcos' shoes.

[kenny weir]

What I find is that, Mosaics and Bear Families aside, CDs - once bought - are worth so little that it's hardly worth the bother of selling them.

Books I don't get so much for, but they seem to be holding their value better. At Melbourne bricks & mortars and the likes of Powells, recent releases are at least half the new price.

[papsrus]

Is it just me or is everyone selling their collections off on here lately? Seems to be a lot of activity in the Offering/Looking For forum. Everybody ok or is this a sign of the general crappy economy? Or is everyone moving to harddrives / iPods?

Maybe you aren't aware that some of us on here have 5,000+ titles(CD, LPs etc)....

I think he's quite aware. It would be difficult not to be.

... Whatever else is going on, it does seem that quite a few people are starting to look at their massive piles of CDs and LPs and seeing Imelda Marcos' shoes.

All I'd say is that for every seller there is a buyer.

Edited October 9, 2010 by papsrus

[medjuck]

I've begun to shy away from atoms in favor of bytes. More so in books than in music. I still mainly buy music in cd form but I'm disappointed when new books are not available for the kindle or iPad. I've loved books all my life and have moved a couple of thousand of them several times as I've changed residences. I hope I never move again but I have almost no room for more books in this house.

Many years ago a friend of mine tried to convince Encyclopedia Britannica to go digital. He gave up when he realized that at that time they were in the furniture business. That's sort of the way I'm starting to feel about books on paper.

[RDK]

I've actually been buying more CDs than ever - but used and at very cheap prices.

Ironically, now that Jim's drawn attention to it, I'm about to list a bunch of stuff for sale as well. It's a box of unwanted stuff that's been sitting here for a couple of years now that I've simply been too lazy/busy to deal with.

[Shawn]

Fuckin' broke = sell CDs

[connoisseur series500]

What I find is that, Mosaics and Bear Families aside, CDs - once bought - are worth so little that it's hardly worth the bother of selling them.

Books I don't get so much for, but they seem to be holding their value better. At Melbourne bricks & mortars and the likes of Powells, recent releases are at least half the new price.

This doesn't fit my experience. Check out book listings on ebay and you will find that books don't sell AT ALL! Music cds still sell--at reduced prices, for sure, but they still sell.

[A Lark Ascending]

I've sold very few LPs/Cds in the past - a bit of a purge about 30 years ago when I decided I would not be listening to many of my rock records again (wrong!), and in the 80s/90s when buying CD or CD-upgrades or where box sets contained a CD I had singly.

But in the last 5 years I've sold nothing - prices make it hardly worth carting the ones I know I don't want (largely failed experiments with newer rock music) to Nottingham or Sheffield. Most of my recent buying has been via download so the only place for them if I turn against them is the recycle bin.

The main reason I sell little is because I have a habit of getting a revived interest in things I thought I no longer cared for.

Are people still collectors? Hard to say but I find it hard to imagine that there will not always be people wanting instant access to favoured music. Whether this develops via acquired downloads or instant access to streaming I don't know. But it is noticeable that most record companies have digitalised and made available their catalogues in recent years. I know that's not popular with the established collector but suspect it will be the way forward as new obsessives move in.

My hunch is that the big victim will be packaging. Something digital will replace it (companies are much slower here in providing digital booklets). The recent Sony excesses strike me as a last gasp of a dying approach.

[sidewinder]

My hunch is that the big victim will be packaging.

Not sure about that. There's always be some nostalgia for the old LP cover art and liner notes - in a form that you can touch, feel and fondle !

As for me, the only stuff I've sold in the last 10 years or so has been spares. It's always good to know that the stuff is there to be accessed when you need it - and I don't go for the download/server route.

Edited October 10, 2010 by sidewinder

[AndrewHill]

I still buy cd's, but rarely new. I still love combing through used cd bins hoping to find a great bargain. Thankfully, I haven't had to sell cds for economic reasons, but only for the reason that I don't care for it. My solution when my collection gets too big, is not to scale down, but to buy more shelves.

[sidewinder]

I still buy cd's, but rarely new.

Most of my recent purchases have been used too. As with Lps, it's always fun finding a used gem from the 'peak' period of the 90s/early 00s that you somehow overlooked at the time. Or were not quick enough to get before it went OOP. In this respect, the CD market is starting to resemble vinyl.

[kenny weir]

What I find is that, Mosaics and Bear Families aside, CDs - once bought - are worth so little that it's hardly worth the bother of selling them.

Books I don't get so much for, but they seem to be holding their value better. At Melbourne bricks & mortars and the likes of Powells, recent releases are at least half the new price.

This doesn't fit my experience. Check out book listings on ebay and you will find that books don't sell AT ALL! Music cds still sell--at reduced prices, for sure, but they still sell.

We're not maybe talking about the same thing. I can offload eight months worth of books here in Melbourne at a couple of places I've found where they don't cherry pick, just take the whole lot. Don't get much, but it's steady. With CDs I find folks are more picky - my minority tastes probably have something to do with it.

Ebay? When we're talking about low prices, I can't see the profit in the hassle of doing the mailing - unless you're doing it all the time and in volume.

[ejp626]

My hunch is that the big victim will be packaging.

Not sure about that. There's always be some nostalgia for the old LP cover art and liner notes - in a form that you can touch, feel and fondle !

Always is too strong. Always with our generation perhaps, not so much with the kids that are only 15 now and have only ever heard music on iPods.

Sort of like being nostalgic for bank tellers compared to a whole generation that grew up knowing the ATM.

[sidewinder]

My solution when my collection gets too big, is not to scale down, but to buy more shelves.

Or buy a new house !

[Cliff Englewood]

I think a lot of the selling of cds on here is almost like a peer group pressure thing, people see that some sales threads are getting a good bit of activity and think; I may as well get in on the action while the "market" is so strong. :lol:

However, in my case it was a feeling of being "overwhelmed" by the amount of stuff I have, and not a good "overwhelmed" either. You know when you go looking for something you haven’t listened to in ages and have to move a load of other stuff to get to it, then you see just how much other stuff you have to move to get to it and you start to realise, “shit, I have way to many cds”. It’s not even the stuff you know about/remember either, it’s the stuff you completely forgot you bought, in addition to things you took a chance on, things you thought would grow on you but haven’t, things you haven’t given up on liking yet but probably really should. Then there’s the other strange problem of stuff I have that I don’t listen to regularly but I would never dream of getting rid of purely because it would be so hard to find again.

Also, I think it’s better to offer things like Mosaic’s here rather than ebay, I think someone posted a while back that ebay and paypal fees, which as we know are the same company, will cost you around 25% of whatever you made, which I think is excessive. It may take you longer to sell here and obviously you will set a lower price, but it probably works out better for you in the end.

I ment to add that buying the same stuff more than once to get extra tracks/better re-mastering/etc doesn't really help the problem.

Edited October 12, 2010 by Cliff Englewood