#329: Selling My CDs (RSTs Mk II: Getting More Tale)

RECORD STORE TALES Mk II: Getting More Tale

#329: Selling My CDs

We all end up with CDs that we no longer want or need.  I very rarely sell my CDs anymore. I’d rather donate them to a new home, where I know they will be loved and appreciated.  The money part is less important to me.  The last time I decided to sell off some CDs, I decided to try Sunrise at Fairview Mall (now closed). I’d never tried selling there before, but I had bought plenty.  Their pricing was more than fair, but the guy was very slow.  He didn’t seem as knowledgeable as the people I was used to dealing with. For example, I sold him my original, non-remastered CD copy of Twisted Sister’s Stay Hungry. He asked me, “What is wrong with this CD?” It seemed he didn’t know what remastered vs. non-remastered was, only that the bar code he had punched in came up as something “discontinued”.  So I had to explain the remastered vs. original thing to him. He ended up giving me $5 for the CD which was good, and I took store credit (which was a little bit more).

Still, it took him a lot of time. I only had a handful to sell that day (10 CDs if I remember) and it took the guy more than half an hour to look at them.  It wasn’t a bad experience; I ended up with enough store credit to buy a some things.   The money was good, about the same as I would have got at my old workplace.  It was a comparable total, and I was happy with it, but the wait was a little excessive.   I used the store credit to buy my friend Peter the new Metallica live set for his birthday.

I have also sold my discs (CD and DVD) at garage sales, an experience so memorable that I’ve written a future Getting More Tale about that story.  Stay tuned!  I’m saving that one.  Let’s just say that serious garage sale people are an entire species to themselves; the cheapest people you will ever meet in your life.

I don’t need to do any more major purges of my music collection, currently.  Any time I need to weed things out (usually an old version of a CD that I have upgraded) I can always find them a new home.  You might say, “Sure, but money is better.”  Maybe, but my friends return the favor in spades, so I can’t complain.  I’m often the recipient of used CDs and movies that are sent to me in repayment for the discs I gifted earlier.  Nobody ever asks for repayment, we just seem to have created circles of friends who share the wealth.  In fact I’ve acquired some really great collectible stuff just due to the charity of friends.  Thanks!

What do you do with your old CDs?  Sell ’em, trade ’em, gift ’em?  I’m curious so let me know in the comments!

61 comments

        8. Good man!

          Actually I’m only partly kidding. She is ripping her CDs to her mp3 player now, and she’s expressed a lack of interest in a lot of her old music. So you never know, Linkin Park might be sent packing before Christmas.

          She finds she’s not into the angry, grungy stuff she was into in her 20’s. She seems to really be into the Beatles and Beach Boys as much as ever, and she’s liked them since she was a kid. She’s also liking the classic rock stuff that she’s pulling from my files. She’s grabbed some of my Guess Who, Queen, etc. And Johnny Cash too. So her tastes and my tastes are aligned a lot more than when we met, as I’ve never really liked the type of alternative bands she liked in her 20’s.

          I wonder if married couples find themselves aligning more in music as they go. There’s probably a Getting More Tale in that.

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        9. Tastes do change. At least she has a music librarian for a husband!

          I need to talk to her, actually warn her – not only do couples align in tastes and attitudes, they can also start to look like each other! She needs to be forwarned! Hahahahaa

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        3. Oh I think that warehouse was organized. For our purposes, we’d just need smaller shelves, and more of them. Probably levels. And an elevator. 3rd floor, punk and metal…

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  4. Haha – looking forward to that garage sale piece. The things the “yard saler” will haggle about, it says 50 cents? Would you take 25? When you said species, that’s apt, I could totally picture a documentary with a voiceover narrator talking about this creature in their natural habitat!

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  5. I love going to garage sales, but hate having them. We have only had 2 and both were nightmares. I might elaborate on your garage sale post. But as a guy looking for old music, stereo equipment etc, garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores, antique shops etc. They all turn up good finds. I think the garage sale etiquette is to offer a price and if the seller takes it great, if not, that is ok. It is his sale and he often has a lowest price in mind. He will tell you his lowest price, if you are not willing to pay at least that, don’t whine about it, just pay or leave. I sometimes ask how much for his entire lot, as he will not have to drag all of his music back inside, and he will only have to deal with one haggler, instead of 100.

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    1. LOL! Thanks for spoiling my story Brian! ;)

      Just kidding. My story won’t be unique in any way. It’ll be the same shit we ALL deal with any time we have a garage sale. Jesus murphy man…I can’t wait to post this one.

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  6. I sell CDs all the time. Sometimes I later regret it, but it’s for many reasons – space limitations, not playing them anymore and, twice, gigantic moves halfway across the country so I needed money. Usually though it’s a space issue. I buy CDs on spec for $1.99, and I find a lot of gems, but they tend to pile up quickly when I can get 8-10 CDs for the price of one new release.

    We had one garage sale and I swore NEVER AGAIN.

    Never ever never ever never ever never ever again. Nope. Uh-uh. No way. Not a chance. Nyet. Nein. Non. Nope nope nope.

    I don’t mind going to yard sales to look at other people’s crap, but I don’t tend to barter. $0.50 is never a bad price. But we don’t go often. This summer, we didn’t go to a single one.

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  7. May it be noted here for all to read:

    The KMA offices are a welcoming and warm home for any and all CDs you cannot be arsed to sell and are just looking to give away. In our care, they will be enthusiastically cared for and catalogued. They’ll be played! Reviewed! Send them all. The KMA loves your orphans! :)

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    1. Let it also be said Aaron’s about the most open minded listener I’ve ever met, he’s liked so much of what I’ve sent him, and it’s been a pretty diverse lot. That’s why Aaron ends up with about 70% of my castaways these days.

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      1. Thanks Mike! I am a lucky guy, that’s a lot! I think it all tie in to the KMA – I always sound enthusiastic about just about everything. It could start to seem like I just blindly write happily abou it all. But I genuinely do like most things! Maybe I’m just easy to please… :)

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        1. I find your writing very sincere when you’re talking about what you liked and don’t like. And I love the “in person” discussions we have about music. They have their own dynamic.

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      6. You know I was just thinking about it, and of all the CDs I’ve sold off over the years, I’ve very rarely (if ever) sold off anything anyone else ever gave me. It’s always just the CDs I bought. I keep the ones donated to me! Interesting.

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  8. Well, I will def have to keep y’all in mind the next time I’m looking to pare down my collection…in the past we used to go to hock shop. If it’s one or two things, then we just drop them in the donation pile to VV. KMA should also have a swap list – CDs, DVDs, Books, etc looking to give away / swap. Not sure how that would go down, exactly…or the email circle might be alright too.

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    1. All donations to the KMA offices are (exceedingly) gratefully received, and are treated with love, respect and kind consideration… until they are put under the microscope for review! MWAHAHAHAHAAAA!!

      I really like your Swap Post idea, I’ll have to think about how that would work, when an email saying ‘hey what’s your address I wanna send you all the crap I don’t want anymore’ would just as well. I dunno. Ideas, anyone?

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      1. if someone has something they want to give, they list it. The email piece? Hmm. Brian Z ran into this issue with my email addy and contacted Mike for it (unrelated story).
        I dunno. Seems too much to put that one one person. Listing emails is tricky. I don’t have my email addy anywhere on my site for privacy, but not like anyone who has a WP site can’t see my addy…and now there’s a pile o’ you who have it now too. And some of you already know my full name (and address…). Whatevs. What do others think?

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        1. My own vote? I think this is a pretty good crew. An email is still fairly benign, and if anyone who shouldn’t have it gets it, they can easily be blocked. And I agree, with a WP site your email’s right there. But I’d highly doubt anyone in this bunch would be anything other than perfectly polite.

          Mailing addresses, well sure that’s different. I understand privacy issues and it’s still totally voluntary to participate. But for those who’d want to send stuff to others, and they were open to receiving it, I’d say we’re all grown-ups here. Again, all voluntary. I’ve sent stuff to several folks in these parts, it has worked out fine.

          But this is definitely an important conversation. Blogging is one thing, where you live is another. What says everyone else?

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        4. Exactly! I’ve sent stuff to mailing addys for Mike, Scott, Deke, you… and somebody wanted Rush stamps but my memory fails me and I deleted all my sent messages… anyway yeah, it’s all good. I’ve received stuffs here too. I think we’d know when it’s cool.

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  9. I used to swap CDs online on a site called Swap.com. Then one day, I logged in and they had completely converted the site to a used baby product haven for cost-conscious moms. I was like, “huh?”
    My swapping/giveaway days have dwindled, but any unwanted discs are usually donated to Goodwill. If it’s a CD I know is rare , I try submitting it for store credit at a used media shop.

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    1. Maybe traffic in CDs was dwindling, whereas people are always making babies. Could even the people doing the site had kids. Have you ever been to those Mom-To-Mom sales? CRAZY.

      Places to sell off CDs are getting fewer and farther between. Donating them is becoming the easier option. But some of them are tough to part with, you know they have value, so what if there was a way that fellow music lovers could offer it a good home? (see above conversation)

      All very interesting.

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    2. Hey Ms. Coolsville!

      So swap.com went from swapping anything to only swapping baby products? That’s too bad.

      One thing I found with rare CDs, is that if the guy at the shop has no idea or doesn’t care about the artist, they’ll offer peanuts. Too bad!

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  10. Mike, I find it interesting that both you & Jen like the music from the “old” days that I like. such as Guess Who, Queen, the Beatles and Beach Boys. I remember going to a Gordon Lightfoot concert with you and you were enthralled. Also we took you to your first Johnny Cash concert. Maybe we influenced you ever so slightly!

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    1. I was just discussing the Cash concert the other day. Always a good one to drop when somebody says, “My first concert was so cool! It was Bon Jovi!” Yeah, well mine was Johnny and June!

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  11. I tend to sell my CDs when I no longer listen to them or have spotted my favourites on vinyl. I used to have so many that I really had nowhere to store new arrivals … now I have less than 100. Mostly stuff that aint available on vinyl (my listening at home is pretty much exclusively vinyl these days) and albums by local artists really.

    I dare say I pass on a few, too.

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  12. I never sell anything, I just keep them, thou I own 5000 CD’s, I don’t part with any of them, even thou some I have spun in many many ions

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