@lowrider57 , appreciate the reference to Discogs. For some reason I assumed they were vinyl only.
Also, when I said Amazon (for used) that was a misprint and I corrected it to say eBay. Not every seller on eBay includes the various codes and numbers for a Cd but most do and most show images of the case and CD itself so you can tell what you're getting.
I think the eBay advantage is that most of these sellers do not know if what they have is a good recording or not so there is no price inflation.
Now, if you're looking for rare stuff, Japanese releases etc then the prices are high.
When buying a CD from a new artist or release you don't have a lot of options.
And I know this is a dead horse that has been beaten repeatedly but most new CD releases are DR compressed/loud. But, there is no way around it if you want the CD and even if you want a hi-res download, stream or vinyl of the same album they are as likely as not to be just as compressed as the CD. The point being, it is problem across the board, not just with CDs.