I'm curious what online sites folks use to find CDs? I use Amazon, and especially their Marketplace sellers for used discs. But prices have become high and supply has become stagnant. I used to use several European retailers (Amazon UK and Presto) before the pandemic, but shipping is extremely slow these days and I've had more than one never show up at all and presumed lost. Surely there are other online retailers?
I am thinking of selling a lot of my used CD’s: disc and booklet, no boxes. Just because they are not getting played much, in this case, in binders, I won't gain any space,
What do you think is a good price for you/anyone to pay for a CD/booklet with no box? What are people charging for shipping a CD?
Do you have a wish list?
I need space for my too many LP's, and new ones, so I am also thinking of selling a bunch of LP's, after I clean them, play them, decide they won't be missed. I sold some on eBay, started $1.99, figured let the market determine value. Several went for $1.99 + $4.00 shipping. Too much work cleaning, photographing, listing, I'd rather give them away.
FWIW I just ordered and received an order in about 7 days so they must have solved their pandemic problem. Since they send postal their caution might relate more to the service USPS provides than their own shipping and England's postal. Net cost is typically less than US based dealers (including Amazon) and then they have sales which lower the cost even more. Needless to say I buy most of my new CD's from them.
Re selling used CD's and booklets w/o case - good luck. Even with case. Unless its something special its easier to donate and take a deduction (if you itemize.) I'd guess the value of a used CD in a case in good condition would be $4 or less.
Amazon has been great for CD's. Though waiting several weeks for a title to come from the UK has taught me to be patient.
+1 also for discogs where I've placed my first orders this past week.
Registration, selection, invoicing, and payment on discogs seemed a little daunting at first, but I think I figured it out and made some long overdue purchases of wish-list titles I couldn't find (at my price) on Amazon.
If you truly need me to be serious then what is wrong with eBay?? For the few CD's and many records/tapes I have bought this year online by far the bulk has come from eBay. Discogs grading is out to lunch IMHO. It's fairly easy to pick a decent eBay seller by their feedback and items for sale. Try it,they usually side 100% with the buyer in any disputes too so very little to lose
I buy ones that are new that I read about or old ones that I never got around to buying from Amazon, but I have bought many great CDs in mint condition, largely classical, some jazz and also some interesting rock and mixed etc from Goodwill. I do it every Friday. The price is $2.29 per disc, and sometimes they’re doubles. Yesterday I got an an amazing Janos Starker Mercury Living Presence as well as an Itzhak Perlman Greatest Hits and a perfect copy of Psychadelic Furs Midnight to Midnight for $2.29. The real motherlode is in the classical though. I come home with these mint discs, and look them up on Amazon and they’re $30.00 or more sometimes!
I typically only buy LP’s from Discogs these days, but CD’s? You can always find good deals on eBay, many times with shipping included in the cost. I’ve gotten some great CD deals on eBay.
ebay and Amazon..no problems with ebay discs, and many are free shipping where used CD's on Amazon are an automatic $3.99 shipping fee, even though actual shipping is way less...
I buy from Ebay and Amazon depending on who has the best shipping rates. However for new releases, I have bought direct from the artists' websites. The artists get more money and often, they cut you a deal. I live in Atlanta and there are still a few used disc stores- recently released product and particularly sexy for bootlegs. The challenge I have in general is people stealing my mail. Tracking is essential.
I buy CDs from the same places that I buy my cassettes...thrift stores. If you try to buy cassettes at record stores, they want $1.99 for common ones and up to $10.00 for hard to find ones. The same record stores charge $5-$7 for pre-owned CDs. Thrift stores sell them for $.50-$1. I'm no cheapskate but most of my listening is by 60's/70's artists so why would I pay more. I'm retired and have time on my hands. Obviously, when I buy new music, like the new Norah Jones or Neil Young albums, I'm forced to pay around $15 at ZIA Records in Phoenix.
I haven't bought a new CD in a while. I buy used from Discogs. I really object to Amazon's $3.99 shipping charge. Two CD's from the Marketplace will cost you $7.98 shipping.
I was very surprised. It seems like they only have a couple hundred red book CD offerings in stock. Maybe I didn't check carefully enough. But if I am right, ... not as much as I would have expected.
I still play CDs. Maybe it is time to think about streaming or re-think adding more LPs to my collection.
I have to say once more; if you are in a state like AZ where I am, and there are many Goodwill stores, (this state is packed with them) they are a rich resource for great CDs which are normally in mint condition. Yesterdays catch was Sam Cooke's greatest hits, Levon Helm "Dirt Farmer", Aaron Copland "Appalachian Spring" Dave Brubeck Quintet with the Cincinnati Orchestra and Oscar Peterson on Verve doing his favorite Sinatra songs with Ray Brown and Ed Thigpen. All of this for $2.29 each! I love to get home and look up the prices of these discs on Amazon.
Roxy Pre pandemic, every Wednesday and Thursday you would find me doing the charity shop rounds (50&60% off those days😁). Now? Total waste of time and effort, have not seen a single CD worth buying in weeks. This is in NE Florida. It seems nobody is leaving the house to donate so no fresh stock.
Earlier this year it was a buyers dream at most charity shops here!
There's a used record store, not close, where I picked-up a handful, and LPs as well for cheap.
Amazon for usual R&R, but rarely.
What's Streaming? : ) Guess that's where it's going.
Got son a disc of Marches for Christmas. He looked at it with a small bit of distain, saying he can get it on (some streaming service) I said, No way... He found it in two seconds, same disc!
Well today ended the drought at one of my local charity shops, bunch of new stock in the CD section, found 6 to bring home. And it was 50% of for VIP members so just $1 each. Ripping to hard drive right now via JRiver........
The great thing about the thrift stores or Goodwill is that you get some rare items that are out of print, or cost $40-$80 if you can get them new. You have to sift through a lot of junk to find the jewels but it's fun!
+1 audioguy85 & others who have named thrift stores like Goodwill. I found a thrift store in Richmond Va that has an incredible selection of classical CD's. I've probably bought close to 100 from that 1 store. Also, a lot of people have mentioned eBay and that is a great source of almost any CD you could be looking for. I just bought a 20 CD set of Artur Rubinstein playing Chopin for $25. That's a deal. It's from old recordings and originally recorded in mono (which actually makes sense to me when you're recording a solo instrument) and it sounds superb when you turn it up a little.
I bought a bunch directly from the great Americana label New West last time they had a five dollar sale. Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, and Rodney Crowell albums for five bucks!
You have already got a lot of recommendations about buying cd:s. If you want to buy downloads you can try HD Tracks.
You will still "own" the music you have bought and it should work as long as there are equipment to play it on and that will probably be longer than there are cd players. You do need a player/streamer with storage or a network attached storage (NAS) that your streamer can get the music from.
I buy all used CDs on eBay. It usually ends up being from declutter. Low prices, low or no shipping, fast delivery. I research via the DR database first to at least rule out the bad/compressed recordings. Most 'remastered' CDs are worse than the originals, sometimes waaaaaaaay worse.
I buy new CDs, usually only new artists, from Amazon. They almost universally cost too much and are almost universally DR compressed. I know this going in and a lot of what drives buying it is to support a new band. Not sure how much they get per CD. Maybe nothing.
I just got a SACD player. Not sure I'm going to go down that path unless it is something really special.
Second Amazon/eBay, but I only buy new or pristine CD's nowadays because my Cambridge Audio CXC transport hiccups at the very hint of a scratch or scuff, whereas my Oppo BDP-103 would play with nearly a complaint (AND it played SACD's, too!).
I have a few CD's I am throwing away. I got my old CD's and SACD's out of storage and set them up on my CD rack. However, the extras that did not fit on the rack are going to be removed. I see that Goodwill may take these CD from the posts on this thread.
I have a bunch of Stereophile audiophile recordings from maybe 15 years ago. I never listened to them much but someone on Audiogon may like them. They are free to anyone who wants to pay for the shipping.
Amazon, ebay, Music Direct, and Acoustic sounds. I just bought one from Acoustic Sounds for .99 plus shipping ( 4.17 ). Vinny Valentino / Now and Again.
A year or two ago I scored 155 CDs (a great mixture of jazz, blues and classical) on eBay for $65 + $27 s/h. Among other great discs, the lot included Frank Morgan's "Mood Indigo" (ono the Island label) which, besides being a great collection of music, is worth about $20 on it's own. Great bargains to be had if you're willing to just..............shop.
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