What to do with a large collection


I have thousands of CDs and records and am looking to get rid of most of them. i can’t possibly listen to them in my remaining years and my wife doesn’t need them. CDs, it turns out, are not very viable these days, and if you want to sell them to a dealer you can only get store credit!! And, if as in my case, the collection is 90% classical, it seems they will be impossible to unload. Since CDs are antiques these days, I can’t imagine ANYONE who would want them. The only alternative I can see is the garbage. When you consider just how much of an investment they were it’s indeed a sobering realization.
Records are indeed “in,” but how desirable are classical LP’s?

Any suggestions?

128x128rvpiano

I’ve gone around and around with this issue for some years now. I have approx. 1500 CDs and at least that many LPs. Over 1/2 (maybe 60%) of all of them are classical.

I’ve read a lot, talked to people in the business, schemed and planned how to convey all the LPs (stored in 9-10 heavy cardboard boxes) to this or that store that may/may not actually try to sell them. The paradigm seems to be A. drive 100s of lbs of LPs and/or CDs to the place; they go through it all, decide to sell <10%; then go pick up all the leftovers.

None of it works for me. I reluctantly concluded I’ll end up throwing them all out. Even that will either be expensive (pay someone to haul it all away) or effortful to the point of self-harm (after many shoulder surgeries, very hard to manage the boxes holding LPs).

I wish it weren’t this way, but it is & there’s no sense denying it.

PS: I no longer delude myself that there’s any money in all these recordings. I now look at it dead weight to be dealt with.

@rvpiano 

Great thread, thanks.

I originally planned to rip then store my CDs (because of copywrite infringement), but:

  1. I’m trying to declutter, ran out of room
  2. When I pass, hopefully in the far future, the CDs will go out into the world anyway after liquidating my stuff

So I’m now inclined to get rid of them after ripping.

Next - what to do with my many video DVDs, BluRay, and some VHS as the trend seems to be streaming 

 

Please consider ripping your cd's before selling or giving them away. By using flac or another lossless codec you can keep a collection that would take up many shelves or boxes in an external hd that's the size of a pack of cigarettes for future enjoyment.

Ripping cd's is somewhat time consuming, but there are many programs available to help rip and catalog the files, and many ways to playback and enjoy the music for years to come.

 

Hi RVPIANO. I have a very large cd collection which I am always adding to for the right material. I am very partial to Classical works and would be very interested to purchase your collection once I've had a look at it.. I live in CT so we are close enough for me to shoot by and meet. Let me know if you have any interest. You can email me at robertboucher@charter.net. Bob