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What to do with 1,200 CDs I don't need

I am in the process of putting all of my CDs onto hard drives (pain in the rear!) to play though my USB DAC. I will have 2 copies on separate drives, one that will only be turned on to make the backup.

I see no reason to keep the CDs so what now? I can't imagine trying to eBay 1,200 CDs one at a time. Perhaps in lots?

..Auction them here in lots?
..Take them to my local used CD store and sell them?
..Donate them to the library and get a tax deduction? If I value them at $10 each then I would save about $3,000 on my taxes. Three dollars each seems like as much or more than I would clear if I tried to sell them and I wouldn't have the hassles.

Any ideas??
herman
prpixel
876 posts
 
There's also a legal issue here. By selling them, you know longer own the rights to listen to the music. I'm no attorney, and I'm not an expert in copyright law. I have over 1300+ CD's ripped, and backed up, on a hard drive and I'm not getting rid of any of them. My HD went up in a flaming ball of crap last month and I'm glad that I still had the originals. Just think of the replacement cost if both you main HD and backup HD died.
isellstuff
99 posts
 
Just donate them to me.
edesilva
768 posts
 
I'll echo Prpixel here and add in a moral view.

Mine are boxed and stored--both as a secondary backup to my RAID array *and* because, in my naive view, selling them would be wrong. As much as I will rail against the RIAA for the copyright positions and actions they are taking and as much as I believe the record companies are fat cat dinosaurs who can't adapt their business to reality, making a copy of something you don't own deprives the underlying artist of royalties. I'm all for fair use and think DRM is anti-consumer, but making an exact duplicate and then selling the original doesn't seem like fair use.
herman OP
2,280 posts
 
Thanks so far. I know some of you think I just posted this to get offers for them. I too get suspicious when I see posts like "I found an old amp labeled Marantz 9 in my grandfather's attic and I was wondering what it is worth," but since it will probably be a few months before I get them all ripped and I'll wait to get that done before I make a decision this post will be long forgotten.

Interesting takes on the legal and moral sides. I understand your position, but since I bought most of these second hand the artist never got anything out of me in the first place. Did I ever have a legal right to listen to them?

As for hard drive crashes and losing everything; I am still debating that one. Once backed up that drive will never be turned on again unless the main one crashes, and then it will be backed up when it is turned on. I know things happen but the odds of losing 2 in a row have to be pretty slim.
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