Selling or otherwise disposing of CDs - suggestions

[Dave2002]

I have more CDs now than I really need. I have options:

Dump them
Take them to charity shops
Try to sell them.

Does anyone have suggestions for selling? Are there any dealers who will take fairly large quantities at a time, in return for cash? Say 100 or more at a a time. Otherwise they will probably all be stored away for a few more years, and eventually dumped.

Are there any which might actually sell for reasonable prices, or should I just expect at most a nominal price of between one (1) and ten (10) pence per CD which doesn't get dumped one way or another?

Perhaps I'm not the only one here with this "problem".

If I start thinning out my collection I'll keep the ones I particularly like longest. Also box sets tend to take up a lot less space than single CDs in jewel cases, so it would be helpful to reduce the CDs in jewel cases first.

Giving to friends is not a very good option, as only a few friends have similar musical interests, and those that do probably don't want a massive increase in their collections - though might be happy with small quantities.

Do any of the online stores take CDs in bulk? They must get the CDs to sell for 1p or more plus the postage from somewhere.

[LMcD]

I volunteer for a charity which sells CDs for £1.50, with multi-disc sets priced appropriately (say, £2.50 for 2, £3 for 3) Other local charities charge anything from 20p upwards.
Anything likely to be of significant value goes onto ebay, which is becoming a key part of the charity's fund-raising efforts. You could also try selling them via Oxfam online. If you're considering selling in bulk to another online store, you could contact, for example, Music Magpie or any other highly-rated such seller.

[cloughie]

i guess largely has a result of big box purchases that some of us on the boards have items they would like to sell or swap. Amazon marketplace does not move very much, Magpie offers peanuts and in many ways I’d rather donate to charities. Maybe another attempt could be made to have a board ‘mart’ for buying, selling and exchanging our unwanted wares!

[Mal]

Depends on your circumstances and inclinations:

Time poor and money rich: give them to the nearest charity shop.
Time rich and money very poor: sell them on ebay.
Time poor and money poor: sell them to Music Magpie, if you have time compare with other online buyers.

Have you tried selling lots of stuff on ebay before? You might find it an interesting new hobby or a real pain, depending on your inclinations and situation (is visiting your local post office fun or a trial, if the latter forget ebay!)

Selling in London? Try Foyles or Notting Hill Music Exchange.

Other possibilities -

Do a Google search for classical CD buyers within about fifty miles and see if they will travel to buy - with several hundred to sell they might.
Car boot sales - let as many forum people know where you are selling, or ask them which car boot sales they attend, to hopefully get *some* classical music fans there.

[Jonathan]

I've replaced individual discs in series with their boxed set equivalents (in this case Leslie Howard's Liszt series on Hyperion) last year and sold the individual discs off via eBay. I made enough to cover the box set and some extra! I sold single CDs at £2.00 and doubles at £4.00 and so on. I charged £1.00 for a single disc postage and upto £2.90 for a box (as per the post office weight restrictions). The only issue I had was people not leaving feedback on eBay after they'd bought several discs.

Alternatively, you could give them to me (dependent on what they are!)

Hope this helps!

[richardfinegold]

I don’t know about your tax laws. Here they have eliminated some of the deductions that we used to take advantage of so donating the CDs to charity shops has become the most attractive option

[visualnickmos]

If London is within your orbit, you could try contacting Gramex (not sure if they've found new premises yet)

I once took a fair old number of CDs from France, that I no longer needed (dupes, unloved, etc) and they were very happy to have them, and gave me a choice of part-ex or money. I opted for part-ex. A warning: they weren't too keen on Naxos, - or Bernstein…!!!

[Mal]

If London is within your orbit, you could try contacting Gramex ... A warning: they weren't too keen on Naxos, - or Bernstein…!!!

Yes, Gramex is worth trying first, if it ever opens again. They might only buy a few disks, but will probably give you the best price. Then move onto Notting Hill Record Exchange, and use the £1/2/3 for B/M/F as a rough guide. I've found NHRE will buy everything, but may only offer 50p (at exchange price...) for something that Foyles may offer £1 (for straight purchase...)

If you decide to go on a selling mission to London, note that Scoob books is good for selling books and I noticed that they sold a few CDs last time I was there, so you might want to check if they are buying CDs - again do this before going, as with Foyles, you need to arrange your visit to suit the buyer.

Probably a varied approach would be best if you have hundreds of disks and are tempted to try ebay - as Jonathan points out, with rare disks you can do well on ebay. Check the market! If there are ten people selling a Naxos disk for £0.01 then you are wasting your time trying to sell your copy online - sell it to Foyles for £1, or take Magpies' pittance, or give it to charity. But if the market is selling a second hand Hyperion disk at £9 then match that price on ebay! (Or make sure Foyles/Magpie pay you at least £3 for that disk...keep 'em honest... Foyles have a 3:1 buy:sell ratio, which should really be 2:1 in a sane market, ... but CDs do not make up a sane market these days...)

[Petrushka]

I once took a suitcase full of CDs to Gramex and made some decent money out of it but Roger wouldn't accept Bernstein or Colin Davis ('they weren't very good conductors' ) so I took those to Foyles and made even more money.

I've now got another batch of duplicates to offload and can't be bothered to go through with all that again. Not keen on charities these days either so they sit upstairs waiting for me to do something about them.

[Serial_Apologist]

If it's only space that's the problem, when several of my plastic cases broke (that hinge!) I placed said CDs in those transparent plastic pockets which can be obtained; your shelf space will be greatly increased, and usually there's room for squeezing the accompanying CD blurb/booklet into the envelope.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

If it's only space that's the problem, when several of my plastic cases broke (that hinge!) I placed said CDs in those transparent plastic pockets which can be obtained; your shelf space will be greatly increased, and usually there's room for squeezing the accompanying CD blurb/booklet into the envelope.

The Philips-designed CD jewel case is one of the worst pieces of packaging that actually endured. It was essentially the same design as the tape cassette case, where it was more successful.

[Mal]

... I placed said CDs in those transparent plastic pockets which can be obtained; your shelf space will be greatly increased, and usually there's room for squeezing the accompanying CD blurb/booklet into the envelope.

"Because of its sensitive surface, it was necessary to package the CD in such a way that it would be fully protected against damage."

https://www.philips.com/a-w/research/technologies/cd/jewel-case.html

Do plastic pockets provide sufficient protection? All that squeezing would worry me.

"At first the Jewel Case weighed 100 grams, had thick walls and didn’t break. However, due to severe competition manufacturers reduced its weight to 68 grams. As a result easy breakage became synonymous for the Jewel Case."

Someone supporting the jewel case:

http://www.goldminemag.com/articles/music-collectors-deserve-to-get-top-notch-cd-packaging-too

[Dave2002]

Jewel cases are not at all compact. In the early days of CD we surely felt lucky to have them, but now it's possible to buy a box set with 50 to a 100 CDs in sleeves of some sort, and the boxes take up only a small fraction of the space required for jewel cases for each CD. I haven't noticed a lot of additional wear due to cardboard or paper sleeves.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Someone supporting the jewel case:

http://www.goldminemag.com/articles/...-packaging-too

It doesn't seem to add up. I have many CDs in cardboard or paper sleeves, and not one has given me any trouble. The rare times I have trouble with optical discs (and then it's usually a DVD) the culprit is fingerprints, which are easily removable.

[Mal]

Would single CDs in cardboard survive the selling & transport process? Obviously some would, and have, but if a few percent are damaged it might rule out that simple solution. There's a chap on ebay who takes CDs out of their jewel cases and sends them at the lowest postal rate - might be worth Dave considering this.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/piggy3636

I bought a CD from this chap and it seems to have survived OK - haven't played it yet though!

Another route may be to keep the duplicates in the jewel case, with their often substantial documentation, and sell the CDs in cardboard sleeves from the box! Triple win - keep the documentation, lower the postage costs significantly, no "the jewel case is broken" complaints.