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CDs... an embarrassment of riches!

RunOutGroove

RunOutGroove

Addicted Member
Ok... so I'm someone who still collects CDs, knowing full well that I could ditch them and have the same quality versions of the music on a hard drive or in cyberspace somewhere with more in the way of convenience and without the storage space hassle. I do prefer LPs, for various reasons (little to do with sound quality though) but to me CDs are still a great physical format and I like to hold the music in my hands... probably no small part due to the fact that I dig the graphics (I'm a graphic designer) and when they have 'em, the liner notes.

Anyway, it's surely become pretty obvious to everyone on here that the CD format is really out of fashion at the current moment. That being the case, folks like me that still like this format can find them on the cheap and in my case anyway... for free. I've been buying a few cheap ones where I find them and have been getting lots of others for free from folks who apparently think of them as so worthless they're just ditching masses of those things... I write this because I found another sizable batch of them just today and I'm realizing just how many of these things I've acquired in the last year alone. I've been collecting CDs since the early 90s and I have a fairly large collection but I'd bet that close to 10% of what I have might be just from this last year. Not that I'm complaining but I have a number of 'em that I've had for a while but still haven't gotten around to listening to. I pick up just about any title, if it's cheap enough or free, that looks like it might have any chance of being interesting to me... which ends up being a lot and is starting to become a chore to make room for. At some point, I think that I'll need up making some sacrifices and getting rid of a stack that are in my "C-list" category, but for now, they're really piling up...

I wonder if other folks who still use this very unfashionable format are also taking advantage of this "dumping phenomenon" and hording these things?
 
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59volvo said:
how do you store them?
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Not in a particularly great way... I gotta say. Some years ago a friend of mine offered up his kid brother's dresser that his parents were giving away. This thing isn't the prettiest piece of furniture (It's painted black and bit chipped up, but not quite ugly). Anyway, It's an unusually solid price of furniture and for a few decades now I've been using it for CD storage. All 4 drawers are loaded with CDs and the thing isn't about to cave in... and it has my stereo components staked on top of it as well. Some time ago, that thing filled up and then a couple of the smaller shelves of a built in bookcase in my place became the CD overflow, with the V/A disks on a couple of those vertical floor racks. I have one more of those that doesn't have any CDs on it yet, but it looks like the overflow is going to fill that one up as well...

For now I have a smaller stack of the newest stuff sitting on top of a record cabinet... but that stuff will either be filtered into the collection or given away, depending on whether or not I bond with it.
 
RunOutGroove said:
I wonder if other folks who still use this very unfashionable format are also taking advantage of this "dumping phenomenon" and hording these things?
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Don't get me started! Walked out of an op shop (Goodwill) the other day with around 30 really excellent condition CDs for $90. We're talking Original Jazz Classics, ECM, Blue Note, etc. Lots of high quality stuff. Felt like a kid in a candy shop because these were CDs that not so many years ago were selling at $25-30 a pop here in Australia. A lot of them looked mint, like they had been dumped by a store or distributor.

Yeah, yeah, I know, we can stream most of this music now. But I like CDs. Have to be careful now as I'm running out of WAF storage area for these in the listening parlour, but I'm finding lots of great stuff.
 
I still buy them. Like you said, you can find them cheap. Some sales I get them for a dime. Great way to explore new bands. Or some choice classical titles. Unfortunately with my small living space most are in a storage locker. Still have room for my vinyl collection. Now and then I purge stuff I haven't listened to in a while, back to the thrifts. When digging through the titles next time, it's like "that was mine..'
 
Its become the new cheap out of fashion format. I just wonder how long until they become the "in" thing and prices go stupid like they did for records. I'm sort of OK with it honestly, lots of good music for peanuts appeals to me. Its why I was messing with records 20 years ago when nobody wanted them.

Unfortunately now it also means I need to fix the CD player in my truck. for all I know its never been used, but it doesn't play correctly. Hopefully just full of dust.
 
CD is my favorite non radio format.
I play a record every 6 months or so just to keep my tt limber.
Buying records on ebay is a crap shoot as far as condition and I won't pay the asking price ($22+?) for new records in stores.
Too old to get into streaming or whatever.
I do check GW and SA and occasionally find a CD I want for $1.99
I will pay $5 to $15 for a new CD on ebay, especially if the seller offers FREE SHIPPING.

There's a local pawn shop that must have hundreds (thousands?) of used CD's in stock, but no organization whatsoever and my old eyes give up trying to read the spines for artist and title after a couple minutes.
 
I visit GW Buy the Pound on a regular basis. CDs work out to a little over 25 cents each there. I find incredible stuff there. Japanese, German, UK issued, MOFI, sealed ones, rare jazz and rock, box sets, you name it. I've left there with 30 or more in a visit. I buy for myself, my wife and to sell.

Many CDs are now out of print and haven't been reissued and can pull in some nice money. I've noticed that there are only a handful of people at BTP looking through the CDs. That's fine with me. As was said above, I just like to actually have media I can hold and look at. I have a nice solid wood case that my wife found me at a thrift and another roll around one that I bought for change at a yard sale.

Just like records, CDs will always have people that like to collect them. I also have a couple of reserve CD players just in case my JVC dies.
 
I would still rather keep a physical copy of something, as these "on a hard drive or in cyberspace somewhere" might disappear into the ether if the hard drive takes a dump or the cloud suddenly starts to rain.

I did go through my DVDs, putting them all in these Caselogik binder type things. I managed to get four big boxes of DVDs into three of these, meaning I can keep all my movies in the two drawers that are part of my coffee table. I could do the same with my CDs, and probably will.

For an out of fashion format, they seem to be selling for $1.99 at my local Salvation Army. I bought a Sade compilation and Genesis Invisible Touch there. Discs were as new condition.
 
Just bought 4 CDs for less than $17. In vinyl terms that would be $100 at least. I do love my vinyl, but prices are stupid. I live in a smaller city with a couple of good shops. A few more in reasonable driving distance. Used vinyl in good shape is still $15-20 each. I better really want it to spend that kinda cash. I do buy a bit of new vinyl online, but again has to be something I'm willing to spend $30-50 on. Even then, I'm going to stream it through my server 95% of the time. So most of what I'm buying today is 70% digital, 25% CD, 5% vinyl.
 
I didn't buy CDs in the 1980s when they were the new thing in audio. Too expensive -- both the discs and the players. Now both are ridiculously cheap. Since moving to a smaller place a few years ago, I have been steadily building a CD collection. I generally don't pay over a dollar apiece for them, and fortunately there are many local thrift stores with ample stacks. I agree with goodolpg, the tiny print on the labels can put a strain on the eyeballs.
 
I live in small rural town in Ohio .. so you have factor that in.

I still buy (vice collect) some pre-owned CD's ... not many. Don't spin them much at all .. own 5 working CD players (3 universal disk spinners, 1 recorder and 1 regular CD player w/ tubed output stage). I rip to PC's and then usb flashdrive for DAP & Car Audio.

No local vendors (in my immediate area) sell pre-owned CD's anymore .. Goodwill sell's them for $1 per.

Nearest larger city (45 minutes away) has a pre-owned music store that still sells them (along w/ Vinyl). Price varies .. usually they sell them for what you can buy them for on Amazon (including S&H) ... their inventory stock is kept on a computer database from multiple stores (so they know what there worth). They appear to be doing well .. always busy when I stop by there.

Online "ye old interweb" has good selection & price (in some cases) .. but the S&H ($4 per on average) detracts from that option for me .. unless I really want a rip of a particular album. I do stream but not for mobile applications (like DAP & Car Audio).
 
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I still collect CDs. I like having the physical medium in my hands, along with the cover art and notes. Garage sales have been a great place for me to find them. Buy them by the box for cheap, then sort through them, give away or donate the doubles.
 
I've been gradually converting my CDs to FLAC for the simple reason that searching the shelves for what I want has become a challenge. I mostly listen to classical music, where CDs often have music by different composers, so finding a particular piece can be vexing. It is easy to search the FLAC files, and, of course, they sound the same as the original. Once I've found the piece of music I want, I then know what CD it is on, so I can quickly find it to look at the liner notes. I still buy CDs, though, for all the reasons mentioned here.
 
Recently while out for a walk I found a rack of cds sitting out by the curb in front of a house. Roughly 100 or so, most of which that interested me I had already but I grabbed 5 including Cream: Disraeli Gears & Traffic Low Spark of High Heeled Boys. That told me all I need to know about the value of used cds, basically worthless. So my collection which I probably spent around $25,000 buying is now worth $2500-$3,000. Nice trade.
 
Capitol C said:
I've been gradually converting my CDs to FLAC for the simple reason that searching the shelves for what I want has become a challenge.
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I do that to dump them on my ipod. I don't use the computer much for music playback because of the obnoxious hiss it puts out. guessing its just the crappy onboard sound card but not completely sure.
 
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