CD Resale Value Plummeting as Record Stores Breathe Last Breath

Nearing the end of this massive, multi-person music digitization process, starting to return vast collections of amazing music to friends, and came across my own boxes of “discards.” Painful to let go, but it’s only 10% of the collection, and I have to be honest that I haven’t stuck a CD in a slot for a very long time and probably never will again.

Lugged 400 discs down to Downhome Music, knowing that they’d appreciate a lot of them. Bummed to learn that with everyone going or having gone all-digital, CD resale value is down to $1 or $1.50/disc, and some stores now doing closer to $0.50/disc.

The buyer waved his arm at the inside of the store, which was empty on a Sunday afternoon. “This will all be gone soon” he said. There is no market left for used CDs, so they have to sell them dirt cheap, which means they can no longer pay for them.

Miles record shopping

Digitization has all but killed the newspaper. All but killed the bookstore. All but killed the record store. I blame Obama the job killer.

Was half-tempted to refuse and hold onto them for nostalgia’s sake, but realism got the better of me and I walked out with the money (didn’t even take trade-in value like I used to).

Music has become a non-physical phenomenon. That’s completely normal for the younger generations, completely weird for us oldsters. I embrace the convenience but curse the side effects, even as I’m part of the problem.

2 Replies to “CD Resale Value Plummeting as Record Stores Breathe Last Breath”

  1. I just discovered you are closing down your blog. I have one, too: lots of work!

    I found your site while doing my taxes and trying to find out how much used 128 CDs (donated to the local public library for their sales) will go for. $1.00 is about what I learned when I sold a batch earlier. When my husband died three years ago, besides hundreds of CDs (he too had begun to digitalize his music collection) there was about 10 feet of black discs. I couldn’t even get anyone to come and look at them from used record stores: they were “classical” music. I was finally able to give them to someone who has a music room and still listens to music in that format.

    Obama has indeed been a job killer. Whenever I am in the grocery store and see the high prices on vegetables, I always exclaim to all who listen: “This must be the Obama recovery.”

  2. Yeah, pretty sad how hard it is to get any kind of value out of old CDs or vinyl these days. The future isn’t always pretty.

    The bit about Obama the Job Killer was tongue-in-cheek. Do the research – his presidency has done wonders for job recovery. Not sure what the price of vegetables has to do with anything…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *