New feature: feeling equally as slack as some of you and rightly chastised by @mrshoey during ‘Spillmas, I’m going to try my hand at a new irregular feature called ‘CDs I recently sold on ebay’ – I’ve tried new features in the past (The Wheel of our Tune…remember that?) which have ended up dying a death because I run out of steam when I commit to a regular feature.
You guys may not at all be interested in my ramblings on selling a dying format so that others can love them as much as I did, but you’re gonna get it anyway! I will try to avoid the regular features so the content doesn’t get too overcrowded.
So here’s the thing; I’ve had 2 very full boxes of CDs sat in my work room for about 3 years. I have no means of playing this format anymore. All tracks are uploaded onto my iTunes. They are too heavy to take to a second hand store, the contents seemed too precious to sell on Music Magpie (and weighty to post) or give away. They were there so long that we kinda forgot what was in the boxes. Back in November I got them all out and listed on ebay some that were most likely to sell. They are primarily compilations, but not all. A few have sold, and those that haven’t just get auto re-listed, so no great effort needed on my part. Please don’t @ me about lacking commitment to music collection – I need to move them on and am sharing these CDs with others who will make use of them, love them and discover new styles, tracks, and musicians like I did – it’s recycling.
What I will try to do, is talk a bit about the artist/s, the album, any notable tracks or interesting anecdotes about why I came of have the CD in the first place etc etc. I’ll try to post either a Spotify or Youtube link to the album tracks, if I can. If it’s boring and you guys are showing no interest, I will stop. So far I’ve sold 12 CDs with a gazillion to go!
The 'Spill 
I’m still a huge collector of CDs. Sound quality and ease of mobility between my various players mostly the reason. And I still want physical product – I’m both a sadsack reader of sleevenotes / lyrics, and I’ve absorbed Yorkshireness with money in my four decades as a Red Rose Missionary.
Go for it, Sarah, but … er … you got a link to your listings? ;o)
Yeah, physical product or multiple backups. I don’t like being at the whims of cloud businesses.
“Hey, where’d all my music go?”
That sounds like a really good idea. I had to buy an external CD drive so I can import CDs on to my macbook pro as it has no way of getting them otherwise, but I don’t think I can part with mine yet. I still have records and tapes! Look forward to your posts 🙂
Cassettes are making a comeback!
Back in his teens, TheBoyWonder started buying me LPs for Giftmas and birthdays and ever since then I’ve only bought vinyl. Still waiting for a record player, though (hint, hint, hint).
I know and I hate it! I don’t even have a working cassette player. Who on Earth thinks that cassettes are preferrable to CDs?
I don’t understand why the CD is such a maligned format: neither as trendy as LP’s or cassettes, nor as convenient as mp3’s.
I still believe in them and I’m desperately hoping my 30-year-old player doesn’t give up the ghost. I breathed a sigh of relief when my leccy car still had one.
CD’s are great quality, take little space (you can even ditch the cases) and have all the info of an LP. Why replace them with poorer quality/scratched versions?
Mind you, I still have most of the LP’s and cassettes I’ve had for decades, so maybe I just can’t stand the idea of throwing any music away. Ditto books……
(C)
I don’t get it either. I mean I get that vinyl looks nicer but I really can’t hear the difference that people claim to be able to hear. I think years ago CDs were poorer quality (possibly depended on the mastering) so masybe people made their minds up back then.
I still have and buy CDs, if anything it’s my preferred format but if only because it’s usually a cheaper option than vinyl that is getting ridiculously expensive, but the fact of the matter is that now a lot of small scale punk releases are vinyl only.
I am actually interested in this so go ahead. Selling your stuff can lead to some strange situations , in fact I think I’ll do a mini post one day just to get all my anecdotes out there!
If the song’s in your head, it doesn’t matter if you sell cd, vinyl, whatever.
Or it didn’t until recently.
I’ve taken CDs and vinyl to flea market stall you rent for a week or two. The first time I did it. The vinyl sold almost instantly. The CDs slower. My ex-wife pressed me to get rid of more vinyl as I had duplicates on CD or digital. I grudgingly said yes and put what I thought were silly, fuck-off prices on the vinyl. There was a bloke waiting there (adding new old stuff took place at agreed times) and he took almost all, laughing that I had wised up.
I made the mistake of selling my Sähkö Records collection in Finland via Tori.fi. The bloke who bought it in an online auction told me a Japanese collector would have paid six times more.
I sold cassettes to a local record shop called 8raita. He was happy because they had just become popular again. I don’t mind as he finds good homes for them and keeps the local music scene thriving.
But I regret a lot of sales now as my eldest has become a fan of the music I liked. Luckily I can remember most of what I owned and tell him about it. But he’s very pissed off I have no Clash on vinyl anymore.
He likes the non-digital formats as objects and the connection they create with the past.
That’s a great Trojan box set, btw. There are loads of them but they are the sort of thing I regret selling because I think my children would now like them.