Like many music lovers, during my teens and University years I managed to amass quite a few CDs. Whilst I wouldn’t say I had a massive record collection compared with some people, I must have a couple of hundred albums and a few CD singles that up until recently were busy gathering dust at my parents home. It’s fair to say most haven’t been played in at least 3 or 4 years.
So I’ve finally been persuaded to part with some of my collection, and I’m now wondering whether there’s anyway I can do this and generate a little cash at the same time?
Whilst I suspect the demand for old CDs is declining as more and more people go digital, I’m guessing there is still a market for them somewhere, so here are the options I see available for my precious compact discs.
The Options
- eBay – whilst you’re pretty much guaranteed to find a buyer for some things on ebay, I’m not sure selling CDs will be too easy, due to the sheer number of people selling them on there. For example, one of the CDs I’m going to be getting rid of is Oasis’ debut album, Definitely Maybe. As I write this, there are 134 copies of this available, with only a couple having any bids – 1 of which is signed by the Gallagher brothers. So I’d think the chances of selling my copy are pretty slim. To look at this in an economic way, it’s the supply side of the equation that’s causing problems for me as the seller. On the other side of the coin, if the CD I want to sell isn’t by a popular artist, I suspect it will be difficult to find a buyer – the demand side is the problem this time. It’s for this reason I’m thinking against using eBay for these sales.
- MusicMagpie – MusicMagpie is a website specifically for selling old CDs. Simply enter the barcode off the back of the CD and they’ll make you an offer of a price they’re willing to pay. If you accept the offer, you enter into an agreement to send off the CD – they’ll send you an envelope so postage costs you nothing. In theory, this is a fantastic idea, however, there are a few things to note. Firstly, they won’t take any and every CD you have to sell – I tried submitting 6 or 7 barcodes earlier and only 2 came back with offers (the aforementioned Oasis CD was one of them). Also, the offers made are unlikely to be very high. The 2 offers I got were for 50p and 45p. If your CD doesn’t meet the quality guidelines, you also won’t get it back. Finally, should your CD be accepted, payment is made by cheque, so you won’t see the money too quickly. All in all, it’s a nice idea, but for me there are too many possible problems for me to bother selling my CDs in this way.
- Car boot sale – my third option is to flog the CDs at a car boot sale. Whilst I’ve said in the past that you’re unlikely to get much money for items sold here, I do think there’s a good chance some of the CDs by more popular artists will sell, and I hope to get between £1 and £1.50 for something like the Oasis CD. We might struggle with some of the more obscure albums though, but that will be the case wherever we try to sell them.
Whilst I’d like to get rid of them from the comfort of my own home, I think the best result will probably be from the car boot sale. Anything that doesn’t sell will probably end up in a charity shop (yes, I know I should probably give them all to charity and let them benefit from selling them, but times are hard!). In all I have about 50 to sell (the rest will disappear up the loft to gather more dust), and I’m hoping to make between £40 and £50 from them.
Do you have any other ideas about what I could do with them? If so, leave your ideas in the comments below.
