Music Discussions

Lately, most of the CDs that I have purchased have been used; this is a fairly major changing in my purchasing habits since I have not regularly purchased used CDs since highschool. It has also been a learning experience as places like Amazon did not exist in the early 1990’s.

In highschool, when I was strapped for cash, I would buy most of my CDs at a local pawn shop. While this did save me a lot of money, many of the CDs had felt tip pen marks, broken cases, and – in one case – severe scratches. I will admit, buying a CD with scratches, when I could open the case and look at the back, is my own fault for having assumed that the pawn shop employees would not buy a damaged product in the first place. I did get some good deals out of the experience though including a couple of CDs that were pratically new, for about a third of the price of a new CD.

Lately though, I have been buying most of my used CDs on Amazon and was a little unsure of the wisdom of this at first. Sure, like everyone else in the world, I have purchased merchandise online before – even from Amazon – but never used, and definitely not something as easily damaged as a CD. Overall though, my experience has been extremely positive. As long as the seller has a high rating, or, at least not a low rating, you should be okay. Beware though, always make sure that you read the description carefully, not just the product condition (new, like-new, good, etc.). I have purchased a couple of CDs listed as “like-new”, which they were, but were missing the original case and the back artwork; if I had read the description more carefully, I would have noticed this fact.

I personally would not sell a CD as “like-new” if it did not have the back artwork from the original case and wasn’t expecting this, but it was clearly listed. I assume that the original owner put all of their CDs and booklets in a nylon CD carrying case and threw the jewel cases away, but this seems really foreign to me.

Buying locally ensures that you know what you are getting and helps your local economy, but prices online tend to be better. In short, buying online can be a great way to get CDs as drastically reduced prices (sometimes as low one cent plus shipping), but read the descriptions carefully and only buy from sellers with good ratings. If you are buying from a local pawnshop or music store always make sure to inspect the CD; don’t assume that the store inspected it before they purchased it.