Dupen_30sept11_03_small
Reputation: 342

What's the best way to sell my cd collection?

~400 CDs, mostly classical. eBay? Amazon?

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7 Answers

  • Gogogophers_small
    Reputation: 864

    Alright. I've got a minute, so I'll give a full answer.

    1. Pull out all your CDs in poor condition and set them aside in a box. You may be able to sell them as SKUFF cds at Everyday Music or Half-Priced books, but you won't get enough online for them to warrant the time in listing them, and who needs bad reviews from angry customers messing with your potential sales.

    2. Look up each remaining CD on Amazon.com, noting the going rate for your condition. (Very Good to Like New. Except for true rarities, anything you'd rate as less by Amazon's rating guide should be going in the step 1 stack).

    3. Separate these CDs into stacks by going-rate.

    Stack A: $2.50 or less.
    Stack B: $3.00 to $5.50.
    Stack C: $6.00 - $15.00.
    Stack D: $15.00 or more, CDs not found on amazon, CDs found, but with nothing in stock.

    4. Put stack A in a box, separate from the step 1 CDs. Ask yourself if you have the time or need the money that badly. You don't. Time is money and Amazon takes a cut of your nothing. Take stack A down to a used record/book store SEPARATE from the SKUFF stack (step 1). Otherwise, some stores will take a quick glance, see a bunch of broken CDs and give you a dirt cheap estimate or say no entirely. Try unloading the stack from step 1 on a separate trip, or just "suddenly remember' after they've looked at stack A and paid for them, that you've got another stack in the car.

    5. Take stack D ($15.00 or more) and do a completed listings search on Ebay to determine the going rate of each CD. If it's more on Ebay, do a little googling on the rarity, demand and Out-Of-Print status, then go ahead and list it on Ebay with that knowledge, making sure to sell it internationally. If it's not listed on Ebay or Amazon, do a little more googling to determine if it's ultra-rare and in demand or ultra-no-one-gives-a-crap and no-one's ever heard of it. Ultra Rare? Sell it on Ebay at an exorbitant price. Ultra no-one-gives-a-crap? Sell it on Amazon at an exorbitant price. There's no listing fees and it can stay up there for eternity until someone who cares pays for it.

    6. Count the remaining stack D CDs from step 5, the ones that sold for more or equal on Amazon. Add that to the count for stacks B and C.

    Does the count reach over 100?

    Yes: Get month-long Pro Subscription to Amazon.com.

    No: Drop stack B off where-ever you sold stack A and the SKUFFs.

    7. All remaining CDs: Set aside a day and make sure to list them all on Amazon at once. Time is money, and you want to avoid as many petty trips to the post office as possible by selling as much as you can at the same time. (Same goes for your ebay sales here. Ebay's even better for saving post office trips, since you can schedule an end-date for all the auctions).

    AMAZON SHIPPING TIPS (cut-and-pasted from my response to soundslikepuget, since I'm sick of writing):

    The shipping you offer should depend on "weight and what you're mailing it in. If you buy bubble-wrap CD mailers in bulk (officemax) and you're only selling single CDs, you may break out about even on international shipping or occasionally gain a buck. With media such as CDs, it's also cheaper to send First Class domestically instead of media mail, since the CD is usually less than 5 ounces and First Class is a lower price at this rate. You only want to go media mail when sending more than one CD or heavier media items in a package.

    When selling low-priced, low-weight media on Amazon, I'd recommend offering Standard and International only (since it's true that their Expedited shipping compensation is often unfair), and offering Expedited shipping only on CDs priced over $10. The Expedited option might make the difference in selling that rare $80.00 CD when that rich last-minute buyer has procrastinated on getting a birthday present for their wife/boyfriend/daughter, ect."

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  • Wa_usa_small
    Reputation: 2675

    I recommend Amazon. I have a lot of experience selling on Amazon, here's the drill:

    Sign up to be a Pro Seller for $39.99 a month. When you do this, the 99 cent per item fee is waived, so you pay only the smaller percentage fee. Price your items reasonably so they will sell fast, and you only have to pay this fee for one month. You'll recoup it in spades. Ebay charges way higher commissions, and without being a Pro Seller, Amazon's transaction fees will wipe out your profits. So be a "Pro seller" but only for a month or two.

    Then, list your items, and sell them. Offer regular shipping and expedited domestic shipping. I would recommend against international shipping, the margin is too small. When an item sells with regular shipping, ship it via US Postal Service "MEDIA MAIL." This used to be called "book rate," CD's are eligible for "Media Mail" and it is waaaaaay cheaper than standard mail. For expedited shipping use US Postal Service "Priority Mail," it costs a little more but the post office provides the packing materials, so you save $$ there.

    When you sell an item, if you are a "Pro Seller" Amazon charges the customer for the item and the shipping, then takes a percentage cut (between 6% and 20%) and sends the rest to you. If customers choose expedited shipping, they pay more for it, and Amazon pays you more for it. The margins are great if you use US Postal Service Media Mail for regular shipping orders and USPS Priority Mail for expedited orders. The margins are too slim on international orders, so decline to offer them.

    One last thing, check your listings daily. It can be a race to the bottom, but that's how you win. The goal is to sell the items in a reasonable amount of time at a decent margin, so move product. If a CD is listed for $6.99, list yours for $6.89. The other guy might lower his, so you have to check back. The lower the price, the faster they sell, so check back often, but only up to a certain point.

    There is a break-even point of about $2 to $3. With the commission Amazon takes, unless you are doing HUGE volume (thousands per month, they charge a smaller % for super high volume sellers) you will lose money on items priced below about $2 or $3 as a "Pro Seller."

    If you aren't a Pro Seller, the break-even point is higher, closer to $5, so I HIGHLY recommend ponying up the $39.99/mo to temporarily be a pro seller.

    Good luck, and happy selling.

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  • Gold-head_small
    Reputation: 6000

    Pull out a good representative sample, including some items that you think might be especially desirable, and price them on Ebay. Make sure you're looking at Completed listings so you can see what the final selling price really is. You may be shocked at how little they're worth, though maybe not -- classical is a hard thing to call.

    If you're lucky, ten percent of your items will be genuinely hot and worth some money, while the rest are worth a few bucks at most.

    Given the huge hassle of selling them on Ebay or Amazon, entering the data, keeping track of who's bought what, whether they've paid, shipping, etc., you may find that just taking them down to a used CD store is the best option. For classical CDs, the Silver Platters in lower Queen Anne is probably the place where you're likely to get the biggest bite. Maybe Neptune in the U-District.

    Got any Bartok, Webern, Berg?

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  • Icon_small
    Reputation: 1627

    If you have anything especially rare or special, you might want to try eBay in the hopes that the CDs will get bid to a high price. I, personally, hate eBay with the fire of a thousand suns (they especially treat sellers like shit), so I don't recommend using them for anything remotely run of the mill. The hassle won't make it worth it.

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  • Spaceship_small
    Reputation: 1812

    This is an eternal question that comes up periodically with each succeeding generation.

    I'll give you the same answer that I have given each of my friends in the past.
    First, determine how many of your CDs or Albums you want to part with and why: Are you just out of space, or you need cash, or you broke up with someone and want to dump any reminders.

    If you need space, reorganize your apartment or your storage system so that you have more room and organization.

    If you broke up with someone, you CAN"T keep from hearing the same music that reminds you of them. It's everywhere in the culture. You'll hear it on the radio, on someone else's CD or elsewhere even if you purge your collection.

    Finally, if you need cash, look carefully at those CDs and LPs that you are going to sell. Do you really think you will NEVER want to hear that album again? If yes, odds are others feel the same way, and that the market is flooded with them already... or that demand for them is low.
    On the other hand, if you MIGHT want to acquire a copy of that CD again later, realize the pittance that you get from resale is going to be far out-striped when you attempt to buy the CD again later. So don't sell them. Just sit on them, and out wait this urge to purge and sell. You'll be glad that you listened to me later.

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  • Bird_small
    Reputation: 230

    I haven't tried selling music online, so I have no comparison, but I was shocked at how much Everyday Music paid me for my giant stack of CDs. Pleasantly shocked.
    Then again, I don't know if they do a lot of Classical.
    Maybe I'm old fashioned, but it seems like brick & mortar is the way to go.

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  • Photo-2_small
    Reputation: 567

    Does "best" mean swiftly, easily or most profitable?
    Check out Discogs.com if you plan to piece it out.
    You probably won't get too much more than $75 if you try to sell the whole thing at once.
    eBay just changed their fees so maybe crunch the numbers and see about that.
    Then there is also Everyday Music and the like.

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