CDs, and getting rid of them

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(ILM? With something like this? No thanks. I apologise to everyone annoyed that I feel less inhibited about being an idiot on here instead. I will be embarrassed tomorrow and then do it again anyway, I'm afraid, but if I get enough emailed threats of broken legs then maybe not.)

One resolution I really need to do something about is Being Less Untidy, and this means getting rid of stuff, and I suppose this will have to involve getting rid of a couple of hundred or so cds. Bear with me if I sound lost, all three stages fill me with horror and confusion.

So. A lot of them, thanks to my untidiness and my fondness for buying unguaranteed dirt cheap second-hand stuff, are a bit battered; some are scratched enough to skip, most of them play fine but look bad enough that I couldn't sell them. What's the least environmentally unfriendly thing to do with a load of CDs which are scratched or obscure and really bad or otherwise not worth anything? It feels so wrong just throwing CDs out. Sigh.

And where (I mean where nearish to me in the UK) is the best place to sell CDs that I can - perhaps misguidedly - imagine other people wanting to buy? "Best" that is in terms of money, since I have none after spending it all on buying these CDs in the first place and generally fucking my life up and rendering myself unemployable, plus I'm greedy anyway. I had figured that since Reckless charge nearly as much for their stock as it costs new they might be more generous but it seems not. (Normally I would be happy for "best" to be in exchange terms, but I must be GOOD this time and stick to cash.)

How about the stuff which will probably get looks of contempt or blankness which I would like to turn into "we won't sell that very fast but we'll take it anyway"? Should I try to maximise what I get for them by getting rid of them in batches small enough not to trip the staff's "fucking hell, [pitiful amount] the lot" threshold or is it not worth it for me either?

Plus anyone know where I can buy black-ash-style CD racks which will approximately match the ones I got from Virgin three years ago which they don't do any more? They nearly matched my bookcase, see.

I don't want to do this. It's like machine-gunning my own family. Wah. THEY ARE MY OWN PRECIOUS BUT NOT VERY DESIRABLE CHILDREN, please give me more than tuppence when I sell them into a life of slavery or, more likely, looking shabby and unwanted in the racks forever (or getting told "too scratched" when they are spotless but also completely worthless).

Alternatively, give me names and addresses of people over whose skulls you'd like me to smash cds by rubbish mid-late 90s indie bands and long-forgotten 1989 Amphetamine Reptile acts that I don't even dare name for fear of mockery... ;)

Rebecca (reb), Thursday, 2 January 2003 01:21 (twenty-one years ago) link

you could post a list here, and see if anyone would like to buy them ?

anthony easton (anthony), Thursday, 2 January 2003 02:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

Drop 'em off at your nearest decent student/college/community radio station.

Our station gladly accepts donations, although we rarely get them... The dsics that we've been given since I've been involved have served as decent on-air giveaways and replacements for scratched up old vinyl. We even got a few things that we were never originally serviced.

Brad Koski, Thursday, 2 January 2003 04:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

if you sell them through amazon you'll take most of the profits as opposed to about a third of what yr local second hand dealer will give you. the only problem is that you have to wait for the buyer to come to you, and you have to post them out and all that. still, it will most probably be the best money you can get for them.

minna (minna), Thursday, 2 January 2003 06:26 (twenty-one years ago) link

a third of what yr local second hand dealer will give you

what i mean is, a second hand dealer will give you about 5 bucks for a cd they'll sell for 15.

minna (minna), Thursday, 2 January 2003 06:27 (twenty-one years ago) link

you could post them as swaps on http://alantrewartha.tripod.com/cgi-bin/swap.cgi Add something in the "profile text" that explains the state of the CDs

Alan (Alan), Thursday, 2 January 2003 09:44 (twenty-one years ago) link

E-bay. If you write a good story and pretend you are a journalist writing an article about people buying crap on e-bay you'll be surprised how much you'll get for 'em.

Pete (Pete), Thursday, 2 January 2003 10:26 (twenty-one years ago) link


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