cutouts/deletions/overstocks = the desirables of the future

And, IIRC, my 2xLP vinyl copy of "Tusk" was purchased for $2.99 back in '82 or so, and it's firmly in my top-50 of all time.

Some CD's are/will be worth lots of cash in the future. But, it's hard to see the future isn't it? Rareness fluctuates. Sometimes something is believed to be rare when it really isn't all that rare. Like the first batch of Body Count. But it still may be highly collectable item for reasons other than scarcity. There are millions of Beatles records, but people will still pay top dollar for them. One of the best examples of an item dropping like Enron stock is the Casino Royale OST in stereo. Pre-eBay, some audiophiles used to pay thousands of dollars for a sealed copy, but now it is rather common and pretty cheap on eBay.

I wish I knew more about collecting CD's. But I say collect what you like, burn it to a nice CD-R if you open it and keep it minty clean. First editions of anything have a niche somewhere.

It all boils down to selling it for more than you bought it for. That's not exactly a nugget of wisdom, but that's what it's all about.

For rare vinyl, the best market index is eBay. If people are paying high prices there in bidding wars, they will usually pay high prices anywhere for vinyl. But beware of Japanese collectors with very deep pockets. Corporations in Japan buy up old jazz records and vault them up just like they are Picassos.

The UK and Japan contain some of the best record collections anywhere, but don't expect them to be for sell. The U.S. is still ripe in some areas, but it is drying up.

Well-preserved records will go only go up in value. I'd venture to say the same for CDs too. They are artifacts after all.

yes. the australian post-punk singles I would have paid a dollar for eight years ago regularly goes for more than $30 or $40 these days..

did you buy them cos you liked the music or were interested or were part of the scene.
or are you collector scum?

yes to both, but the latter not so much these days. i wish i had some Slugfuckers to sell! just the other day a very nice chap named Phil sent me some Slugfuckers stuff (among other things) and it's great!

free Ear Bitten?!?!?!! i'll come pick it up!

most cut-outs by defn. are the end of the print run of that item -- there will always be demand for interesting stuff within it's niche, and since such stuff often starts out over-priced and with limited distribution it quickly finds it's way into the cut-out bin

just as some of the most interesting (maybe weird) books get remaindered because they will never sell within the 6 months publishers routinely give them

a sort of reverse law of economics -- the more distributed and "niche" the interest, the less immediate sales, and so the more short term risk that many retailers and wholesalers will wish to avoid, so the more they will exit that market early

so, i find thumbing through cut-outs to have a higher lucky dip strike rate and a lower cost to risk of unknown ratio -- and if you end up not liking the music, there may be someone out there who does won't have had the chance to buy it in the first place, so you might be able to recoup your "investment"

note:
-- many of the "collectible" cds on ebay are from professional cut-out trawlers
-- the original artists are the people who miss out, as the amount not paid to them is what allows the cut-out to be sold for the price it is sold at, whereas everybody else in the food chain will have most likely at least covered their costs
-- cut-outs are cheap also has to do with the cost of getting the cd to the ideal end-user forgone, the failure of the traditional retail system, so if you want the right people to get paid, buy from specialist direct mail order outfits like forcedexposure.com
-- most cut-outs will still be worthless both aesthetically and as investments, because however many interesting cds end up as cut-outs, there will still be more garbage, so caveat emptor