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Hi Gang,
From time to time I get asked about the best way to sell a collection. I'm posting this here instead of at the trading post because this isn't about any specific item for sale. (Also, it's my site, haha.)
It seems to come up every months, and just did again, and I'd like to be able to help the folks who reach out to me. Sometimes it's an older collector wanting to downsize; other times, it's a family needing to get much-needed money for a collection after a loved one passes.
In any event, as I have inquired with the usual shops, I've been told there is such a glut of used CDs entering the secondary market, most of them don't want to take on any more—they can't even find the time to inventory, let alone start to sell, the stock that they already have.
Anybody out there (dealers/resellers/collectors) interested in helping these folks? Any advice? Any tips on the best way that people/estates can inventory a collection and research the value?
Thanks!
Lukas
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Are dealers saying there is a glut? Then why are the prices of used CDs on eBay so high? It seems like every seller wants maximum dollar for classical or soundtrack music. Most anything good is priced like a high-end collectible. You want Alien3 ? Get a bank loan. Glut????
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Posted: |
Feb 5, 2022 - 2:03 AM
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By: |
Ny
(Member)
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One knock-on effect of lockdown and the pandemic is that a lot of people have cleared out their homes of clutter. None of the second hand stores in my city are buying at the moment because they've been overloaded, and charity shops are refusing to take books. So it is not a great time to sell. I imagine online prices will drop gradually as vendors seek to clear this stuff out in coming years but for the time being the online median price is what goes.
I sell my unwanted cd's individually using Discogs - which provides the range of prices any title has previously sold for, and the median - and I've sold quite a few, maybe 60 titles, more than half my sell pile, since my own clear out, in the course of about a year. BUT it is a case of posting and packaging regularly, and while the specialist label cd's do go for good money, usually 25 bucks +, general release soundtracks only go for about 5, and it's more a case of finding them a new home than anything else.
I did contact Music Box Records about selling a bulk lot, as they have quite a good turnover of second hand stuff on their site but they said they didn't buy second hand, so I don't know how they acquire that stock exactly.
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I had a box of excess scores and soundtracks I took to Amoeba a few months ago. It was mostly random stuff, and a lot of composer promos, etc, which they usually sell through their shop on eBay.
Anyway, they said they didn't want any of them. I offered to give the CDs to them, just so I wouldn't have to carry them home, and they said they didn't even want them for free, they had no space and they wouldn't sell.
Obviously that's just my one isolated experience with one buyer at Amoeba, a month later a different buyer bought an entire box of BDs and DVDs I had, every single one.
Still, it was a depressing statement about the CD market.
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Yeah, it's a tough, fine line to determine the price of certain titles.
The seller wants some kind of perceived market value, but the buyer wants a bargain of sorts.
I always wonder how long a seller leaves a title on offer, at a ridiculous price, before they consider a more reasonable amount.
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Duplo
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Duplex aka Our House
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General second-hand CD stores, in my experience, do not want soundtracks.
I doubt the local Bury St Edmunds Cancer Research shop is going to have many visitors looking for Angel by Philippe Rombi, for instance.
In the UK, people like Backtrack still have a bricks-and-mortar shop and an eBay store. They may still be interested in purchasing soundtrack collections.
Other than that, to be honest, if I had to sell a substantial portion of my collection, I'd probably do it on eBay.
At least you can be found by anyone in the world on eBay.
Cheers
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About eBay: I have checked out those listings. I honestly don't know what's selling or not.
However, I would not be surprised if people are setting their prices by checking the last-known prices of the same item.
If this is the case, all it takes is one blue-moon sale at a super high price to artificially set the item's "value" as way too high...after which, you get a bunch of copies listed at the same price, and they sit there forever with few to no takers.
I have also learned that the meta-data of the eBay listings is a pain in the butt, and that eBay has become so strict in their requirements for sellers that it's a hassle to use them. Just passing this along!
Lukas
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Posted: |
Feb 5, 2022 - 8:47 AM
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By: |
andy b
(Member)
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My 10 cents, why not start here on glorious FSM?
When I consolidated houses, at a point I owned three & like a child always want my CDs in every house, I often bought three copies, now I live in one place & too many of the same copies.
I placed a large list on FSM, price wise I tried my best to be reasonable & the feed back, still here, seems it worked, I had a blanket mailing cost, tried to work with say the UK to help with their Customs issues & last but not least if it was a “high price” my answer was always “what do you want to pay” & every single time I accepted the offer, people here are very genuine & not out to rip a fellow FSMer off, well I found that. At the end of the day, I viewed it that these are used items & who knows the very next day one of the labels could put a new & better version, so really what is the value of the used CD? The last thing I did very ad hock was if I had a considerable purchase, would often add extras, as a “thank you” & also to show some appreciation, always with a note “give it away or sell it if you do not want it”.
One final point I was & still am always up for a trade, I tend to want only Blu Ray films, but every now & then CDs are still wanted, just did a trade in the UK for George Fenton discs, so if it is not “just for the money” then try to be flexible, try to offer what may be good for the other side?
But I do understand shops not wanting them & our collections are very much a niche market, so I suspect a “dealer” or general seller would want say The Beatles to Jerry Goldsmith.
But I would steer anyone who approaches you to here first, offer it to the fans & see what happens.
Good luck
Andy b
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Posted: |
Feb 5, 2022 - 8:57 AM
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By: |
Solium
(Member)
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I had a box of excess scores and soundtracks I took to Amoeba a few months ago. It was mostly random stuff, and a lot of composer promos, etc, which they usually sell through their shop on eBay.
Anyway, they said they didn't want any of them. I offered to give the CDs to them, just so I wouldn't have to carry them home, and they said they didn't even want them for free, they had no space and they wouldn't sell.
Obviously that's just my one isolated experience with one buyer at Amoeba, a month later a different buyer bought an entire box of BDs and DVDs I had, every single one.
Still, it was a depressing statement about the CD market.
Last time I took CD's too a used CD store they only purchased one CD out of a whole box of stuff. That was about 12 years ago too!
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I few years ago I sold a bunch of CDs to MovieMusic.com -- and got a very good price (they were however mostly limited edition FSM releases -- sorry Lukas!).
https://www.moviemusic.com/
As far as stuff you can find anywhere (older, shorter, Williams CDs, Bond soundtracks) I actually gave a lot of them to the son of a friend of mine who loves John Williams' music. I figured it's ultimately better to encourage a budding film music fan (and selling things for peanuts on Ebay is a pain in the butt anyway).
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