What to do? I started collecting CDs in the late 80's when it was de rigueur for listening to music. And I collected with a vengeance. Hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of CDs until I had a collection totaling just over a thousand CDs. I had friends coming in and out of my house borrowing hard-to-find titles, borrowing boxes of CDs to use at parties they were throwing. When the Ipod came along, I transferred most of them onto an Ipod Classic placing some 20,000 songs on the Ipod. Then, streaming music arrived. Spotify is my streaming music provider of choice. The CDs were now relegated to a rack against the wall in the basement. They just sat there. When my wife and I were moving I dreaded the thought of dragging these CDs to another location. I thought: "what am I going to do with all these CDs? "
Well they ended up in about 14 bankers boxes on a moving truck and on shelves in the garage. I promised Mrs. Gold that I would find a way to get rid of them.
And so I began to look online at various websites that would purchase used CDs (as well as other media and tech items) and settled on two. Eaglesaver.com and Decluttr.com
Both websites provided a scanner downloaded from their site. Both companies do not accept CDs that were purchased through CD clubs such as BMG Music or Columbia House (I'm not certain they had a CD club but you get the idea) due to the fact that they are considered inferior quality. So out of the 14 bankers boxes, I still have about 4 boxes of CDs that were purchased from these CD clubs and therefore could not sell them to either company.
So I started going through box by box and scanning each UPC code with each scanner and see who paid more for that particular title. It took a weekend to get the task done.
It was fun going through all the titles that I once scoured the earth for in search of hard-to-find titles only to find out that I could now sell it for .48 cents. It was interesting to see the value of certain titles. For instance, The Beatles 1967-70 (a 2-CD collection) was always a CD that held its value. These websites will pay you 50 cents for it. One CD that I found in bargain bin for $7.99 back in the day was a live recording by Gregg Allman in 1973 entitled, "The Gregg Allman Tour". Eaglesaver paid me nearly $17.00 for it. Decluttr offered $3.00 for it. It appears that the highest amount Decluttr will pay for a CD is $3.00 while Eaglesaver paid almost $21.00 for a single-disc Beatles CD (Hey Jude - The U.S. Album CD). Also know that the prices can fluctuate based upon the demand at the time for a particular title.
The Breakdown:
Eaglesaver - I sold them approximately 400 CDs in two separate orders. They pay all the shipping. You box it and they send you the labels and you bring it to FedEx.
The first order was approximately 285 CDs for $461.99. Upon receipt, they indicated that the condition of some of the CDs were not up par and they paid $451.22. They specified the CDs they refused and indicated that you can leave them unclaimed and they are donated to charity or they will send them back to you free of charge (if your order qualifies, which mine did.) I opted for the return of the items as I am curious to see what they are referring to.
The second order was for approximately 100 CDs with some DVDs thrown in for good measure. Price at checkout was $200. 52. After they received the items it was reduced to $191.80. Again, I asked for the items to be returned to me at no cost.
So Eaglesaver paid out a total of $643.02 which was deposited into my PayPal account.
Easy transaction. Good communication. Quick payment. Done.
Decluttr
Could I have sold these CDs for money? Probably. But when would that have happened? I'll tell you... NEVER.
Is Mrs. Gold happy to be rid of all these CDs and have almost an extra grand in her hands.
You bet.
Well they ended up in about 14 bankers boxes on a moving truck and on shelves in the garage. I promised Mrs. Gold that I would find a way to get rid of them.
And so I began to look online at various websites that would purchase used CDs (as well as other media and tech items) and settled on two. Eaglesaver.com and Decluttr.com
Both websites provided a scanner downloaded from their site. Both companies do not accept CDs that were purchased through CD clubs such as BMG Music or Columbia House (I'm not certain they had a CD club but you get the idea) due to the fact that they are considered inferior quality. So out of the 14 bankers boxes, I still have about 4 boxes of CDs that were purchased from these CD clubs and therefore could not sell them to either company.
So I started going through box by box and scanning each UPC code with each scanner and see who paid more for that particular title. It took a weekend to get the task done.
It was fun going through all the titles that I once scoured the earth for in search of hard-to-find titles only to find out that I could now sell it for .48 cents. It was interesting to see the value of certain titles. For instance, The Beatles 1967-70 (a 2-CD collection) was always a CD that held its value. These websites will pay you 50 cents for it. One CD that I found in bargain bin for $7.99 back in the day was a live recording by Gregg Allman in 1973 entitled, "The Gregg Allman Tour". Eaglesaver paid me nearly $17.00 for it. Decluttr offered $3.00 for it. It appears that the highest amount Decluttr will pay for a CD is $3.00 while Eaglesaver paid almost $21.00 for a single-disc Beatles CD (Hey Jude - The U.S. Album CD). Also know that the prices can fluctuate based upon the demand at the time for a particular title.
The Breakdown:
Eaglesaver - I sold them approximately 400 CDs in two separate orders. They pay all the shipping. You box it and they send you the labels and you bring it to FedEx.
The first order was approximately 285 CDs for $461.99. Upon receipt, they indicated that the condition of some of the CDs were not up par and they paid $451.22. They specified the CDs they refused and indicated that you can leave them unclaimed and they are donated to charity or they will send them back to you free of charge (if your order qualifies, which mine did.) I opted for the return of the items as I am curious to see what they are referring to.
The second order was for approximately 100 CDs with some DVDs thrown in for good measure. Price at checkout was $200. 52. After they received the items it was reduced to $191.80. Again, I asked for the items to be returned to me at no cost.
So Eaglesaver paid out a total of $643.02 which was deposited into my PayPal account.
Easy transaction. Good communication. Quick payment. Done.
Decluttr
I sold them approximately 383 CDs (some DVDs) in two separate orders. They also paid all the shipping. You box it and they send you the labels and you bring it to UPS.
The first order was approximately 287 CDs for $272.80. Eaglesaver paid almost $200 more for the same amount of CDs. Upon receipt, they indicated that some of the CDs were not contained in the shipment I sent and they paid $267.36.
They were accurate in their assessment. Apparently when I was sorting through the CDs, I forgot to remove them from the Decluttr shopping cart when adding them to the Eaglesaver shopping cart.
The second order was for approximately 96 CDs with some DVDs thrown in for good measure. Price at checkout was $54.46 (that's my number
) After they received the items it was reduced to $48.40. Again, the explanation given was that certain items were not included. However, there were several items that I knew had been included. So, I called and inquired about it and their customer service rep was very helpful and discovered that the items had been scanned in but were mistakenly not paid out. She indicated that since the order was already closed out, that they would send a check for the amount of those items. It was only a couple of bucks but nevertheless I knew they had been sent.
So Decluttr paid out a total of $318.76. Thus far, only the 48.40 was deposited into my PayPal account but I fully expect the balance to paid by tomorrow.
Again, Easy transaction. Good communication. Quick payment. Done.
CONCLUSION
The first order was approximately 287 CDs for $272.80. Eaglesaver paid almost $200 more for the same amount of CDs. Upon receipt, they indicated that some of the CDs were not contained in the shipment I sent and they paid $267.36.
They were accurate in their assessment. Apparently when I was sorting through the CDs, I forgot to remove them from the Decluttr shopping cart when adding them to the Eaglesaver shopping cart.
The second order was for approximately 96 CDs with some DVDs thrown in for good measure. Price at checkout was $54.46 (that's my number
) After they received the items it was reduced to $48.40. Again, the explanation given was that certain items were not included. However, there were several items that I knew had been included. So, I called and inquired about it and their customer service rep was very helpful and discovered that the items had been scanned in but were mistakenly not paid out. She indicated that since the order was already closed out, that they would send a check for the amount of those items. It was only a couple of bucks but nevertheless I knew they had been sent.So Decluttr paid out a total of $318.76. Thus far, only the 48.40 was deposited into my PayPal account but I fully expect the balance to paid by tomorrow.
Again, Easy transaction. Good communication. Quick payment. Done.
CONCLUSION
Could I have sold these CDs for money? Probably. But when would that have happened? I'll tell you... NEVER.
Is Mrs. Gold happy to be rid of all these CDs and have almost an extra grand in her hands.
You bet.
