Selling or otherwise disposing of CDs - suggestions

[cloughie]

I've found Music Magpie good for buying :) They fight hard to keep top spot on Amazon so they often incite a race to the lowest price, and then beat their Amazon price on their own site (with 2 for £2 offers and the like...) So why not sell them to Music Magpie? You get a pittance but it makes off loading easy, and you are supporting an efficient seller!

Just out of interest I put in Magpie's site for selling quotes three Karajan boxes now surplus to requirements as a result of buying the Big Karajan complete box.
1 R Strauss Orchestral Works - the later DG Digital recordings - 5CDs - £2.43, 2 Decca Vienna Philharmonic box - 9CDs - £2.50, 3 Karajan Symphony Edition DG 38CDs - £2.50.

Now I may be wrong, but for 3 boxed sets which show on Amazon at £80, £33 and £50 respectively. I think that Magpie maybe are attempting to live up to the species that steals eggs from other birds! I am open to any reasonable offer or exchange elsewhere for these great box sets.

[verismissimo]

Too many CDs? Surely not!

The solution is, as always, a bigger garden shed.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Bryn is right, often the CD is less than very good.

? Is that what Bryn was implying? ("[A] brand new CD and still in its wrapping" doesn't suggest "less than very good".)

[Mal]

? Is that what Bryn was implying? ("[A] brand new CD and still in its wrapping" doesn't suggest "less than very good".)

He did also say, "It can work both ways." So I think the implication was there.

[teamsaint]

Whatever their faults, I can’t think I have ever had a problem disc from Music Magpie.

There don’t seem to be many buyers on here, unless they are keeping their heads down.

[Mal]

Now I may be wrong, but for 3 boxed sets which show on Amazon at £80, £33 and £50 respectively. I think that Magpie maybe are attempting to live up to the species that steals eggs from other birds! I am open to any reasonable offer or exchange elsewhere for these great box sets.

Maybe they have some sort of automatic pricing thing going on, e.g. an algorithm might check on Amazon and if the market price is £50 they offer £2.50 max. Some amazon jokers stick naff single CDs onto Amazon at £50+. I've often wondered why they do this... maybe it's to game the MM algorithm?!

Anyway, with box sets, isn't selling on Amazon a reasonable route? But Saint Bernard, the dog, seems to have sunk the Karajan Symphony Edition DG box set, or at least holed it under water, so unless you can put up a good argument for the sound being as good as the "the Big Karajan complete box" you might have trouble selling it. Why not list it on Amazon at around £30 and see if anyone bites?

[Dave2002]

Too many CDs? Surely not!

The solution is, as always, a bigger garden shed.

Squirrels, rats and mice are hazards!

[cloughie]

Maybe they have some sort of automatic pricing thing going on, e.g. an algorithm might check on Amazon and if the market price is £50 they offer £2.50 max. Some amazon jokers stick naff single CDs onto Amazon at £50+. I've often wondered why they do this... maybe it's to game the MM algorithm?!

Anyway, with box sets, isn't selling on Amazon a reasonable route? But Saint Bernard, the dog, seems to have sunk the Karajan Symphony Edition DG box set, or at least holed it under water, so unless you can put up a good argument for the sound being as good as the "the Big Karajan complete box" you might have trouble selling it. Why not list it on Amazon at around £30 and see if anyone bites?

Because of their restrictions as outlined by bluestateprommer, very few sales despite very reasonable prices, I have closed my marketplace account.

[cloughie]

Whatever their faults, I can’t think I have ever had a problem disc from Music Magpie.

There don’t seem to be many buyers on here, unless they are keeping their heads down.

Very surprising considering what bargain hunters and charity shop trawlers there are!

[jayne lee wilson]

From my experience when using Music Magpie and some other sellers I often feel that the condition of the CD that arrives is less than that described. This seems an increasing trend in my view.

MM's discs are usually as described, "very good"...I've had a fair bit from them and usually, they are; but last Christmas I had one which was... very much less than that, the Bruggen Prague Symphony. Poor condition disc and case, it wouldn't play properly on one of my transports even after a good scrub-up.
Yes it was only a few quid but I wish they'd replied when I wrote to them about it... it put me off MM a little.

I cleaned it up (again), put a new case on it (as usual) and finally achieved playback on the alternative Marantz machine anyway.

On the sole occasion this happened years ago with a Polar Bear purchase, Graham replied to say, sorry that slipped through the net, OK I'll refund you, just bin it thanks....
I really like The Polar Bear.......

As for jewel cases etc., the only one I dislike is the older double-CD box which is often a pain to open...I was just reaquainted with its foibles when the original, never re-released Schumann/Goodman CDs arrived at the weekend... (the 2-in-1 slimline thing is better..). No problem with card sleeves, especially if they're mini-LP replicas. Love those.

[teamsaint]

MM's discs are usually as described, "very good"...I've had a fair bit from them and usually, they are; but last Christmas I had one which was... very much less than that, the Bruggen Prague Symphony. Poor condition disc and case, it wouldn't play properly on one of my transports even after a good scrub-up.
Yes it was only a few quid but I wish they'd replied when I wrote to them about it... it put me off MM a little.

I cleaned it up (again), put a new case on it (as usual) and finally achieved playback on the alternative Marantz machine anyway.

On the sole occasion this happened years ago with a Polar Bear purchase, Graham replied to say, sorry that slipped through the net, OK I'll refund you, just bin it thanks....
I really like The Polar Bear.......

As for jewel cases etc., the only one I dislike is the older double-CD box which is often a pain to open...I was just reaquainted with its foibles when the original, never re-released Schumann/Goodman CDs arrived at the weekend... (the 2-in-1 slimline thing is better..). No problem with card sleeves, especially if they're mini-LP replicas. Love those.

Yep, the mini LP covers are great, though usually the detail is unreadable.

For lovers of liner notes, some of the notes on the various installments in the Avant garde Project are unmissable.
Jayne , I don’t know if you have investigated, but I think you would love some of the liner notes material. Much of it ( at the risk of being negative about our own time) seems to be from better, more hopeful times, when possibility was somehow greater.

[verismissimo]

Squirrels, rats and mice are hazards!

A bigger garden shed … and a shotgun?

[HighlandDougie]

I buy quite a few used CDs from a variety of Amazon France marketplace sellers - and have never been disappointed with what I receive. The non-pareil among them is La Chaumière/Mélomane (who have a great retail shop in Paris) - if I order a disc on a Sunday morning, say, I usually get an e-mail within a couple of hours to say that it has been despatched. But the individual sellers (like Cloughie) are often a delight - they include personal notes, vintage postcards, even an extra CD on one occasion - and their prices are usually very reasonable. But, if anyone wants to relieve me of a glut of Rafael Kubelik boxes (free to a good home) ......

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Yep, the mini LP covers are great, though usually the detail is unreadable.

These were positive and negative features of the Decca Phase 4 box cardboard sleeves. However, the print quality is of such high resolution that the text can be read easily with a strong magnifying glass. (A pity about the artificial sound quality on many discs.

[Mal]

... But the individual sellers (like Cloughie) are often a delight...

At a recent car boot sale I found a likely looking CD and inspected the innards. In the booklet there was a comprehensive review, cut out from Gramophone magazine, comparing the CD with others. The CD under inspection was panned so I didn't buy it.