I thought-about titling this submit “CDs: Nuts to Maintain on to Them”, however figured just a few 90’s gangsta rap fan popular culture LOLs weren’t well worth the in any other case poor title. See – I’m cool and humorous. Jokes apart, you probably have a bunch of previous compact discs laying round, amassing mud, I believe you may be pleasantly shocked at how a lot they may doubtlessly be value, with just a few promoting ideas. So let’s get began.
At one unhappy, girlfriend-less level in my life, virtually 100% of my revenue went to pay for media – CDs, video video games, sports activities playing cards, and VHS tapes. And I grew fairly the gathering.
Through the years, the remnants of that media assortment had dwindled, however a library of over 200 CDs had survived. At this time, with a rising appreciation for minimalism and the appearance of streaming providers becoming a member of an enormous library of MP3s that I’ve bought through the years, I virtually by no means muster the need to bodily search out and take a CD with me wherever anymore. So the gathering has sat, unused, amassing mud, and taking on area – when it might be doing what it was created to do: delightfully reverberating within the ear drums of high-quality human beings who share an identical beautiful style in music as yours really.
At first look, promoting your CDs most likely looks as if a fruitless money-losing endeavor. For some unworldly purpose, there are folks on Amazon and EBay willingly promoting CDs for as little as $0.01 every. Be aware: I can’t fathom why this phenomenon exists – you can donate the CDs and get excess of $0.01 every with a charitable tax deduction, with out the effort of delivery and having to pay for any packaging supplies to ship.
Nonetheless, even regardless of this market absurdity, I consider I’ve cracked the code on easy methods to profitably unload your CD assortment, and do it in a comparatively painless means. Right here’s what I’ve found…
Step 1: Value Out the CDs to See should you Have Any Rarities or Excessive Worth Titles
Don’t simply take your entire CDs in for donation or dump them in a $1 field in a storage sale. The very first thing you need to do is examine to see you probably have any uncommon excessive worth titles. Begin by trying to find the CD on Amazon to see the asking worth and/or trying to find offered and accomplished listings on EBay.
Surprisingly, inside my CD assortment, I discovered 3 CDs valued at over $50 every – excess of I paid for them. Two of the three have been imports and the third was a restricted version collector that’s not in manufacturing.
Moreover, I discovered 5 different CDs with a price of $20 or extra – all of which have been not in manufacturing and from smaller labels. That’s $250 for simply 8 titles, inside my ~200 title assortment.
Step 2: Promote the Uncommon/Excessive Worth CDs Individually
Within the CD world, I’d take into account a CD that has a price of $5+ a uncommon/excessive worth SKU. You’ll discover that plenty of “biggest hits” albums promote for greater than different titles (I assume as a result of it’s cheaper than shopping for MP3s individually at ~$1 every). Promote these CDs individually on EBay versus packaging them with others, as that is the way you’ll get the perfect complete worth for these titles and your whole assortment.
There may be the matter of easy methods to promote them. I’ve discovered that the perfect platform/methodology for promoting CDs is EBay, with “Purchase it now” listings. If you happen to promote lower than 50 objects per 30 days on EBay, there are not any insertion charges and complete fundamental charges are 10% of the worth of the sale. EBay even presents discounted USPS postage, which lowers the full price of sale. At all times ship USPS “media mail”, as it will likely be cheaper than some other service. If promoting 1 CD, I normally set the postage at a flat media mail fee of $3 and ship to america solely.
Discover out the common worth these things have offered for not too long ago, then checklist it on the common worth.
Step 3: If 3+ Titles from 1 Artist, Bundle Them
Bundling by artist (minus the excessive worth mentioned prior) is one of the best ways to unload your assortment, for 3 causes.
- It’s a handy strategy to promote by your assortment shortly. A number of titles lumped with 1 picture, 1 itemizing, much less packaging and delivery.
- It’s a extra worthwhile means so that you can promote.
#2 and #3 are linked. If you happen to’re a purchaser, why not go and discover a used CD on EBay or Amazon for $0.01 – $3 and purchase it individually? As a result of the price of delivery for every particular person buy (usually at a minimal of $3) provides up shortly. As a substitute, why not pay extra for the CDs, however unfold your delivery price throughout 3, 5, or extra CDs for an artist that you simply need to dig in on?
Promoting on this method to those knowledgeable consumers, I’ve averaged $3-$4 per CD and even banked slightly little bit of revenue on the delivery, which might add as much as a tidy little sum. If 3+ CDs, I set the USPS media mail delivery at $5. I bump it as much as $6 if 7+ CDs. At these quantities, I virtually at all times come out forward on the delivery.
Step 4: “You Choose”
One intelligent means that I’ve seen sellers increase gross sales values is to create an inventory of all remaining albums they need to promote, by style, and ask consumers to, for instance, “Choose 4 for $10”, till their checklist dwindles to some titles.
I offered fairly just a few this manner earlier than EBay took my itemizing down. I don’t keep in mind what the coverage justification was for doing so, however it’s possible you’ll need to bear in mind they didn’t prefer it (my account was not suspended or something like that). If you happen to’re anxious about that, you can strive Craigslist or elsewhere.
Step 5: Bundle by Style or Donate
To eliminate the remaining CDs, you’ve got a alternative:
If you’ll nonetheless itemize your taxes on this new tax-reform world, you’re most likely going to be higher off financially by donating your remaining CDs (and it simply feels higher). Make an inventory in your information.
And that’s it – observe the following tips and watch the money roll in. I’m within the mid-hundreds so far – not dangerous! Please share your success tales and some other CD promoting ideas within the feedback beneath!