Selling my old CDs Pt2 - Economics

Part Two of a multiple blog entry around online CD buyer services - What prices to expect

There are several interesting things around the pricing model of the buyer services. Let's go through them one by one:

Extreme Buyer/Seller Market - When I did my initial research around CD buyer services, I was amazed at how many services there were around. I clicked myself through the first page of Google results just to get a look and feel of the different services, but there were many many more. So many that you cannot keep track. Some seem to be bigger outfits, some seem to be mom&pop trading stores - the web, the great equalizer. But what the real kicker is: the CD titles that are bought by the services differ extremely. I had a mountain of around 100 CDs sorted out. The first service I had selected (Part Three of this series will cover a bit the strategies I applied for evaluation) gave me a green light for about 40 out of 100 CDs. (the services usually outright say: We do not take this CD, or they offer a token price of 1 cent). 

So that left me with 60 CDs. 

Going to the next service, I was amazed to see that it was giving good offers for 25 of the remaining 60 CDs that were previously rejected. You get the drift: every service has a different market and a different need for material. So do not give up, when the first service said no - there are more waiting to take the load off your hand.

My style is not your style - We cannot argue over taste. And this is also true for the different prices offered. My initial theory for used CDs was: well-known artists bring higher prices than obscure artists. This is what reality shows: You cannot predict anything. The prices really seem to be completely random and it would be interesting to know the algorithm behind it. Here is my personal trend barometer from a mostly Pop / Rock / Alternative selling rooster:

- the most know artists and their works fetch the lowest prices; from my stack probably Sherryl Crowe was the most recognized name, her Globe Sessions only fetched only 22 cents. From the alternative artists Beck fared a similar fate with two CDs fetching prices only in the lower 30ies (Mellow Gold and Odelay). 

- Artsy stuff seems to bring the highest prices. Highest grosser with 1,50 EUR was Elvis Costello's Burt Bacharach collaboration "Painted from Memory", closely followed by Prefab Sprout "Jordan the comback". 

- Second tier independent artists are the pricing average ground. Artists like The Verve Pipe, 10000 Maniacs, Blue Aeroplanes came in all around my average grossing of about 80 cents per CD. 

- Solid Jazz / Swing records are the most solid bringers of money. Ella Fitzgerald's Duke Ellington Songbook Double CD brought 6,30 EUR.  

But of course there is a lot of random stuff without reasoning: Michael McDonald fetched 1,30 EUR whereas Joni Mitchell fetched only 0,30 EUR. INXS megaseller "Kicks" came in only at 0,30 EUR but Lisa Loeb's one CD wonder "Tails"high above average 1,20 EUR.

So much for the economics. Part Three will give some tipps and strategies.