Shady scams and other silly business ideas to take advantage of earnest new vinyl collectors

Anyway, where is everyone getting their dirt-cheap CDs that have been repeatedly mentioned?

thrift stores, record shows, book/library sales

record stores still seem to think their standard issue used CDs are worth 8 bucks, but they are wrong.

sometimes I can score decent CDs in their budget bins for 3 bucks or something

I don't think I've purchased a CD in ten years.

i just kind of hate the feeling of having all this music crammed onto my laptop.

MP3s are lately starting to cost more than used (and sometimes new) CDs. Also, weird copy protection gremlins, varying bitrates, and hard drive failures all count against MP3s (to say nothing of long-term storage). All of my vinyl records play, but worse than when I bought them; all of my CDs play, and all of them sound the same as the day I first heard them (the oldest is 28 years old). The few MP3s I've purchased, some still play fine (though are at lower bitrates than I would like; didn't know anything about those at the time of purchase), and some mysteriously won't play at all.

and hard drive failures

you can back up your hard drive easily + often but a scratched or ruined CD is permanent

That's true, but a scratched CD is one CD; a hard drive failure -- or a virus, or multiple hard drive failures -- is potentially all of your music.

A lot of catalog stuff is really cheap on Amazon & such. Brick & Mortar selections are getting worse, it's true.

I went to a little area record show a few weeks back, and it looked like the two guys doing the most boffo business were this one dude who basically buys out estates and then liquidates the sellable vinyl at reasonable prices w/low overhead (doesn't bag up stuff or anything), and another guy who was the one dealer with copious CDs, with most of his table space devoted to deep catalogue $5 titles, including UK imports. Seemed like his average sale was $30-40 a customer.

yeah and I've lost a drive and had to reconstruct my library twice - which is why you have backups just like you should with any other large set of data. My CDs just sit in crates, unlistened to and unloved.

lol that article made me listen to simple minds last night. I agree about the first 7 albums, except for the first!

but a scratched or ruined CD is permanent

If you take care of your CDs and avoid top scratches (on the label side, through the foil reflective layer, which takes effort to do) you can usually polish out the scratches if you have a local store with an Azuradisc machine, or you can send a batch to Azuradisc directly. We have a machine at work and I've resurrected many a scratched-to-shit Japanese hardcore CD purchased from crusty punx. Like my whole G.I.S.M. collection is stuff I got for a buck and polished to playability.

yeah Tarfumes, i used to go to that shop when i was in school, i lived two blocks from there. it was once located opposite of where it is now, and they sold records out of the basement then as well, but it was a dusty room lit by a single lightbulb with a couple dozen crates of seriously underpriced jazz, blues, and classic rock. not like the full size shop it is now.

I found things there that I never thought a) I'd ever see, and/or b) I'd ever be able to afford (e.g., original US The Who Sell Out for $10).

uh xxpost but real to reel cacophony is simple minds' second album and it's very good, in the unlikely chance that anyone bothered to think I was knocking it

That's cool to know the CD buffing machines work, I always wondered about that.

right, 2nd album it was a long day nerds!

sold a lot of records today...

and yeah their first album is kinda my least fave too since someone mentioned it. but still good. kinda in the same zone as that first japan album.

i don't think i've ever scratched a cd. i'm really careful with stuff though.

I somehow scratched the hell out of a brand new Christoph Heeman CD... ruined one whole track. I should have it buffed.

he's a pal of mine i could probably ask him to send you a new one.

he's nice like that.

I put a $3 DVD of the Roky Erickson doc You're Gonna Miss Me back on the thrift store shelf after deciding it was too scratched up to be trustworthy. Wonder if it works for DVDs.

Anyway, where is everyone getting their dirt-cheap CDs that have been repeatedly mentioned?

In addition to the places mentioned, there are a lot of smaller chain-style places that still deal in used books, music and movies. In Tennessee there's one called McKays, and there's another place (Southeast? Northeast?) called Half Price Books. These places usually sell CDs for a dollar, and I've found some great stuff over the years.

And Amazon is a goldmine for this stuff right now, even if you don't buy stuff used (many, many used CDs start at a penny, with $3.99 shipping). Over the past year I've stocked up on Creedence, Sonic Youth, Steely Dan, AC/DC, BB King, shit like that, for between $4.99 and $6.99. If you have Prime, shipping is free. As a few have already pointed out, this is cheaper than MP3s, and lossless, and you get a real booklet, liner notes, etc.

Amoeba is pretty great for bargain CDs, their dollar bin has a lot of gold. and generally speaking their regular used CD section is priced to move.

is freakbeat in LA good? was tempted to check it out on a work trip to LA last weekend but it would have involved a cab where Amoeba was only a 90 minute walk.

listening to the MFSL CD of Johnny Mathis's Heavenly. NOT GREAT. if you turn it up too loud all hell breaks loose. see, case by case.

Just found out the other day that these existed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elcaset

the DAT of its day.

"The Elcaset system was abandoned in 1980, when all the remaining systems were sold off in Finland."

oh tuomaspaws...

https://theedit.replyyes.com/

so many of these dumb things

as far as get rich slow schemes go there are probably better ways to spend your time.

"Thanks for feeding me good music on the regular, you take all the anxiety out of selecting what to buy next!"

— Steve

yeah it was pretty hard to know what to buy next before a site that labels Paul's Boutique with the album title of "Beastie Boys." but now i really feel like i ra friend in the record business.

er.. like i have a friend

"[Texting] is just a crazy visceral experience. It's a perfect fit for vinyl."

— Sarah

is freakbeat in LA good? was tempted to check it out on a work trip to LA last weekend but it would have involved a cab where Amoeba was only a 90 minute walk.

i don't know, it's pretty good if you're in the area but i don't want to promise that it's worth the trip. i've found some good deals there, though.

sarah's quote makes me insane. I saw that last week. texting is not a crazy visceral experience. it's not perfect for vinyl. every single word in that is wrong.

To be fair, texting is a crazy visceral experience and a perfect fit for Vinyl, the HBO show. As in, texting "CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW STUPID AND AWFUL THIS IS? :( :( :(" to friends.

is freakbeat in LA good? was tempted to check it out on a work trip to LA last weekend but it would have involved a cab where Amoeba was only a 90 minute walk.

― SCROTUS (stevie)

I also like it but likely wouldn't take a cab there. They occasionally have sales on everything (20% maybe?).

Is that a typo, or were you willing to walk an hour and a half to get to a record store (or anywhere, really)? Cause that's fucking crazy.

Oh shit we're calling people out for walking now? In LA?

Pretty sure you can stop at places along the way, you don't have to just walk for 90 minutes straight.

http://bestmangear.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/AirWheel-One-Wheel-Electric-Unicycle-one-foot-485x500.jpg

haha americans always find it weird that British people walk everywhere

I don't have a driver's license, and I work in New York. I walk all the time. But saying "Yeah, let's go to the record store—it's only a 90-minute walk from here" is, I repeat, fucking crazy.

tbf hes from london.

I thought it was obvious they were from out of town

A 90 minute walk is a perfect cab distance.

I'm from the UK and think a 90-minute walk is *fucking insane*, sorry.

I mean, mayyyyyybe if you were having a leisurely stroll and there were loads of points where you would stop on the way. But then it would end up taking ~5 hours, and that reverts to being WTF.

"a person enjoyed a long walk - LET'S GET HIM"

Seriously, it's just wrong. Sorry stevie but you'll have to be exiled for your own good.