Continuing with CDs?

Thanks for the tips, I guess I never really considered discogs for CDs. Always kinda figured that was more of a vinyl leaning marketplace.

it's a bit of everything. I'd be selling a lot more on it if I could ship anything anywhere with tracking for less than $15 Canadian. This means most of my inventory is more valuable things, which is typically vinyl.

Best view for you would be go to the master page of an album, press Shop, then filter by medium on the listings.

I mostly buy rare or out of print CDs on Discogs.

For new/current stuff, ImportCDs.com offers cheaper prices than their Discogs or eBay pages, for the same items. I buy from them all the time.

On Ebay, ImportCDs doesn't charge for US shipping, where they do on their website. Sometimes they will offer additional discounts on Ebay that brings prices below those on their website, shipping included, but often the difference is negligible. DeepDiscount and ImportCDs I believe are also the same company, which explains why they tend to have the same things in stock.

i think they've bought Pop Market as well. Yeesh..

They also have Collector's Choice, and iirc they also handle pressing & distro for Warner Archive.

all of these are just ways for majors to undercut their own distributors

so lame

I'm down to the last 250, with about 60-70 that I'm going to keep permanently until the media dies. Of these, I've steadily been selling them on Discogs. Doing pretty well at it too, but the market for marginal unreissued DIY psychedelia of the 80s-90s is pretty strong.

I took three shopping bags of CDs to my local library. They were thankful for the donation and I think I improved their holdings!

DeepDiscount and ImportCDs I believe are also the same company, which explains why they tend to have the same things in stock.

― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Tuesday, February 11, 2020 2:50 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

i think they've bought Pop Market as well. Yeesh..

― maffew12, Tuesday, February 11, 2020 4:59 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

They also have Collector's Choice, and iirc they also handle pressing & distro for Warner Archive.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, February 11, 2020 5:20 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

what about chalkys, rarewaves, and moviemars? Are these basically just fronts for major labels to eliminate the record store middle man?

yes afaik

Update on Apollo Masters -- total loss, click through for video:

Was out at Apollo Masters today to see the damage. Roof’s gone, building’s basically a shell. Total loss. Whole block is closed off, and the site will require remediation because of chemical explosions. pic.twitter.com/P3jV1ssb4L

— Randall 🕳 Roberts (@LilEdit) February 12, 2020

Sound of the Universe has Scott-Heron/McCraven, CD and LP, w audio samples here:
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/were-new-again-a-reimagining-by-makaya-mccraven

Forgive the spam but if anyone feels like continuing with these CDs, feel free to buy them:

https://www.discogs.com/seller/akmonday/profile

mostly post-rock, post-punk, indie shiz.

https://variety.com/2020/music/news/cd-baby-retail-store-closing-1203506690/

they had a retail store?? Wow. Where was it? Cuz that article and their own website do not say. Maybe the issue was that no one knew where it was.

oh its online retail store. "Retail store" still makes me think of a place. Nevermind.

cd baby should have pivoted to where bandcamp is; probably should have changed their name too.

mp3baby

could've changed to hiddenencryptedfilebaby and gone up against spotify

streambabystream

should just be called "baby".

CD, Baby!

imo this thread should be retitled "CDs, C or D?"

No word yet on the current status of early-2000s phenomenon “SeanBaby”

Anything is better than LadBaby

Bandcamp should get a ton of credit for their integration of previewing/listening to music and being able to buy it... I bought a fair amount of stuff from CD baby but their web site used to be weirdly sterile and fussy.

I honestly haven't noticed a difference in CD prices. I love book hunting at Oxfam but I rarely bother for CDs as I seldom see anything of interest. Maybe should go back to Monorail because they had a bunch of old shoegaze stuff.

Somebody tell japan that CDs are supposed to be cheap now. Digital never taken off there, was that the story?

It’s got to the point now where my Discogs CD sales have clearly overtaken my vinyl sales, even though I’ve got more vinyl listed. They’re flying off the shelves. At these prices, it makes total sense.

It's happened a third time now: my copy of Lal Waterson & Oliver Knight - Once In A Blue Moon is flickering on the last two tracks on the fourth time I played it. This sucks. I doubt this is the last CD I'll encounter this with. Surprised I don't hear more stories about this.

that sucks... that is a fantastic album

Long time lurker very infrequent poster.

Does anyone have a good place to get new and catalogue mainstream/major label CDs online? I usually order from amoeba but am not finding things there lately. I don't want to patronize Amazon. I would be happiest buying from an indie but I'd like a place with a deep selection. Hip-hop is particularly hard to find but I realize a lot of things are not even release in physical formats.

Discogs is pretty reliable I'd say, if you're happy to buy from private sellers.

Yeah good point. I got no problem with discogs and should consider it for these kinds of searches although new mainstream titles are not always added right away. I was also hoping to find a place where I could get a handful of things from one vendor to save on shipping, but there are lots of shops on there now too.

Try importcds. They're on eBay but also have a site. I order from them pretty frequently. No hassles and free shipping.

Yeah, importcds is great. Buying from their actual site is cheaper than buying from them on eBay. I also use grooves-inc.com sometimes.

I have a fear that Amazon will be the last bastion of CD purchases.

half the time on Amazon you're buying from importcds anyway

Bullmoose is great, a mini New England chain.

Dusty Grooves in Chicago (mainly website) is great for CDs still in lots of less-popular niches. Re: msjor labels, some catalogue, little/no new.

By which of course I meant Dusty Groove. Only bought 1.000 CDs there over the years... Yeesh.

https://www.dustygroove.com/

Who do UK users use for buying CDs?

I'm in Canada and pick up the occasional major label CD from Rarewaves in the UK via eBay. I don't know how they manage to be the lowest price available to me.. it's really weird. BuyCDnow.ca is gone... is there anything left around here, online?

Bull Moose seconded, always had good experiences ordering with them.

Dearborn Music (https://dearbornmusic.net/) is close to comprehensive with deep stock across genres. Hours at a time have been spent in their jazz section -- core catalog, new releases, Japanese imports, constant used influx. The website could me more user-friendly, but I've placed orders since March with no trouble. Great people, too. They've been around since the '50s. (Burned a path in the '90s, back when driving 40 miles to a record store, after working all week in another record store, was the only reasonable way to spend a day off.)

Thanks everyone. Dearborn music looks like it has a lot of what I'm looking for at good orices and no shipping charges. Excellent.
Andyk have you bought anything from their download store? They've got a ton of stuff there but the site thinks I'm outside the US so I cannot buy. My IP info looks normal so i will contact them about that.

I'm going to use this space to once again yell AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH at those annoying factory seal stickers on CDs. Just got a couple of older CDs from Discogs, and I can now replace the jewelcase.

like those ones along the top that leave a bunch of sticky residue about 75% of the time when you remove them?

(nail polish remover takes that stuff off instantly)

Yes! Just getting them off is a PITA. Never come off in one piece.

One of many things I love about British imports: No security strips!