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Whitedragem
185
Sep 29, 2019
Yet to come/Work in progress 3 Buying considerations Coated discs vs non coated discs Get familiar with ‘High Quality brands’ and Top Tier pressings.
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Dont worry about Cracked Cases. They can be swapped around with nice cases if it matters to you, and a missing cover certainly won’t affect the sound of the ripped tracks, and will hardly be a concern to collectors whose end game is to have a lot of master quality rips on a Hard drive/media centre/or USB drive for the car... What we are looking for is discs in perfect condition, or with undamaged areas that contain the audio. If sound quality is our ultimate goal, it is true that not all CDs are created equally. Some factories, such as Pioneer, would shut off all extraneous equipment and burn certain disc runs after midnight when the power grid was more stable. Knowing that not all ‘pressing are equal’ means a bit of excitement comes along with this hobby.. You never know what you will find,.. be it a rare collectors edition of some album you have been waiting for, or a CD single for your favorite track (with longer cuts of a fave song, remixes, and often live or acoustic tracks, sometimes of another bands song’). If you have bigger budget and are trying to grow a collection that includes unfamiliar music, a couple of suggestions: Know what music is likely to come with a given label, or know which labels often cover music that you like... As an example; I have always bought ‘Blue Note’ label discs... some ranges of classical music I will buy based on a familiar logo even before I consider the conductor or the composer. Look for stickers to suggest ‘great album’ (although it is unlikely to be a first pressing if it has ‘nominated for X grammys on the front cover!). Anything saying ‘gold disc’ or picture disc are potential for nabbing a better quality disc than modern repressings that are done with cost consciousness the consideration. Get to know the weight of a CD case and normal vs heavy weight disc. (the paper album cover/artwork doesn’t add a lot of weight, but a weighty Gold disc with picture art pressed onto the top layer can be ‘very heavy’ - these discs sound noticably better on good equipment, and read so well that even ‘long broken’ CD players that will not initialise other discs, will ‘spin up quickly’ and play it again (sam)..
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First runs by certain artists will always be in cardboard (actually due to environmental aims for some artists,.. anything in CD Jewel cases makes me highly suspicious it is a ‘grey market import)
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Ahh the Columbia red stripe. Always a welcome find.
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Stuff in unusual cases; eg these are all paper/‘digi’packs and special releases. Admittedly some discs are CD singles, others simply small batch runs or very special editions.. Definately count the number of tracks on the album if it looks like a single. If the same song is listed more than two or three times, and not much else.. it is probably a single. not a bad thing if you are after them. Some Singles have taken me years to track down. (and ‘no’ the internet didn’t have them...)
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cds of various shapes and sizes; these above are all singles. Some are in sleeves, some are in full/regular CD cases. (and everything in between) Have a hierachy of preference for purchasing as this should be a fun hobby and not bog down a day. Approach the counter with fifteen discs, being fully prepared to walk away with three. I do not recommend opening the cases in the middle of the store, and they usually will have some tape around the cover to ‘lock it shut’. In higher crime areas where the discs are ‘valuable’, they might often be stored in a drawer with a staff member having to get them out individually. Any store willing to micromanage a sale of a CD so much as to keep them in a drawer is probably charging ‘good money’ for them. Find thrift stores & opportunity shops/hock or pawn shops and garage sales where the reseller simply wants them gone. One second hand store on my travels has a basket near the counter giving free CDs (limit 20) to anyone who wants them; not even requiring a person to buy anything. Its like they just want them gone. Oblige! factor the quality and uniqeness of the disc including singles vs albums paper /first release cases and pressings continued.... https://drop.com/talk/26089/dragems-how-to-buy-second-hand-compact-discs/2513461 (part IV)(Borderline buys)
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