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Whitedragem
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Sep 29, 2019
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Yet to Come/Work in progress 5 Purchasing So you’ve found your favorite thrift store for buying albums (mine alphabetises them and still only charges $1 per disc). Is $1 a disc always a good buy? Stop and smell the roses sometimes. Is there a full priced disc that you desperately want and is unlikely to turn up second hand? Buying five albums you may not listen to is poor value if you could buy one you really want. So, keep an eye out for premium second hand stores. They might not be where you buy the lion share of your collection from, but if they curate better discs and treat them better or make shopping easier (remember your time is worth more than money!),.. then reward yourself with some ‘premium shopping’. The Pink Floyd ‘Delicate Sound of Thunder’ double disc pictured below I have purchased three times. Three times the exact same album. Not for doubles (either to give to friends/family or keep one in the car), but due to being burgled a lot in my youthful days. Fortunately I had the same taste in second hand shops as the thieves who cleared me out, so I rebought it. A couple of times again! Some discs you know you ‘just want’ and they are unlikey to be albums that friends may buy (and loan to you?),.. so order them before they come out, or be willing to pay a bit more for them ‘second hand’. Sure if you wait patiently they turn up for $1-2, but who would live a life without their favorite artist for a measly $8 difference in price? (Things we need to consider)
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Of course all albums turn up at all price points. Patience is key.
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The higher the price, the better the ‘haggle margin’. (Above was less than $20)
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I always devote 10-20% of super cheap purchases to high quality pressings of ‘World music’. I think this stems to youthful days of wanting the CDs in the little esoteric tarot and crystal selling stores. Generally stuff like walking beside a Northern Territory stream. (literally a bushwalk recording) Wouldn’t pay $30, but I would pay $2. the amount of ‘world music’ on sale in clearance bins is just exceptional if trying to save a packet on alternative/new age recordings.
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At the prices often given, it becomes a ‘no brainer’ to give them a whirl. Sometimes ‘fun discs’ or the unexpected one that you had “no idea what it would sound like”, proves to be ‘desert island disc’ worthy (if you needed twenty albums to survive off for ten years, what would you choose?).
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One point to consider; from a person who has started their collection over from scratch ‘several times’: Greatest Hits CDs. Greatest Hits CDs are a great way to get all your favorite tracks by any given artist on one album. (maybe two/three if considering an artist like Madonna or Billy Joel, or Creedence, or Floyd, etc) The problem with greatest hits CDs is twofold. You often miss the album tracks that aren’t ‘chart hits’, and once you have a collection of individual albums covering all the hits, the ‘Greatest Hits’ discs don’t often get spun. If you are building for a digital catalogue, you build your own ‘greatest hits’ compilations using Playlists.
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In the hock shop industry, individual albums by INXS or the Eurythmics wouldn’t sell very well once their greatest hits albums started to filter through to our shelves. Some albums will prove easy to find. If you are familiar with second hand shopping for CDs it becomes a quick process ‘skimming along the shelves’. (Many recurring titles) < factor price and ‘your budget’ if budget allows spend 10-20% on ‘random discs’/artists that your instinct/intuition guides you to do. These could include Funny and Unusual discs, discs purchased for the art, or even simply the song names. > < Do you go without the disc you want to get seven you may not? > Next... https://drop.com/talk/26089/dragems-how-to-buy-second-hand-compact-discs/2513464 (part 6)(BONUS)
(Edited)
Sep 29, 2019
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