Help! Any tips on selling my CDs?

lady_fuschia

Hi,
I have around forty CDs I'm trying to offload (preferably for cash and as quickly as possible!) Thinking I'd prefer a lump sum rather than dribbles of a few pounds into my account I tried to sell them in local 2nd hand record stores- only they didn't want them! Not having a car, car boot sale isn't really an option (and I'm not convinced I'd sell many of them anyway)I'm obviously going to have to try selling online- I'm having a hard time deciding between ebay and Amazon. A friend told me some things were virtually worthless sold through Amazon (is this true?) and that they can be on there for years before anyone shows an interest, but I looked at ebay and saw CD albums going for under £1, which hardly seems worth the electricity I'd be using to put them on there. Does anyone have experience of selling second hand CDs? What's the best way to get rid of them quickly for a worthwhile amount? I don't have anything particularly rare, but they are in good condition and mostly by artists that are still fairly popular, a mixture of albums and singles- what's the best solution?

frivolous_fay

CDs on Amazon don't go for much... unless - I assume - they are hard to get items. You don't get much of a postage credit, either... especially considering I take extra care to package so that the cases don't get smashed in the post. I listed about 4 and didn't bother with any more after that.

Perhaps ebay?

smartie1976

I think CDs tend to sell better when the postage is a little lower than competitors (we all know it only costs about 60p to post a CD), and also if you offer a bulk buy discount you are more likely to get people buying more than one CD off you because they see they can save a bit.
Offering to only take cash/cheque will limit your audience, but won't have to pay any paypal fees to receive the money.

I'd opt for Ebay.

Optionally, you could start each CD at £2, with free postage. That should attract some buyers.

~cleo~

about a year ago i took a huge lot of cd albums to my local cash converters they took them for a £1 each but they wouldnt take any singles

dont think single are really worth selling on ebay as they go for so little, you could try doing lots

Dead_Eye_Jones

Prob best finding something else to sell...

princessmoneysaver

I've sold a few CD's on Amazon for around £2-£5 each. Try starting them on ebay at something like £4.99 for the lot then maybe someone will buy them to resell.

lady_fuschia

Dead Eye Jones: Part of the point is getting rid of the CD's ! I don't have anything else to sell!

So overall would you say ebay is the better option then?

snaveuk

A lump package on ebay is properly your best bet, with any choice albums or singles in seperate auctions. Feeder's 'Just a Day' single is going for a fair bit, so check all the completed prices for your cd's to see if you've got any hidden gems there.

They'll no doubt they'll be a few titles you just won't get anythhing for, as the market is flooded with them. While you could just package them together and hope for the best, maybe you could recycle them by using to them to create some form of art.

Yes I'm being serious :-)

Some of my old stuff just isn't worth selling as is on ebay, so I'm trying to be a bit arty in terms of getting rid of them. I've yet to see if this works, and I'm not expecting to make a fortune outta it, but it may work out alright!

P.S With amazon you won't be able to sell them in a lump sum, and quite a few of your cd's will only fetch a penny, so in this case I'd say stick with ebay.

smartie1976

Is the stuff you are wanting to sell popular? New or old (80s stuff still sells fairly well)

If you want to, lump together stuff from the same artist/ genre/ timeframe

lady_fuschia

OK- looks like ebay could be the one- for those of you who've had experience do you find you can generally sell fairly quickly- and what kind of fees did you have to pay?

smartie1976

feewise it's 15p per basic listing for ebay
you then have an ebay final valuation fee (FVF) which is about 3.5%

Then, if you accept paypal from a credit card, you pay 20p per transaction plus (I think) 3.4% of the value.

Example1 :
Item sells for £89 (inc post)
Listing fee 15p
FVF 3.26
Paypal fee: 3.23
Actual Postage: 5.00
Profit - fees = 77.36

Example2:
Item sells for £1.27 (inc post)
Listing fee 15p
FVF 0.05
Paypal fee: 0.25
Actual Postage: 32p
Profit - fees = 50p