Hi Folks
Anyone have any experience of what Music Magpie typically pay you per CD if you sold to them?
I’m ‘inheriting’ a small collection and would like to give some token reimbursement over what they might have got selling the lot to the like of MM.
Thanks
Gavin
When I had a look they had a scan tool which gives you an instant quote. They seemed to be offering 10, 20 pence or so. In the end I could not be bothered. If you have ripped them legally you should have the original cd, but how anyone would find out I do not know.
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When my brother died one of the many things we had to do was dispose of his CD collection. We found the amount offered varied from 10p to around £1.25. There seemed no logic in the higher prices, they certainly weren’t for (all of) the rarities he had, some of which I kept as I thought they were having a laugh.
If you have multiple copies of some disks don’t scan them all in the same “order” as the second, and subsequent, will be rejected. You also won’t be able to do anything with disks that have no barcode.
If you’ve got more than one box full ensure you keep them ordered by box so you know which disks to put in which box - we didn’t and it was a nightmare with 30 boxes worth. Also bear in mind the weight and don’t put too many into each “box” (logical and physical) as you’ll need to get them to a pick up point. If you’ve many boxes check with the pick up point first how many they can take in one go - they will have limited space to store them until they are collected. One point in my town could only take 6 boxes a day in total from all customers !
Although we felt ripped off, we did need to get rid of them and we got enough to pay off the final amount on his car, easing another issue.
Do note, as Gazza says, you need to have the original if you have a rip or other copy of it.
As a buyer, Music Magpie can be good value, although I dare say they are still making good margins. The trouble is, for sellers, what’s the alternative? The extra you might get on ebay is hardly worth the hassle of taking photos, writing the listing, posting, paying fees etc.
When disposing of CDs I run them past CEX and ZIffit. You can check what they’ll offer on their websites / apps. CEX will usually give a pittance but are less choosy than Ziffit, who might offer the dizzy heights of 50p to £1 on a small minority of what I’m selling. I’ve used Music Magpie once, and have generally found the returns to be greater (though still small) elsewhere.
The upside of all this is that it’s a great time to be buying CDs.
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Chris, selling on Discogs is much easier. As long as the release is in the database, you simply have to set your selling (and shipping) price - there’s nothing else to fill out. The trouble is, as other posters have pointed out, the money you get these days for CDs is peanuts. Often you’re better off just taking them down the charity shop.
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Indeed, if I ever have some to get rid of, I think it’ll be the charity shop as long as they continue to sell them. Like video tapes and music cassettes, I guess even charity shops will stop bothering sooner or later.
We gave up, when our son died we had to deal with 2000 plus CDs. They were mainly subdivisions of metal genre and 70% received no offer. The final straw was the offer of 3p for a limited edition sealed set, numbered, signed by the whole band.
Same here - it wasn’t worth the effort, I’d rather keep them, and would keep those I’ve ripped regardless.
Folks, thanks for your comments - all interesting inputs.
Essentially, I’ve been given a collection of around 500 CDs from an ex-colleague who’s moving overseas and doesn’t intend to take them with her. The good news is that although our tastes are well aligned it doesn’t overlap too much with my collection - I might have 100 or so duplicates. I suppose I might use Music Magpie or the like to move them on, or simply give them to a charity shop.
There are also around 50 with no cases/inserts - not quite sure what I’ll be doing with these! (Probably ripping them and filing away.)
I’ve now got the task of working my way through all of these, playing and ripping them - should keep me busy for a good while.
Did you manage to move them on in the end? They’re not my cup of tea by the sounds of it, but I have an old school friend who is very much into this scene and might know of a suitable route to move them on for you.
About a year ago I uploaded a few CDs for sale onto Discogs and they immediately began to sell. I was surprised by this and kept on uploading. They keep selling. I’m making space and putting the funds towards enhancing my audio system’s streaming capabilities. Some CD prices are increasing and might well continue to do so.
If you are willing to deal with Amazon CDs sell on there, too. But Amazon take such a large cut of your sale it is hardly worth selling anything through them. Plus, competition can be so hot prices have to be kept low for easily available items. Of course, if some CDs are cheap and you want to buy them, now is a good time to so.
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There are similar services in the States. I too could not be bothered. I ripped my cd’s and put almost all of them out in the trash. I have multiple backups of the rips, including in Dropbox, so I’m not worried about “losing” my library and needing to re-rip. I did have a few somewhat valuable cd’s - MOFI, Grateful Dead Dicks/Daves picks, etc. Sold a few and still need to sell the rest.
Took a couple of boxes to charity last week, they didn’t want them! Or the Vinyl.
Thanks, many moved on, some in storage and some ready to go to a dealer.
Why not offer them (as ‘collections’) through Pink Fish? Even if you did it through the charity bit; you get rid of the CDs and someone would be happy to work their way through a box or two.
I’ve found using Momox to be much more lucrative than Music Magpie. Although their ‘standard’ offer for the common, run of the mill poppy stuff (Coldplay, P!nk, Tina Turner etc…) is 13p, prices I’ve received for the likes of Dream Theater, Stones (especially earlier stuff), Metallica, Muse etc. starts at £1+, going up to £6-£8 for the likes of Devin Townsend, Trentmoeller, John Grant, Jean-Michel Jarre etc. A box of 100 slightly left of centre CDs (good jazz is popular) can easily net £150-£200.
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My advice is always keep the CDs… it’s called ‘backup’, you know, for when the hard drive fails… 
Absolutely. I’ll only be getting rid of the duplicates.
Technically, as I understand it, the CD is your licence to play the music it contains!