I'm sure most of you live with someone else, whether it's your family, roommates, a spouse, etc. My question is, do you have a policy or rules when it comes to other people handling your CD collection? For example, do you let just about anyone play and borrow your CDs? Do you not let anyone touch your CDs under any circumstances? Is there a middleground?

Personally, I don't let anyone touch my CDs, whether it's family, friends, anyone really. It's not that I hold a grudge against anyone, it's just that I'm very anal about scratches or marks of any kind and don't want to have to blame anyone for accidently causing damage to my collection.

Sure, they'll probably say something like, "I'll be very careful, I promise!", but we all know that 99% of the general population still doesn't know how to handle a compact disc, and frankly, I'm convinced they never will.

I reserve the right to shut down anyone I think would mess with my stuff, but for the most part my friends/etc know I'm anal about my stuff. I trust a few people, but for the most part, if someone is like, "can I borrow this?", I'll just make them a copy.

I used to. *sigh* But gave up the fight.
From now on though all my new ones are under lock and key!

I gave a friend a loan of a CD in 1994. When I eventually got it back it was absolutely fucked. It even had a coffee ring on the actually CD!

I've never loaned CD's to anyone else since then.

You ask before you touch any of my CDs. Cases and the actual disc itself must be handled by the edges and only the edges. If you wish to borrow a CD of mine, you must sit throgh "the speech." If I deem you responsable enough after suffering through "the speech" you get to borrow the disc for one week. If the disc returns unscathed, you may get to borrow another someday. If it is in any way damaged, you are blacklists forever - no exceptions.

In all people, have a much better shot asking me to burn stuff for them than asking to borrow any of my pre-recorded CDs. I just don't trust people. In fact, when my girlfriend and I moved in together, one of the things we didn't combine was our CD collections. She's got good taste and all, but the way she handles her media makes me sick!

You people are assholes.

Every member of my friends and family can borrow my cds no questions asked, no speeches given and no deadline date for return (unless I just bought it). Even if for some reason it gets some nicks and bruises on it, I really don't give a shit. Friends and family are worth more than fifteen bucks worth of plastic.

yeah, i've never gotten anything that was not in playable condition back that wasnt replaced. by said offender

the only time i have a problem with this is when the friend is notorious for not returning things.

my friend chuck has had some of my pavement singles for close to 3 years now.

but i still let him borrow things. i just give him a lot of hell about returning them. (mostly silliness.)

he does return them. just can't seem to get all of the pavement singles back to me.

I agree; what a miserable bunch of shut-ins.....

I have to repurchase some of my own cds that i've never let anyone borrow because I am a dumbass when it comes to properly putting them back in their cases and shit. I took really awesome care of my cds once I started buying more and more of them, before that my burned cds were in the shittiest condition possible. Now it's tough when I drive and listen to cds, to find a place for them when the stoplight turns green and i've got to go and have no time to put them in their proper case. So multiple cds end up in one case and some fall out and this results in my having to purchase Frank's Wild Years yet again.

I think that's the only one. Oh, and my Pixies cds. Maybe Rain Dogs. That's it though.

I can't trust myself, so why not trust anyone else? I mean, I know I have just as much of a chance of fucking them up as anyone else.

I still don't lend them out because A) Nobody asks, B) if they did it'd never be returned.
Just like my books. Never returned. Candide, I fucking loved that after I read it, and I lent it out, and it's been 5 months since it's been in my posession.

I used to be uptight about lending out CDs, but I've mellowed the last few years. If I get them back, great; if not, no big deal. Maybe I'm less upset because I have most of them on mp3 now also.

I'm in the 'used to lend them out' camp. I got one too many back that were fucked so now I don't do it. I wish I could say "ah what the hell, they're just possessions" but I'm not that dude. I paid fucking money for this, you asked to borrow it and you fucked it up because you're too much of a lazy shithead to pick it out of the cd tray and put it back in the case.

yeah, I'm the uptight one.

This sounds pretty sensible, but then again that's easy for me to say because if my friends want something they'll just buy it rather than asking to borrow it. And I'm the same way.

When I was in college, drunk 90% of the time, and had lots of poor friends it used to annoy me when people would borrow my favorites either without asking or when I was drunk enough that i wouldn't remember who borrowed what later.

That said, "formal rules" seem pretty f'n anal and brings this pearl of wisdom to mind:



np: Lou Donaldson "Midnight Creeper"

More like a pearl of ghey.

I've got two friends who might conceivably ask to borrow a CD. As for the rest of the world's population, not ONE of them even wants to hear anything I've got, let alone borrow it.

Agreed. Don't wonder why people think you're a humourless snob if you're so anal about objects.

You think it's a weird that I not let people borrow sensitive objects that I know will come back broken/damaged?

I mean, I'll let my neighbor borrow my basketball because it's not a fragile object. I know that he will put stress on it, but when it's returned it will still be playable. CDs on the other hand are not designed to handle the situations that most people put them through.

I usually don't mind lending stuff out. They can't be more horrible at taking care of them than I am (stepping on cases, spilling drinks on cd's). The only thing I ask is that they don't keep them for ages. I lent out Requiem For A Dream to a friend like 2 years ago and haven't gotten it back yet. There's a guy at work who borrowed a Spider Man game for the PS2, had it for like 3 years, and then actually had the nerve to get angry when I asked for it back a few times in one week. I just took $10 from him and let him keep it (I was going to sell it anyways) but he's never borrowing anything from me again.

one time, an old roommate of mine took an ENTIRE cd logic case of 200+ cd's without asking and i thought i lost it... i was completely freaking out. boy, did i bitch at him after.

another time, another roommate took about 5 of my favorite cd's and then i come home and the cd's were scratched. i was so pissed.

i am super anal about my cd's and never let anyone borrow any of my cd's.

Unless we're talking expensive rarities yes. And if you are just complaining about damaged jewel boxes, I'll add that you're really anal too.

If your friends are regularly returning borrowed cds to you that are so damaged that they are unplayable and they aren't offering to replace them though, then they are being pricks and maybe you need to find better friends.

But see, I think because of the above is why many of us are the way we are. I finally just got sick of it. You get shit on enough, you've got to either wake up and accept it, or do something about it.

It's been said here before but...

a.) No one here is even remotely interested in my cd's.

b.) If they were I'd burn them something rather than risk them "accidently" scratching my discs.

Yep, burn 'em a copy, that's my solution. I love my collection and don't realy want to part with it, and I also keep my CDs in very good condition. The few times I've loaned out things to people who claim they're very gentle, the discs and packaging (especially those damned Digipaks) always come back beat up. There is absolutely no reason in the world to feel guilty for not wanting to loan CDs out. This is your collection, your hobby. You are the ones who put time into it, not the borrowers. Look at it this way: if you collected $15 porcelaine figurines and leant them out only to have them returned with scratches, you'd be prety upset, wouldn't you? It's not the money, it's the fact that it's something of mine that I cherish that has been taken by someone who didn't treat it with any respect whatsoever.

First of all, they're statues...