When I take my used CDs in to trade, the owner will look them up on the I-net, and give me $$ based on what he's found.

Do you think he has a site where the $ value of the disc is given, or is he going to a site like AllMusic.com and going by the ratings?

How would you do it?

I know- I could just ask him, I suppose, but as soon as I hand him the discs, I'm off and running to peruse the racks.

fp

I would look for the same CD in similar condition on Amazon - I think that would be a fair estimate of market price.

Our store actually has its own software created by the owners/founders. When we scan in a used cd to purchase, if we've ever had it before, it will come up in the system and pretty much determine everything.

It tells us whether or not to take it, how much to pay for it cash, how much to pay credit, and so on. It's based on the cost if we were to carry it new, how much we sell it for, how well it sells, and so on.

We usually give half of what we sell. For new releases such as the Kings of Leon, we generally sell them for $10.99 used. So we give about $5.50 cash, $6.60 credit.


I'd imagine that's what they do. I can't see them actually going to an Internet website and looking up another retailer's selling price, because it varies entirely too much.

i think it depends on the record store. the record store down the street from where i live now seems to just check allmusic. one of the shops near where my parents live does everything through gemm. then you go somewhere like jerry's where it's all in the guy's head. he just knows; it's amazing.

I don't see how this is a fair assessment of value. I know that I frequently buy things simply because it's there in the store, even knowing that it's far cheaper online. I just don't want to wait a week or 10 days to get it, and that's worth paying a bit more. All I can say is, I'm so glad my local stores don't seem to use this method!

This brings up an interesting problem that I've noticed the past couple years. I'm finding it much, much harder to locate used copies of things that I KNOW a store should have, because used copies should be plentiful. They're not. But I find them online, too many to count usually. Had the store had a used copy in stock, I'd have walked out with it.

Tied to this is an annoying tendency for my local stores to stock nothing but the latest title by an artist. If I like something by a band, I will most likely check out older releases. But they don't stock them, so where do I go? Online. So I just can't feel too sorry for at least MY local indie stores when they seem to actively work to not carry used titles or deep catalogs of artists. But I sure do feel annoyed.