Where are they, typically. When S+H is factored in, as well as catlogue size.

www.alldirect.com
Amazon Marketplace (for used purchases)
www.deepdiscountcd.com
buying directly from labels

Cheap-CDs - limited supply, and sometimes selection, but their prices on a lot of things are way cheaper than retail. You can also sometimes get new releases early - if they list it on their site as in-stock, it will ship, even if it's a week or more until the release date. Annoying thing is that they don't hold your order if they're out of stock - it gets cancelled and you have to keep checking back.

used on amazon isn't a bad way to go...but turn off that "one click" buying option or you'll spending too much money, like me.

CDUniverse.com - forgot about them somehow, and I just last night ordered that Danny Cohen album someone rec'd yesterday. Generally pretty good prices, often beat Amazon if you pre-order, but it seems to be worth buying a couple things and upgrading to the faster shipping method. Whatever way they ship, they can be s-l-o-w. Upgrade for something like $1 more and you'll have your stuff pretty quickly.

I've been buying a lot of used cd's off Amazon lately.

Out of the 28 cd's I've bought off there in the last 6 months, one I never received and one was scratched to hell. I got my money back though.

I've been getting some stuff from yourmusic.com

Limited selection, but it's good for filling in a lot of the holes in my collection.

I've had good experiences w/ Djangos.com.

They have several store locations from which to draw, so they have a good selection. New and used.

fp

I've heard bad things about the promptness of their shipping. Low prices, but they can take weeks at a time to ship your stuff.

They can be slow, but I've never had any major problems. Then again, I live only a few miles from their warehouse.

http://half.ebay.com/products/bargain_b ... tion=Music

Try two months - TWO FRIGGIN' MONTHS - to get a single CD. I gave them another shot a while later, figuring that had to be one of those rare problems. Nope - just over a month to get a couple discs. My frustration is worth a few dollars for shipping. They have been cancelled out of further consideration.