In another part of the forest I have an online CD shop. It’s here should you fancy a nose about. I amuse my Facebook friends occasionally by posting pictures of the back of my car loaded with yet another pile of random discs bought from obscure corners of the country. What I don’t post is the aftermath.
Many of the Jazz collections I buy come from families clearing houses for one reason or another, meaning that the CDs were the collection usually of someone in the 70s or even 80s. I collected what on eBay looked like a nice little lot of 500 or so Jazz albums, a typical mix of late 40s through to 60s music. Now I’ve been at this long enough to know that there will a certain number of CDRs in the collection. What I wasn’t ready for was that 50% of the collection would be copies.
I also ask beforehand are there any copies (and explain how to tell) and are all the discs in the boxes? In one previous collection I had about 100 out of 1500 as copies but I was told that they were there so all was well. In this case the answers to my questions were vague so I had a feeling all would not be well, but I can’t help myself and I bought them anyway.
You may say “so what, everyone has copied CDs or tapes since the dawn of the tech to do it. Ah yes but not everyone was the selling them on to other collectors. Given the fuss made over condition and originality even in the CD collecting world (let alone LPs) why would a “collector” want a second rate CDR?
This is going to be an ongoing problem and certainly influences how I buy stock. It’s also becoming an issue elsewhere. I bought a disc on Amazon recently from a marketplace seller, a reputable one I have used before, and a CDR with a badly photocopied sleeve turned up. The one on the left in fact. The seller refunded me after seeing the photo, but how many of these things are now floating around the market? Given the way a company named after a black and white bird hoover up CDs buying unseen probably lots.
So my morning will be spent separating the recyclable parts from the rubbish and shaking my head at the waste of it all as much as the weirdness of why so many collectors of Jazz are so keen to fill their shelves with junk.
Just a thought but it never happens with collections of rock music… Sell me your nice CDs at tim@sellingsongs.co.uk
