Back in December, Tone Deaf reported on the bullish state of the secondary iPod market. After Apple announced the death of their much-loved iPod Classic — the bulky metallic box most closely associated with the beloved MP3 player — the device became a highly coveted collector’s item.
According to reports at the time, the classic iPods were being sold as new via Amazon for up to £670 (AU$1,256), while over 3,000 of the models — the last of which came out in 2010 — had been sold on eBay between October and December, most for between £350 and £500 (AU$656.30 and $937.58).
Even refurbished older models were fetching far more than their original price tag, which usually came in at about AU$268. It wasn’t really all that surprising, considering the device boasts double the storage capacity of any current iPod, with the 160GB Classic able to hold around 40,000 songs.
But what about a storage platform that only holds, say, 12 songs? How much would that be worth, do you reckon? If you guessed up to $3,200, if still in the box, in mint condition, and unsealed, then you just made an astonishingly lucky guess.
Believe it or not, but there’s still a market for CDs online and someone in possession of rare collector’s items, box sets, first run releases, or obscure gems can make serious bank flogging the dying format on online market places like Amazon and eBay.
If you’re finding it hard to believe, you’re not alone, even we find it hard to believe that there’s a market out there for rare CDs. But when you view it in the context of a similarly niche but valuable music market, like vinyl, it starts to make a little more sense.
As A Journal of Musical Things reports, there are some famous instances of rare and highly valued CDs. For example, Coldplay ordered just 500 copies of their first release, The Safety EP, with most given to friends and family. Anyone who chanced it on a retail copy can sell it for up to $1,500.
Also, Nirvana’s record label prepped a UK-only promo version of their iconic track ‘Pennyroyal Tea’ in 1994. It was a different version to the one that appeared on 1993’s In Utero and it was withdrawn before it was distributed. If you can find a copy of that, it’s as good as $2,000 in your hand.
Meanwhile, in 1993, Prince planned to issue a disc called My Name Was Prince exclusively to Japanese media, but pulled it for some reason, probably because it seemed like the most Prince thing to do at the time. According to Alan Cross, “I’ve seen it listed for $5,000.”
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These are just a few notable and particularly lucrative examples. Taking a look at Amazon and eBay, arguably the two biggest online market places, there’s a wealth (no pun intended) of highly valuable and likely coveted (they get pretty obscure) CD releases.
For example, a Definitive Collection Led Zeppelin Audio CD box set will fetch the owner $1,165.95 on eBay, while the Australian parody single ‘I Don’t Like It’ by Pauline Pantsdown, which some readers might fondly remember, has an asking price of $1,000.00 – check out the whole range here.
There’s a whole lot of cash being thrown around on Amazon as well. A copy of Fuel, the first album by Swedish hardcore group Raised Fist is going for $3,004.99, while down the lower end of the spectrum, a double-disc release by guitarist Adrian Belew is going for $495.99.
So maybe it’s not time to write CDs off just yet. While streaming is cannibalising even digital sales and the future of music will, in all likelihood, be all-streaming, there’s still a place where your much-maligned discs are wanted and will be loved… to the tune of $1,000.
