Are CD's becoming cheaper? (1 Viewer)

[David Coleman]

In reviewing prices of CD's in circulars and recent trips to the Music Stores, it's seems that the outrageous pricing that's kept me from buying CD's have come down slightly? Is this real or my imagination?

BB anc Circuit City are having some incredible prices nowadays...

 

[Nick White]

I agree, but only slightly... and only if you shop around enough.

Best Buy will often have new releases (from DreamWorks especially, I've noticed) for as cheap as $6.99. I got the new Sparta CD for this price just awhile back.

Also, lots of stores have been havin the $9.99 sales recently, putting a lot of pretty good quality catalog titles on sale.

But there are still those titles that are going for upwards for $18 which is pretty ridiculous. I usually won't pay more than $13 or $14 for a single-disc title.. $10 would be the most reasonable price to me. It's affordable while still giving record companies a fair profit-margin. I doubt we could realistically get them any lower at this point. I think if titles averaged to around the $10 range we would see music sales pick up quite a bit.

 

[KeithH]

I agree with Nick. Best Buy and Circuit City throw us a bone once in awhile, but there are still plenty of CDs at those stores priced $13.99 and maybe more. Go into any music store in a mall, and nothing's changed. At my local fye stores, $15.99 is a sale price. :rolleyes

 

[Angelo.M]

It seems that, overall, prices haven't really declined substantially in a long while. Nowadays, I find myself ordering more and more from Columbia House when the have the "buy 1 get 2" deal, which usually runs about $26 for three CDs.

 

[Malcolm R]

At my local fye stores, $15.99 is a sale price.

I still remember walking into FYE on December 10, wanting to buy "The Two Towers" soundtrack, and almost having a stroke on the spot when I saw the asking price of $21.99.

I waited a week and bought it at Best Buy for $11.99.

 

[Ted Lee]

bb and cc usually have good prices the first week or so. i typically don't pay more than about 12 bucks then.

after it goes off sale, that's when it starts to hurt.

np: johnny marr & the healers / "boomslang"

 

[ThomasC]

I still remember walking into FYE on December 10, wanting to buy "The Two Towers" soundtrack, and almost having a stroke on the spot when I saw the asking price of $21.99.

I'm pretty sure you were looking at the Limited Edition, in which case, that's a really good deal. MSRP is $29.99, and Deep Discount CD has it for $23.38. MSRP for the regular edition is $19.98, so if that's what they were selling, then someone really messed up.

EDIT: I just checked out FYE's website, and good gravy! They list the original price for the regular edition at $21.99, but now they're selling it for $15.46. Still more expensive than BB and the like...

 

[KeithH]

Angelo, I'm with you. I've been buying a lot of CDs through Columbia House and BMG on those specials. That's gotten me many discs practically free (paid just shipping and handling). On top of that, I have a nice pile of $5.99 certificates from BMG to cash in.

 

[Angelo.M]

Keith:

Absolutely. I'm 'recollecting' things like the remastered versions of the Simon and Garfunkel albums, Miles Davis and John Coltrane, and I'm doing it very cheaply through Columbia House. Sure, you can't find everything you do in the store, but they're becoming a bit better with newer releases, and the jazz and classical selections are respectable if not exhaustive.

 

[Carlo_M]

Thank goodness that most of the bands I like are small and tour L.A. often. That way I can get their CDs from the merch stand (where it is often $10-$15 flat) and most of the money goes to the band. I haven't bought a non-sale CD in many years (I think a Sean Watkins CD that no one carried I paid full price at a Borders Music that had one copy) and the fact that $17.99 seems to be the going price these days is really a turnoff for me.

For the legacy stuff I try and get it from BMG music club if possible.

 

[Anthony Hom]

Best Buy has always been cheaper. One possible theory is that Best Buy makes it profits off home electronics and extended warranties, and can afford to sell software and media at a lower profit margin, to bring more people in. Tower can't really do that since their main profit is software.

It's like Costco selling a big hot dog and drink at $1.50 or a large pizza at $8.99. They might be loss leaders, or something like that.

 

[Malcolm R]

I'm pretty sure you were looking at the Limited Edition

Nope, they had both. Regular for $21.99 and LE for $29.99. Then again, FYE has been known to sell items at higher than list on more than one occasion.

 

[ThomasC]

Look at my edit, Malcolm.

 

[KeithH]

Angelo, I've been doing the same thing through the clubs. I like to buy remasters of older CDs I have because I like comparing the discs and because the remasters often sound better. However, I don't like paying full price for replacement CDs. I've bought my replacements through the clubs. I've also expanded my jazz collection tremendously through the clubs. BMG has a much better selection of jazz CDs than Columbia House.