Buying music is so 20th century, right? But hey, I still do it. There's a lot of good yet obscure alt rock and power pop out there, or compilations with the odd song from a favorite artist. And this music simply isn't available for digital distribution.
Amazon is a great place to go to find deals on this sort of music. The used listings can offer some really great deals on these albums. High supply and low demand pushes the price of some of these albums down to 1¢. With shipping, it works out to be $2.99. It's a lot cheaper than a new one, and even cheaper than a digital download (if it's even available). And it's cheap enough to take a bit of a chance on.
I'm also trying to clear out some of my old, unwanted albums. As I was listing them, I noticed something interesting about pricing. For all of the albums I listed, I priced it to be the cheapest one. But then if I checked back an hour later, I'd find someone had lowered their price to a penny below mine. If I lowered mine again, the same thing would happen. Repeat enough times, and it turns into a race to 1¢. Clearly they had an automated system doing the pricing. Even tying them for lowest price wasn't good enough. They wanted to be the cheapest, if only by a penny.
Now that I know the game, let me play it to my advantage. I list my album as in horrible condition: massive scratches that skipped horribly, cracked case, no booklet, etc. Sure you can buy it for 1¢, but do you really want to? Compared to my offering, the other one for 1¢ is clearly the one to buy. So someone buys it. After that copy is gone, the competition for the low price is gone. I can raise my price back up to something reasonable, and yet still be the lowest priced one in the list.
But of course I couldn't just stop there. I then realized that I could be that guy who gets the great deal on a used CD for only $2.99 shipped. All I needed to do was find a CD available by one of these shops that does automated pricing. I list my own copy of that CD for sale for 1¢ with the same unappealing comments, and wait. Sure enough, within half an hour the other seller's listing automatically drops to 1¢. I buy it, then close out my own listing.
A couple of shops that I know do this are Doolicity and Mister Happy's. I'm sure there are others too. Hope you find some great deals out there on some great music.
Amazon is a great place to go to find deals on this sort of music. The used listings can offer some really great deals on these albums. High supply and low demand pushes the price of some of these albums down to 1¢. With shipping, it works out to be $2.99. It's a lot cheaper than a new one, and even cheaper than a digital download (if it's even available). And it's cheap enough to take a bit of a chance on.
I'm also trying to clear out some of my old, unwanted albums. As I was listing them, I noticed something interesting about pricing. For all of the albums I listed, I priced it to be the cheapest one. But then if I checked back an hour later, I'd find someone had lowered their price to a penny below mine. If I lowered mine again, the same thing would happen. Repeat enough times, and it turns into a race to 1¢. Clearly they had an automated system doing the pricing. Even tying them for lowest price wasn't good enough. They wanted to be the cheapest, if only by a penny.
Now that I know the game, let me play it to my advantage. I list my album as in horrible condition: massive scratches that skipped horribly, cracked case, no booklet, etc. Sure you can buy it for 1¢, but do you really want to? Compared to my offering, the other one for 1¢ is clearly the one to buy. So someone buys it. After that copy is gone, the competition for the low price is gone. I can raise my price back up to something reasonable, and yet still be the lowest priced one in the list.
But of course I couldn't just stop there. I then realized that I could be that guy who gets the great deal on a used CD for only $2.99 shipped. All I needed to do was find a CD available by one of these shops that does automated pricing. I list my own copy of that CD for sale for 1¢ with the same unappealing comments, and wait. Sure enough, within half an hour the other seller's listing automatically drops to 1¢. I buy it, then close out my own listing.
A couple of shops that I know do this are Doolicity and Mister Happy's. I'm sure there are others too. Hope you find some great deals out there on some great music.
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