Tips on Selling Your CD Collection on Ebay

CDs have a way of piling up. They also have a way of becoming irrelevant and useless, especially when you buy them right and left. With MP3 players now available, there's a good chance that many of the CDs in your collection are no longer needed. Many of the CDs that I've purchased over the years were just collecting dust while I listened to more relevant music on my Ipod. After many months of tripping over my large CD shelf, I decided that they had to go. I sold nearly two-thirds of my 400 CDs.

In this day and age, there's only one place to go to unload the items you no longer need: Ebay. One Sunday evening I decided to start listing them. Before I knew it, I had posted about 40 CDs. Fast forward a couple of months and I had gotten rid of everything that I no longer wanted. Throughout the process I learned many helpful tips and would like to share them.

There are 3 different ways that you can sell your CDs on Ebay:

1. Individually. This is the most difficult way to sell if you're unloading a large number of CDs. If the CD is older and not a collector's item, you'll be unpleasantly surprised at how little money you'll see. Often times, a CD won't even sell on its own. You will also be surprised at how much time you'll spend in the Post Office mailing your CDs. Individually is, however, the ideal way to sell a newer CD.

2. Small Lots. A small lot is about 3 to eight CDs. Small lots will only work well if you pair up the CDs properly. You don't want to sell a lot of five CDs and have them all be completely different. An example of a small lot that I sold was of five old Prince CDs. Some new Prince fan bought it to check them out.

3. Big Lots. Big lots are the easiest way to unload a lot of CDs. A big lot can be as many CDs as you'd like. I sold a couple of big lots (91 CDs being the biggest). These lots generate a lot of interest from owners of used CD shops that look to replenish their inventory on Ebay. Selling your CDs through a big lot will cut way down the time and effort that you'll need to put in.

Shipping Tips:

Many people have a difficult time deciding how to go about shipping. For an individual CD, it's best to send the item First Class Mail in a padded envelope. The padded envelope will run you about 75 cents, unless you buy them in bulk (ironically, you can find great bulk deals for padded envelopes on Ebay) and it will cost about $1.35 to mail the CD. That brings the total cost for mailing an individual CD to about $2.10. You can charge the buyer more that $2.10 and make some money off the shipping. Generally speaking, that won't help your bottom line much because most Ebay users are groomed to consider the cost of shipping before placing their bids.

I was initially hesitant to sell a big lot because of shipping complications, but mailing a big lot is easier than you would think. The Post Office now has a 'fixed-rate box' that you can place items in and mail off 'Priority Mail' for about ten dollars. They'll provide the box for you and it can fit about 42 CDs.

Closing Thoughts:

When selling your CDs on Ebay, you obviously want to get the most money. Selling them individually will net you the most money, but will take up loads of your time. You'll spend time listing your items, packing them up, and waiting in line to mail them. It is important to realize that time is money. I recommend selling your CDs as a big lot.