New Used CD Laws in parts of America
To sell used CDs in Florida and Utah legally you now have to apply for a permit, fingerprint sellers and get a copy of the seller's I.D. On top of this, there is a "waiting period" statue that prohibits stores from selling used CDs that they've acquired until 30 days have passed, and stores are also now disallowed from providing anything but store credit in exchange for them.
Do record companies and the RIAA really think that this will make the people that usually buy used CDs switch to buying new CDs and downloads? What about the role of the huge technology that now allows anyone in the world to buy pretty much anything that they are looking for from any other part of the world, including rare cds...the internet?!
Buying and Selling Used CDs online
If you know where to look, you will be able to
find your used CDs at the best price on the internet . Never before has it been so easy to find almost any available used CD from consumers selling online through websites such as Ebay and Amazon. In fact, many CDs bought for the first time on the internet, are now often resold again and again on the internet, now that it is so easy to put your unwanted CDs up for sale.
Music industry push on the Used CD industry
The music industry dislikes used CD sales because they don't get a cut of subsequent sales after the first. Record companies are most likely trying to push consumers towards buying new hard copies, rather than used copies of music, as opposed to trying to push us towards music downloads, since there's a lot more profit in selling physical media than downloads.
But, I fail to see how making it harder to buy and sell used CDs offline will push people towards switching to buying new CDs, when the difference between a used and a new CD is around $7-$14, and when it is so easy for consumers to carry on buying and selling used CDs online.
 |
Having said this, the costs of selling a used CD online can be high. Amazon charges a commission of 15 percent of the sales price, a per-transaction fee of $0.99, and a variable closing fee, which in the case of CDs is $0.80. Wow - so, if you are selling a CD for $5, Amazon is going to receive $2.54 and you are going to receive $2.46. That means that Amazon would be getting a bigger cut than you would be!
So, it seems that the shift towards buying on the internet is benefiting CD consumers since we are now able to buy pretty much any used or rare CD we want for under a dollar on the internet . But it is not so good for those of us wanting to get a good price on our used, good condition CDs. Is it really worth it for us to sell our used CDs on the internet when we receive less than half of the revenue? ...maybe the music industry will benefit or already has benefited from a slow down of the used CD industry with these kind of regulations after all. |
