How much is your music collection worth?

[schmevil]

It seems we consistently underestimate the value of our music collections. Take a hard look at yours - how much is it really worth? How much is digital, and how much of that is backed up?

[Poll #1386460]

Comments

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

If I take the RRP on all my CDs, then I'd definitely break two thousand American dollars. But if I tried to put them on a market stall on Saturday? God knows.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I was thinking more in terms of what you'd lose, if your collection went *poof*. Because I think we're all guilty of not making copies/backing up everything. But thinking of it in terms of resale value is incredibly depressing. Probably the only ones who've got real value there are vinyl collectors.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

If you're talking new costs, then over $3500 just for the physical CDs. But the actual value if I tried to sell them all would be a small fraction.

[scottyquick.livejournal.com]

HOLY JEEBUS, how much room do they take up 0_0?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Heh. Friend of a friend has devoted his entire living room to vinyl. It's insaaane. Insanely awesome, that is

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

We have about 1500 CDs, which take up one whole wall of our computer room (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kyuuketsukirui/285560099). Calculated at $10 a CD, that would be $15,000. We didn't pay that much per disc, because we buy a lot of CDs used. But even calculated at $3 a disc, that's $4500.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Like I said to Lasair, I thinking about more in terms of what you stand to lose, if your collection went missing/was stolen/was killed. Sort of, what have you invested?

I'm in the same boat as you. I have a couple of valuable discs, but otherwise the resale value is nil.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the question is, too, how much would I really want to replace? Not every CD is something I desperately want to keep. We actually pruned out about 900 yesterday that we're going to try and sell.

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I did a desert island purge of my cds a few years ago, and everything I was on the fence about just got digitized. Now I'm downloading most of my music, rather than purchasing cds. The downside is that I seem to have less control over my spending this way.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, of the 600ish CDs we're keeping, I would be surprised if more than 30 were mine. I just feel like...when do I ever listen to actual CDs? Why do I need to keep these around?

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

I haven't listened to a cd in... wow. Years. I don't drive so they don't get use that way, and I've ripped everything. I do still watch dvds, because I don't like to keep movies on my hd - too much space.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

Yeah, same here. I used to listen to them in the car, but even then I prefered to make mixes than listen to albums. Now we have no car, so...

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

Instead of selling/donating/recycling, we should combine our efforts and build a sculpture.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

The Leaning Tower of CDs!

[bluefall.livejournal.com]

I used all mine to decorate my ceiling once. It was actually pretty cool, though alas, didn't travel well and had to be abandoned.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

NOBODY CAN TAKE AWAY MY SAILOR MOON CD!

Eh.

I have around 340 CDs, more or less; I paid very little for them, usually a buck or two, but most are backed up to FLAC by now. I only stopped doing it because I ran out of hard drive space and DVD-Rs. :p

[schmevil.livejournal.com]

NOBODY CAN TAKE AWAY MY SAILOR MOON CD!

O.O

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

She's got the power! (http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/various_artists___anime_soundtracks___sailor_moon/sailor_moon__songs_from_the_hit_tv_series_f1/)

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

I also own two different versions of The Chipmunks Christmas Album, a Hulk Hogan CD, two different Animaniacs CDs, a Fresh Prince album, the Miami Vice (TV show) soundtrack, and a bunch of other really uncommon CDs. :p

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Oh and FIVE Weird Al albums. :D

[dirty-diana.livejournal.com]

Not that much digital. I LOVE CDs. I will buy them untill they stop making them, at which point I will complain a lot.

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

:)

[bluefall.livejournal.com]

What I'd stand to lose in the sense of not having copies doesn't perturb me; I long ago calculated that between tickets and t-shirts, I'd spent upwards of $2500 on concerts through high school and early college, and that's not exactly an expense you can back up. Meanwhile if I lost my mp3 collection I'd just torrent as necessary to restore it. (I've been known to do that anyway, before it was possible to easily buy songs with no DRM.)

[bienegold.livejournal.com]

If I had the money to buy what I wanted, it would be over $3500 for sure. Someday I will have the money and the space to drown myself in music.