What to do with a large collection


I have thousands of CDs and records and am looking to get rid of most of them. i can’t possibly listen to them in my remaining years and my wife doesn’t need them. CDs, it turns out, are not very viable these days, and if you want to sell them to a dealer you can only get store credit!! And, if as in my case, the collection is 90% classical, it seems they will be impossible to unload. Since CDs are antiques these days, I can’t imagine ANYONE who would want them. The only alternative I can see is the garbage. When you consider just how much of an investment they were it’s indeed a sobering realization.
Records are indeed “in,” but how desirable are classical LP’s?

Any suggestions?

128x128rvpiano

@latik  Thanks for the referral on CLZ Music.   They have an app for the Mac called Music Collector.  Very nice interface and works great. 

If you have a community radio station, they might have use for them and you can write off the donation. 

@rvpiano

I am in the same situation, being 71 and not having cared for my most valuable material posession very well in my youth (my body). My great hope is that one of my kids or son-in-laws or any realtive will want them, as well as my system. I have listed most of my collection in DISCOGS, as has been mentioned.It’s a lot of fun and you can see what other members are selling the same release for. You can also see the high, low, and median prices that the release sold for in the past as well as when it last sold.

I was surprised how much some pople paid for some of my pieces, so if there is any chance you have some thing rare or valuable, check it out. You can also offer it for sale. I am not planning on selling much of my collection that way. Too time consuming but I am not going to toss out my Linda Ronstadt Live in Hollywood 2 LP set from Rino. It has sold for $99 and someome is currently asking for $199. Of course it also sold for $21 at some point. You will need to enter the bar code, catalog number, or matrix/runout code because it may make a big difference.

If I can’t find someone I know who will enjoy my stuff I would donate my collection to a Habitat For Humanity re-sell store. I know they are a true charity. Goodwill, not so sure they are 100% not for profit.

My system will be sold if necessary. Lots of ways to do that.

@kmcong I have 355 CDs and am fortunate to not have seen any rot....yet

Back in the early 80's I traded all ~800 of my vinyl albums for about 20 CD's at a local shop.  Over the years, my CD collection reached about 1200.  Then I got back into vinyl again.  To me the sound was preferable to CD's, so I took about 1000 of those CD's to the local Goodwill and started collecting vinyl.  I have spent the last 8 - 10 years not only buying back all those albums I got rid of in the 80's, but another 700 or so on top of that.  Anymore, I'll only play a CD when I want to take a nap....