The Start of the Purge

Originally written 6/5/2013

We are still waiting for Matt’s employer to send all of the specifics of the transfer plan.  The waiting is killing me. Thankfully Matt is the one with patience and we balance each other out. Since we are 99.8% sure this is going to happen, why not start consolidating and purging items we no longer need?  

Over Memorial Day weekend I started with a small, yet important job, our music.  We have four large boxes of CDs that needed to go somewhere.  At one point we put all of our CDs onto an external hard drive and packed the CDs away.  The CD market is certainly not what it used to be, and I had low expectations of what would come out of these.  I started with an internet search about selling CDs, and I came across Second Spin.  You search for the CDs you want to sell & they’ll indicate the price they are willing to pay you, if they are taking that title at all.  My initial search of CDs found that they were taking my titles for varying amounts of money.  Don’t get your hopes up for a windfall; prices range from .25 to $3. Box sets and highly desirable titles will go for more.  You have to pay for the shipping of your items to the company. They suggest USPS media mail, so the cost is not very high.  To help defray the cost of shipping, the website offered a media mail shipping rebate based on the number of CDs you send in. I shipped over 25 CDs, and that should net me a $5 credit.  I paid $7.25 at the post office to ship the box; I think $2.25 is a decent premium to pay for what they will pay me.  

I received an email from Second Spin when they received my CDs and another email when my payment was ready. I followed the link from the email and my funds were deposited into our PayPal account.

Next I read about Amazon’s Trade-In Program, which takes books, music, video games, and electronics. Amazon gives Amazon gift cards for your item instead of cash, but for our family that works. Amazon is our go-to website, especially since Amazon Prime provides free shipping. The prices offered for each CD seemed to be comparable to Second Spin with one bonus, Amazon paid for shipping.  I was sold.  It took time to search through every.single.CD.we.own, but my time was well spent.  After one weekend of selling, I accumulated over $80 in Amazon credit.  At .25-.50 each, that was a lot of CDs.  I finished our boxes today and created one last order of $20.  I also checked a few professional books I purchased for grad school and my job.  Amazon only took one of my books, but they paid $18 for it.  That's better than sitting on my bookshelf never to be opened again.  

Not all of our CDs were taken by Amazon.  They work on a supply and demand system, so CDs that have a large following are offered at a low .25 or not at all.  None of our Dave Matthews Band CDs were taken by Amazon.  

I still have a decent amount of CDs left.  Over the weekend I heard a commercial on the radio for Half-Price Books, and it mentioned that they take music, too!  Youngest Kiddo and I took about  30 CDs and a few books into our local store to see what they’d give us.  They offered me $12 for everything.  The man at Half-Price Books indicated that they receive many CDs each week, but not nearly that many are sold each week.  My music was destined for the Dollar Bin and would probably be discarded before it could be bought.

We still have about 80-100 CDs left.  I might make one last run through at Second Spin & Amazon to see if the market for 90’s music has changed in the last week.  If not, then Goodwill will benefit.  

**June 24, 2013 update - I’ve been happy with both the Amazon & Second Spin experiences.  Both options paid a fair price for my items.  Amazon sent a detailed list of the CDs sent in and their rating of them.  The condition of several of my CDs were upgraded to a higher pay level by Amazon, so I’m confident in using this service in the future.   Second Spin had an option to receive my payment via PayPal, and that was the easiest part of the whole process.  The only drawback to Second Spin is that I had to deal with the Post Office.  

** September 12, 2013 update - I've continued to use the Amazon Trade-In program as we continue to consolidate our belongings. I found several old iPods that Amazon paid decent money for.

** All opinions about Second Spin, Amazon, and Half-Price Books are my own and no compensation was received.

*The news shared in this blog posts was originally written many months ago.  We were not ready to share the news with the world at that time, so I added the original date the post was written at the top.

Love

Love is in the air, even a week after Valentine’s Day.  New love is also blooming.  My friend, Kim, is experiencing new love right now.  Hearing her stories of long, late night phone calls, outings to the big city, and nights at home cooking dinner together makes me think (way) back to my own new love, circa 1990-something. 

Today’s shuffle mix on the iPod played some songs that conjured up memories of when Matt and I first started dating.  Our relationship started when we were still teenagers, and music is an instant transport back to that time.  There are certain songs and albums, to quote a local radio station, that are the soundtrack of our lives. 

One of the first songs of significance to our relationship is Today by the Smashing Pumpkins.  Matt bought me this as a CD single and I listened the heck out of it.  Do you remember CD singles?  I'm so happy I can now buy individual songs on iTunes.  

10,000 Maniacs Unplugged Album – Back in the day MTV did an acoustic show called Unplugged that had great artists such as Eric Clapton, Nirvana, and Lenny Kravitz.  MTV then smartly released the show as an album.  I remember watching the 10,000 Maniacs show at Matt’s house since out in the country we didn’t have cable TV. 

InYour Eyes by Peter Gabriel – This was the theme of Matt’s Senior Prom.  We went into Schaumburg for dinner with Matt’s BFF Nate and his date.  At the time going to Schaumburg was quite a distance, at least to me being the rural kid that I was.

Melloncollie and the Infinite Sadness by the Smashing Pumpkins – We drove into the big city to the Tower Records the night this album was released.  At midnight we drove back to our dorm in the country listening to it at full volume.  I actually wanted the title song from the album, MellonCollie and the Infinite Sadness, to our wedding processional.  However, the title of the song in the wedding program would look to be a downer.  So I opted for the popular Trumpet Voluntary.

InYour Eyes by Peter Gabriel – Yes you’ve seen this song before.  It ended up being our first dance song at our wedding. 

There were a few albums that we obsessed over during college and early adult life.

ThrowingCopper by Live – Lightning Crashes, I Alone, and Selling the Drama were most likely worn out on our CD. 

TheBends by Radiohead – Whenever I hear Planet Telex, The Bends, Fake Plastic Trees I sigh and remember our apartment on Augusta Avenue.

Music as a “where were you when…”

I remember sitting at Matt’s house in April of 1994 when news broke of Kurt Cobain's suicide.  Hearing Courtney Love on MTV while mourners gathered outside his Seattle home, for some reason, is etched in my brain. 

Now as adults we have many more musical connections to Coldplay, Foo Fighters, and The Subdudes.  We’ve even got the kids trained to know when a Coldplay song comes on the radio.  G has a good rendition if Paradise.