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Selling CDs on Amazon: Interview With an Expert

By Peter Valley 9 Comments

In last week’s post, I covered buying a large lot of CDs on Craigslist, and admitted my general ignorance about selling CDs on Amazon. Some of the biggest questions I was left with were:

  • Can Fulfillment by Amazon sellers charge more than a flat $3.99 above Merchant Fulfilled sellers?
  • What is the best CD pricing strategy for FBA sellers?
  • What is a “bad” sales rank for CDs?

Note: CDs are a partially gated category, and not all sellers are allowed to sell them.

pilecds

The CDs have been selling very well, but I still had some questions. So I did what I like to do when I don’t know something: leapfrog over the learning process and just ask an expert.

Brian Freifelder is the owner of Philadelphia Media Exchange, with over 50,000+ lifetime CD sales on Amazon. He agreed to a quick five-question lightning round about selling CDs with Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA):

Me: After doing a recent shipment of over 500 CDs, I am surprised to see how quickly they are selling. So, are people still buying CDs?

Brian: Yes people are still buying CDs.  They are like books, common titles are worth a penny.  Rare titles still hold value.

Me: My biggest question pertains to the right pricing formula. First, are Amazon buyers willing to pay more for FBA offers in the CD category? Why or why not?

Brian: No, from my experience of adding premiums the buyer is not willing to pay much more.  I think with the Amazon Music Player Amazon has made it a better buy purchasing from them since you automatically get the album transferred to any device you have with the Amazon player on it.  I also think with the amount of product available it’s easier for a buyer to pay less from a Merchant Fulfilled seller or another FBA seller asking less.

Me: What is your personal pricing formula with CDs?

Brian: $3.99 above the lowest MF price.  Competition must have 94%+ feedback, 100+ feedbacks! Same condition or better.

Me: What have you learned about sales rank and CDs? My personal formula has been to consider anything higher than 200,000 as “off the deep end” and a sales rank abyss, but I also haven’t accumulated much data. So what’s the real story?

Brian: 300,000 is when things get dicey.  Once you go over 200,000 (when buying collections) start offering less per cd.  Once you’re over 300,000 don’t offer more than $2 unless for rare circumstances.  Over 1M rank, don’t even bother with it, it’s not selling.

Me: After my aforementioned large CD buy, I found that nearly 100% of CDs in the “metal” genre were selling in the $7+ range. Have you noticed particular genres that disproportionately hold their value? Can you list a few of the better ones people can look for when they’re out sourcing?

Brian: Jazz and Folk are almost always homeruns.  Just try and avoid scanning the cheap labels (foreign production is a dead giveaway to items that aren’t gonna be worth scanning).

Me: Final words?

Find someone with a professional disc cleaning machine (Not JFJ Pro).  A lot of expensive CDs can be cleaned and resold.  Don’t let scratched discs scare you off, paying someone to clean them or cleaning them yourself will leave you with more money than just passing on them.

Thanks Brian.

Also, claim your free book:

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Filed Under: FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) tactics

Comments

  1. Dondie says

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    How about a similar article for DVDs/VHS?

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    • Peter Valley says

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      That’s a great idea.

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  2. Jim C says

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    Thanks for sharing this information. One question, though. What’s the problem with using JFJ Easy Pro to clean our discs? I’d like to know if there are any issues, since I have one.

    Thanks.

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  3. sung says

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    Great stuff as always !!!

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  4. Faisal says

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    Hi Peter

    With the pricing strategy have you shifted to the 3.99 over merchant fulfilled. Or are you experimenting?

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    • Peter Valley says

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      The early results confirm that going $3.99 above is the best approach with CDs. Even the better-ranked titles priced higher aren’t selling as fast as they might with books.

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  5. Joe says

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    What would your approach be to a jazz cd that has a sales rank of 535k, no fba sellers, and is selling merchant fulfilled new for $250 and used for $30? Is that something you would consider worth sending to FBA or is the sales rank too high? Thoughts are really appreciated.

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    • Peter Valley says

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      At a cost of only a penny a month in storage fees, I don’t think there is any CD at that price I wouldn’t ship in.

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  6. dan okeefe says

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    Can you tell us why you don’t like the jfj easy disc cleaner? An associate of mine has one and likes it do you know of any issues with it. Do you recommend something else because i would like to buy something in the next week or 2 and add cds into my inventory? Thank you.

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