Selling CDs on Amazon: Interview With an Expert

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.

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.