Monday, March 03, 2008

A New^H^H^HUsed Way To Buy Music

About a month ago I became quite proud of myself. I stopped buying CDs from major record labels quite a while ago. Since then I've had to download my music using LimeWire or BitTorrent. Unfortunately, I have eclectic taste in music. Few people have the CDs I want. That makes them hard to download.

While browsing Amazon I saw something which changed the way I got music. When Amazon lists a CD, it gives you the option of either buying it from them, or a reseller. When buying from a reseller, you have the option of buying "New or Used."

That's it! Used! I can get the CD, with the cover art without supporting the record company! The CD has already been bought by someone else. The RIAA won't get another cent from this sale!

So I bought a couple of used CDs. One turned out alright. The other one didn't. It's really hard to explain the problem with it. So I'll show you a couple of pictures:




I was in the midst of writing an email to inquire about returning procedures when I decided to look at my bill. The shipping cost more than the CD. So even if I did get a 100% refund, I'd still have to pay more to send the CD back than what I'd get for it.

So I ordered the CD again, from another Amazon reseller. If this one works out, I will have paid the price for the CD as thought I bought it new.

Ugh. At least I avoid giving money to the evil RIAA.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Looks as if it may have been run through a CD destroyer, sort of like this one.
http://www.gadgets-reviews.com/index.php?id=253&page=post

Anonymous said...

I'm assuming that you tried the cd and determined it not to work. Maybe its something like this:
http://www.d-skin.com/

Just a thought

Andrew said...

I think lawlorja was correct. I did try to play the CD. It made my CD player make weird noises. I gave it to Robin to try playing in one of her CD players. Her's didn't play at all either.

Who would destroy a CD then sell it? What a bunch of jerks!

My first thought when I saw the CD was that it might have been a film that I should peel off. If it is, I can't get it off. Plus, the imperfections look like they go through the whole CD.

A google image search for CD Destroyer returns images similar to what I have.

I can't inspect the CD right now because I sold it on eBay and already sent it off.

Anonymous said...

WOULD NOT BUY FROM AGAIN. TERRIBLE SELLER!!!!!!!!!!