I freecycle things knowing that the person taking them can sell and make money with them. It provides an income for that person, and ultimately gets the items into the hands of people who want them.

A few years ago, there was an organizing guru who suggested transferring all your CDs to the computer and then getting rid of the CD's. In response, some have said that if you have it on the computer, you also need to have the hard copy as well- all that jazz about copyrights and legal ownership.

Somehow I doubt the music police will come knocking on your door-- who is going to know? But this was also back when there was a lot of stink about illegal downloads and such.

Anyway, we do keep the original disks of music we keep. We bought some specialty binders with plastic pages that you can put the CDs and booklets in, then toss the jewel case. With these we are able to keep about 150 (maybe more) CDs/booklets in about 12 inches of shelf space. If I do decide to purge a CD from the collection, I scrounge up a jewel case and send it to the thrift store. At that point, I also delete it from the computer- figure if the music is something I don't want anymore, it doesn't need to clutter up the computer either.

I'm glad we've kept them, especially once we compacted them and they don't take up much space. Most of our jewel cases showed signs of wear at that point, so it didn't bother me to toss those. I remember watching two big black garbage bags of jewel cases go out and realizing how much space and weight we'd saved by switching our storage system.

We have kept some of our favorite CD's. Got about 50 of them loaded into the house stereo, lol.
Some CD's have been given away to friends and family. A few of them were sold through a CD resale place. Some got donated to the local library- they have some for checkout, and others they sell through the sales they have twice a year.

Junk disks from when they used to mail out computer disks are the ones I've found difficult to be rid of- a lot of those have become bird scares in the yard, lol.

Sell them on Ebay! I done the same with my SEGA, CD, VHS cassette and cartridges and get few hundreds!

I've heard good things about Decluttr, which is a place you can sell your CDs easily. You scan in the codes from each one, they send a pre printed label. You use that to send in your items. After they receive them and check them over, they send you a check. I haven't used them because I put all my CDs in one of those folders years ago and didn't keep the booklets, but I have used a similar service for selling textbooks and it was a total no brainer and gave me way better prices than selling back to the university bookstore.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sell your CDs, DVDs

Selling them on eBay, one at a time or even 10 at a time, would drive me bonkers! Packaging, going to the post office, crossing my fingers that nothing goes missing or the intended recipient actually rec'd it, repeat, repeat. (I know you can insure the pkg and pay for a return-receipt, but I think I got scammed once even with a return-receipt.)

I would donate them to a library -- did that with VHS tapes (which went directly to the videotapes' table at the next book sale), but first I'd do an extra backup on a portable hard drive just to give me a little "insurance" to save me if my computer crashes. To a music lover, that would represent a lot of lost money.

Wow! Great ideas. I agree about freecycle and someone else taking the time to make a little money. I know the feeling I have is kind of selfish. The library donation might really be a better idea--the volunteers do the work and the library makes the profit. I'm sure collectors scour those sales. I also like the idea of taking them out of the jewel cases, making sure they are in my computer (I've done that already for most of them), but that goes against my instincts to separate the disc form the jewel case--wouldn't that make them less "valuable" when I'm dead and someone has to clean out the house? The idea that I like the best is deCluttr. I'm definitely going to check that out. The eBay things sounds like way too much work and worry for little return. So it's probably going to be decluttr or the library.

And what will you do if your computer crashes? Do you keep a backup of the harddrive, or will you be replacing all your music if that happens? Just a thought.

With some exceptions, CDs aren't worth very much these days. They've fallen out of favor, replaced by Mp3s. I sell stuff on eBay, and have sold some CDs, but most aren't worth bothering with.

Yes, donate! I would give them to my library, or to the animal shelter thrift shop, or to Salvation Army. Let one (or more) of them make some money on the CDs, and take a tax deduction for yourself.

I generally have found that it is hard to make much money off old music on CDs by trying to well them to a retailer. However, if you itemize taxes you can donate them to a charity and then take their used market value as a tax deduction. You will probably net more from the tax savings than selling them to a used music store. I agree that trying to sell them on eBay is a tough and time consuming slog for what you might realize in proceeds.

I have a 2T external backup hard drive, though I take it on faith that everything on my Mac are truly backed up there. But if I did have a non backed up crash and lost everything, it gets back to the fact that I hardly (if ever) have a desire to listen to most of it. This whole situation is such a justification and reason to get rid of them. I've noticed that there are "easy" things to declutter and once you get done with that you move to the more difficult. Truly, the rule of if you haven't used it for a year (or 10!) get rid of it is so true.

wouldn't that make them less "valuable" when I'm dead and someone has to clean out the house?

Really, do you care about their value?

The moral reason to keep them is the copyright reason: (if it's true--I couldn't find backup for this, and I don't want to pretend to be a lawyer)The concept behind it is this: By keeping a digital copy and selling the CD, you have created one extra copy of the music (even though you keep it on your computer) which will never give the artist any revenue.

If that's what you want to do, then you really don't need to worry about how much $ your heirs could sell them for. Or you could just box them up in their jewel cases and stuff them into the basement (if you had one); they'd take up more room there, but it would be less work. If I had elbow room in the basement, that's what I'd do. It would get them out of the high-traffic area with the least amount of effort, and keep that copyright thing off my conscience.

But by the time someone is going to clear out the house, you will have gotten all the value out of them anyone needs. These are investments.

Also--by the time that happens, CDs won't be the medium of choice anymore, and they won't have any antique value either.
One of my philosophies is, "I am not a museum; other people have entire jobs and BUILDINGS, the purpose of which is to hold on to things for posterity. I don't need to; they will."

I suppose there are a very few things that will become rare one day, but are important to -me- to leave behind for -my- family (my -personal- posterity), so those I hold. But most of the recordings I have? Nope; other people are preserving them.

This post was edited by talley_sue_nyc on Fri, Jan 9, 15 at 16:09

" I also like the idea of taking them out of the jewel cases, making sure they are in my computer (I've done that already for most of them), but that goes against my instincts to separate the disc form the jewel case--wouldn't that make them less "valuable" when I'm dead and someone has to clean out the house? "

When you die and someone has to clean out your house...
most of the time, that person has to take personal days and come in from out of town.
They rent a huge dumpster and throw the vast majority of your possessions into said dumpster. Quick and easy... then they return home with the scant few things they actually want.

It will not matter one whit if those CDs are in a jewel case or not.

Won't you need them again to load on a new pc? I don't have as many as you do, but I keep them all in case I need to load them again. I even hide them, my PC software and my movies. Electronic, DVDs and CDs are things burglars love.

No, you do not need them to load on a new PC, if you have a backup.
And no, CDs are not things burglars love, They want things they can resell... and that's not CDs!

luann has it correct...no burglar wants to steal your Barry Manilow. They want items that they can unload for a lot more than 10 cents apiece.

That is what our police said when they busted a big burglar ring here.

I auction off my unwanted CDs on Listia. I use the credits to get things i want ( gift cards, carrot seeds etc.) By the time ebay takes their chit and and paypal takes theirs there is not enough left to bother with. My old Jack Johnson CD is currently going for over 1000 credits on Listia. Go figure!

There's a whole lot more craft results from Google. Both for adults and kids.

I was burglarized about 6 months ago and I know he peeked into one of the boxes. Not interested! When burglars don't want your stuff that's a clue. Remember that commericial, I think it was for computers, the family comes home and the burglar had left their electronics. Time to upgrade! Ha ha.

Thanks for making me think of the copyright issue. Taking them out of the jewel cases, finding a very compact way to store them, and then stuffing them in the "way back" crawl space, seems like a very viable idea. I hadn't thought of the artist not getting any of the profit when someone buys their CD at a library sale.

Cleaning out my grandmother's house had a big impact on me. It's made me so conscious that I really don't want to trouble my heirs with the huge job of wading through junk they have no interest in and more hassle to sell than would be worth the trouble. I'm guessing there a lot of people who have come to decluttering in this way--what a good thing it is to do periodic big purges, aka decluttering. And isn't that such a liberating feeling to get rid of stuff!

Can anyone suggest a way to store the CD's without jewel boxes? And I guess then I just throw the jewel boxes away. Keep the the inserts with the CD's?

Google CD case and/or CD wallet.
Hundreds of options...

Initially I hadn't wanted to separate the jewel cases from the disk/literature either. Once it was done though, I love it and wouldn't keep disks any other way. There are a lot of choices on the market from binders (like I bought) and box types. The ones we chose will allow you to store the disk and the booklet together in the same slot. I also took the paper out of the back of the jewel case and kept all those together in a quart sized ziploc bag, which is over behind some books on one of the book shelves. A lot of our jewel cases broke when I was prying them apart, so straight into the trash. I also noticed a lot of other damage on most of them when prying them apart. The few that were in great shape, I sent to the thrift store.

If you'd like, I can try to post a link to Amazon and the type I bought. Mine have been like that for a few years and I do like the solution.

The other day DH was cleaning out some computer stuff and came across some cute little wooden boxes that are for storing CD's in jewel cases. He uses them to store small parts. I laughed and told him that someday someone is going to find those and say, "What the heck were those for?"

quasifish-- yes,please post a link to what you bought. thanks!

Please do NOT take all those plastic cases to the landfill!! They can be recycled. Here are some ideas for recycling. Just think about the waste and what you are doing to the environment by tossing them in the trash!

Here is a link that might be useful: Recycle CD's and cases

The one that allows you to store the disc and literature together sounds perfect. I hope you can find the link. I'll keep looking, but my local recycling resources don't take the jewel cases. I'm going to make some calls and hope I can find someplace. I'll have hundreds of them and don't like the idea of sending them to the landfill.

The link below is the type I've had for a few years now. If you look at the picture where they show the disk in the sleeve, the booklet will just slip right in with the disk. If you keep the booklets with the disks, you can't put quite as many in each- I put 10 pages/40 disks in each one and they look good.

The only downside I've found to them is that the pages sag slightly from weight, so when you pick them up, the edges shift out of the bottom a little bit- but if they are on the shelf 99.9% of the time, this is not a problem. It would only be an issue if you were transporting them around a lot, I think.

Here is a link that might be useful: Storage Binder

Janeway I can't find a place locally either...it will cost some $ to box them up and mail to the recyclers listed in my link above, but if everyone did that, it would save billions of them from going to the landfill. One place I read that Best Buy and Target stores might have a bin for recycling, but I haven't checked my stores yet.

"And what will you do if your computer crashes? Do you keep a backup of the harddrive, or will you be replacing all your music if that happens? Just a thought."

Anyone who has no backup plan is a fool.
There are too many options out there to leave yourself unprotected.

Near me, i have a place that buys and sells used LP's as well as CD's. Frankly, I'd keep some of my favorites, in case electronic storage goes south -- for instance, I don't seem to have any way to access my old iPod on a computer anymore!!! (It still plays -- it just doesn't connect to iTunes any more...) If you don't want to hassle with eBay, definitely try FreeCycle, if you don't have a local LP/CD buying/selling locale -- which would be my first choice.

Update: to be honest, I haven't gotten rid of any CD's except those it turned out I disliked after all. I do have about 150 of them, or so. Not worried.

I think what I'll end up doing is to go through them and the ones I really don't like. I'll donate to the library. There is no sense in keeping those that I really dislike. The ones I really like I'll take them out of jewel cases and put them in one of those cases and then store them away for my heirs to deal with. As I sort through, I'll check to make sure the ones I like are indeed on my computer.

Depending upon where you live, you might have a website and sell it on there. It's much safer than Craigs List.

Check with your local VA to see if they accept donations for our hospitalized veterans.

If you have any childrens cd's or vcr tapes give them to a local hospital. The children love to watch movies and older teenagers too if you have some that would be appropriate. The others I would give to an assisted living center or a hospital too.

Very good ideas that I had not thought of. I may have some children's and I'll check my DVDs. I don't have as many, but like the CDs, it's doubtful that I will watch them and will be the next to purge.

western_pa_luann's comment really hit home hard: "When you die and someone has to clean out your house...most of the time, that person has to take personal days and come in from out of town." This just happened to me 2 months ago. We were in my parent's town unexpectedly for a couple days & unexpectedly my mom died. Dad had to go to assisted living and DH & I had to use up all the vacation time we had available to go through stuff, sell some things, etc. I took only a handful of things as mementos. If you don't use it, get rid of it. If the music is on your computer, do a back up & you should be good to go.

What you've said really hits close to home. I just now put two (only 2) CD's in a case I got that holds hundreds. I put the liner notes is separate slots. It's only 2, but it's going to be a BIG job. I've got other projects going right now, so that's my excuse for not doing it all right now. I'll probably just do a few a day for now and in a couple hundred years I should be done! There's a good chance I'll just give up and give to the library. If not and they all get saved without the jewel cases they'll at least be easier for my heirs to dispose of. Sounds like you had a very big job and very little to walk away with sentimentally. After going through what you just did really teaches us that all our stuff is just stuff and we need to get rid of as much as possible so that we do not put our families through what you did.

Actually, I still listen to CD's. But I just ditched a bunch of cassettes, leaving behind a few that I know I still want to purchase as single songs or as CD's, just to remind me what they are, and what I wish to acquire. Those cassettes will shortly be ditched, too. I do have a problem with saving just via the Internet -- I can no longer get access to my I-Tunes account, so I'd rather to some degree rather be safe than sorry. My really old iPod works fine, but I had some PC crashes that disabled adding anything new.

No one mentioned Craigslist, if you have one that's an option. You don't want 50 people looking through buying one or two each, but you could sell a boxfull by genre (for example) for a price that would make you a couple bucks and would also be a good deal for a listener or for someone wanting to resell them online. Just a thought.

That sounds like the best possibility for the selling option. I'm midway through removing the disks from the jewel cases and putting them in CD wallet cases. I've been saving the liner notes, but they are too bulky to keep in the CD wallet cases with the CDs. When the job is done I'll see how much there is and figure out the proper storage. Any suggestions are very welcome!

I'm keeping my CD's -- the good ones. I don't trust electronic storage and I have no way of re-activating my iTunes account that I am aware of.

That is a really good reason to keep the "hard copy" of your good ones. Who knows where technology will go. Good news. All my CDs are now in two cases (about 800), all the jewel cases taking up room in a land fill (sorry, universe!) and the liner notes in two boxes. Those took up a surprisingly lot of room. I'll deal with them later. Overall, it was a big job, but I feel good about it. Now I need to get rid the of boxes I had them in. I'm sure someone will want them. Their the ones that snap together.

You have 800 in two cases and the notes separate. I have to think about that. I have put my CDs in cases but the liner notes are in the pocket next its respective CD. So in my case I'd have 800 CDs in four cases, the liner notes not separate. I like my system but I don't have as many CDs as you have.

We donated several shopping bags of CDs to one of the county 'free library' services. They also take VHS tapes, which surprised the heck out of us. I kept the CDs I wanted; I dislike MP3s as I find the fidelity lacking. I still have two bookcase shelves of LPs I'm not giving up, either - LOL!