Used Cd's

Working in a record store as I do, there are interesting things you notice when it comes to used stock. Where I work, a heavy portion of our revenue comes from the sale of used CD's. People who don't shop at used record/CD stores will often tend to think that because we sell primarily used CD's, that the titles are probably mostly bad, or else why would people return them in the first place? First off, in a day & age where everyone is going digital and finding less use for their now impossibly huge compact discs, it should be common sense that used retailers are being filled daily with great titles, as these CDs are obviously useless to so many (I of course don't fall into this category as I take great pride in my CD collection). Secondly, and more importantly since this has been true way before the digital age - there is a common misconception about the albums we have numerous copies of - that they're bad albums that no one likes. We don't have 5 billion copies of Jagged Little Pill because that album sucked. We have 5 billion copies because everybody and their uncle bought it. Pump by Aerosmith - is it a good album? I don't know, but it sure sold a lot. Because they sell a lot initially, more people are obviously buying them. Some of these extra people aren't necessarily music fanatics, hence, after a while it's not really important for them to hold onto these albums any more than they would hold onto their snap bracelets or Air Jordans. This is why the turnaround is so big on albums like Tragic Kingdom and Automatic For The People - they had great singles and they sold.

There are of course albums that were the followup to huge sellers that sold well and dissapointed fans (Oasis's Be Here Now, Sinead O'Connor's Am I Not Your Girl?), but the huge albums that preceded them usually equal their amount ((What's The Story) Morning Glory?, I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got respectively).