Which music CDs have value
Which music CDs have value is a question the collector asks before buying or selling a disc, and the answer is that the value sits in the pressing, the edition, and the genre, and the small label scene on this site is the corner of the market that carries the world, folk, and jam records the collector looks for. A music CD is worth more than its shelf price when it was pressed in a small run, when it is an early or a limited edition, or when it is from a genre the collector pays a premium for. The 3 things that set the value are the pressing, the edition, and the genre, and they are the 3 things a buyer checks before paying more. This page gives the practical checklist for spotting the pressings, the editions, and the genres that collectors pay more for.
This is the checklist for the collector: it explains what makes a music CD valuable, names the pressings and the editions that carry the premium, and points at the genres the small label scene carries that the collector looks for.
What makes a music CD valuable
What makes a music CD valuable is the 3 things the buyer checks, the pressing, the edition, and the genre, and they are the same 3 for every disc on the shelf. The pressing is the run the disc was made in, and the smaller the run the more the collector pays, because the disc that was pressed for a few thousand is rarer than the one pressed for a million. The edition is the version of the disc, and the first pressing and the limited edition carry the premium over the reissue. The genre is the music on the disc, and the genres the collector pays a premium for are the ones the small label scene carries, the world, folk, and jam music that the major does not press in large runs. The 3 things are the value, and they are the checklist the buyer runs before paying more than the shelf price.
The pressings and the editions to look for
The pressings and the editions to look for are the versions of the disc that carry the premium, and they are the ones the collector identifies on the back of the box. The first pressing is the one the collector wants, because it is the first run and it is the one that goes out of print, and it is marked by the catalogue number and the year on the back. The limited edition is the one pressed for a small run, and it is marked by the limited number, the 1 to 1,000 of 500, or the special packaging, and it carries the premium over the standard pressing. The reissue is the one the collector does not pay a premium for, because it is a new run of a disc that is still available, and it is the one the small label scene presses to keep the out of print record in circulation. The 3 versions are the first, the limited, and the reissue, and the first and the limited are the ones that hold the value.
The genres the collector pays more for
The genres the collector pays more for are the ones the small label scene carries, and they are the genres that were pressed in small runs and are now out of print. The world music is one of them, because the world music CD was pressed in a small run in the 1990s and it is the genre the collector looks for on the shelf. The folk and the singer songwriter are the others, because the small label pressed them in a run of a few thousand and the collector pays for the first pressing of the artist's early record. The jam band live album is the third, because the live record was pressed for the fan and the collector pays for the rare live pressing of the long set. The 3 genres are the world, the folk, and the jam, and they are the genres the small label scene releases and distributes that the collector pays a premium for.
How to check a disc before you buy
How to check a disc before you buy is a 3 step check that runs in the order the value is set, and it is the check the buyer runs on the shelf. The first is the pressing, the buyer looks at the catalogue number and the year on the back to see if it is the first run. The second is the edition, the buyer looks for the limited number and the special packaging to see if it is the limited run. The third is the genre, the buyer looks at the music to see if it is one of the genres the collector pays for, the world, the folk, or the jam. The 3 steps are the check, and they are the same 3 things that set the value, the pressing, the edition, and the genre. The buyer who runs the check knows what the disc is worth, and the small label scene is the market that carries the discs the check is built for.