Another Sign That the CD Isn't What It Used to Be

There was a time when I needed a hard-to-find disc, I'd go straight to Amazon.com and almost never, ever fail to get what I wanted.  The record for delivery was 26 hours:  ordered at 9am one more, in the mailbox by 11am the next day.  Brilliant.

I bought many dozens of CDs through Amazon.  it was just so much more convenient that shopping and/or ordering through my usual series of record stores.  But then along came iTunes and--well, let's just say that it's been a long time since I ordered any kind of CD through the mail.

Now Amazon would like to give customers credit for their old CDs.  In other words, they're getting into the used CD business.  From Digital Trends:

Announced by Amazon earlier today, the Trade-In Program has been expanded to include compact discs.The popular program allows Amazon users to send in old video games, books, Blu-ray and DVD movies as well as a variety of electronics to trade in for Amazon store credit. If an item meets Amazon’s criteria for acceptance, the user prints a shipping label provided by Amazon and sends the item. After receiving the item and passing an inspection process, Amazon adds the store credit to the user’s account automatically. Store credit isn’t limited to the trade-in category and the user can spend the store credit on any item sold through the online retailer.

But before you start figuring out what CDs to trade in, read the rest of this article.  Chances are you'll be hanging on to a lot of those box sets.