# Cheap Poorly Designed Wretched CD Jewel Cases!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 2, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898 "2000-08-02T21:16:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/1 "2000-08-02T21:16:10Z")
This must be the worst piece of modern design ever: The CD jewel case. I even LOOK at one sideways and it either cracks or the little arm snaps off. I am not sure I have an intact one in my entire CD collection. I realize you can buy new ones, fairly cheap, but COME ON these things have a half-life shorter than a flea’s orgasm. It’s ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Odieman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a87d85/32.png) [@Odieman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odieman)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/2 "2000-08-02T21:34:57Z")
What I like are the CD’s that are wrapped so tightly that you end up wreaking the case getting it out of the cellophane, which is stronger than the actual case. I don’t think any of those idiots who use them have actually tried to open the damn things. keith ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/3 "2000-08-02T21:51:49Z")
If you want cheap (read: free) replacements, check with local radio stations, especially college radio. When I worked in college radio, we didn’t have space in the record library to keep CDs in jewel cases, so we transferred them to little plastic sleeves. We threw those suckers away by the dozens. ---
**Author:** ![Satan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Satan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satan)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/4 "2000-08-03T03:07:38Z")
The advantage of working for a record company - More jewel cases than a man could ever need for free! 😃 * * * Yer pal, Satan [sub]TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING: Three months, three weeks, four days, 1 hour, 3 minutes and 57 seconds. 4641 cigarettes not smoked, saving $580.22. Life saved: 2 weeks, 2 days, 2 hours, 45 minutes.[/sub] **_"Satan is not an unattractive person."_-Drain Bead** [sub]Thanks for the ringing endoresement, honey!\*[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/5 "2000-08-03T03:23:07Z")
The stupid little things were designed twenty years ago. At that time it was obvious that the design was terribly flawed. Do they scrap the mold and start over? No, they spend piles of money on new molds. Customers the world over get pissed whenever they use the product, but the only option presented the consumer is miniature cardboard LP covers. Which are fine to use, but lack the “feeling of quality” of the jewel case. The record companies need something to justify charging eighteen bucks for the latest N’Sync CD. Jump to when the first generation of molds wears out. An engineer sees this as an opportunity to redesign the product so the customers aren’t pissed off anymore. Does management approve an upgrade? No; they are perfectly happy with what they have. The old molds for the clear part get reordered. What pisses me off is that the other half of the clamshell has been steadily modified and improved. It’s the flimsy clear part that is completely interchangeable with the original. No effort has been made to buttress the arms. The arms are still made of clear styrene, the most brittle substance on Earth. And we haven’t even gotten to how they can only be opened one way, and you need two functioning hands to do it. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a lawsuit under the ADA. When I have my inevitable stroke I think I’ll file it. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/6 "2000-08-03T14:11:10Z")
And the trouble with those little cardboard replacement covers is, What the hell do you do with the booklet? Most of my CDS, the jazz and classical ones anyhow, come with little booklets stuffed with information on the music. We won’t get into the fact that they’re printed one-eighth the size of the old LP jackets. As I get older and more decrepit and my eyesight deteriorates, I can foresee a huge magnifying glass sitting next to the stereo. Two days after I bought the Dylan 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert a friend was looking at the art and dropped the jewel case onto the kitchen floor with a tremendous crash. Now I can’t open the fucking case up (into two pieces) without reliving that day, and feeling a rush of irritation with the friend… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/7 "2000-08-03T15:09:08Z")
Yeah, free replacements are easy to come by, but a tremendous amount of plastic is being wasted. Why produce something that is bound to break in normal use? Our landfills are overflowing with poorly designed cheap/free crap. Also, the jewel cases take up a lot of space on the shelf–way more than is needed for the skinny CD and any booklet it might come with. I could transfer my collection to some other kind of storage, but there are two problems with that. First, there is usually no place to put the booklet, as Uke mentioned. Second, half the CDs these days have no identifying info on the CD itself, so unless it is in its case, you have no clue what it is. Besides, if I buy a CD, it is not unreasonable to expect it to come in an appropriate storage container. I don’t want to have to shell out more money just to get some storage that doesn’t suck. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/8 "2000-08-03T16:34:39Z")
I transferred my entire CD collection to clear flexible plastic sleeves that hold the CD + booklet; some even hold 2 CDs + booklet(s). (The only problem is they don’t hold the “tray card,” that paper sheet sealed in the back of the jewel box; I pry open the back, pluck out the tray card and store it separately.) This system allows me to keep my entire collection in six 5 1/4" floppy-disk boxes Several manufacturers make the sleeves. After extensive research, I went with the ones known as CD Viewpaks manufactured by Univenture of Dublin, OH. They probably have a website, but I don’t know it. Phone: 614/761-2669. They have a whole line of CD storage products. Hope it helps! ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/9 "2000-08-03T17:21:04Z")
[hijack] Hey, **Satan**! You work for a “record” (they’re still called that?) company? What do you do for them? You’re intelligent and articulate, so you’re obviously not in management. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Spider](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Spider](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spider)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/10 "2000-08-03T20:41:32Z")
The won’t change the mold b/c of the record stores. I remember when CD’s came in those giant fucking Plastic things you literally had to do battle with to find a Cd in there. I was told they did that to make the CD’s harder to shoplift. But when they made the switch to selling CD’s in just jewel cases alone, lots of stores got pissed b/c they had to redesign their shelving systems entirely, blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/11 "2000-08-03T21:21:34Z")
You can easily make an improved jewel case designed to match the old one in every way, except it wouldn’t break so easily. No need to make it bigger; just make it better. ---
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2000, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/12 "2000-08-03T23:40:23Z")
1. Remove wretched shrink wrap: 2. Remove the even more wretched tape on the edge of the case: Thanks to 'lil Sis (cellgal) for showing me these tricks. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2000, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cheap-poorly-designed-wretched-cd-jewel-cases/27898/13 "2000-08-04T17:38:55Z")
**Oblio** , in my quality classes these would be called fixes, not solutions. But, since none of us is in a position to implement a solution, they’ll have to do. Thanks.