I live in Chicago and we used to have so many used CD stores. I loved them.
Around the area of Belmont and Clark there used to be 8 used CD stores in a three block radius.
Now in that area there is only one CD store and another one slightly further away.
I know online shopping and downloads killed them but I do miss them. I loved the 99¢ bin. And three of the stores would have a half price day. So I’d get these for only 50¢. (There always seemed to be 50 copies of Amy Grant’s “Heart In Motion” CD in that stack)
Yeah 99% of them were garbage, but it was a deal right? (Makes me wonder how they ever got a contract to get a CD made in the first place)
But now with eBay and Amazon you can’t get the 1¢ CD 'cause with shipping etc, it’s always at least $3.00
Not only used stores, but regular music store chains have disappeared as well – Sam Goody, The Wherehouse, even Tower Records are all gone. In the San Fernando Valley, there’s only two used CD stores remaining on Ventura Blvd (including Second Spin, which is mainly an online store now); there’s a third in Granada Hills, but I haven’t been there in years, so it may be out of business by now, too.
I shop at Zia here in Las Vegas now that Tower Records is gone. Great used selection, excellent staff, and a well-maintained store. New CDs/DVDs/BRDVDs cost me maybe a dollar more than amazon.com, but I don’t have to pay shipping, don’t have to wait, and I’m supporting a store & employees that I like. Win-win IMO.
One near me just doubled in size and their DVD section is now immense. I think it might be the result of one or more other stores of that brand (Disc Replay) that closed, though, so they took on extra inventory. I can think of one other one that must have closed in the last couple of years.
You probably already know this Markxxx, but there are two on Broadway (Reckless Records and some other pretty small one) just south of Belmont. Those are probably the two you are talking about, but just in case, though I’d mention them!
Half Price Books, which is a local (but growing) used book store, also sells CDs, DVDs, and computer programs. So check your local used book store. I always hit the clearance aisle first, there’s nothing quite like buying a book for a buck to make me happy.
The only complaint I have about HPB is that they offer too much, and I can’t keep up with them.
Most of the used-CD stores around me, if they survived, have essentially become used-DVD-and-video-game stores, with a counter or two of CDs off in the corner. A few local used-teen-clothing-and-CDs stores dropped the clothing, shrank the CD selection, and brought in DVDs and games as well.
Most of the stores that sold both new and used music have gone away. A few specialty stores specializing in rap/urban or Hispanic survive (seemingly by under-the-counter sale of mix tapes, though the police occasionally shut down individual stores in high-profile busts over copyright violations); the venerable local Karma Records chain (new and used music/head shop), which had dozens of locations through the 1990s, has only one store hanging in there now; the Tracks Music chain, which expanded quickly in the late 1980s/early 1990s on the used CD business, carrying new CDs seemingly as a sideline, shrank just as quickly in the late 1990s, and was gone completely a few years ago.
Half-Price Books, mentioned above, isn’t just a regional Texas chain; they’ve been in Indiana for about 25 years, and according to their website they’re in 15 states overall. Their focus is obviously on books, but they do sell CDs and whatever other media locals sell to them. (My local store regularly has CEDs and LDs!) I find their CD selection is more heavily skewed to adult contemporary than used-CD-only stores; I guess rockers don’t think of selling their stuff to book stores.
Around here, it’s easier to find used CD shops than it is to find new CD shops.
Tower and Virgin are gone, but Rasputin, Streetlight and Amoeba are still going strong. Out where I live, Rasputin just moved a few blocks over into a larger space that used to be a Tower. All three of these also sell new CDs along with the used, but you have to go to something like Best Buy or Wal Mart to find a place that only sells new.
Just as CDs killed off the concept of “B-Sides” and album covers as an art form, downloaded MP3s are making strong advances against CDs. They may not die as hard a death as Edison cylinders, but CDs are starting to slide away.
(Makes me wonder how they ever got a contract to get a CD made in the first place)