Does your Used CD Shop give you an iPad

Does your Used CD Shop give you an iPad for your Collection?

Do you know that there is such a thing as a used CD shop? You probably have considered taking your CD collection out to them for some spare cash; and you would have too, if only they weren't so cheap for what they give you for your precious music. There really is no point hanging onto CDs anymore some say; they just take up too much room. And how do you listen to them through the course of the day - carry a fat Discman with you when you could compress it all down to a sliver of an iPod? Speaking of iPods, here's a grand alternative to the used CD shop - a company called iPodMeister, whose business model is so attractive, you could be forgiven for wondering if it was a scam.

Here's the deal then - let's say you have your eye on a shiny new Apple product - an iPod or one of those iPads that everyone keeps dreaming about these days. If you can't come up with the asking price on your own and you'd need a little help, all you need to do is to barter your shoe boxes full of CDs that you last heard in the last millennium, for the Apple device of your choice. The iPodMeister idea was the brainchild of a bunch of struggling musicians. They found out that people in poorer countries couldn't really afford to buy CDs at the prices they sold for; and they would really appreciate it if they could get their hands on some great classics on the cheap. They found out that all they had to do was first sidetrack a little of your business with the standard used CD shop down the street, take up your collection themselves and sell them overseas. They made a tidy profit, much better than anything their music ever put their way. Before you try the ransack your collection for that elusive iPad though, you do need to know that they have some pretty tight eligibility criteria.

They aren't very particular what CDs you have (unless they are one penny CDs or foreign language stuff), but they do need to know that you have the CD in its original box, with its original liner notes. And oh, it can't be a copy. They'll take DVDs as well, but they are really particular that there be no serious scratches. So how much do you have to dig around in your collection to make that shiny new Apple device you want? They certainly don't do business on very favorable terms - depending on the model of apple device you want, you'll need to put down anything between 600 to 1000 CDs or DVDs, to get an iPad. If you want to rip your music before you send everything in, just in case you change your mind about listening to that old Duke Ellington CD for the 10,000th time, they'll rip the whole set for you, if you'll give them an extra 200 CDs. This actually works out to be a better deal than going to the used CD shop. However, if you would list your swag over at eBay, you could probably do ten times better.