I have stopped myself from buying further CD’s. They were just piling up in the basement and I rarely listened to them in the car, which was why I was buying copies of CD’s I already had the digital files for.

I remember running across a CD of “Rush – Caress of Steel” and being so stoked. Perfect for the car! I exclaimed. I listened to it a few times and then it went to the basement. I have listened to it probably 10 times since from my external hard drive and off of my phone in the car since that time.

I simply am not using them anymore.

I know I am way behind the curve of folks dumping their CD’s, but the collector in me was having a hard time letting go. I finally got there though.

One day I brought up both boxes of CD’s I had accumulated over the years and I took a good hard inventory of what I really really needed to keep. There were some odds and ends, but really it was just my late 80’s and early 90’s era stuff like Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, Smashing Pumpkins, Jane’s Addiction and Nirvana.

All the rest I felt like my digital copies were good enough. So reboxed them and took them out into the world to try to sell them.

What followed was a dismal disappointment.

Of the 3 best option places I went to sell them I only sold about 10 out of the couple hundred I had. That’s what happens when you are behind the curve I guess.

I drove them around in my car for a week or so, not really knowing what to do with them, then brought them in to work and gave my team a go at them. Even they only picked a scant few.

They ended up on the break room table.

FREE TO GOOD HOME

After a week or so, the pile did dwindle. I was heartened to see that.

So, the question is now, to my future self… will I regret this?!

Just like way back in the day when CD’s came out I sold all of my albums to get cash to buy CD’s, and now albums are back in a big way, will there come a time when all these CD’s are gonna get hot again?

Will there come a time when my Rolling Stones CD will be considered an original press (burn?) and suddenly be worth big bucks? Will I mourn the loss of my Cure CD singles? My Chemlab CD’s?…

I don’t know that digital versions will ever make that kind of comeback in the future. That is the blessing and curse of digital. It’s a copy of a copy of a copy of a…

My analog stuff if far more precious to me, maybe because it’s fragile. Your scratched record is shot, you can’t burn another one… and if your tape player eats your tape it’s likely dead. So you protect them, you clean them and you cherish them. They are not stuck over your visor or in a pile in the console of your car getting scuffed but you don’t care because they are so easily replaced.

So I released the CD’s into the world to other music lovers where I work. It seemed the most karma-esque thing to do. Whatever is left on Monday next week I will gather and take to Goodwill so THEY can sell them to people like I WAS and make some money.

There were about 30-40 left, now donated. Sigh.

I recognize that this whole effort has been a gamble of sorts. In 25 years if suddenly there is a resurgence of the CD, then I will probably regret this whole thing, but, I maintain that you can’t keep everything forever and I think with the info I have at hand I made a sound decision. No pun intended.

If it’s me reading this that 25 years in the future and I do the whole face palm thing as I read this in anguish over getting rid of all of them…

then I apologize to my future self.

Sorry dude.