Much cash lies within your jewel cases

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Every college student has to have some way to get cash fast. They can sell blood, pawn their roommate’s VCR, buy the freshman beer or sell CDs. I’ve found that since you can’t sell blood in Mount Pleasant and the pawn shop in town is a little shady, the best bet is selling your CDs.
When I first arrived here at CMU in 1995 (which is a whole other story), I had a CD collection in the hundreds; five years later, my collection is in the low fifties. This is due to the fact that when you are a poor college student, CDs often translate into cash, forcing you sell both “Use Your Illusions” and taking that road trip to New Your City.
Thanks to stores like New Moon Records, I have been able to ride waterslides, buy Tech Vests, add flex dollars to my CHIP card, eat meals, and most importantly, pay bills that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford, because they have so graciously given me cash for my CDs. I also think it’s safe to say that at least 22 percent of the student population owns a CD of mine that I have sold to New Moon.
I have the art of selling CDs down to a science – three CDs equals a meal at La Senorita, five is a full tank of gas with a bag of chips and eight usually pays the cable bill (without Cinemax). It sounds simple; just grab the appropriate number and sell them, but it’s not – you have to select the proper CDs.
The selection process is not an easy one. Oftentimes you have to stop and examine your collection and admit that you haven’t listened to that Smiths CD your ex- bought you in years.
A lot of self-examination needs to take place when deciding to sell a CD. Sometimes it’s painful to admit, but you know you only bought that new Fugazi disc for the street cred, while in reality you don’t even know who Ian MacKaye is.
Once you have been selling often enough, you begin to develop a system – while most people organize their CDs alphabetically or by genre, I arrange mine in three simple categories: a keeper, on the bubble and sell. A keeper is a limited edition disc or something so classic that I could never sell in a million years, like the “Swingers” soundtrack. A disc on the bubble is caught between the keepers and the sellers; it’s usually a disc that I am paying a lot of attention to but could get sick of rather quickly. Like The Promise Ring’s “Nothing Feels Good.” And a seller is an impulse buy or a free promo disc that you got but have never listened to, like Christina Aguilera’s self-titled debut/disgrace.
The same contingent who organizes their CDs alphabetically is often the same group who takes the hardline stance of not selling their CDs ever. They call themselves “collectors” and pride themselves on their collection of approximately 362 (they always know the exact number) discs.
They argue that twenty years from now they are going to want to listen to that Verve Pipe album again, so why sell it? CDs are like shoes – once you wear them out or the trend is over, you get rid of them. And although it hurts sometimes to get rid of them, in the long run they’re just taking up space.
Currently, I am replenishing my supply, being that all I have left is keepers. College has changed the way I look at a lot of things, especially the way I look at CDs. When I see a CD, I don’t see hours of listening enjoyment, I see three to four dollars.