This subject occurred to me this afternoon, and despite it seeming fairly simple in nature, it took me a couple of months to work this out and I figured this might be of interest to net-savvy consumers doing their research. If you have any thoughts on this subject, feel free to throw them in.

It didn’t take long at all for me to discover the $10 CD stores on Pitt St mall after I moved to Sydney, and they struck me as a pot-luck goldmine. Certainly, they started something: if I needed any encouragement in starting an addiction to purchasing CDs en masse (which I probably didn’t), this probably gave me a bit of a boot into a (controlled) habit of doing spending sprees on discs.

Interruption/Disclaimer: There are plenty of things to spend your hard-earned cash on than CDs which have much longer lasting effects, and going out on a limb with exhorbitant expenditure on music is not recommended. Sorry, I just suddenly felt responsible about nudging anyone into a rabid buying frenzy of music. I’m conscious it’s all too easy to do, for myself anyway.

Initially, I was pretty skeptical. I wandered into Dirt Cheap wondering what the catch was – it didn’t take me long to reason, however, that the fact that they were an established shopfront in the Sydney CBD and didn’t strike me as a here-one-day-gone-the-next type of establishment, from which I decided they were pretty legitimate in nature. I started buying a fair bit of stuff – mostly items from the ‘always-meant-to-but-never-got-around-to-it’ department.

Some truly treasured items, however, I held back on getting from there and its sibling Rock Bottom CDs. I wasn’t entirely sure why, but in the end I was glad I didn’t. You may not be so bothered, and that’s cool… this article purely exists for the purposes of information.

So what’s the go?

Are they really OK? What am I buying? What are the effects? Is there a catch?

This article may be ammended as contributions are made, but here are my observations to date:

• The discs typically come from overseas
  Look carefully and you’ll probably see that most of the copyright notices in the artwork are in a foreign language. That means that a cheap load has been pulled in from elsewhere for resale.
  What does that mean? Mostly physical differences in the product: expect some changes in the artwork – I’ve noticed printing is sometimes poor quality and is almost always on stock glossy paper. For items with special packaging, you might miss out on some of the distinguishing features that make the booklets and CD mounts interesting. I’m a sucker for having music you can hold in your hand, so I kind of dig nice presentation.
• If not overseas, they’re probably overstocked items from distributors.
  These come from Australia but are sold typically for two reasons: a glut in supply (item not as popular as anticipated, or just had a quick decline in interest) or, much more importantly, there’s a new release of the same title coming soon.
  What does that mean? That’s cool: there might be some genuine bargains here, but watch your rumour sites closely! If you buy an older edition you may be missing out on a remaster or a special edition. I’d certainly prefer to have improved sound quality, especially seeing some of the masters on early CDs were pretty average. So if you want to pick up The Who’s back catalogue, you might like to make sure you’re not getting a first generation master.
• Are you keeping an eye on the whole music scene?
  These guys stock primarily mainstream content.
  What does that mean? Just a basic warning. I don’t know about you, but I enjoy ensuring I keep a bit of an eye to what’s happening outside of the public radar, and buying at these stores for a little while had new, less popular acts disappearing from my view. This may not bother you too much – your mileage may vary.
• They have these crazy RFID security tags…
  OK OK, this is a gripe but it kind of irritates me – especially with digipaks!! On plastic cases, you might have some luck removing the (indestructable) adhesive labels with WD-40 – try rubbing a bit with a tissue and see if it comes off. But they’re certainly ugly and look a touch cheap. On cardboard, no fun for you.

I skim read all that. So are they really legal?

Yes. They’re typically legit pressings from distributors, though not always as good as a local copy. Many perfectly good bargains can be found there however, and it’s worth the occasional scrounge.

(For those wondering, I do all my shopping at JB Hi-Fi)

OK, I think that’s all I’ll cover for the time being. Chances are you may not be worried about any of these things – but I hope you enjoyed the read in the interests of knowing what you’re getting.

Happy listening!