Music buying mania (metal or otherwise)

I try to limit how much I spend on music a month. I usually fail miserably. I've gone cold turkey in the past, since once I start buying, the floodgates open. That sux though. I can't seem to hit the happy medium: "all things in moderation, blah blah blah."

How about you?

I spent so many years buying very little music and even selling a lot of mine off (between 2002 and 2007) that recently (last year and a half or so) I've been buying a lot. I've hardly gone a week without getting at least 1 CD.

I'll make bi-weekly trips to the used places, when I buy groceries once a week I end up in Walmart's depleting CD section and get something (usually cheap catalog fillers...but I've found some good stuff there...$5, $7, $9 usually), I've been selling off some magazines on Ebay and using that money to buy CDs with...

Today, I am cashing in my change jar at lunch to pick up a used MINT condition copy of Dio At Donington complete with passes for $8 that I found yesterday...

I'm re-addicted...

Every time I decide to stop buying some crazy sale comes along to stop that nonsense. Its like all I have to do is think about a buying freeze and the sales/finds will come. I do hold pretty strong to my music budget each month. The one area I've cut back is not feeling the need to buy every dollar disc that I think I may even remotely like. Saves a lot of money and space by stopping those bulk purchases.

I go in waves. RIght after the holidays, I usually go on a spending jag with giftcards and whatnot, so tons of music comes pouring in. Then I get so much new music that I hold off for awhile till this new stuff settles in.

I try selling off stuff on ebay so I'm not constantly putting purchases on the credit card. I do ok that way without going over budget. And I buy very little brand new. I shop used whenever possible. If I am buying new (or used for that matter), I rarely go over $10 bucks for a single cd.

Yea, I probably should just sell some stuff to offset the cost and not worry about it. Sounds like a workable solution.

I used to gets lots of promos and free stuff from work that I could turn around and sell on ebay. It justified my spending because I got the item for free anyway, but even that stuff is drying up.

The music companies rarely send us promo cd's anymore and the teams don't hand out bobble-heads and other knick-knacks like they used to. Most of my ebay sales are coming from used cd's that I'm thinning out of my personal collection and baby items that my kids grew out of.

I get a ton of stuff from a coworker of mine to sell. Then I give him a cut. I've been doing that for about 6 years now...but I've slowed down, because I've been afraid the IRS is going to look at it like it's a business. He's been pretty good at supplying "product." He's way more of a compulsive cd buyer than I am. Hardly any metal though, mostly hipster indie rock.

I buy CD's and music DVD's at least once a month but I stay strictly within my budget, also I am running out of room for all the music and DVD's I own

Quote :

The music companies rarely send us promo cd's anymore

As a reviewer, I hate it too...it's all going to iPool now...sucks. I used to do a LOT of trading back in the day when I got 7 or 8 promos every couple weeks...I'd review it then trade it off if I didn't like it...now you have to ask for a physical CD if you want one and even then the labels only have a single-digit number of those to give out (if any)...first come first serve.

what's everyone's budget?

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Quote :

The music companies rarely send us promo cd's anymore

As a reviewer, I hate it too...it's all going to iPool now...sucks. I used to do a LOT of trading back in the day when I got 7 or 8 promos every couple weeks...I'd review it then trade it off if I didn't like it...now you have to ask for a physical CD if you want one and even then the labels only have a single-digit number of those to give out (if any)...first come first serve.

Yup. They mostly direct us to a website with a code where we can download new music. I'm not privy to that part, just the boss. It sucks, cause we used to get boxes of stuff sent to us monthly. And the bobblehead thing was awesome. The teams would get them and give the employees a few. They always went for crazy money on ebay and aside from shipping costs it was all profit.

Now they are having a hard time to find sponsors to off-set the manufacturing cost, so they rarely do them anymore. During the playoffs, the hockey team handed out t-shirts on a nightly basis which I could sell, but they don't go for nearly as much as stupid bobbleheads. Still, if I got $20 bucks for a free t-shirt, that's 3 or 4 new cd's for me.

I have to stick to a budget now but I usually buy 4-5 cd's a month anymore. I shop deals pretty hard and have limits to what I will spend.

Sinistar wrote:

what's everyone's budget?

I don't really have a set number. I just know when enough is enough and other bills need to get paid.

I'm an addict. I know it and I accept it as part of who I am. I'll always be interested in hearing and buying new metal music (and great older metal that slipped under the radar). The internet makes it so easy nowadays.

Quote :

The internet makes it so easy nowadays.

Too easy. That's part of my problem.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Quote :

The internet makes it so easy nowadays.

Too easy. That's part of my problem.

x10

I need to stay off amazon. (yea right)

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Sinistar wrote:

what's everyone's budget?

I don't really have a set number. I just know when enough is enough and other bills need to get paid.

Me too...

i buy what i want, when i want. i've never gotten so carried away that i needed to budget myself.

Sinistar wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Quote :

The internet makes it so easy nowadays.

Too easy. That's part of my problem.

x10

I need to stay off amazon. (yea right)

Seriously!

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Today, I am cashing in my change jar at lunch to pick up a used MINT condition copy of Dio At Donington complete with passes for $8 that I found yesterday...

I'm re-addicted...

Snagged it...and it's awesome.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Today, I am cashing in my change jar at lunch to pick up a used MINT condition copy of Dio At Donington complete with passes for $8 that I found yesterday...

I'm re-addicted...

Snagged it...and it's awesome.

Good for you.

Snagged a coupla goodies myself today.

I can not buy like before because i have hardly no space anymore, its really getting a problem. I am looking for some cds in my coleccion that i am going to sell.

I have some Pop-type CDs I would not mind selling off...but I doubt anyone would want them...LOL!

I try to limit myself. Sometimes it works, alot of times it doesn't.

I had stopped buying for a couple of years but since joining HoM at the end of Aug. I have started up again. You guys keep turning me on to music that I simply must have. Dang it!