Rupert Jones in today’s Guardian has a note about Music Magpie, a site where you can sell old CDs, games, and now DVDs. The site calls itself an “online CD recycling service.” I like CDs, so I took a look.
The service is a commercial operation and as far as I can tell isn’t any different in principle from any other online secondhand retailer – I guess they all ought to get some green cred by calling themselves recycling services.
So how does Music Magpie compare to others like, say, Amazon or eBay? Let’s look at it first as a buyer. I love the Cowboy Junkies, so I did a search. I can get their great CD The Trinity Session for £3.99. Amazon has this new from £5.98, or used from £3.91. What about postage costs? At Amazon it is currently £1.21. I can’t so far discover what Music Magpie charges, or whether it is included. The terms and conditions say:
9.2. These prices include VAT but exclude delivery costs, which are detailed on the website.
However I can’t find them detailed anywhere. Maybe it is included after all, but you would have thought this would be flagged as a selling point. So it could be more than Amazon, or less, depending on this point; it appears to be in the same ball park. However, Amazon has a vastly greater stock available and nice features like customer reviews.
OK, how about as the seller? If I decide to sell my Cowboy Junkies CD, Music Magpie will currently offer me 98p (the price varies according to the CD, and can be as low as 25p). There’s no postage cost to the seller; the company sends out a freepost envelope.
There are some alarming terms and conditions. If Music Magpie decides one of your CDs needs refurbishment (polishing), it deducts up to 50p. If it decides it is unacceptable, it neither buys nor returns it. There is no appeal.
Now Amazon. If I sell Trinity Session for the current lowest price of £3.91, Amazon will grab £1.82 in fees (including VAT) but contribute £1.21 for postage. That means I get £3.30. If the postage actually costs that much (it could well work out less), I still get £2.09 net, more than double what Music Magpie offers.
Listing an item on Amazon is not much more difficult than selling to Music Magpie – just type in the barcode and go. The big difference is that with Amazon you have to sit back and wait for a buyer. With Music Magpie I get the money instantly. Another difference is that with Music Magpie I can parcel a bunch of CDs once and send them off. With Amazon, you have to deal with each customer individually.
My immediate impression is that Music Magpie scores well on convenience, but if you need the money and have a little patience you would be much better off with Amazon.
Now, here’s an interesting remark on the Music Magpie site:
We originally launched musicmagpie as an easy way for everyone to turn their old CDs into cash so that they did not have to be thrown away if they had decided to go digital. This proved to be a massive success with thousands of people using musicmagpie as a fast and efficient way to turn CDs into money.
Well, CDs are digital; but I’m guessing that Music Magpie is referring to people who have ripped their CDs to a computer for streaming, or for an iPod, or another MP3 player. Here’s a can of worms though. I’ve heard it argued that even ripping your own CDs is illegal, though it seems a reasonable thing to do. Ripping your CDs and then selling them though – intuitively that seems wrong. Arguably, Music Magpie by its own admission is dealing in stolen music.
Still, I do see the other side of this too. You’ve ripped all your CDs, you no longer need them, you are short of space: isn’t it better to move them on?
When people moved from vinyl to CD they had no choice but to purchase again. In the case of CD to music files though, you can migrate without re-buying. That’s a headache for the music industry.
Personally I hang on to them anyway, as a kind of license and physical backup, and just in case I might want to read the sleeve notes again one day.
Note: Comments to this post are now closed.
Just going back to Musicmagpie for my third sale, and used google to find it – found this site on the listings, and all the comments. Very interesting. Have had absolutely zero problems with them whatsoever, with money being sent back to me in good time, and definitely beats the uncertainty of auction sites – you make the decision on price there and then.
To be honest, they did knock a bit of cash off one order, but after checking, found that I hadn’t sent the discs in the first place – they were still rattling round the car!
As for the deprecation in price that some people are complaining about – have a look at the second hand market – you can buy last years chart CD for pence now, so I am not naive enough to think that I deserve a similar price to what I paid for it.
Great site, great service.
I never use Musicmagpie for games – theres better options –
http://Www.tradeyourgames.co.uk
offer much better cash prices and Ive been paid very quickly by paypal too.
Sorry Johnny but I totally disagree with your point of view (although it’s only a very short review)
I tried using tradeyourgames.co.uk for a few games recently and basically they could not offer me anything for them. OK maybe they were a little old (Some were six months or more) so they were not the top sellers but I found that going to http://www.musicmagpie.co.uk they were at least able to offer me something.
I’ve used musicmagpie.co.uk about three times now and the site just keeps getting better. They have recently changed the look and feel of the site so it’s a bit easier to navigate and you are now able to log in to see where your stuff is.
To be honest tradeyourgames say they are able to offer money for thousands of old games but in reality its only the most recent ones and I’m not getting rid of Call of Duty just yet !!!!!
If you are looking to sell or buy audio, be it CD or vinyl, Discogs is the wise choice.
I think your going to get a better price for CDs on ebay. ok, it’s a lot of work listing them individually, but you’ll probably get more money for selling a few on ebay than you would selling all of them to MusicMagpie.
Afterall MusicMagpie have got overheads and as a business they need to make a profit.
-Pete
what a grat bit of help I shall defanantly wont be going to them thanks guys
used music magpie a few times now, never had any problems, and have recommended them to friends who have also found it hassle free
I used them, great service, and received over £55 for a load of old CD’s that were no use to me and on my itunes anyway! 10/10
Pete , CDs don’t sell well on ebay. Most don’t sell at all and have to be re-listed over and over again. Believe me , I’ve tried.
And the cost of postage knocks a fair bit off anything you make as there are so many sellers now doing free p & p.
Ebay has had its day as far as making money from CDs and DVDs is concerned.
MUSIC MAGPIE ARE A RIP OFF!!!!!! any good comments on here are by con artest music magpie employees who are fighting to save there con of a company from going under!! they NEVER KEEP THERE WORD payments are ALWAYS LATE they have not got better only worse please please dont fall for this scam STAY AWAY FROM MUSIC MAGPIE!!!!!!
about rob’s reveiw (number 79) what aload of rubbish!! CEX give a very good price for any game,cd or dvd much much more then music magpie give plus when you google cex the 1st words you see are not RIP OFF,i used music magpie once and i lost over £50 compared to what cex offer plus with cex they keep there word and you get your money very quick something that never happens with music magpie
I have read all the reveiws on here ( including the 1 from blue boy) and i can tell you music magpie are a very bad company and after using them and waiting over a month for my money can say they are bad,also rob reveiw number 79, there is a company called CEX google there name your see that the words rip off dont apper by there name,they offer very good price for cd’s,dvds and games on any console new or old,and they pay much more then music magpie and they have stores in most towns as well as online all this is easy checked online so give them ago and stay clear of music magpie
That’s a really good constructive comment Aaron – well done and your English teacher must be a proud man / lady tonight! As I said – interesting to note that most of the negative comments are from people who struggle with basic English (such as there / their)
As per my long note above – the only staff comments such as my own are clearly advertised as such but I note with some satisfaction that most comments recently have been positive other than one or two other folk trying to promote their own pale imitation sites 🙂
well blue boy i’ll ignore the comments about me as i expect nothing less,but would like to address your point,i know of a company called cex that will buy all cd’s dvd’s and games for far more then you offer they have shops in high streets so you can get your cash there and then and can also sell online,and the other good thing is when you google there name the words rip off dont come up,maybe you should take a leaf out there book or is your copmany doing so bad that all you have time for is going online and slagging people off?
1st of all may i say to Aaron well said sir! you came back from that with a degree of honour that does you proud,and 2nd to blue boy i noticed in your comment to Aaron you felt the need to judge him on 1 typing error is this the level of service people can expect from a music magpie employee? and also blue boy in you comments you say and i quote ” the only staff comments such as yours are clearly advertised” well i have checked and apart from your comments no one else admits working for music magpie but your comment suggests more then one employee uses this site,so this does add favour to Aarons comment about your employees! that said i have used music magpie and waited a month for my money which was not correct and i called your customer services dept after 14 days of not getting my money just to be told the items had not reached you yet when the tracker on the items said it reached you the day after i sent them,so i know your people are dishonest,I have also used cex the company Aaron said about and would use and recommend them with total confidance
Oh hello – this is getting funny! Team CEX versus Magpie is it? You guys accuse Magpie staff of posting on here and yet suddenly three or four of you appear on here all calling Magpie a ‘rip off’ and ‘bigging up’ CEX – hmmmmm I reckon Joe Public might suss this out – two of you guys even write virtually the same ‘review’!!
Look guys – Magpie doesn’t have a problem at all with CEX – it’s predominantly a high street model and I would invite anyone to make their own free choice between the experience of cashing in CDs, DVDs and Games in a CEX store, on their webiste and the Magpie site – it’s called consumer choice so let’s leave them to it hey?
Just a couple of points of orders though please:
1) Rather than just keep making up “Magpie hasn’t paid me for a month etc” – if you can quote order numbers on here to validate your claims, I will be happy to look into them and let you know what is happening. I suspect you may not be able to but am happy to be proven wrong – having been in our warehouse today we are processing deliveries on a daily basis that are arriving the day before so I would be amazed if your claims were anything other than spurious attempts to cause mischief.
2) This googling of ‘music magppie rip off’. Let me assure you that the only reason this comes up is that one or two review sites like this discuss the phrase – it doesn’t mean it is and 99% of neutral posts seem to confirm that people are now entirely comfortable that Magpie isn’t a ‘rip off’. When you put CEX in google it suggests on its predictive text software a selection of CEX branches – well Magpie doesn’t have those to come up first. If you put “CEX r” in, it does come up ‘CEX rip off’ BUT to stress that doesn’t mean it (sorry, you) is.
All this just leaves me wondering why CEX employees are seeing fit to try and ‘diss’ Magpie when Magpie would actually encourage folk to allow people to make their own mind up….try CEX and if it suits you better – go for it!
Well this seems to be going on a bit!! just a quick point in my defence.
I dont work for cex i go to 1 of the countries best uni’s where i’m studying for 5 years and any further attacks to my honesty and name will result in me talking to a uni advisor about my legal standing on this matter.Music magpie are on the uni fourm as a company not to trust,but like many others i gave magpie a go so i could make my own mind up. I found that it took about about 3 weeks for me to get my money when the tv ad’s say different.and alot of people on alot of sites say they also have had this happen to them as well, not every person on every site can be making this up and to say they are is just fool hardy! Also when taking items like the ones i sold to magpie to a cex store i did get alot more money,and i find it very offensive of blue boy to accuse me of dishonest actions.There may be cex employees giving comments on here,just as there is magpie employees but at the end of the day making long pointless comments which dont really defend your company or deal with the points raised but just try to discredit every other comments bar your own is a little bit of a waste of time ( i mention no names) and just proves a very strong point which does not go in your favour
Couple of points first off well done again Aaron very well said i was at uni myself until 4 years ago now i work in media now and would also like to say these are my views and not that of the company i work for.Blue boy you do have a valid point carl and jame comments do seem alot alike come on guys do you work for cex? at least blue boy had the honour to tell us from the start he works for magpie.Now to my main to points why would you google cexr when the company is called cex? does not make sense and is a very poor point to make,and now for the BIG BIT (sorry for caps just wanted to add to the scene) Blue boy you said about posting numbers on this site that would’t prove a thing as both of us could discredit the other (not saying either of us would) but i could say that order 125637/d was mine you then could say there’s no such order number see my point? BUT it’s time to put your money where your mouth is,I will send off for a package from you when i get it i will photo the recpit i get from the post office on the day i said the package off to you i will then after a period of time call your customer services this call i will also record then on the day i get my cheque from you i will photo the date on that,I WILL THEN POST THE WHOLE LOT ON YOU TUBE! and of course post the link on here,Oh and by the way i dont work for you tube so i’m not “bigging up” my company (sorry childish joke but could’t help myself) What you say blue boy do you accept or not?
Just quickie before my lecture starts thank you Toby for your kind comments to me 🙂 and also i’m up for that challenge as well if your have me on broad? and i will also good or bad promise to post link to the you tube site on my facebook (where i have maxed out my friends list) and also on uni forum (12,000 to 20,000 hits per day) on here so i think i add value to this test,but in closing mat i also say that magpie do a few things right e.g the barcode scanner which is very useful and other sites could learn from that and also i think people saying that it’s a con that you have to use your own box is rubbish because how could they said a box though post? and you can get one free from supermarket,that said i still feel they are a terrible company and apart from this test will not use them again
Hey who needs the Election debates when you have got this?!
OK guys – firstly – apologies, genuine ones, if you aren’t anything to do with CEX but as you say it would ‘appear’ that a couple of the other lads are. As you say Aaron this is going on abit but just to come back to you and Toby on a couple of points:
You say that it took 3 weeks to get your money Aaron – well in my post 70 above I do walk through the process and timings and the conclusion is that it can take upto 3 weeks but we hope to get things through quicker but we are at the mercy of Royal Mail a couple of times to do that. And I am precisely trying to ‘defend my company’ and ‘address points’ directly – that’s why I wrote the rather long post 70 in the first place! Since then I have tried to address the points but perhaps have been wrong to point out spelling errors etc – to tease you further does your Uni not teach you spelling and grammar?! And also if you have seen our TV advert you have either been watching day time TV on Sky or the Childrens Channels? Shame on you! I’M TEASING fellas – I’m only a jealous old fart who longs for the days of being a student again! You are raising some decent counter points so I shall stick to addressing them now…
Toby – my point on the fact that if it weren’t for their branches you would potentially find ‘CEX rip off’ higher up a google search list is that unfortunately almost every single retailer and e-tailer in the land can be found to be being discussed and in most cases criticised on forums and messageboards. If you type the name of one of the biggest mobile phone buyers into google, Envirofone, the second google suggestion is ‘Envirofone scam’ – that’s because like us they don’t have branches and the subject has been discussed on line – it doesn’t mean they are! As I have mentioned before you have to accept that the great British public enjoy a gripe (I know I do) and the simple facts are that whilst relatively few people will post positive things they have experienced about companies and services, a much higher percentage of people will be quicker to post a negative experience. It’s human nature and it’s life.
I accept your point of citing order numbers not being a decent test so I am sure you will understand that I am happy to let Joe Public decide on the service we now offer as our true test. Whatever your suspicion or cynicism, I can assure you that the vast, vast majority of our customers are happy that we provide a decent and hopefully improving service as we continue to grow. Yes there are alternatives and folk are very welcome to try them and use them if it suits them better – we do our best to offer convenience and fixed price valuations for (relatively) quick cash and will continue to do so.
Now I’m off to negotiate the TV rights to this whole debate…although I am suspecting you chaps will look better than I on Sky News HD.
First off may i say to blue boy that i agree the rights to this sega should be split 3 ways! 🙂 also as for your teasing i take it in the way i hope it was mean’t,and also may i say your grammar and sentence building was not perfect there either 🙂 and as for seeing your ad i think it was on freeview channel dave one evening,as for my grammar it’s not always perfect because i’m use to typing fast and then using spell checker as sometimes i may leave my essay writing to the last moment,that said i now get to my points.1 I have a new found respect for you and the way you defend your company for that i say fair play! my views are of the way your company treated me not you.2 royal mail cannot be blamed for everything and when i sent my package there was no strike and i’m sure the same can be said for alot of people but maybe not all,But it is a fair point to make. 3 what was your views on the test that toby set down to you as you never answered that bit? well thats it for today it’s my birthday monday and i’ve finished uni for the day so off to do what students do best!!
Music Magpie is NOT a scam. Nor to they rip people off as a rule. I buy cds in bulk to sell on ebay/amazon etc and I have dealt with them on numerous occasions to get rid of rubbish cd albums i cant sell myself. Prices offered start at 0.30 and the most will they give you is 3.00 for imported cds. Sometimes this is better than selling the CD on amazon.
If you arent happy with the price offered then DONT SEND THEM THE CDs! Its not rocket science you gormless complaining idiots.
And whats the betting that half the fools complaining their cheques havent arrived havent actually contacted Magpie to tell them?
In my experiene orders take a few weeks to process but what exactly is the big rush? And ive found their customer service dept to answer queries quickly and concisely. Also Magpie have reccently started sending out order status notification emails.
Finally – shame on you crazy-haired gonks from CEX writing fake reviews – its not as if youre in competition. Its like ebay getting in a row with tesco.
Music magpie = provide a good service
CEX = provide a good service.
End of discussion. Nothing to see here. Keep moving.
And before anyone (in particular Aaron when he reappears after his 4 day Birthday bender) says anything – NO I don’t know who this latest Jonathan is!!!!
FAO BlueBoy,
I Currently have a load of CD’s all ready to be boxed up, but i am paranoid regarding the Strict Condition. All the disks are fine give or take a few minor scratches, but some of the boxes have the centre cd holder broken? and also minor cracks on the covers?
what are the likely hood of these being “refused”
TIA
Jamie
Ah jonathan well done on just about stringing a comment together what point your trying to make and where it fits into the forum “as it stands” is a bit harder to figure out,one can only assume by both your grammar and writing style you have little else to do then jump on bandwagons with the most flimsy of grip of the current facts and not really bothering reading the comments in detail