By Molly McLaughlin on September 10, 2010 in
It sounds like a scam. Trade in your old, dusty CDs for an iPad, an iPhone or an iPod. But that is iPodmeister's promise, and according to reviews -- and my experience -- they live up to it. I had a relatively small collection of CDs (around 200 or so) that I had long since digitized and backed up. My CDs and CD player simply took up space and collected dust for years. It seemed wrong to throw them out, and too much trouble to try to sell them at a record store and have the clerk judge my mostly lame collection. (It's been years since I've actually purchased a CD; I typically buy my music from AmazonMP3 these days.) iPodmeister had what looked like the perfect solution: ship your CDs to their warehouse (on their dime) and receive a gadget in return. I decided to try out iPodmeister myself - here's what happened.
What is iPodmeister?
iPodmeister was born out of one of the founders' humiliating trip to a record store when he tried to sell his own collection of CDs, only to be mocked and lowballed. The founders decided to create a new solution: trading CDs for gadgets and reselling the CDs abroad, where there's a better market for used CDs. I was intrigued.
Of course, I took a look at the reviews first. A number of sources, including Consumerist, covered iPodmeister, but didn't actually try the service out. All I really had to go on were a handful of user reviews, testimonials on the iPodmeister website and a lone blog post by a music teacher. So what you can get? For 199 CDs, you can get an Amazon Kindle, an iPhone 3GS, an 8 GB iPod Nano (the newest one) or Apple TV (the one announced on 9/1). If you want the iPhone 4, you'll have to pony up 349 CDs; the 16 GB iPad with Wi-Fi will cost you 749 CDs. (The teacher opted for the iPad.)
The rules are simple: make sure your CDs are in good condition with complete cover art. iPodmeister does not accept bootleg CDs or DVDs. You can ship your CDs for free to their warehouse or even drop them off in person if you're in the NYC area. If you don't have enough CDs to complete your purchase, you can pay $1 each, for up to 50 missing CDs. On the other hand, if you have more CDs than required, iPodmeister will buy them for about $0.50 to $2.50 each. iPodmeister will digitize your collection as well, but it will cost you more CDs. (Ripping your CDs to your computer is generally considered "fair use," though some labels, such as Sony, have tried to block this capability by embedding software in their CDs.)
Making the trade
I packed up my CDs, carted them over to Fedex with my prepaid shipping label affixed to the box and received my iPod within a week. Two hundred CDs, give or take, should have earned me an 8 GB iPod Nano, but I ended up receiving a 16 GB Nano instead. The enclosed note simply said "got a better deal on the 16 GB." That works out to less than a buck per CD. Maybe I could have made more money selling these CDs myself, but that simply wasn't going to happen. All in all, a good experience.