One of my favorite Christian music online stores is now called Blastbeats
(formerly known as Cross Rhythms). They have a very nice selection
of new and used CDs as well as rare stuff. Next to Radrockers, they
have the second best indie/import section I have seen, but definitely the
better prices. Some of their OOP prices are a little on the high
side, but most are still very fair. They frequently have sales where
they sell new CDs for $10 and less (with many of those being OOP).
Along with the name change has come the impressive re-vamping of their
online store to meet above average cybershopping standards. If you're
going to order christian music over the net, be sure to make Blastbeats
one of the first stores you visit.
Another good online store, Christian Discs has turned out to be a
great resource for me in the past couple years. Their selection is
quite diversified, and they're constantly adding older titles to the catalog
at the same time their adding new ones. While their prices vary,
with most being in an average range, they will frequently have a selection
here and there that is a real bargain. They've also been able to
dig up things that I rarely see even in RadRockers, for much lower that
what Radrockers will usually ask. And, they share the stage with
Blastbeats for the most advanced web site among Christian Music online
stores that I've seen thus far. It's cybershopping at it's most convenient!
Christian Digital Music has a huge selection of used CDs for an
average price of $5 to $6 each. Most of the OOP stuff they have isn't
the really sought after things, though, and this is probably because they
wouldn't offer the original owner enough to buy it. But every now
and then, something pretty rare will pop up at an unbeatable price of $10
or so. If you're just looking to get some excellent-to-mint condition
used CDs of common in-print, or not-so-rare OOP titles, then this is a
great place to check.
The ultimate place to get the best deals on the internet. But
in order to do so, you must have two traits: patience and determination.
This is THE place to get a clue how much people are really willing to pay
for most titles. It's also a good place to see just how "rare" some
CDs really are. A lot of albums, like Chagall Guevara's only one,
appear quite frequently and are really not rare at all, but just high in
demand and always go for $15 to $20. But you will see that many other
rarities are over-hyped based on the average bids they go for. On
the other hand, a lot of people really enjoy throwing away money here,
so don't jump to conclusions about a CD based on one auction. The
rarest CDs will consistently go for real high amounts, and believe me,
there really aren't that many which do. You've got to use common
sense as well. Be a little hesitant to make high bids for items sold
by a seller with a feedback rating of less than 10. If a rarity has
a lower than average bid late in the auction, then it is probably a good
idea to check the sellers feedback for recent complaints. If the
description doesn't have certain keywords, like "mint" or "scratchless",
then assume a CD will have some scratches. Even nice sounding phrases
like "good condition" or "great shape" mean very little. Also, if
the seller is holding multiple auctions, unless you see phrases like "save
on shipping by winning multiple items" or something like that, then assume
you might have to pay the advertised shipping rate for each auction you
win, and they will of course ship it all together and try to make a little
money off shipping (cause after all, it's all about money to most people).
If you've got the patience and a semi-tight pocket book, you can often
get some oustanding deals here. But that's a really big IF for some
of you.
(If you use Netscape, must have version 6.0 or
better to access this site)
Last, but certainly not least is RadRockers. They have the
largest selection of OOP CDs and cassettes you will find on the internet,
and the largest indie/import selection I have seen to date. They
aren't too popular with some people because of their prices, which can
get astronomical for some of the real rare OOP titles. Sometimes
(not very often, but still sometimes), they are the only place I
have been able to find certain collectors re-issues, among other things.
While gawking at some of their prices, you need to remember that all the
CDs in their main catalog are sealed, and not cutouts unless stated otherwise.
For some titles, this is quite an uncommon occurrence. They do have
many unbeatable priced items in their loot category, but most of these
are not nearly as sought after as their higher priced items. And
you also have to remember their $25 minimum order (shipping not included)
requirement. If you don't want to spend a lot of time looking for
OOP christian music, then you can probably find most of what you want here,
but don't expect to save any money doing so. Their biggest strength
is in their indie/import section, where they are usually the first place
to offer the best indies and imports.
There are many other places to find rare Christian music, many times
at great bargains from places that are not aware of their worth.
In late '99, I finally discovered one other (very common) source of unbeatable
bargains in Christian music, but I'd rather not disclose it. It's
not hard to find, but when you do, you will see just how much of a profit
ebayers and many of the online stores might be making if they were
buying regularly from this place. I'll just leave it at that!
Here's the best list of links to internet music sources (including Christian) that I know of. This page used to be known as "The Debt Accelerator: Places To Buy CDs On The WWWeb" but the list has been recently updated and moved to this new site called "Music Buying Freak".
If you want to use a search engine to find info on an artist, or to try and locate stores selling Christian music, I think that right now Google is one of the best search engines out there. Try it out:
Happy hunting!
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May 2002 |