Why (and how) I collect CDs in 2026

For the past few years, I’ve really bulked up my CD collection. And just because it’s 2026, I’m not going to stop right now, at least not until I have all the albums I’m really keen on. Problem is, I keep discovering more albums I must have!

Why I collect CDs in 2026

While perusing the CD racks in an op-shop, there is a dopamine hit when you find something really good, you haven’t got, or is worth a bit on the used market. Sometimes I’ll check, mostly from a “is this CD even worth buying for $1 or would it be a waste” perspective. Sometimes I’m torn about buying something without listening to it. I haven’t got as far as bringing a Discman along, but I guess that’s an option.

It’s addictive to have a look in a shop and see what you might find. Expanding my collection for self hosting my own op-shop sourced version of Spotify is pretty fun, so I can continue to explore new music (new to me, anyway) and have it available for playing at any time.

I like playing physical media, there is something nice about looking through a shelf of albums, picking it up, and playing it end to end without having any ongoing subscription or licence that might be pulled from under your feet like the proverbial rug, at any time. This week I heard someone say it’s all about friction these days and I’d argue there’s not a lot of friction in playing a CD from your own collection when nobody is telling you that you can’t play it. There are theories that physical media is making a comeback more generally.

The album art is often sensational and you don’t get the same experience looking at a screen as the little included booklet - vinyl is even better, but CDs aren’t bad despite their diminutive size.

Every now and then, there’ll be a surprise like a ticket to a gig inside the CD case, from back in the day, for the fan who went to the concert and bought the CD. The provenance and story sends your mind back to an era that you can imagine experiencing. I haven’t found anything beyond this but the occasional ticket or original sales receipt is a great find.

Sometimes there are original pricing stickers, like from Brashs or a local music shop from back in the day (the 7 digit phone number is a dead giveaway it’s pre-1998) and these give real insight into just how expensive CDs were back in the day, relative to the cost of goods. Say a loaf of bread was $1.37 in 1990 and a new release CD was $29.95, it would be crazy that a CD today would cost the same as 22 loaves of bread.

Things to watch out for

Sometimes the CDs aren’t actually in the case, or sometimes it’s something else unrelated, and I’m not going to buy an empty case if I can avoid it!

Very rarely the CDs won’t play after a bit of a clean/polish. Polycarbonate plastic polish works great here, just like the stuff you’d use on faded car headlights. I think I’ve only come across two CDs ever which have unrecoverable tracks, which is a really good hit ratio given the hundreds that I’ve bought (and even then, it will usually only be one track and because the aluminium has flaked off the top which I cannot possibly repair).

Broken, dirty and adhesive infested cases are everywhere, but I also have a pile of spare new cases thanks to a friend and CDs looks absolutely brilliant when swapped into a fresh case, which is pretty much impossible for vinyl unless you’re going to start printing your own cardboard.

The pricing stickers that Vinnies and Salvos use are disgusting and take a bit of solvent to get off (without melting the plastic). I find eucalyptus oil works best and smells like eucalyptus lollies, which is super nostalgic from primary school for me, so doubling down on nostalgia there.

I use Discogs a lot to keep track of the collection, so I try not to buy something I’ve already got if I can help it!

Very rarely, the CDs will be in any sorted order (only one Vinnies seems to do this by artist - nice touch Vinnies Ermington!), so you need to look through every rack just in case which can take some time (to the point where some op-shops have chairs next to the CD rack).

You will grow tired of seeing the same Susan Boyle and Il Divo CDs over and over and over again.

How do I go about it?

I’ll focus today on op-shops aka opportunity shops. There are lots of other ways to buy CDs of course. Shipping has got really expensive for us in Australia, I’m no longer actively getting vinyl records from overseas, which means concentrating on CDs is more optimal.

In Australia, we call thrift stores op-shops. There’s actually quite a lot around, but only a few are really worth checking out for CDs. I’m sure the others are better for bric-a-brac and clothes, but if you want CDs at op-shops, there’s really only two choices:

Vinnies

• Pro: often better taste in music (subjective)
• Pro: open on a Sunday
• Con: typically more expensive, with some shops selling $2 per disc up to $4 per disc (it’s still cheap though!)

There is a correlation between good finds and the price - I do think the higher price at Vinnies cuts out some punters which leaves better stock behind. It’s a working theory.

Salvos Stores

• Pro: dirt cheap with most stores selling CDs for $1 each
• Pro: they have a membership for a small discount, but I’ve never bothered because it’s a charity after all
• Con: Not open on Sundays

Other major Op Shops in Australia

I’ve tried other op-shops, but they’re really more miss than hit for CDs specifically. YMMV for other goods so definitely worth a look beyond CDs. The shops I’ve looked at are:

• Save the Children
• Anglicare Op Shops
• The Bower Centre
• Noffs Op Shop
• Lifeline Stores

Sometimes a small town will have another op or junk shop, and these are definitely worth checking out. You really never know what you’re going to find if you don’t look!

How it’s going

As of writing, I have almost 1,000 CDs in the collection. Here’s a graph showing 2025 being pretty epic as far as CD collecting goes:

This is not entirely accurate as an album is sometimes recorded as “added” if I adjust which version of the CD I might have, or maybe I’ve discovered something I’ve had for many years in the collection but for whatever reason never logged it. So then I’ll adjust the collection record and it will be “added” on that day. But overall this is close enough to prove my passion for physical CDs. But I think it’s close enough to get a general sense of the trend here.

I personally know some CD collectors have way more than this and they’ve been at it for many years. While I’ve had CDs since we got our first family computer (an Osborne 486) in the early 90s - that was a pretty odd way to play an album, but it worked - it’s certainly been a far more recent hobby for me as you can see from the chart. I’ve also only catalogued the collection since a point in time and Discogs didn’t exist in the 90s anyway.

It makes me think of my first CD, which was probably a Mozart & Haydn compilation and it’s not even in the collection right now. Let’s get back to 2026.

Of these CDs, 301 came from Vinnies and 222 came from Salvos. I’m a little surprised by this, because Salvos is definitely my preference and I’ve had a few shops where I’ll purchase easily 10 CDs! But it’s perhaps because I’ve been to many smaller Vinnies over a longer period of time.

The best store in my experience has been Salvos Tempe, with 108 coming from this store alone. However recently, despite having many, many racks of CDs than they have ever had before, the music selection is mostly really not to my taste.

Other standout stores include:

• Vinnies Ermington with 45 CDs
• Vinnies Rozelle and Vinnies Leichhardt both with 34 CDs each
• Salvos Springwood closely following behind with 33 CDs

The best single trip ever is probably Salvos Marayong with 19 CDs in a single purchase. The next trip to the same shop a few months later resulted in zero interesting CDs. So it’s really a timing thing and turning up just at the right time.

Other good sources of CDs

• Discogs has a great amount of music available from buyers all around the world if you’re prepared to pay for shipping
• Local record shops are pretty good and they have a lot of CDs with pricing sometimes starting as low as $5 a CD
• Occasionally Amazon has a great deal on a CD, although they almost always turn up with cracked cases
• Classic sites like eBay can work too
• JB Hifi keep offloading their physical media like CDs, I assume they won’t be selling them for much longer, although they seem to be pretty interested in stocking vinyl instead which spins me out (pun intended).

So that’s me for the moment. Happy collecting!

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