Working the large rummage sale last weekend I was shocked to find audio CD books left.

Then I did some poking about.  6 CD audio books are down to $15.   Used they're below $5.  These aren't small names--Michael Crichton, James Lee Burke.     Even the expensive ones (such as Stephen King) are less than $5 used now.   

So why are they still 2 credits here?

Since audio CDs are dropping dramatically in price, and they aren't holding their value used--isn't it about time they became 1 credit here as well?    They are acting like hardbacks now.  And cassette books are more like paperbacks.

Gosh, Kayote, I'm not seeing it here, either (Iowa). I'm jealous. Maybe it will be a trend. I sure hope so. I couldn't find anything in the remaindered bin yesterday for less than $10, and that was for abridged versions of popular fiction from several years ago. (4 cassettes of Lisey's Story, for example)

I hope you scooped up a bunch of them and posted them. :-)

I was looking on half.com for the prices.   I don't go in the USBs around here--it's a lot of time to find not much of what I want and usually for more than I want to pay. I go to library sales, PBS, and the indy bookstore.

There were cassette tapes left (not sure of what books, though) even after the bag sale.  The audio CDs went in my sack at the start of the bag sale.  I was rather surprised when I brought them home to discover they weren't worth selling online.  

I'm offering the locally; if no one here wants them I'll list at least a couple of them here

I thought the 2 credit price was based on the cost of shipping, not the cost of the item.

Actually, shipping an audio book could be cheaper than an actual book, but the credit value has never been based on the cost to ship.  It is because sometimes audio books are a lot more expensive than a book, even a hardback

I'm not seeing it here either.  I was at Half-price books recently and even Audio CD books that they had several copies of were all over $10.  The only ones under that were some that only had 2 or 3 CDS.  Even the local thrift store charges at least $10.  It's hard to find bargains for them on ebay anymore either.  I did score a WL audio CD for $5 at the FOL kiosk at the library. But that's rare.  The cassette ones are becoming obsolete.  I had a few old cassette ones but nothing to play them on but the car.  I had a hard time finding a cassette walkman.  I donated them because I can't really listen to murder mysteries in the car with the kids.   I won't buy the cassette ones anymore. 

I find used hardbacks for $1 or less all the time.  

I'm still seeing higher prices here in Dallas too, but...

Tuesday Morning has some audio CD's in among their books for sale.  I found single title book CD's for $4.99 and "collections" of three books for $14.99.  All are new of course, and mostly major authors and mysteries.

Not in Florida either, last time I checked the bargain bin at BAM, nothing remotely new in there and all only 25% - 50% off the retail, still way abovce $10.  Basically I've given up buying CD audiobooks since I tossed my portable CD player for the iPod, I use Audible now cheaper, easier to get and sort on my iPod.

But I'm one of the rare few I think that will re-visit an audiobook again later.

Whoa, I went to half.com as Kayote said and jeepers, they do have some very low prices there. $1.99 plus $2.49 shipping for Lisey's Story on CD, unabridged - that's the first one that caught my eye. The abridged version of Lean Mean 13 on CD for $1.47, plus $3.49 for shipping.

I've never bought anything from half.com, but I'm going to have to look around and see what they have and who owns the place and such.

Ho, boy, I am on my way over there, says the audio-junkie.

Our big local FOL sale still has them priced at least double the cost of hardcovers and paperbacks. Don't really look at them in new bookstores so I don't know what the prices are like there. I can't imagine cassettes will retain their value much longer though - not many people (at least that I know) even have cassette players anymore. I posted 200 music cassette tapes from the 1980s and early 1990s on Freecycle and never even got a taker - I ended up dumping them all at the Rescue Mission.

Half.com never has the ones I'm looking for when I go there. 

I did score some Christine Feehan MP3CDS from her Dark series on ebay for $35 plus shipping. I couldn't believe I got that deal. Most are WL here. 

I download some from audible.com but I like the CDS because I don't usually relisten and it's nice to post them here and get credits for them. I download them to my IPOD for easier listening than dealing with a portable CD player. Although I have a cross country move coming up and I picked up a couple CD books from Half-Price books that I'm keeping on CD to listen to on our long drive.

Lester, Half.com is owned by Ebay.  The items listed there are from individual sellers, just like on Ebay.  Half.com and Ebay feedback are linked.  It's a fixed price listing format for stuff that can be send Media Mail.

I sincerely hope that the audio CDs don't go down in credit value, at least at this point in time. Some get posted here but not that many and I suspect that less would be passed along if they were only one credit. My experience has been that most books on audio CD are still quite pricey to buy new and difficult to find locally used at a decent price.

Sarah, thanks, I appreciate it.

I was disappointed to see that almost all of them that I looked at were abridged. I do know, however, that some people prefer the abridged audiobooks. I know one person who listens to the abridged version, and if he likes it, then he reads the book.

Going to look at audible.com. My eyes are going. I'm either going to have to get an e-reader with larger font capabilities ($$$) or invest in a really good magnifying glass, or learn to listen to audiobooks. I have three books on my night stand now that I can't read because the print is too small for me. Phooey.

I hadn't thought about people gradually giving up the CDs because they can just use their iPods. Interesting. If so, then perhaps the price of CD audiobooks will fall.

I haven't noticed any drop in the price of audiobooks here, either. Except for the cassette ones, which you can find at UBSs and garage sales for almost nothing. But the CD ones--at least the ones I'm interested in--are still way more expensive in the bargain bin than a HC or PB. Mostly if I'm listening to audio, I'm downloading free to my MP3 player from my library system's website.

Cheryl

People who used two credits for an audio book, who are hoping to swap it out once they're done with it, would be very frustrated if the trade value was suddenly cut in half...

On the other hand, cassette audio books just don't trade because 2 credits is way overpriced for them.  The only ones I've swapped were ones I offered for 1 credit each in the Bazaar.

It's utterly insane for cassette books, especially abridged ones with one or two cassettes, to be 2 credits. 

I don't mind getting 2 credits for my CD books.   However, I'd like to be able to swap the cassette tapes, and as long as those are 2 credits I don't see it happening.  They are priced below hardbacks at the rummage sale and still had some left over.  Those I've had on my shelf here just sit there until I get annoyed and donate them somewhere.

That's me, and I would!

I don't know ... I've found that certain -- unabridged  -- cassettes still get requested, albeit not as quickly as CDs which generally get snapped up as soon as  I post them.  I've sent out around 10 audiobooks on unabridged cassette since the beginning of the year, all for 2 credits each. In fact,  I sent out 2 such audios just last week to different people. 

All I know is that trying to find Audio CDs of preteen and teen fantasy novels, which DS and I listen to in the car, is a bear.  Through here, the library, bookstore and online.  You really have to do lots of legwork to find a series before you can hit a place like B&N or Amazon.  And, so far, the series that we have been listening to have had long wishlists.  The funny thing is that I've had the most success at the library.  But they usually only have one or two books in a series or we run into other little problems like the final CD is scratched.  Which is why I have to return a CD today and get the real book so that we can finish the last 3 chapters in our current book.

Kerry

Shannon: Yes, but there are certain normal books that would get requested for 2 credits as well (some on my WL I'd gladly give more than 2, in fact).    The question is are the majority of cassette audio books considered worth double a hardback?    I don't think that's accurate for cassette tapes.

On the CDs, I cede.  I guess I just found a bunch of unusual ones since some were only $14.95 to start with (one of which is WL'd), and the rest have just dropped in price on half.com. If none of my friends want them, I'll post mine and take my 2 credits.  I don't listen to them anyway--I've had a Harry Potter for about 2 years but never got a portable CD player to listen to it, and now ride the bus with someone so the main time I'd listen is out. 

I think I picked up a couple cassette tape audio books somewhere in the pile I brought home. I'll probably check the WL on those and just give them away on freecycle if they aren't WL'd though.  It's not worth storing them for an entire year to see if someone might possibly want a 1-2 tape audio book for 2 credits.

If people aren't willing to pay 2 credits for them, then why are over half of the 30 or so books on tape I got at the FOL sale wishlisted on here?  I can get the books on tape from the local FOL sale for 25 cents per tape, and I get lots of them.  Finally got to start listening to them when I got out my boombox (tape and CD player) that was hiding in the closet.  There'll be another FOL sale in the fall, and I will but more books on tape then.

I just ordered a cassette book this week.  Since I have both a CD player and a casette player in my car, I don't care which one I have.   After paying over $20 for a new audio book last week, I started looking on here.  They are certainly worth 2 credits to me.