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.
I was offered 37 pence for a DVD set that is £249 USED on Play, must be for desperate sellers only
I think that the main thing about http://www.musicmagpie.co.uk is that it is very good if you want a convenient service – If you are trying to get rid of your DVDs or CDs you cant go wrong – Basically they give you a value for something that may of sat on the shelf for five years !!!!!!
Before I used them I checked them out and even saw that they were recommended by Moneysavingexpert.com knowing that I was happy to use the service and make a few extra – I even managed to get rid of some very odd CDs from my student days!!!!
Im thinking about using music magpie, i got the information for it form the money saving expert off GMTV.
I have 25 dvd im never going to watch again, some i havent even watched. Iv been quoted around 60p per dvd. Which i will take because theres no way anyone will buy these dvds on ebay. And im definately not wasting my time putting them all on there.
If i keep they’ll sit there and collect dust untill i throw them away, so 60p per dvd and i dont even have to pay for delivery seems pretty appealing
Am I right in thinking Music Magpie is selling on Amazon as Zoverstock?
Let’s get them on BBC Watchdog…if they are really ripping people off. Fortunately I have not had the displeasure of dealing with them. All the best people
Toni
Music magpie are a rip off they took well over a month to send me my money and when i called there customer line i was delt with very badly indeed with little info given,they also dont mention AT ALL on there tv ad’s how long it takes to get your money and as for upto 15 days them to get your stuff is totally stupid the postal servce is not that bad guys and then adding to that getting stuff to write positve remarks on this and other sites show how rubbish they are.I’ll never use them again
I used Music Magpie in November 2009 to send 25 C/D’S. I recieved the Pre-paid post slip packed them off and received the payment of £18 the next week. I was pleased with the service and have not had any problems.
I wonder if music magpie are getting a little worried about all the bad press (and quite rightly) they are getting cos they seem now to employ staff to write reviews on sites like this and other review sites(google there name your find loads) which means there either a very dodgy site or just think the public are stupid either way after my experance with them i’d necer use them again and advise every one to do the same
DO NOT TRUST THIS SITE!! THEY PULLING ALL BAD REVIEWS OF THERE SCAM/RIP OFF COMPANY OFF EVERY SITE THEY CAN AND PUTTING REVIEWS BY THERE OWN EMPLOYEES ON TI BUMP SCORES UP!!
Try http://www.back2cash.co.uk
they’ll buy your CDs and pay you faster. They’ll also buy your non-fiction books. And if you live close enough they’ll collect your CDs and books in person.
after reading all of the bad reviews on here as well as some good ones. I am going to reserve my own judgement and not send them my old games which I no longer use, purely and simply because there is just to much negative stuff on here to take the chance although I am not to sure my other half will be to happy about it as they have been sitting there waiting to go for some time. Although when I explain my decision to her and show her this article then I am sure that she will understand. One more thing, if what this article has printed is untrue then why are Music Magpie not suing them for liable?? could it be that there are some facts in this article that are true and therefore they cannot, or that if they do then they will get found out to be some sort of rip off?? Hmm one to think about that just incase you thought of sending your stuff to them and if you do then good luck.
I wouldn’t recommend them. A courier collected my items on 3 Feb 2010. One box was processed and I had a cheque by the following Monday. A couple of weeks later I rang about my other box – it was sitting in the warehouse and hadn’t been touched. They found it and processed it the next day BUT I’m still waiting for payment. Have rung and they keep saying a cheque has been sent out – but no sign of it.
Music Magpie are a cheeky bunch of gits. I sent off 88 assorted cds and dvds, the total I was promised was £100.30. I got the cheque through and it was £1.69 short. Now I know that this is only a few pence, however, considering that they were only paying me 30p for some of my cds, this amount could represent as much as 5 cds. So I called and left a message for them to get back to me, and they never did. I called again and was told that 2 dvds that I sent in were damaged beyond repair. The 2 dvds in question were ones that I had only watched once! How could this be the case? I was also told that since this was the case, they recycled them for free. Well, THANKS man, really appreciate your help with that. Why couldn’t they have sent them back? I was told to read the terms and conditions.
I will not be using this bunch of cowboys again.
I wish I’d done the simple thing of Googling ‘music magpie’ BEFORE I undertook using them, especially when the first suggestion Google gave me was “rip offs”.
I got suckered in by the cheery optomistic TV ad, thought it’d be easy. Didn’t mind that I’d not get much for the DVDs as well, I’d be clearing out space and at least getting something for them rather than chucking them.
It’s now been 2-3 weeks since their chirpy email telling me they’ve received my DVDs but have they replied to a single one of my emails asking whether my cheque’s going to be despatched any time soon? Have they hell!
I’ve even tried finding out their phone number on Yell.com etc to try and ring them to no avail.
Henceforth donating all my unwanted CDs/DVDs to Oxfam, not these Fagins.
Paul
Did you try the number here:
http://www.taggedtalk.com/blog/2009-01-31-music-magpie-review.html/comment-page-1#comment-22975
Just wondering if it works!
Tim
VERY glad I visited this site before using Music Magpie! Just saw the ad on TV and thought it would be a great way to get rid of about 150+ cds I’ve been meaning to sell – but no way I’ll be using them after reading these comments.
Typical – nothing is ever as straightforward as it seems. Car boot sale it is then!
well I’ve seen the ad on tv, and these comments haven’t discouraged me! the things i will be sending are things I was going to give away anyway as they are low value, anything worth over a fiver i’d bother to put on ebay most probably, so i’m gonna give it a go anyway 🙂
When Music Magpie first started, they were quite good, the cheques used to arrive within around 7 days, however as time has gone on their cheque posting ability appears to have diminished.
My last order (over 100 CDs) was sent in the beginning of Feb 2010, it is now March over a month later and still no cheque! I have rung them twice and received various excuses but still no joy.
I would be wary of using this company at the moment as it looks as though they are having problems keeping up with their customer payments schedule. It would be interesting to find out if other people were suffering from the same problem? If so, alarm bells should be ringing!
I saw the advert for Music Magpie on the comedy channel network and thought what a fantastic idea! until i read all the negative comments and im sorry but they weigh out the positives, ill take them to a boot sale instaed.Pull your socks up Magpie before you go BANKRUPT!!
Some interesting comments on here and I feel obliged to pass comment. Firstly, cards down yes I do work for the company so there won’t be any pretending here! As an opening statement, all I would ask anyone who chooses to read these reviews before deciding whether to use Magpie is to bear in mind that the great British public love to moan (including me!) and review sites are made for them. Yes there are occasional processing problems but as earlier comments have said this is usually due to the fact that multi boxes have been used to send them in, or the packing note has not been included, or the official packing label has not been used and someone thinks they can scribble the address on the front of a nappy box and we will still be able to find their order etc etc. Sorry guys but I do find it interesting that the people who are most negative with their reviews seem to be the ones with the poorest English – the instructions really aren’t difficult. If Paul Partington really, really wanted our phone number – why didn’t he look on the ‘contact us’ page of the website? For those people using the word ‘scam’ on here and one or two other sites – as someone has said already – would we really have now paid out over £4m and have 150 people working for us if we were ‘scammers’. User error? Sometimes. Occasional operational teething problems? Sure. Dishonest? Simply not true. For the information of readers we now have service contracts with over 600 charity shops in the UK to collect their unwanted CDs and DVDs – would they really use us if we were so bad? Could we sleep at night if we were? (I have enough trouble with that anyway with three young children!) And to our friend Mark who insists on writing everything in capital letters – yes we have asked one or two of your foul mouthed, malicious and frankly libellous reviews on other review sites to be removed previously as we both know precisely who you are, what you have repeatedly attempted to do to the company, and where the dishonesty lies. Remember my friend – only a thief thinks everybody is stealing from them.
Back to the site. As I have mentioned, very simply if the clear and easy instructions are followed the process is very simple indeed and relatively quick. Let’s give you a WORST case scenario – your items will take UPTO 7 days to arrive with us (they usually arrive within about 5 we have found). Once with us we will QA and process them WITHIN 7 days (usually quicker dependent on order size / type etc) and then we will print and post your cheque which will get to you within 7 further days (at the absolute outside) You can now track your order through these very clear stages in your account section and we welcome ANYONE who has problems with this to contact us immediately where our team will be able to help – you may even speak to me!
As for the gentleman who complained of a small deduction – let me be very clear. We do NOT deduct for minor scuffing, damage or scratches as we refurb all our items. In reality, we only refuse to pay for an item if it is a) disk missing b) wrong disk in wrong case c) a pirate disk (and believe me we get 1,000’s of them hence the rigid QA process) or d) a very badly damaged disk e.g. cracked or gouged. Believe me – why would we risk losing goodwill for the sake of a few pence? All we do is have a clear set of rules for our staff to follow and we ask them to consistently apply them.
Final note – to Tim who wrote the original piece, as it happens a while ago now, and based more on when we used to sell CDs on our site rather than concentrate on buying them (and you were right that we weren’t very clear but as a point of order – we did offer FREE P&P – we just didn’t tell anyone!) You are right to tell people about the deduction clause in the Terms and Conditions for people selling to us but I hope I have made it much clearer for people above – I promise you – we do not take the mickey out of anyone! I openly invite you to make contact with me through the site and I will talk to you in person about all of the above and more if you so wish. There is no black magic, no hidden agendas, no wilful malpractice and certainly no scamming going on! Just an honest company, ran by honest blokes, who now employ over 150 (honest!) people, who try to provide a decent alternative to auction sites and cold Sunday morning car boot sales by offering an easy and convenient service for folk to turn their old CDs, DVDs and Games into cash. We haven’t been perfect but we have grown very quickly and we (hope) are getting better and better…..and we welcome anyone to constructively tell us how they think we could get better in future.
MH above – PLEASE contact us again if this is still unresolved. We will cancel and reissue your cheque if you have still not had it.
wow – never realised there would be so many comments after I put my own comment in – I can say that music magpie is definetly NOT a scam or rip off but is in fact a pretty good service.
When you do a search for musicmagpie you get some interesting reviews and some of them are pretty balanced. I keep an eye on the site as I am looking at finally getting rid of all those DVDs I bought to replace my video collection. Music Magpie now claim to of paid out £4 million and I think they would get in trouble for false advertising if they hadn’t – if you’ve got any doubts call them for a chat they always seem happy to answer the odd questions or two !!
For those of you like Mark who like to try and shout comments I’d ask can you give an example next time – I personally think musicmagpie is a good service if you cant be bothered with ebay, they dont claim to pay really high prices but it is convenient.
I have used Music Magpie twice and the second cheque was received a lot quicker than the first. I am about to use them for a third time as I would rather have a couple of pound for an old DVD than place it on ebay or amazon for it not to sell.
No company regardless of whether they are internet based or high street are faultless and you are always going to get complaints.
If you value your cd/dvd collection then this isn’t the site for you but if you want to make a few quid for stuff that may be put in the bin then give them a go.
I used Music magpie about 2 years ago now, id not heard of them before. I got my cd’s priced up, waited for the freepost labels to come through, then sent off all my cd’s. I got the full price they quotes (about £60, there were quite alot) about 2 weeks later. In fact, i only found this thread because i just googled them to sell some more cd’s as im a bit short this month !
My advice, only use them if you have cds that you will never listen to and dont care about, as they dont pay much , but done in bulk you can make a pretty penny.
Some people on here are seriously deluded! Do they really think that they can make back almost all the money that they paid for the original CD/DVD? Idiots! The system works like this. You want to sell an unwanted CD/DVD. MusicMagpie will buy them off you at a certain price – the more obscure items get valued more, the more popular/accessible items get valued less. Why would they honestly pay you £8 for a CD that you paid £10 for only last year? Where is the value to them in that?
Come on people, just because you don’t get anywhere near the original value you paid for it you think its a con. Just because you don’t get what YOU think you deserve, you label it a scam. Get real.
Musicmagpie has not paid me or others.
How real is that? DOH!