Consumer News And Recalls

Company Offers Free TVs, Electronics For Old CDs

BOSTON (WBZ) ― Have you been dreaming of a flat screen TV, an iPod or even your own navigational device, but just can't cough up the cash to buy them? There is another way -- and it involves that shelf of yours filled with dusty CDs.

FeedYourPlayer.com – a company based out of South Carolina that first became famous for trading in CDs for iPods -- has expanded their service to include devices such as laptops, digital cameras, DVD players and even digital camcorders.

It might sound hard to believe, but here's how it works. Say you are looking for a GPS for your car. FeedYourPlayer.com has it listed at $442.50. If you trade in 100 of your old CDs, that price drops to $242.50. If you have 200 CDs you can part with, the price drops $200 more. And if you have 225 CDs you are looking to get rid of, the GPS will not cost you anything.

Two-hundred CDs could also get you a 32" 1080p LCD TV for $724.99, according to FeedYourPlayer.com.

Each CD you trade in has to meet quality standards before it is accepted by FeedYourPlayer.com. The CD must be an original and must include the case and liner notes, which means no burned CDs or CDs in folders.

Managing partners Clayton Woodson and Kent Wagner explain the company still has to inspect the CDs for quality.

All CDs will be checked for scratches. Discs with a few surface scratches will be accepted for half value, but CDs with tons of scratches will not be accepted at all.

The other catch – each CD's sale history will be weighed by FeedYourPlayer.com. The company says CDs with a "questionable sales history" may be accepted, but only at half value. CDs that did not have any success will be turned away.

Now this does not mean that if the CD did not make the top 40 countdown, it's completely useless. Kent and Woodson explain they love to receive the less-common genes, such as jazz and punk rock. Although they were reluctant to actually list off CDs they would not accept, they did say The Victoria's Secret catalog or Time Magazine's Best of 1970, probably would not be a CD the company would be looking to take off your hands.

If you're not sure what CDs the company is going to accept or turn away, just send them a list and they'll tell you which discs will work, and which ones won't.

So what happens to these unwanted CDs once their sent to FeedYourPlayer.com? According to Woodson and Kent, they are sold through the FeedYourPlayer.com site, and on other sites such as Amazon.com and eBay.

"It's really a fun twist," says Woodson. "We've all paid musicians so much money over the years buying these CDs, and now there is a way to get the musicians to help us buy some really cool stuff."

FeedYourPlayer.com says they are helping people get rid of something they don't want, in exchange for something they could really use. It's "a classic win/win scenario," says Wagner. "The customer gets rid of something they no longer want and gets a discount on something they really do want."

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