A couple of months ago, I decided to start clearing out all my old DVDs. I’ve never had much of a collection, but I never watched these anymore. I wasn’t looking to absolutely maximize my price, I knew these weren’t the hottest titles anymore and was looking for the most convenient option. I found the website SecondSpin.com and used them. Here’s my experience:
Day 0 – Checking Prices
I typed in the UPC numbers from the back of the DVDs, and they told me their offer upfront with no commitment. I didn’t waste much time comparing prices across the web, but overall I did get more than if I sold for the lowest price as an individual seller at Amazon.com (and definitely more than what they were offering directly for gift cards). I agreed to sell back 9 DVDs for a total price of $23 plus their shipping credit. If you sell back 5 items or more, they reimburse you for the cost of USPS Media Mail postage.
Day 1 – DVDs Shipped out
I packed and shipped the DVDs via Media Mail out at the Post Office to their address in Itasca, IL. I was reimbursed for $3.16 in postage (up to 3 pounds), but actually had to pay $3.55 (up to 4 pounds). Perhaps I packed it too well.
Day 28 – Shipment Finally Received
I knew Media Mail could be slow. But nearly a month later, I receive an e-mail from SecondSpin that they have not received my DVDs yet, and that my price quote is about to expire. However, they agree to extend the quote for another 2 weeks as a courtesy. I get a little worried that they are lost in the mail, and I didn’t buy any tracking since the value was so low.
Later that very same day, I receive another e-mail that they have indeed received my shipment successfully. 2 of 9 items were rejected for being “severely scratched”, but that only reduced my payout by $1.40. (More on this below.)
Day 29 – Payment Received
You can elect to receive payment by check, PayPal, or store credit. I chose PayPal, and received my payment electronically without problem. I’m relatively happy, and figured that my rejected DVDs were just going to be trashed.
Day 60 – Rejects Come Home Again
I was surprised to find a package from SecondSpin.com in the mailbox. They had sent back the two rejected DVDs, postmarked at about Day 45. The postage they paid for USPS Media Mail: $2.38. If they had simply bought the DVDs at the price I already agreed to (even to junk them later), it would have cost them only $1.40. It actually cost them 98 cents more to reject my DVDs and send them back. I guess they want to make a point that you shouldn’t send them scratched DVDs?
I checked the DVDs, and there were slight visible scratches but nothing that would affect playback, nor what I would call “severe”. If you use Netflix, you know what I mean. However, I respect their decision not to resell them. I’ll just throw them on next year’s garage sale pile.
Overall, I was satisfied with the process. It took a month, but Media Mail is slow and I wasn’t in a rush.
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DVDs seem to depreciate faster than anything…
I’ve used secondspin.com several times and have been very happy with the service. It does take a while, but I too was not really in a rush. I try to go through my cds once in a while and sell some that I haven’t listened to for a long time. Definitely try to sell at least 5 for the shipping credit they offer. Sometimes, they only offer you 10 cents for a cd, but I sell it for the $3 shipping credit. Otherwise their prices are usually $1 or $2.
Funny that they shipped back the DVDs. I thought it says on their website that they reserve the right to keep any media they reject as too scratched. I recently shipped 2 DVDs and first class was cheaper.
Also, hard to believe it took so long to ship something within southern california?!?
We unloaded all of our DVDs about 4 years ago via second spin. The market was much better then and for some we received as much as $7-8 each. When it was said and done I believe our 120 DVDs netted us about $600.
Really I can’t see why people buy DVDs any longer. While we’re movie buffs – we go through 25-30 movies a month between Feb-August (non-football season so our satellite TV is suspended) – we also realized we never re-watch any of them. If we really, really want to see a movie we put it at the top of our netflix list and 24-48 hours later it’s at our house.
I’ve also used Spun.com – similar process. Similar pricing too. I find that they tend to reject (reduce the offer price) one or two CDs/DVDs I’ve sent each time too.
I like to trade-in for a newer DVD that I’ve wanted, but it seems a lot of times the titles I want are out of stock.
Thanks for reminding me – I want to send in some sealed sets that I’ve never watched and get something new. 🙂
My experience with this company was less than pleasant. I was selling CDs rather than DVDs.
First problem was I spent several hours entering UPCs and about 80% were rejected. I finally had about 20 CDs worth $28 and mailed them.
A few weeks later I received a check for $7. None of my CDs were returned and none were rejected due to scratches. The explanation given was that the cardboard for the back of the CD case was torn. I was using Prosleeves, which replace jewel boxes to save space, and the titles usually visible on the side of the jewel case were separated to work at the perforation to work with the Prosleeves. They were still complete, just in two pieces.
I may have been at fault for thinking that this would be OK but will not do business this company again.
I recently placed an order to sell 22 DVDs and CDs to SecondSpin. Two weeks after I mailed the package, I received an e-mail telling me they were rejecting 11 of the items because “not in original pkg”. I know my items WERE in the original packages and some were even unused and unopened. They are sending me a check for less than one half the dollar amount I was quoted and not returning the rejected items (sounds fishy to me). To me, their action is equal to theft.
OK, I just sent 4 boxes of CD’s, totaling 6 orders. The boxes were shipped Friday, August 31. I combined shipping and ate the additional cost because I would have had to purchase boxes! Second Spin received them September 4 and I received notification on 3 boxes the next day and the fourth box 2 days later. I was paid via paypal for the first 3 the next day and expect payment tomorrow for the 4th.
I would say there were between 140 and 160 CD’s, many of which were purchased through music clubs and a lot that were really old. 7 were rejected due to heavy scratches. 14 jewel cases were broken (might have been because I did not package them well.) and 5 had the prices changed (in all instances, I chose the highest price item because my UPC did not match any of them.) I was hoping for $207.75 and received $176.30. I was very pleased that I got 85% of what I was expecting quickly and with no issues!
I am going through my DVD’s now and will definitely use them again.
This was a complete waste of time….I was estimated at receiving $24 for my cds…two they rejected….and they charged me $3 for cases and resurfacing….I ended up with a $6 check……not even enough to pay for the gas to the freaking post office!!!
I prefer to check prices on bonavendi it also checks the offers from secondspin and compares it with other websites