Australians bought more than 1.5 million new CDs in 2025. ARIA's figures put CD revenue at $21 million, up 29.6% on the year before. Digital is still nine-tenths of the market, so nobody is calling it a comeback. But a lot of people have worked out that a Spotify Premium plan is $15.99 a month and at the end of the month you own nothing.
A second hand CD costs a few dollars and it's yours for good. The only real question is where to get them. We run one of the places on this list, so treat our opinion of ourselves with suspicion. Everything else here is as fair as we can make it.
Op shops
Salvos, Vinnies and the independent ones. CDs are usually a dollar or two, which nobody else can match, and the money goes somewhere decent.
The catch is that you get what's on the shelf that day. You can't search for an album, the stock depends on who donated last week, and nobody has checked whether the disc plays. Open the case before you pay. You're looking for the right disc, and one that doesn't look like it was used as a coaster.
Best for a cheap Saturday rummage. Not for finding one particular album.
Record stores
The good ones have been at it for decades. Dixons Recycled Records has been in Melbourne since 1976, with shops in Blackburn and Northcote. Rocking Horse Records in Brisbane opened in 1975. Red Eye Records in Sydney dates from 1981. Utopia Records, also in Sydney, has specialised in metal and hard rock for more than forty years. There are plenty of others, and most capital cities have at least one.
You can hold the disc, check the booklet, and ask someone who knows more than you do. Second hand stock has usually been checked. Several of these shops also sell online.
Prices are higher than an op shop, fairly, because someone has sorted and checked the stock and pays rent on the room. And if you live a long way from a city, the nearest one might be a day trip.
Best for browsing and for advice. If you have a good one nearby, use it.
New CDs from the big retailers
JB Hi-Fi still has a CD section in most stores and a bigger range online. Sanity closed its last shops in March 2023 and now sells online only.
This is where you go for a new release or a reissue, sealed, at new prices. Neither sells second hand.
eBay
The biggest range in the country by a long way. If an album was ever released on CD, there's a fair chance a copy is on eBay right now.
It's also cheaper to sell on than it used to be. eBay Australia now charges no selling fees to Australian sellers with up to $25,000 in sales over twelve months, which covers anyone clearing a shelf.
For buyers, the things to watch are postage and location. Check whether the seller is in Australia, because a $4 CD with $18 postage from overseas is not a $4 CD. Condition descriptions vary from careful to "untested". eBay's Money Back Guarantee covers you if the item never arrives or isn't as described.
Best for range, and for finding a specific album today.
Discogs
Discogs is a database of millions of releases, with a marketplace attached. Nothing else comes close if you want one exact version of an album, such as the Australian pressing or the one with the bonus track. Sellers grade to a shared standard, and most take it seriously.
Two things to know. Most sellers are overseas, so postage to Australia often costs more than the CD. You can filter to sellers who ship from Australia, and that thins the range a lot. And sellers pay 9% of the item price plus postage, which finds its way into prices.
Best for an exact release, and for anyone who cares which pressing they're getting.
Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace
Free to list on both, and free to sell when it's cash on pickup. This is where whole collections turn up. "200 CDs, $50 the lot, must go this weekend" is a Marketplace listing, not an eBay one.
The cost is your time. You message, you wait, you drive, and sometimes nobody's home. There's no buyer protection when you hand over cash in a driveway. For a single $5 CD the trip usually isn't worth it.
Best for buying in bulk, close to home.
CD Sauce
This is us. We're a startup and we're just starting out. CD Sauce is an Australian online marketplace for buying, selling and swapping used CDs. It's a place for Australians to sell their CDs for the smallest fee we can manage, because it's built for music lovers. The fee is a flat 50 cents from the buyer and 50 cents from the seller, and swaps are free.
We started it because of the things that bothered us about buying and selling CDs elsewhere. These are our opinions, not facts.
- On Facebook Marketplace there's too much discussion and negotiation for a $5 CD. On CD Sauce the price is the price, and the buyer pays before anyone has to talk to anyone.
- On Gumtree we kept finding old listings for things that had gone long ago. Here a CD comes off the shelf the moment it sells.
- On eBay, prices and postage are usually higher than we think a second hand CD should cost. Here the price on every listing is the delivered price, postage included, and most CDs are $10 or less to your door.
- Discogs is a behemoth, and a very good one. Our aim is different. Local, simple and easy.
Listing a CD takes a few fields. You can scan the barcode and the site fills in the album details for you, and it finds the cover art. Every seller is in Australia, your payment is held until the CD arrives, and you can buy without making an account.
Best for a cheap album posted to you from inside Australia, with no haggling and no surprises at checkout. It's also the only place on this list where you can swap.
Which one to pick
- The cheapest CD possible, and you don't mind what it is. An op shop.
- An afternoon of browsing and someone to talk to. A record store.
- A new release. JB Hi-Fi or Sanity.
- One specific album, as soon as possible. eBay first, then Discogs.
- One exact pressing. Discogs.
- A whole collection in one go. Gumtree or Facebook Marketplace.
- A few dollars, delivered, from an Australian seller, or a swap. CD Sauce.
Most people who buy CDs use three or four of these. So do we.