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Movie Sound Track Recordings: The New Beanie Babies?
About a year ago I purchased a film sound track CD from 1996 as a present for my wife. She has always been a big fan of popular music, but certain tunes from some of her favorite films really make her smile. It took me a while to find the recording which I finally located on some obscure used CD and DVD web site. It didn’t cost much when I bought it, so my wife recently asked if I could buy another one for a friend who was also a fan of that particular film. When I went back to the web site to buy another copy, I was surprised to find that the price for the same title had doubled and then some, despite the fact that the copies available were described as the exact same items in the exact same condition as the CD I originally purchased. The jump in price made me curious, so I did some research and I was surprised at the results.
I discovered that some current and past sound track albums from films and television shows have become really hot Collectibles. In the days of my childhood during the 1960s before you could buy your favorite film or TV show on video a lot of people ran out and purchased movie sound track albums or “music from” recordings for TV shows. It was not just the songs on those records that made them popular because in many cases there were only one or two titles with vocals while the rest of the album featured background music. It was more about buying the music because you were a fan of the movie or TV show. Even as a kid, I had TV sound track albums with music from ‘The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’, ‘Secret Agent’ and ‘Batman’ (of course). Wish I had them now!
Because my wife and I were married in the early 1980s, there are many films from that time that we still enjoy. We also like the music of that era and many of the most popular artists and their tunes are featured on the sound track recordings from those 1980s movies. It’s not all that difficult to locate sound tracks for 1980s mega-hit movies like ‘Back To The Future’ and ‘Batman’ because we’re talking about songs by hit makers like Huey Lewis and The News and Prince. However, if you begin to search for CDs containing the music from cult hits like ‘Full Metal Jacket’ or ‘Rain Man’ the search gets much harder and the prices a lot more expensive.
Today, sound tracks for films and TV shows make big bucks for those productions and the people featured on the albums. New or little known recording artists can be successfully introduced to the world through a hot-selling sound track album. Established performers might see sales for their other songs soar. Veteran performers needing a career boost may get it. In other cases a film with limited commercial appeal might get some help with box office sales from songs performed by major recording artists on the sound track. There have been many instances when films that were almost guaranteed to flop at the box office were helped by hot sound track albums. Two good examples are Xanadu (Olivia Newton John sung on the sound track) and Last Action Hero (lots of powerhouse new music and rock artists on that sound track).
The power of the sound track album has finally been noticed and embraced by collectors. But, buyer beware. If you are at least thirty something you will probably remember the Beanie Baby collector craze of the 1990s. People were paying hundreds of dollars (or much more in some cases) for rare Beanie Babies from the Ty Company. Remember how badly everyone wanted those very first McDonald’s Happy Meal Beanies that helped to start the whole thing in the first place? All that ended by 1999 and I have no idea what, if anything, the Beanies are worth today. The same thing happened to many Sports collectible items. While some are still highly prized, all those baseball cards that people paid a fortune for in the 1980s and 1990s have lost much of their value.
My advice regarding sound track album collecting is simple: Buy new recordings on CD that specifically feature popular artists and songs, or that come from mega-hit films. Buy yourself a copy and one extra for your collector shelf. Since it’s impossible to know exactly which film sound tracks will be worth the most in the future, don’t be afraid to purchase those you like without worrying if they will end up collectible. After all, why buy music you cannot enjoy yourself? Forget about iTunes. You cannot leave your iTunes collection to your family or legally burn them to a CD to sell them and right now those digital files have little or no commercial collectible value.
Where can you find sound track CDs to collect? Garage sales are a great place to start, but be careful about checking them for conditions like scratches or missing inserts which can impact their value. Avoid buying online unless you check Ebay once in a while because most of the web sites which sell vintage sound track and other music CDs have caught on to their value or already been farmed out. The good news is that as long as you pay very little for them at garage sales or somewhere online, you will probably not have to take a loss on any you purchase. There are several reputable web sites that buy most any used CDs in good condition, or you can always place them for sale on Amazon.com or Ebay. Even if you do not make a bungle of money on a particular title, you will probably break even as long as you did not pay too much for it to begin with. Just remember the Beanie Babies craze as a lesson on how not to get carried away by collectibles fever. Good hunting!
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