Frequently Asked Questions

If you've never sold CD's or tapes before, you might not know what to expect when you bring them in to us.

Here's some commonly asked questions and our responses to them. If you can think of anything else you'd like to know, please tell us. We want to add any information our customers need.

Remember, our store is open 9am until Midnight every day, including Sunday. You can give us a call any time if you want to check whether we have a particular item in stock. We want your shopping experience to be an easy and pleasant one.

Questions

1. Where are you located?
2. What are your store hours?
3. Do you sell gift certificates?
4. Are you a local based company?
5. Where do your used CD's come from?
6. Why do people sell their CD's?
7. Do you sell new CD and DVD's?
8. What are my CD's worth?
9. Do you buy cassette tapes?
10. What's the average you pay?
11. Can used CD's hurt my player?
12. You will offer cash for any and all CD, DVD, or LP's?
13. Do I need an appointment to bring music in?
14. Do I get more in trade?
15. How many CD's do you buy a day?
16. Do you have live music performances at your location?
17. Do you sell anything other than CD, DVD, and LP's?
18. What are green tags?
19. Do you have a computerized inventory?
20. Do you listen to every CD you buy to make sure it's okay?
21. What is your return policy?
22. What do I do if my CD's were stolen?
23. Do you do mail order?
24. Do you have a look out service?
25. How does my band get their CD in your store?

Answers

Q: Where are you located?

A: We are in the center of Austin. Conveniently located at the corner of 10th and Lamar. We have plenty of parking around our free standing store.

Q: What are your store hours?

A: We are open 9am till midnight 366 days a year. That means we are open on your birthday, so come on down!

Q: Do you sell gift certificates?

A: Yes we do. You can purchase a gift certificate for your friends and family in any dollar amount. They can use their gift certificate anytime they want within a year or two of purchase.

Q: Are you a local based company?

A: Yes, sorta. The owner of Cheapo Texas (Jason Shields) was born in Dallas in 1969, and moved to Austin in 1974 where he attended many of the local schools (the reason behind his grammar errors). At the age of 15 he and his mother moved to Minnesota to take care of his grandmother. At the age of 19 he started working at Cheapo records (His 2nd job after being a line chef at Pizza Hut). He worked at Cheapo records for five years and watched the company grow from two stores to seven stores. In 1994 he saved enough money to move back home (Austin, TX). He opened a store called Under the Sun with his brother, and after a year or two sold his half to his brother. In 1997 he applied for jobs at every record store in Austin (there were about 15 at that time) No one hired him, so he opted to open his own business. He called his old boss, and after a long fifteen minute meeting they decided to open a Cheapo in the grand state of TEXAS. The doors to Cheapo Texas opened March 17th, 11998 (St. Patrick's day, Jason is also Irish). The store has been operated by Jason Shields now for over five years, and has been voted the best used CD store in Austin for four years by the readers of the Austin Chronicle. Jason shields owns cheapo texas, and never plans to move away from Austin ever again!

Q: Where do your used CD's come from?

A: From people just like you who sell them to us. Once in a while we buy collections from a store liquidating its stock, but our immense used CD inventory is almost entirely from customers coming in and selling us a few discs at a time. Over the years, we've accumulated quite a varied collection of musical gems (and a lot of junk).

Q: Why do people sell their CD's?

A: Music connoisseurs may balk at this question, but people who have never bought used CD's ask it a lot. Folks sell CD's for a variety of reasons. Maybe they need some quick cash, maybe they're tired of the stuff they have, or maybe they're moving and don't want to haul boxes of heavy CD's with them. Whatever the reason, we want to buy them. The only exception to this is when we have reason to believe that the discs are stolen, either from another person or some other store. In this case, we do our best to put the criminals behind bars.

Q: Do you sell new CD and DVD's?

A: We sell many new CD's, and get new ones in on a daily basis. If you are out of stock on a CD we can always order if for you if its still in print. Most orders can get to you within seven days. As far as DVD's we only stock used DVD's at this time, but we do have over 700 titles to choose from.

Q: What are my CD's worth?

A: That depends on how likely the title is to sell, what condition it's in, the price we sell it for, and how many copies we already have. At Cheapo, we make an offer on any and all CD's, DVD's, and LP's. But if the item is scratched, if we have a lot of copies of it, or if it's a piece that we know will sit on our shelves for a long, long time, we can't offer as much for it. If you bring music in to sell us, we can always tell you how much you're getting for each individual piece.

Q: Do you buy cassette tapes?

A: At this time, no. If you have a box you want to dump on us we can take them for you, you never know when we ant to make a big ole art piece out of discarded cassette tapes.

Q: What's the average you pay?

A: There is no average. We pay five cents to five dollars per disc, Five cents to seven dollars for dvd's, and a penny to three dollars for records. Because we have the highest volume of used music in the state, we do get multiple copies of lots of titles. Believe it or not, there are quite a few CD's that we have over 50 copies of! Obviously, if we have that many of something, we can't offer much for it. So if you bring ten CD's in to sell to us, you may get offered $50, or you might get offered $2.50, depending on the factors listed above.

Q: Can used CD's hurt my player?

A: No. Unlike a tape or record player, CD's are read using a laser beam, so no physical part comes in contact with the playing surface of the disc. Therefore even the most damaged CD can't hurt the player.

Q: You will offer cash for any and all CD, DVD, or LP's?

A: Yes, as long as it is complete (case, booklet, and back) and it looks like it has a reasonable chance of playing.

Q: Do I need an appointment to bring music in?

A: No. We are open 9 a.m. to Midnight every day, and we buy music every hour of the day. However like to stop buying at 10pm nightly. If you are bringing in LP's please do so between 9am and 6pm monday-Friday.

Q: Do I get more in trade?

A: Cheapo offers you the most we can for what you bring in, and don't penalize you if you want to take cash rather than buy something else from us. Hey, it'syour money, you should be able to do what you want with it! We offer you a single price for your music, which you may either take in cash or apply towards product in the store. Some stores say they will trade you one of their discs for two of yours, but that's only if they want the discs you bring in. Since we make an offer on everything you have, we don't do even trades.

Q: How many CD's do you buy a day?

A: We get between 500 and 1000 discs every day!! No other store in Texas matches our volume.

Q: Do you have live music performances at your location?

A: Yes we do! On a regular basis we have live music the first Friday of every month. You can always find the updated schedule on our web site. If a band wants to book a special performance with us out side of our regular 1st Fridays they can do so. They need to call and talk to Jason Shields. Every year for SXSW we always pack our schedule with local and touring bands. Last year we had over 50 bands play in a four day period.

Q: Do you sell anything other than CD, DVD, and LP's?

A: We do have a variety of accessories (blank CD's, cassettes, Cd holders, cleaning solutions), a large variety of music related posters, and wealso carry local band T-shirts. Our DVD selection is growing everyday.

Q: What are green tags?

A: Green tags are CD's that have visible scratches on the playing surface. When we buy CD's, we separate the ones that are scratched and mark them as green tags, which sell for less than the disc would if it was flawless. Just like all our used product, green tags are 100% guaranteed, and may beexchanged within 10 days of purchase. Since a visible scratch doesn't necessarily mean the disc won't play, green tags are an excellent no-risk value!

Q: Do you have a computerized inventory?

A: No we do not at this time. If you are looking for something we can always go out and check for you, at no additional cost. Once they work out all the bug with these so called computers we will think about getting a Commodore 64.

Q: Do you listen to every CD you buy to make sure it's okay?

A: Think about this one for a second. Say we only got in 100 CD's per day, and say each one was an average length of 45 minutes. That would be 75 hours of music per day that we would have to pay people to listen to. At 8 hours per employee, we'd need to hire ten employees just to do that. Since in reality we get in a lot more than 100 discs a day, there is no practical way we could listen to all of them. That's why we visually inspect them to weed out any visibly scratched titles and offer a 100% guarantee on all our used items.

Q: What is your return policy?

A: All used product is 100% guaranteed. If it doesn't work properly, or even if you just don't like it, you have 10 days to exchange it toward anything else in the store. If you don't find anything you like, or don't have time to look for something else, we can give you a store credit which never expires. Sorry, no cash refunds.

New product is guaranteed against defects for 10 days. In order to keep our overhead low, we do not accept returns on open used product unless it is defective. If it is defective, we will exchange the disc for another copy of the same title. No substitutions allowed. Sorry, strict return penalties by the major record labels have forced us to be very strict about new product returns. If the new product is still sealed, you can return it for a full refund or exchange.

All returns require the original register receipt.

Q: What do I do if my CD's were stolen?

Unfortunately this does happen, we at Cheapo do our best to help you get your property back. We cannot do anything without a list of stolen CD's and a police case number. You must call the police department and file with them to get a police case number. Once you have obtained that number you can send us a list of CD's and if they come in we will call the police with the case number and go from there. Fax us your list at (512) 477-9352, or email it to us at stolenstuff@cheapotexas.com. You might also want to contact the other CD stores in the area. The best way is the yellow pages. Also contact pawn shops. (We are currently trying to get a full list to save you time, but it is not near ready yet)

Q: Do you do mail order?

Yes we do! send us your want list, we will fill it as much as possible and then we will contact you for a total and shipping charges.

Q: Do you have a look out service?

At this time we do not, and until we have a computerized inventory this would be impossible. You can always let us know what your looking forand if we happen to stumble across it we will try to contact you, but since we put out over 500 CD's a day it gets to be pretty hard to remember what everyone was looking for.

Q: How does my band get their CD in your store?

We do consignment with bands all over Texas. All you have to do is come in and fill out a little paper work and they will be on our shelves in no time. We usually mark up consignments about 30%-our ideal price is to give you $8, and sell it to our customers for $11.99. When bringing in your consignments please bring them in groups of 5-10.