Secondhand CD bundles are one of the best value purchases in physical media. A box of twenty discs can cost less than one new album, and the music is identical to what the original owner heard. What is not identical is the condition: cases arrive cloudy, booklets smell of cigarettes, and some discs look like they have been stored in a shed.<\/p>\n
Most of that damage is cosmetic, and most of it can be reversed. Work in the right order and you will save nearly everything.<\/p>\n
Tip the whole lot onto a clean towel and separate the discs into three piles.<\/p>\n
Test the suspect pile before spending time on it. A disc that skips badly in one player may play in another, but a disc with a bubbled or bronzed reflective layer will not improve. That is disc rot, and it is not cleanable.<\/p>\n
Work from the centre outwards, never in circles. Clean the label side gently if needed, but keep liquids away from the edge where the layers meet.<\/p>\n
A little isopropyl alcohol on a microfiber cloth lifts adhesive residue from stickers and tape. Do not soak the disc and do not use acetone, nail polish remover, or abrasive polish on the playing side. If a mark will not come off with gentle work, leave it; the player’s error correction may read through it anyway, as explained in our guide to scratched discs and error correction<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mold appears as white or grey fuzz on the booklet or inside a damp case. Treat it outdoors or in a well-ventilated room.<\/p>\n Do not put damp booklets back into cases. Paper holds moisture, and a closed case becomes a small greenhouse.<\/p>\n Smoke odour lives in paper and in the soft plastic of cases. Plastic can be washed. Paper is harder.<\/p>\n Wash in warm soapy water, rinse, and air dry in shade. If the smell persists, soak in a bowl with a spoon of baking soda for an hour, then rinse again.<\/p>\n Stand them upright in a ventilated room for several days. Placing them in a box with an open container of baking soda helps, as does a sealed bag with a charcoal sachet. Avoid direct sun, which fades print. If a booklet still smells after a week, replace the case and keep the paper separate from the rest of your collection.<\/p>\n Price labels and security stickers leave a gum that attracts dust. Warm the sticker with a hairdryer on low for a few seconds, peel slowly, then remove the remainder with isopropyl on a cloth. For cracked jewel cases, swap the lid rather than the whole case; the tray and booklet stay with the disc. Our note on cracked cases and broken hubs<\/a> covers the same repair for DVD packaging.<\/p>\n Let everything air dry fully before reassembly. Store discs upright, away from radiators and direct sun. A dry, stable shelf does more for longevity than any cleaning product.<\/p>\n Once the box is clean, you will want a player that reads older discs without complaint. Browse our CD players for models with strong error correction and a tray that treats a thirty-year-old disc gently.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A cheap box of used CDs often arrives smelling of smoke with cloudy cases and fuzzy booklets. Most of it can be saved. Here is the safe cleaning order.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[187,1193,1515],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64532"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64546,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64532\/revisions\/64546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/perladar.com\/th\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Tackling Mold<\/h2>\n
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Removing Smoke Smell<\/h2>\n
For cases<\/h3>\n
For booklets<\/h3>\n
Sticky Residue and Cracked Cases<\/h2>\n
Drying and Storing<\/h2>\n