< When advertising offends | Main | Minnesota sells the good china >

Cities '97 Sampler sells out again

Posted at 12:07 PM on November 17, 2011 by Bob Collins (9 Comments)
Filed under: Arts

One of these days, the live TV interviews of people sleeping out at Target to be the first to buy the Cities 97 Sampler CD will include the question, "How long do you think it will take you to post it on E*Bay?"

This year's sampler, which certainly appeared to be worth sleeping out for, sold out in three hours, according to the Pioneer Press.

About 300 of them are already listed on E*Bay, where the market appears to favor a $45 charge. It retailed for about $26.

That still leaves plenty of people who intend to keep the CD, since the station made 33,000 of them and will donate the $800,000 in profits to charity.

Comments (9)

I was glad I got to preorder my copy a couple of weeks ago. And to answer the question, No, I won't be putting it on Ebay.

Posted by Matt B | November 17, 2011 12:56 PM

I'm a Current Live (Volumes 1-7) kind of guy myself.......

Posted by andy | November 17, 2011 1:01 PM

Artificial scarcity will do that...

Posted by Tyler | November 17, 2011 1:17 PM

Tyler - the scarcity is due to licensing issues. The artists generously donate the performances, so overall supply is limited to how many pressings can be negotiated without hitting the threshold at which royalties would be due.

Posted by Valerie | November 17, 2011 1:49 PM

I wonder how many just imported the songs onto their computer and are now just turning around and selling the cd...

Posted by BenCh | November 17, 2011 1:51 PM

They ought to produce some more, give more to charity, and undercut the resellers.

Posted by John P. | November 17, 2011 1:54 PM

I don't believe they CAN make more. I think the artists relinquish their work in exchange for the promise of a limited distribution.

Posted by Bob Collins | November 17, 2011 2:09 PM

I think Clear Channel/Cities 97 and Target should make the Sampler available starting at 5 a.m. on the Saturday after Black Friday.

Posted by John P II | November 17, 2011 2:15 PM

People still listen to cds in Minnesota? Of course I've heard that new trends always start in California, by I figured that you would have cannabis infiltrated with audio waves by now. :-)

Posted by Jim Shapiro | November 17, 2011 5:12 PM