Charles Spencer

Taking risks

Charles Spencer on his addiction to buying CDs

issue 15 November 2008

I had what reformed alkies call a moment of clarity last week. On one of my regular trawls through the Amazon website, I clicked the One-day 1-Click button and ordered the first CD in what I felt in my guts was going to be an expensive and enjoyable binge. But instead of the usual response thanking me for my order there was a problem. My credit card had expired. All I had to do, however, was enter the details of the new one, already activated, signed and tucked away in my wallet, and we could immediately get back to business as usual. Instead I decided enough was enough and let my account lapse. 

About six months ago I bought a new shelving unit that comfortably holds 200 CDs. It is already almost full. This suggests an average buying rate of about one CD a day, seven a week, 30 a month, more than 350 a year at a cost, I’d guess, of about £3,000 per annum.

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