Originally Posted by MusicLover7

Cut-Out Titles

Cut-out tiles are the discs that turn up in the discount bins at Wal-mart and other such stores, as well some larger record store chains. These are CDs that the label or distributor have decided to no longer carry in their catalog (known as "cut-out titles" in the business), and their remaining stock is sold in bulk at a deep discount, often pennies per disc. These discs are marked at the warehouse and sold in very large lots (hundreds of thousands) to wholesalers who specialize in these discs. The wholesalers then resell them to record stores and discount chains, in large lots (500 discs and up) without any choice as to which specific titles are included, although the retailer probably is told what the better titles are in the batch as a selling point. The wholesaler uses the sellable titles within these lots to dispose of the unsellable dreck also included.

A few of these discs are still in print in a different form. Sometimes one label will buy another, and the old stock will be cut-out, even though these recordings will continue to be sold with a different UPC and label name on the packaging. Sometimes titles will be replaced with an improved pressing (extra tracks added, remastered sound) and the old stock will be cut-out. Most often the disc is no longer in print at all. No matter why the label decided to let them go cheap, there are good deals on hard-to-find discs to be found in cut-out bins. Sometimes discs for which one has been looking for years will turn up.

On occasion, the sawmarks or drilling do not penetrate completely through the jewel case and leave the inserts unmarked. These could be moved to a new jewel case, and be indistinguishable from a non-cut-out CD. Be on the watch for this when searching through a cut-out bin, and try to look at all copies of any title you've selected to buy, in order to get the least damaged copy.

Originally Posted by MooMooMooMoo

A couple corrections:
1. some cutouts are overstock rather then deletions.
2. There are a number of cutout wholesalers who do allow cd retailers to pick the titles they order in the quantities they wish.