Which Countries Don't Wrap Their CDs?
 

I have bought several imported cds and most of them have come wrapped but does anyone know which countries don't wrap their cds in plastic?

Thanks

In my experience with shipping/receiving, I came across many import CDs from around the world. It seems to be 'vendor-specific' more than 'country-specific'. But, I've seen brand new unwrapped CDs from:
Japan
Australia
Germany
Canada (some really small suppliers)
UK

I'm sure there's others, but those are the first to come to mind.

Note that all those import cd's ARE wrapped in plastic in their respective countries. Most of them are just taken out of the plastic before importing into the US. It has something to do with taxes on import goods, since the cd's are already opened, they are taxed differently than if they were "new". Years ago, a good friend did most of the import ordering for dance music for Bill's Records in Dallas as well as a few independent cd shops that were big on import cd singles and that was how he always explained it....
Jon

Is Bill's Records and Tapes still around? I haven't been there since high-school.

The Bill's that you probably knew from the Coit/Spring Valley area is no longer there, he shut it down a few years ago. He has since opened a new store somewhere off Lamar Blvd near I-30, but I haven't had a chance to go by there.
I know Bill gets a bad rap for his pricing and such, but it's pretty much the Mecca of record stores, he will have things you simply can't find anywhere else. I think half of my (large) Depeche Mode collection came from him at one point or another!
Jon

I went to Germany 16 years ago (has it really been that long??) mostly just to buy CDs and was pissed at how they didn't come shrinkwrapped there- most stores put their price tags right on the cases. I've got a couple that look like used CDs but they were the only copies I could find so I lived with it. There was one big chain store there called Globus (sort of like Wal-Mart I guess) where they shrinkwrapped all the CDs themselves so that's where I ended up buying most of them.

hey thanks for the replies. I received 2 cds from cdjapan yesterday and they were both wrapped. I think the only place that has shipped me cds that weren't wrapped is amazon.uk. 2 cds came from amazon.fr and they were wrapped.

Thanks for the replies guys and thanks for the info SubZeri:)

New Zealand doesn't, generally most CDs are kept outside the case behind the counters. I do like not dealing with those damned sticky security seals any more.

The new Bill's sucks ass. The store is filled with records that should be in a landfill somewhere. The organization of that place sucks. Nothing is priced and he basically just makes up a price on the spot for things as you bring them up to him.