Used CDs + DVDs = New iPhone, iPod or Hard Drive

I have a confession to make: I'm something of a collector. it's been that way since I was a kid. It started with baseball cards, followed by stamps, Sports Illustrated magazines, cassette tapes, CDs, books, video tapes and, most recently, DVDs. If my parents are reading this, I'm sure they're' nodding repeatedly.

With technology evolving as it has, CDs (and to some degree, DVDs) are becoming more and more obsolete, but those of us who've collected them over the years will still have these space-takers. Which is why a site like iPodMeister is such an interesting option.

According to this CNET article, iPodMeister will take your used CDs or DVDs (even paying for the shipping), and in exchange, give you a brand spanking new hard drive, iPod or iPhone. What you get depends on how many CDs/DVDs you send them (the minimum is 150 discs), and they can't actually send you an iPhone, since you need to activate it, so they'll just send you a check for the cost of the phone.

And since you probably want to keep a lot of your music, they'll even digitize your CDs for you if you don't want to take the time to do it yourself. But, for them to perform that service, the disc exchange rate is higher, meaning the minimum number of discs you need to send jumps to 250.

It sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me and, according to the article's author, he hasn't found any complaints about the company. There are certain criteria the CDs and DVDs have to meet, so check out the site for the details.

Photo courtesy of Eelke de Blouw, via Flickr