Some of you know things about CDs.

[G.Silver]

I've been buying CDs off the internet from half.com or amazon's marketplace for a while now, and every now and then a description comes up that says something like "hole punched in bar code" or something like that. I always thought that seemed a little suspicious and wondered what it meant, but I never found out and would go for items that were a little more "Like New" than "Like New with a Hole in it."

Anyway, today I got a CD with a hole punched in the bar code (it wasn't in the description) so now I feel I should find out what it means before I accidentally buy more. I googled around a bit and some places say it's a common thing (marks over the code are also common, apparently) in their used CD supplies, but not why the hole is there. I'm hoping it's not like a book or magazine with the cover torn off or a Japanese CD published by SM or EverAnime, but...

(I also sometimes wonder how many CDs and DVDs on half.com listed as "new" are shoplifted from retailers and then sold online, but I try not to think about it)

[WhoopA]

I know that sometimes CDs marked for clearance in traditional stores have a hole filed into the case; a way of marking it "as is, no returns" quite visible. Maybe it's something like that.

[Green Gibbon!]

I don't know about CD's, but I remember back at GameStop when we'd get shipments of new games from other stores, they'd deliberately mark over the bar code or notch the case or defile it in a similar manner. The reasoning was that we could only sell them as used (even though they were factory-sealed games), but I can't imagine why they'd want to do that anyway except to prevent possible confusion behind the counter. I don't know if that brings anything to light in regards to the CD's, though.

[Psxphile]

If you scan a bar code that a reader wouldn't recognize, would it damage it or return a simple *error* message?

Maybe it's just to keep people from scanning things they shouldn't be scanning. It's easier to deface the code than to extract the label from where it was affixed.

[Popcorn]

If you scan a bar code that a reader wouldn't recognize, would it damage it or return a simple *error* message?

Every day millions of dollars' worth of damage is caused by bar code scanners exploding after non-barcoded objects are accidentally passed in front of it.

[Crazy Penguin]

But they continue to be a boon to the zebra trade industry.

[Green Gibbon!]

Once when we installed some new scanners at the store, the hulking, slack-jawed idiot of an assisstant manager (nice guy, though) gazed straight into the flashing red laser with an expression of awe on his face.

Happier days, those.

[G.Silver]

The reasoning was that we could only sell them as used (even though they were factory-sealed games), but I can't imagine why they'd want to do that anyway except to prevent possible confusion behind the counter.

I don't know if it was from you or someone else, but I heard EB used to take the games returned in their old (?) one-week anything-goes return policy and sell them as new, so it sounds to me like it's some check deep within the company that forces them to be honest at least some of the time.

I don't know if that applies to the CDs either but it's a nice enough explanation for me.

[Knuckles Dawson]

The two-week policy regarding EB returns here in Canada ended about 2003

[Green Gibbon!]

The same thing happened at GameStop. Apparently some guys sued some game stores in the southwest for selling games as "new" that had been opened and played. They were justified in doing that, I think, and it forced the companies to adopt real return policies (ie, if it's open, exchange for same item only).