Hi, Welcome to my eBay listings! Offered here is a vintage SPARS code "AAD" CD as pictured. I played this CD all the way through on my Sony CFD-S05 (see picture posted) and it played great with no playback issues. Forgive any glare and reflections in my photos. See Seller Notes for details. I use cardboard + bubble packaging for safety in shipping.
Vintage CDs can be more desirable than brand new CDs sold by FYE and other retailers. On the average, I'd expect to pay around $19 each ($13.39, plus $4.39 shipping, plus tax) online for today's new CDs. In a way, that's a benchmark, but to the true collector, it's like apples and oranges. Note that while used CDs commonly have cracked cases, people can usually find a replacement for just 99 cents at a thrift shop. In normal grading, "Standard Jewel Cases are not graded as they are replaceable" but in 'eBay grading' (see picture posted), it's the opposite. For buyers, identifying SPARS code CDs (mostly made circa 1984-96) online can be a challenge. I don't do it, but many sellers just use 'stock' or other sellers' photos. If that's not for you, I'm personally photographing each CD, so consider buying from me. I don't try to specifically date CDs, rather just show through my real pictures if a CD item does or doesn't bear a SPARS code. This way, if there were SPARS code and then non-SPARS code versions made, buyers can know if they're getting an earlier version or not.
I see a variety of CDs from estate cleanouts. Scratches on CDs don't 'sound', as in the thumps, crackles and pops going on with vinyl records. But, visually, on the non-clear part of the non-label side, CDs range from: (A) having an uncountable quantity of scratches (they weren't stored in their cases) to (B) having a number of scratches (they weren't religiously put back in their holders) to (C) having a couple fun days where some scratches occurred (usually well kept otherwise) to (D) having few if any notable scratches (they were exceptionally well kept). Besides needing wet-cleaning per fingerprints, I'd say the CD offered here is closest to (C).
In the digital vs. analog debate, we're talking about the format, not the recording technique. For example, a vinyl record is analog even if the music was recorded digitally. As a format, CDs are optical discs, just like LaserDiscs (LD) are. LaserDiscs came first, by the way. They were analog. It's analog technology: records have grooves and optical discs have 'lands and pits' under the aluminum (which remind me of an antique format, the Polyphon disc). In 1984, America made it's first CD and also in that year, the first 'combi' LD/CD players such as the Pioneer CLD-9000 came out. The recording itself isn't part of the debate, but CDs boasted "digital audio" which would be a great marketing point, except even today there's no digital speakers on the market. Not that you can listen to them digitally, but probably the closest thing to true digital audio would be a WAV file. With CDs, "digital audio" is really just audio sampling, even though our ears can't detect that either.
In the beginning around 1982 and into at least the mid-90's, how the process started was to record the audio source material through an adapter as a video signal onto analog VHS-like 3/4" magnetic tape called U-matic (referred to by Sony as the "U-matic master tape"). Sony called this "pre-mastering" and the SPARS code called it "mastering (transcription)", but some folks claim it's "remastering". Word is that most "AAD" SPARS code CDs weren't remastered, rather it was like a flat / straight transfer. It seems to me that both Sony's "premastering" and SPARS "mastering" would allow for remastering as part of the process, if someone wanted to do that. If so, this would account for how a CD could be both "AAD" and "remastered", which I've certainly seen. Next in the process, the U-matic mastertape got handed off to the manufacturing end where it's run through a formatter which accomplishes sampling and such (the data could be transferred by a server via high speed network for error-checking, too), and a Laser Beam Recorder (LBR is controlled by the formatter) is used to cut the data into a photo-resist. This manufacturing process was done by a person, mostly working at a keyboard and CRT monitor, through a CPU (and it's memory). See the wiki-pedia article on "Sampling (signal processing)" to read that: "In effect, the system commonly referred to as digital is in fact a discrete-time, discrete-level analog of a previous electrical analog". Fathers / mothers / stampers were made from the photo-resist so that CDs themselves could be pressed and coated.
I posted photos of (vintage) CD instructions that I found on the net. CD cases can be tricky to open, discs stubborn to remove from the tray, and cleaning discs dry / wet usually needs doing too. In eBay's grading / condition-type system (see picture posted), sellers must choose one descriptor like "Brand new" or "Acceptable". There's no specific mention of what discs themselves look like. Used CDs have marks like scratches that are usually just cosmetic and removeable. Cleaning CDs can cause scratches. People who want scratches removed can have a disc resurfaced at their expense on a machine like the Elm Eco Pro 2. Some eBay sellers sell this service and so do some game shops and libraries. I don't like to clean CDs and cause more scratches and I choose not to resurface. I feel these should be left for the collector to do as they see fit.
Playing devices vary. It's happened to me that a CD played perfectly in my Dell PC but then it played with glitches in my Sony. I've come to realize my Sony is 'sensitive' for some unknown reason (weak laser?), so that's the device I use to test CDs before listing them on eBay. Just like with cleaning CDs, devices need cleaning too. I posted a picture of a CD lens cleaning disc. People can use those, or clean a device's lens with isopropyl on a Q Tip (see picture posted). If people don't do these things, CDs can play with glitches like skipping. Part of eBay's grading system per "Very good" and "Good" (not to be confused with grades of the same name in the normal grading system) condition-types is: "The CD/DVD doesn't skip". I always make sure CDs don't do that in my Sony, but it's unknown to me how any CD will play on someone else's device.
An IsoBuster surface scan can be done on discs to check and see if they're error-free (see picture posted). I've found through experience that CDs can still need cleaning anyway or they may not play right. They're operational (able to be used) and not unreadable but won't play correctly unless following CD instructions and cleaning them. I sell all used CDs as being in eBay's "Acceptable" condition, even if they'd be in VG, VG+, or NM condition in the non-eBay grading system (where there's no mention of how a CD in those grades actually plays). I do it this way to be sure I'm complying on eBay. ~Chris in NJ, USA