Patience is a virtue

If I've learned one thing about buying CDs, it's that you almost always will get a better price if you can wait.

If you don't think you absolutely need it today, wait. If it's not on sale, wait.

Just wait. It works. You'll save a few smackeroos every time.

Waiting even works if you're trying to stick it to The Man. On July 21, I wrote on my good buddy Larry's site, HickoryWind.org, about my displeasure over Starbucks landing an exclusive distribution deal for Bob Dylan's "Live at the Gaslight 1962." It wasn't so much that it was Starbucks. I'm more of a Dunkin Donuts man, but I've bought CDs (and drinks) at Starbucks. It wasn't so much that Starbucks is a ginormous corporation driving family businesses off every streetcorner, though it's no secret that I prefer independent record stores. It really was the terms of the deal. Starbucks landed the exclusive right, beginning on Aug. 30, to sell the Dylan CD for 18 months.

Eighteen months. My little girl, who hasn't been born yet, will be over a year old by the time I can go in a record store and buy this CD. I swore that I'd never go into a Starbucks and buy the disc.

I was determined to stick to my guns, but I guess we'll never know if I would have made it. Because last weekend when I was in a great record store in College Park, Md., CDpot, I found a used copy of "Gaslight." I'm not the only one that's going to find it there. They had at least five used copies.

Victory is mine.