Why Do CDs Get Scratched So Easily?

[Teasing the Korean]

When I look at a disc that I've bought sealed and played sparingly, I'm sometimes amazed by seeing a significant number of scratches. They are usually superficial.

I play CDs in my car, on my work computer, and on my CD player at home. I handle them pretty well.

Do you think one or more of the players is scratching them?

[kh1958]

Probably your car player is doing the damage.

[mikeweil]

Polycarbonate, the material CDs are made of, is rather soft and gets scratched rather easily - the smallest grain of dust in the slot taking the disc can cause scratches. 

[chewy-chew-chew-bean-benitez]

on cd-rs, this can be an issue- on manufactured regular cds...who cares? scratches dont do anything. i just scored one of my all time holy grail cds finds- pink floyd the wall japan-for-uk blackface harvest, disc 1 i would grade F--. it is scratched up beyond belief. you know how jsngry said that joe brazil tape was by far the worst sounding recording hes ever heard, well immagine that, but on a surface of a cd. plays perfectly. i also have a bowie lets dance made in japan cp-35 thats a little less scratched than that but still pretty bad looking, also plays perfectly

[JSngry]

I found a totally trashed copy of a Janet Jackson CD in the field behind my house. Brought it home, washed the dirt off, and it played flawlessly.

That Janet Jackson is tough.

[Dan Gould]

Miss Jackson if you're nasty.

[sonnymax]

Oh, and he is!

[shaft]

I just put the CDs back in the covers after playing them - never any scratches

Never use original CDs in the car - burn copies or go the iPod way!

/Shaft

[AllenLowe]

I actually found a totally trashed Janet Jackson in a field behind my house - took her home, cleaned her up, and let her back out into the wild.

[Christiern]

Because they have an itch?

[Claude]

What do the scratches look like? If the player did it, the scratches would all look similar.

[Christiern]

If your cat did it, there's always the window

[Lyin' Wolf]

I'll never figure out what makes some go crazy over scratches or scuffs that don't affect play.

Remember back in the day when "Two Headed Freap" was out OOP and getting big bucks on Ebay? I'm talking $50-75 or so.

Back on the old Blue Bulletin Board, some board member obtained a copy of this rare gem and was dissatisfied with the scuffing on the disc. Before he sent it back to the seller, he decided to offer it on the board for $20. I was lucky enough to be the guy who saw it first and pounced.

I got the disc and it played flawlessly. It's short - so there's a lot of unrecorded space on the disc. When I examined it, I saw that the scuffs were in the unrecorded portion of the disc only. I'm thankful that he offered it to board members and that I was in the right place at the right time - but to this day I just can't figure out why anyone would part with such a disk given the market conditions for that disk, at that time.