spacey
 
It wasn't mean. It was a helpful idea as the OP marked.

 
That was me marking them as helpful Michael!  Hehe... 
 
 
(I know how you intended them to be taken and that you would never be mean to someone posting a serious question, but I still had to have some fun with it!  I mean, a guy's trying to do something with CD's he's made, can't even give them away, and you show a mobile made from CD's?  Come on, that's great!  )

They also make good coasters, I have found.

craigb

spacey
 
It wasn't mean. It was a helpful idea as the OP marked.

 
That was me marking them as helpful Michael!  Hehe... 
 
 
(I know how you intended them to be taken and that you would never be mean to someone posting a serious question, but I still had to have some fun with it!  I mean, a guy's trying to do something with CD's he's made, can't even give them away, and you show a mobile made from CD's?  Come on, that's great!  )

 
Well....I thought it was funny and a good idea...they do get very colorful and neat looking :)
 
 
Seriously...
I would think by now that most people would realize if one can't get noticed on Youtube it may not be a wise decision to be spending money on quantities of CD's unless you are planning on giving them away or making toasters AND if one doesn't know what to do with them BEFORE they spend the cash and then asking AFTER sure makes it all seem so...backwards.
 
I shot a great deal of pool most of my life. I've known from a very young age that there are players that have no idea what their next shot would be IF they made one. When they asked for help to improve I would try to explain how to look at the playing field...and I also realized there are some things that some people will never get a grip on or it will take to long and to much effort for one to help them...so jokes and drinks made it funny and to where the shortcomings of the game didn't matter at all. Drink up! Did ya here the one about...
 
 

drma173
So I finish my album with 15 songs. I made 50 copies and it is hard to get rid of them. 

You're basically in the same situation as the whole recording industry, only on a smaller scale.

This is a problem that has been affecting poets and visual artists since the dawn of time, but until the arrival of affordable recording technology, the recording musician has been insulated from the fact that there is no clear market for his creations by the dark overlords of the music industry. Companies that invest millions in recording musicians and people who receive enormous bonuses or face job losses based on their choices, employ great diligence to avoid signing unmarketable musicians or to promote the ones that do not bring their own customers. Self-promotion without an industrial strength budget is pretty much limited to the kind of thing Bitflipper advises. BTW I have a couple of albums by Peruvian flute bands that are pretty good listening, but only because my wife stopped on the street corner where they were playing.

If you are at the point of just giving them away I'd say keep them. They may come in handy later for various reasons. I'm down to the last half dozen of one of my band's CD and they are now apparently a collectors item... BUT even if it weren't it's just something cool to have around for other gigs.
 
Like say I started another band and we were gigging and had our own CDs or merch or whatever. People at shows WANT to buy stuff. If I only have one CD and one shirt for the new band both going for ten bucks each and I have an enthusiastic merch hound with thirty bucks burning a hole in his pocket I could say "Hey, I've got this here CD of my old band... wanna buy it?". They just might.
 
We used to do this all the time with other bands CDs and merch. We had a little community of like minded local musicians so whenever one of us went on the road we would drag along some merch from our buddies bands so that if people had already bought all our stuff or were interested in the other acts well those bands get promoted out of town, make a sale even though they are not there and we get an extra bit of hard cash for the touring fund (which can go into the gas tank in an emergency and we just pay the other band back when we get home... and of course they would usually give a cut to us). It's a good way to do things and build up a "scene" vibe for your town.
 
The other thing is maybe someone will offer you a chance to get on a compilation. You can send them a manufactured product which looks better than a burnt CD or a digital file. Now they also have it in their collection and might play it for their friends or maybe they run a radio show or something.
 
Aaaaand if you get REALLY broke you can go out busking. I'm not sure what you do exactly but I used to go out with my guitar and play my stuff. I never had a CD of that work BUT if I did I could have made WAY more money. Passersby tend to take  street performers with CDs more seriously and will toss more change at you and/or inquire about the CD which you can of course sell to them.
 
So yeah... I've never considered having CDs laying around a problem. I actually wish I had hung on to more of some of my manufactured stuff.
 
Cheers.