$30 a CD? This is how my friends and I did it back in the day: 12 CDs for the price of 1 through BMG music club
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/n...-more-bmg-music-service-ends-in-june-20090310
and sometimes they were half off...
Then just "borrow" CDs from friends to expand your collection.
Mate,
I'm not American. I lived in a country where CDs and records were priced at one of the most expensive levels in the world and didn't have such clubs. Besides, there was no burning CDs when I was young, I was there at the beginning of the CD revolution. We copied to tape which was fun, but the quality was poor. Things like music and gasoline were so much cheaper in the states.