Best of D.C. 2009

When the band breaks up, when the van breaks down, when you just can’t bring yourself to keep singing to the last three German teenagers who still care, it’s time to pack up the guitar and liquidate the dream. And there’s no better place to do that than eBay. Demand whatever ridiculous price you want—you might as well make some of your money back. But when the instrument you seek to unload is simply too sentimental, too unwieldy, or too unwanted to pawn off over the Internet, there’s always Atomic Music. The consummate professionals who run the Rockville-based music junkyard will fetch a good price for your unwanted music gear and still pass some savings on to the young, naïve schlub who comes in to buy it. Everybody wins (and, eventually, also loses).