ActionPerformed will only get triggered by hitting enter in the text field with the listener. Even if triggers though, you will not get the value from a new CD that you are entering, because it is not yet in the list model until you click "add". Instead, what will be set in the field will be the value of the last CD (the one that currCD points to). To alleviate that you would have to either calc the price from text fields that you do have, or have the "Add" button create a new blank CD to work with and put in a Save button that added it to the list model.