All Poster Forum
Home Theater & Entertainment => General Discussion => Topic started by: Juli on July 30, 2012, 02:37:44 PM
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My DVD collection used to be 300 DVDs big. Over the last several months I have been selling off little by little for a few reasons: 1. I haven't watched most of my DVDs in a long time 2. The amount of money I can get for them is decreasing by the month. 3. They take up a lot of space.
I currently have 69 DVDs. They consist of my favorite movies and of movies I actually watch. I still feel this is too many DVDs. I know if I sold them right now I would get much more for them than if I sold them in a year from now. I have experienced that in April I could get $3 a DVD but now I can only get about $1-1.50 each. I know this is happening due to DVD format dying like VHS did a decade ago. Seeing as VHS sells for between 10-25 cents a piece (if they sell) my collection of 69 DVDs could be worth as little as $7 or $17.25 in a year from now if I am lucky. Not to mention VHS is a tough sell so I would have a difficult time unloading my collection too if I waited.
Problem is I really like the DVDs I have and I like the feeling of owning my favorite movies and being able to watch them whenever I feel like it. I am aware a new format (likely a digital format) will soon replace DVD and it will go the way of VHS. Problem is I will no longer have use for the old format movies when the new format takes over as I will much more likely prefer watching my favorite movies that new way.
I used to have my movies on VHS then when DVD took over I much preferred DVD so I replaced them with it. I had to spend a lot of money buying the new DVD format and when I sold the VHS tapes I was lucky to get $1 each for them at the time. Now you can't even give VHS away it seems. I don't like the thought that I will only be able to get a few dollars for my DVD collection when I replace them with the new format. However, I also want to be able to own my favorite movies the whole time. I don't like the thought that when the new format takes over I will have to rebuy my whole collection again and spend lots of money.
I did consider maybe having them transferred to a hard drive or something that I could hook up to my TV and watch when desired. However, I learned this doesn't really exist and you need them on your computer. The computer I have is small and I rarely use it now that I have an iPad.
What do you guys do about DVD? Do you still own them or do you have them on your computer? What do you think I should do?
Juli
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I will answer the question differently. I still own 600 laserdiscs. I buy new material on BluRay and am slowly replacing the laserdiscs, but I generally do not replace the DVDs with BluRay unless the title is both technically head and shoulders above and it is also one of my favorite 25 movies. For example, I now own Singin in the Rain in all three formats, but most of the harry Potter series is in DVD (6 and both 7s are in BR). I recently replaced 12 Angry Men from laserdisc to BluRay. If the movie is decent, you will get absorbed and ignore the quality.
The point is that if you enjoy the movies and watch them semi-regularly, why not hang onto them. I know you are cash strapped right now, but the whole lot won't get you $50 these days.
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I have a HUGE list of DVD's for sale which I posted about over here:
http://www.allposterforum.com/index.php/topic,4088.0.html
still selling as many as I can. Just started to acquire them and kept going nuts, now I have more than I'll ever watch so they have to go. PM me if you want a list of what I have for sale, no reasonable off refused!!!
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So I have decided I am going to sell everything except my top 25 favorite movies and Band of Brothers miniseries. I figure this won't take up as much space.
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(http://img1.etsystatic.com/000/0/5161228/il_fullxfull.123492881.jpg)
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Plenty of DVDs are worth good dollars and same for VHS, I sold a VHS for $400 recently. And the buyer got a good deal. If they are common movies and releases, why not convert them to avi files or something and keep on your pc, and cut your losses.
But like. Ideo we will be able to play DVDs for a long time yet (crimes I can and do still project. Super 8mm)
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What VHS sold for $400? That sounds like am awful lot of money.
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Knowing Ari, it was probably WORM-EATING ASTRO-ZOMBIES AT THE SHE-DEVIL HAMMER ORGY...
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it was SASQUATCH Aussie VHS release, I've seen VHS tapes sell for $2K before, ONE TAPE.
personally I have sold quite a few in the hundreds of dollars, MANY $50+, and a lot $10-$50
MOST are worth a dollar or so, or nothing. But can say the same about posters.
And yes VHS/BETA collectors an be as fussy as poster collectors.
and Ted, I do have a RARE Worm Eaters Aussie VHS, that is worth some $, but it isn't for sale. Ted Mikels didnt even sell the rights of his films to Australia, so it's interesting to me, he had never heard of 0r seen an Aussie video of his stuff, it blew his mind. He calls us pirates, as many of his films were released here on video and at cinemas etc, all unpaid for.
Actually I worked on the deal for the 1st time his films released legitimately in Australia.
(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51O0FBkyriL._SL500_SS500_.jpg)
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You sold your SASQUATCH?
You sold your SASQUATCH?
You sold your SASQUATCH?
You sold your SASQUATCH?
I am stunned.
mesmrized
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I hate myself also,
Actually its still in my hands,
but leaves soon.
I have the DVD and I have the daybill.
I must be content with that.
And I need all the $ I can gather for my move.
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A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do...
(http://i629.photobucket.com/albums/uu12/brude2000/GIFS/crocodile-tears.gif)
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(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rqjIDwHVALA/TpO70jNygeI/AAAAAAAABdk/o-PmGOXdfv8/s1600/The-Last-House-on-the-Left-its-only-a-movie.png)
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Why would the VHS be worth so much if there is a DVD?
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Same as posters, people collect them. It's nostalgia and history. Why spent hundreds or thousands on an original when you can get a cheap repro in mint condition?
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Oh. I always thought VHS was only worth something if the movie was unavailable in DVD/Blu-ray. I never realized people actually collected them.
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I never realized people actually collected them.
Oh, they do, but the number of titles that are both rare enough and sought after enough to be worth big money is very small. There are even fewer DVDs in this category I think because the availability is still fairly high. They need 10 more years before they are where VHS is now.
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Yeah like anything there is rarer titles and also owned that might be rare but need to be sought after, same as anything, supply and demand. I really know little about it all, but I can usually tell a video that has potential. Eg, metropolis might be a sought after poster, but I doubt the video would fetch much, and the reverse for something like Simon king of the witches.
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I had about 3,000 DVDs. Working in development for studios, I used to get them for free. I remember going through new releases, calling Tower Video (which doesn't exist anymore), using our company card to buy them, sending a messenger to pick them up and taking them home. Then about 5 years ago, I got rid of all the boxes to only keep DVDs in a sleeve. Then about a year ago, I put them all on a server and trashed them all.
DVDs are over, Blu-Rays are over. I have all the DVDs I need on the server (which I never watch, BTW) and stream the new ones.
T
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Just curious but do people that collect VHS tapes have a solution for tape degradation and hydrolysis? Someday their $400 Sasquatch is just gonna be a $400 reel of aliased digital separations and digital hits and eventually totally unwatchable!
When we get slow enough here at work we spend time going through archived movies to check for tape life errors. We just did The Return of Frank Cannon 1980 and Siringo 1996, both made for TV movies, both dubbed from the original studios masters and I failed them outright for poor video quality. Digital hits, head clogs, separations, tearing... just from sitting in a box on a shelf... :(
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I dont know the answer, I suggest that its not to play the tape but to own it (I am guessing) so probably they wont notice when its unplayable.
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I am definitely not dogging those who choose to collect VHS, I just find this subject fascinating because of the recent surge in the last twenty five years in preservation on all of our pre 19050's films shot on nitrate based stocks (and others from the 50's to now that need it) It's actually quite sad how much film has been lost from improper storage and most of that due to innocent ignorance. There are stories of silent era films just being destroyed to save space in a vault or to recycle for the silver! :P Here are some great links that talk about it and also what they are doing now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_preservation
http://www.filmpreservation.org/
Apparently a bunch of big wigs in the 80's went to congress to get them to pass a law to preserve film after Ted Turner started releasing all of RKO and MGMs old library in colorized form. A lot of the original directors or actors were still alive and they hated what he was doing to their original art form. Interestingly, George Lucas gave an amazing speech that basically negates his existence because he himself said that films should not be altered in any way from their ORIGINAL released form... 1997 Special Edition, making Ewoks blink, replacing Anakin at the end of ROTJ, the list goes on and on and on... BUT here is the speech...
http://savestarwars.com/lucasspeechagainstspecialedition.html
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i also dumped around 2000 VHS tapes 10-15 years ago when i saw dvd was killing it.
and i figured i should just get what i could as no one seemed interested in VHS at all!
i wish i hadnt, as i cant imagine what i could get for most of the tapes i let got for under £5
the trash i couldnt shift then im still getting £30 a tape for now and i got £170 not that long ago for dreadful tape of satan war! never even got to the end of the tape the 20 years i owned it
but to answer the question about storage. i have an MKV cyclone box which you just plug into the TV. im sure you can get better things now but i just stuck a hard drive in and your ready to rock. they are cheap as chips too :)
you can also just buy an external HD and add storage as and when you need. i only have about 10TB on drives but i do have about 15K titles on disc, which i need to slim down drastically.!!!
i just find it hard to part with.
im also getting to an age [mid 40s] were im thinking i dont have enough time to watch everything i own!!!
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Well, you folks have me scratching me little pea brain. So what if a format falls into disuse by the general population. My wife and I still collect books and as I recall, the Kindel, the internet and technology was the death knell of print. Does that mean I have to trash/unload our books? Naaaah. So dvd/blu goes away in a few years and new tech replaces it, just means yet another medium to enjoy, except for streaming which I freaking hate. I'll still have a ton of movies in the library along with printed volumes to enjoy at my leisure. And I may never revisit a tenth of those books or movies, but there they be if I want to and the mood strikes. And, the dust jackets and cases make very colorful walls in addition to the posters ;D.
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^ 100% agreed, actually books are the one thing I really have a hard time parting with, and luckily I rarely have to.
I now have an apad which has books, and I have fiound it handy to move, not have to bring my books (which would costs a HECk of a lot and I dont have room anyways), so DL all the Sherlock Holmes and Poe stuff (free) to keep me busy while i slowly start a fresh on collecting books, happy in knowing my treasures are safely packed away for that magical day when I own a castle or dungeon or something.
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My understanding is that the precious few VHSs which still fetch any money at all do so for the sake of the case, not the tape inside. I have an original Fox PnS Star Wars set if anyone is interested. LOL.
Much of what has been said here resonates well with me. I had started collecting VHS somewhat late, when DVD came out I dumped it all in one lump and collected DVD. This time around I didnt time it and the <100 I have left I cant seem to give away.
In retrospect we all probably should have waited for the inevitable HD format (though at the time we knew not what it would be) before doing any serious collecting. Nice as DVD was, it looks like crap now, whereas I predict that 1080 line is "good enough" to be watchable at home for the foreseeable future (screens at home can only be so big, and even on the biggest 120incher 1080 looks marvelous). 4K might bring interpixel data rendering and higher color depth, but it wont make blu-ray look bad the way blu-ray has made us turn our backs on DVD.
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Not quite sure I agree with some of this, I do buy Blu if at all possible, but a lot of my dvd's play great through the blu-ray player, and I have no intention of up-grading them. I watch my films on a 10 foot wide screen, so any faults are very apparent. Some Blu discs I have are not as good as the dvd versions, Curse of Frankenstein, and Brides of Dracula spring to mind, they are dreadful transfers on Blu disc. So my back is not turned on dvd at all, it all boils down the the source materials used, and some blu discs of late have been awful.
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I grant that every format over the decades has had its share of poor implementation, be it bad source material, ill advised manipulation of the footage, or (in the digital era) lousy encoding. Blu-ray is no exception (classic example Lord of the Rings extended, due to the infamous green hue issue on Fellowship). As well, I concede that a really good DVD on the Oppo is indeed most watchable on even mid sized screens.
For my part though, the precious few titles I have "re-bought" on BD have been worth it: Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bridge of the River Kwai, the whole Bond collection, even Ben-Her come to mind. I'd like to grab To Catch A Thief next time its on sale and see if, at long last, Carey Grant's striped shirt can be moiré free. The DVD is ok done but 480 lines just isn't enough for that shirt. :)
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I do have To catch a Thief on BD and it's first rate, one of the better transfers, you won't be disappointed with it.
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Some here may appreciate this...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/644154729/the-scarecrow-project (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/644154729/the-scarecrow-project)
Scarecrow Video, one of the best video stores in the country, is trying to become a non-profit dedicated to the preservation of physical media.
A much, much better idea than the alternative...