jeffbase34

Recently, I priced all of my dvds on Amazon marketplace and the total was around $8700. That's a lot of money that I've invested, but I have an addiction to buying dvds. I visited my parents over the weekend, and I was excited to discuss a huge dvd boxset that I had missed when I moved to a new state.

It was Six Feet Under The Complete Series, still brand new and sealed. I came home and looked up the set on Amazon. I was horrified. The most I could get for the set was $75, almost half off retail price. It was another sting of disappointment. Almost every dvd in my collection has taken huge hits in market value. Several movie dvds are now selling for $0.01. Completely worthless. Xmen 1.5 and X2 are examples.

The problem in my case is over 50% of my collection is still brand new and sealed. I never had the time to watch them. If I sell now,i will be taking some hefty loses,, and not getting any entertainment value. But if I wait, the market could really bottom out. It already has for single movie dvds, and boxsets, which have held value for years, appear to be down that same road. Target's dirt cheap boxset two packs are a bit disturbing. I don't want to end up with a huge pile of worthless discs a few years from now.

Anyone else facing the same dilemma?

Goat3001

If you're buying DVD's as an investment then be prepared to lose a lot of money. Why would you think the prices for used DVD's would ever rise? They're dirt cheap to produce and with the exception of a few OOP titles they're all very easy to obtain.

I recommend either taking the time to open them up and watch them or be prepared to sell them for $3-$5 for each single movie and more for Boxsets, steelbooks and Criterions.

marty888

Virtually all of my DVDs have the same value as they had when I purchased them: I still get the same satisfaction watching these movies and TV shows.

Brian Shannon

No, I buy movies that I like to watch.

Plastic discs are not an investment.

What makes you think the market will "bottom out"? Exactly what is there to bottom out given that there are millions upon millions of copies of most dvd's out there.

GenPion

That's a lot of money your collection is valued at. You could do a lot with that much...

I dunno what to say. It's up to you. If you never watch them at all then it should be an easy choice. If you only occasionally watch something then you might want to sell part of your collection but not the entire thing.

^^
By bottom out he seems to be referring to them losing even more value. Which is easily a possibility. If you are planning on selling now or waiting to sell later -- sell NOW.

Torchur317

You should have sold a little earlier if you were worried about the "investment/money". It's pretty much going to get worse from now on unless it's a rare oop DVD. The common stuff is barely worth anything right now especially if it's an older release.

canaryfarmer

Amazon marketplace is in no way going to give you a good approximation. Many, many, many times things are listed for waaaaay too much.

JOE29

That's it right there! I buy DVD's because I like to watch them.
The number #1 reason why I buy so many is because they will
still be available to me to watch in 10-20 years.
Hell, these DVD's will out live me.
When I buy DVD's I plan on having them forever.
Not as something I will sell off a few years down the road.
I understand people have other things to do instead of watching DVD's
so do I, but I can do what I have to do, then watch a DVD when I can.
Even if it's years after I buy it.

Eddie W

Back in '98 when Titanic first came out on VHS, a lady in front of me in line bought two copies. One to leave sealed 'in case it was worth something someday'.

I'm just sayin'.

jeffbase34

Well I never bought my collection with the hopes that it would go up in value. I justified the lavish spending on the notion that I could always sell them online when I'm done and get a good bit of my money back.


Storage has also become a problem. I'm in a tiny apartment, and I literally have dvds stored in the kitchen cabinets. lol

GenPion

Dude -- if storage is an issue, which it clearly is if you have DVD's in kitchen cabinets, you should consider DVD binders if necessary. Or convert your films to think-packs. Anything to box away the giant cases that fill shelves quickly. If that's the main problem you should come up with a storage solution.

If the problem is you own a lot of movies you've never even seen and you need to quit excessive/blind-buying for DVD's then I'd suggest selling off a massive amount of titles but then that's just me personally. I'd rather have good money than a lot of DVD's for films I've never even seen.

Of course, I'm a college student and I don't have a car of my own ATM and am looking for one so that may be part of that logical thinking. Otherwise, I would just keep films I've never seen but that I purchased with the intent of watching. And blind buying is not usually a big deal to me as I don't spend more than $5 on DVD's (with rare exceptions) unless we are talking about box sets (which, generally speaking, has a $20 cap on single season sets).

Do you have any HD DVD's/Blu-ray's? Would you ever considering upgrading to the new Blu-ray format? If so, you might want to sell a good percentage of your collection for that reason alone. A lot of titles will be re-released and might hold more value on DVD now before they arrive on Blu-ray.

beebs

The fundamental issue with your thought process throughout this entire thread is this, buying DVDs is a consumer activity not an investment. You should expect to enjoy buying them, watching them, or looking at them on your shelf. Nothing more. Expectation of many of the movies holding value is highly misguided. I can understand how you might have arrived at this thought and hope, but the simple truth is most movies plunge in value a year or two after release.

For many who are collecting, they simply get the thrill of buying and looking at them on the shelf leaving many unwatched. I recommend a bit of age old wisdom, "Love and make the most of what you have, not what you want." Your movies in hand are worth more as an activity than as a item for resale. If you compare them to anything else, except maybe more dirt cheap DVDs from the resale/bargain marketplace, you will find they are a great investment. But only in this manner, and only if you've got titles you enjoy watching.

Not a surprise. This set has been just under $100 on sale. The individual seasons have also been available a number of times under $100 for the whole shebang. DVD sale prices have been reaching new lows on many titles. Stuff that was hard to find below $15, are now in the used market or Big lots for a pittance.

Titles such as these last two are destined to be drop in price to nearly nothing. They are so many copies out there. They have new releases out there. They have Blu-ray releases out there.

Blockbusters show up in the used market 2-3 years later in droves as people realize they didn't really need to buy the movie. So many titles languish in used bins that they fetch nothing as used sellers find they get 10 trade-ins for each 1 they sell. How can you sell a movie to someone new when it originally sold to 15 million people. How many are left?

You collection has more value as something to occupy your time than as something you can sell. You do have a good bit of value there. It would not be wrong to unload it all, now and get the $8700. But I think you'll find that that is easier said than done. It will take weeks or months to sell them all. Hundreds of packages and trips to the post office.


You will not escape that fate, if you place a value upon your discs based solely on their resale value.

Many here face the identical situation. As proof, there are threads with similar themes appearing weekly and gathering numerous posts.

I guess I myself am in the same situation. I own a fairly large collection of DVDs (~600 titles and seasons). I simply don't have any inclination to sell it as I'm constantly watching titles from it.

Rammsteinfan

I sold off all my old dvd's or ones i am upgrading to BD now because they are becoming worth less each day. Some I barely got $1 for.

Kurt D

You never really say what your dilemma is, other than not wanting to end up with a worthless pile of plastic. If that's the problem, then you should leave the USA ASAP!

But seriously, unpackage the DVDs, invest some more money in binders, and watch your collection when you have time to enjoy it (I plan on getting around to this when I'm in a managed care retirement home ).

Or are you more concerned that you are buying DVDs just to be buying them? This could be a problem ...

pmreed

Jeff, your DVDs, as well as anything else you own, are are worth exactly what you can sell them for, not what some demented seller is asking on Amazon marketplace .......unless they're worth more to you!! The value of your collection will only go down; you may have the occasional rare OOP item that retains some good value, but just sell off the stuff that you know you'll never watch.
I've got over 1500 DVDs and I've been selling off unopened sets that I know I'll never watch. I've made some really good money on some rare, OOP, anime; and I've taken a bath on a lot of the rest. If you think you'll watch it someday, keep it. If you don't think you'll get around to it, unload it.
Get over the "investment" you've made. DVDs are not an investment!!! I've actually given some DVDs away because it wasn't worth my time to sell them to make 50 cents. Move on!

Drake

At some point you have to stop buying new titles (myself included) and just enjoy what you already own.

asianxcore

Agreed 100%

At some point when you realized you didn't have time to watch your films (most of them remaining sealed), you should have stopped buying all together. Or at least cutting back drastically.

You have to get out of your head that DVD's are not an investment (as other have said) and that you aren't inclined to buy a certain DVD because it's a bargain. Hell, I've passed on some really great Amazon Box Set/TV Set deals because I knew that I would never get to them.

Buying just to buy is what gets you in situations like this.

Spiderbite

Double agreement. I ran into this about 3 years after dvds had come out. I was buying shit that I never even had the time to watch and knew it. It became a bad habit. Luckily I got rid of a majority of my stuff when dvds where still relatively young and I got a lot of my money back. Now, the prices are so low that I rarely buy anything for over 5 bucks because I know if I ever want to get rid of it for any reason, I won't get more than a couple of bucks for it.

I would recommend trying to sell them at a yard sale. I still can usually get around 5 bucks a dvd at a yard sale for the poor slobs that don't usually dvd shop and 5 bucks is still cheap to them.

Netflix changed my outlook and my spending. I suggest you look into it.

And I learned my lesson well enough for it to not become a habit with BD. Now if I could just get over my buying addiction on cheap video games, I will be set.

Double_Oh_7

If you know you aren't going to watch them and need the money, sell them NOW. They aren't going to go up in value. I've made a lot of extra cash over the years selling titles on ebay. They sell at a loss for sure, but it's money I didn't have before. When you work out the math (money paid/money sold), it's like I rented them for a LONG time.

MTRodaba2468

As most everyone else has said, DVD buying is not a good financial investment.

I, too, have a rather large collection, and even with some OOP titles in my collection, I know I wouldn't be able to resell everything and get even a large percentage of what I've put into it. However, I collect movies because I like having a library of stuff to choose from when I want to watch a movie, made up of titles that I like, or in the case of blind buys, stuff I think I'd like. I still make it a point to watch the titles I get, something that you haven't been able to really do for some time, now. Like asainx said, you should have stopped buying altogether (if not cut down drastically) as soon as you realized that you wouldn't be able to watch them.

What I'd recommend doing (even though it stands in contrast to my library approach) is to go through your collection. Any titles that you want to keep because you think you'd enjoy watching them (NOT because you think they'll be worth something), keep. Anything else, go ahead and sell them. You won't get nearly as much back as you spent for them, but it's at least something. Afterwards, you need to change your mindset, and be a bit more picky with your DVD purchases. Only pick up titles that you feel you'll get your money's worth out of when you watch them, and cut down on how frequently you do so, if you don't have the time to watch them.

tlwizard

I stopped buying DVDs two years ago and started Netflixing. I still buy movies or collections that are really important to me.

However, with the arrival of BD, I'm starting to sell off my collection of DVDs when they're announced for BD. I typically sell them to friends for $5 a pop, which is sometimes a little more than ebay sometimes a little less. However, the DVDs that are rare and fetching high prices on ebay, I do go and sell. (Like I sold my G.I. Joe Season 1 Part 2 for $100 - which more than makes up for the loss on other titles.)

If you are interested in selling your dvds, check the completed listings on ebay. That'll give you a rough idea of what you can get. Amazon marketplace has no such feature so it's a lot harder to get a realistic picture.

MR Round

I just don't think Dvds should be considered an investment their meant to be watched and opened. I you collect dvds just to have them sitting on a shelf I believe that kinda defeats the purpose.WATCH THEM

jeffbase34

Yeah, I'm going through my collection again, and selling the movies that I can get at least 3 bucks for. Anything less, I'll just keep. The dvd boxsets are going to be harder to part with, but it could be fun to sell everything and then build back the collection on dvd and blu-ray.

Like yourself, I enjoy the library aspect of my collection. I have a bit of OCD, and my dvd passion feeds into that. For example, I have a rotating cycle of viewing. My current cycle is:

1. Watch 2 discs of Lost seasons, always in chronological order

2. Watch a blu-ray

3. Watch a movie dvd, devouring all the extra content including commentaries

4. Watch my backlog of reality tv shows, just finished watching all the seasons of Survivor, only took me 2 years lol

5. Watch a superhero related movie, right now I'm doing all the Marvel comics movies

6. Watch a WWE pro wrestling dvd

7. Watch a History channel or documentary type dvd


It can take me 3 weeks to go through cycle, and with hundreds of hours of tv shows, I am buried in content, but I love being buried.

GenPion

Okay... so keep your discs? If your watching them and really intend to keep watching them then why sell your DVD's. Do you need the money? If it's that, or storage concerns, I would simply weed through the collection a bit. Surely some titles will be okay to sell.

milo bloom

Just piling on, it's not the monetary value, it's the viewing/sentimental value you get. Just going by your example, you may only get a few cents for the first two X-Men movies, but I consider them two of the most essential superhero movies ever made, and are therefore worth much more to me.