dvdshonna

Assuming you live in a populated area, place buy ads in your local facebook buy/sell groups and, or craigslist. $2 might be too high in bulk. Most likely you will be overloaded within weeks. I would start at $1.

Here's the format of my local buy ads. I run most of the time, but sometimes get overloaded and take a break while I'm selling off lots. I have so much comming in, I don't even have time to look at the latest $10 to $15 DVDs at Wal-mart.
------------------------
BUYING DVDs

Minimum 50 DVDs - G thru R rated only.
Paying: 50¢ for most DVDs / $1.00 For Titles Listed Below

DVDs must have case and artwork.
No excesive wear or scratches to case or disc.

Email quantity of DVDs and when you are available.
(quantity of 50¢ DVDs and $1.00 DVDs). I do not need a list of titles.

Paying $1.00 for DVDs listed below:
-------------------------------------------------
1984 (John Hurt, Richard Burton)
A Bronx Tale (Robert DeNiro)
A Series of Unfortunate Events (Emily Browning)
The Abyss (Ed Harris)
Alien Ressurection (Winona Ryder)
etc.
etc.
etc.

dvdshonna

This is true. I'm probably blowing out titles for $1, that are listed on amazon for $35-$50. But buying at 50¢, I'm not losing any sleep over it.

"The Jungle Book" DVD, I mentioned earlier, is listed on amazon for $42.50 used. If the lady hadn't gone mental and offered me $30, I wouldn't have known.

Edit: Pawn shops do it on a regular basis. I picked up a sealed copy of Titanic at a local pawn shop, for a $1.50 and then saw it listed on amazon for $75. I doubt if it sells for more than $5-$10 now. It was re-issued.

dvdshonna

I'm accumulating at a profit.

Typically, I pay $50 to $55 per 100 DVDs. Selling off in smaller lots at $90 to $100 per 100 DVDs. I pull better titles I want to keep for myself.

I assume the comments about "investing", "hoarding", "increasing in value" were based on the title of this thread, "Buy Now - Cash In When These Discs Are OOP".

Obviously misleading, but I was suggesting the demand for used discs is more likely to increase as disc production decreases. Much more likely than dics ending up in land fills with VHS and 8 track tapes. More than obvious in my comments.

LorenzoL

I was going to make a wisecrack about your purchasing habits but if you can get someone to sell you their copy of "1984" for $1, you deserve the profit.

dvdshonna

I didn't check, but someone on DVD Talk, mentioned it was being re-issued. That was quite a few months ago.

Edit: That's a good point though. You have a better chance of picking up rare titles at 50¢ than $1.00. When you list it as a "premium" title it just draws attention to the fact that it could be OOP.

The only reason I have a list of "premium" titles, is because it gives me an edge on the local pawn shops. They pay a flat 50¢ per DVD. If one in every ten DVDs I buy is on my "premium" list, it raises my cost from 50¢ each to 55¢ each.

JeffTheAlpaca

They are sold out everywhere and somebody at Amazon is charging $699.

orangerunner

Amazon is NOT a good reference for the current DVD marketplace. Sellers can ask whatever they wish but it doesn't mean their prices are anywhere near what the realistic price is.

eBay's "completed listings" is a much more accurate reference. For instance in April I sold a sealed new copy of Adventures of Ford Fairlane, out-of-print at the time, for $22. A month later, the Blu-ray was released and could be purchased for $9.99.

The once-valuable DVD suddenly dropped to $5, if you were lucky.

dvdshonna

I don't doubt the decline in disc sales. People were running out of shelf space for DVDs they rarely watch and spending more time in the "digital future" watching netflix.

I do doubt the perception the number of discs sold is declining 10% to 15% per year. The decline is reported as revenue.

If consumers are waiting for new release prices to drop before they buy. Or confining their purchases to bargain priced DVDs/Blu-Rays, its no surprise revenue from disc sales would be in decline. Not an accurate indication of the number of discs sold.

After months of sluggish sales on craigslist, I recently discovered facebook buy/sell groups. I'm selling DVD lots as fast as I list them.

PhantomStranger

Older people still have an interest in DVD and Blu-ray at bargain prices. The decline is coming from the new release side. Fewer and fewer people want to pay $20 and up for new release discs.

dvdshonna

I think I could get into digital movies, if I had 100% trust the company I bought it from would never go out of business.

Also, I would have to believe my ISP would never charge me more for internet access and they couldn't cap my monthly bandwidth usage.

Also, I would have to be guaranteed, the company I bought the movie from, could never charge me a fee for downloading or streaming my digital movies.

Also, I would need the ability to download the movies and play them on multiple devices.

Most important, I would need the ability to sell my digital movies if I no longer wanted them. And conversely, be able to buy digital movies on the secondary market from people who were tired of their movies. I have no interest in paying $10 to $15 for movies.

It just doesn't feel like I own something if I can't sell it.

Alan Smithee

This of course started several years ago when Wal-Mart's $5 bin was all the rage. I've always wondered why, if it isn't profitable to sell movies that low, why studios dropped their prices that low in the first place? This rarely happened with laserdiscs, and of course the result was seeing many discs sit at Tower for years as nobody bought them at full price, when a price drop might have at least gotten them out of the store. I never thought Blu-Rays would reach the $5 point but sure enough they have, and now you hear people saying they'll wait for a title to hit that price rather than buy it the week it comes out. I've never worked for any studios so I don't know what the real answer is, but it seems like they shouldn't have let prices drop that low if they didn't want consumers to value their discs that low.

dvdshonna

I'm sticking to my original prediction. If the movie studios continue down this path they will suffer the same consequences as the music industry.

Apple, netflix, amazon, the telecoms, etc. will be dictating what the movie studios can do and not do, and the terms.

If it reaches that point, I give it less than a year before were reading about the revival of the disc format, from the same "experts" currently predicting their demise.

dvdshonna

Years ago, who suggested they sell new releases for $5 (and just eliminate redbox)? That's right. And they laughed at me. ...I think there were also some boos and hissing.

I've never valued new discs at more than 3 times the rental price.

Actually not too late. They could use redbox as vending machines for $5 new release purchases.

So where did this rumor originate that it's profitable to rent movies for $1.00/$1.50, but unprofitable to sell movies for $3.00/$5.00 ???

PhantomStranger

The pressure to drop movies that low is from the retailers, particularly Walmart. Walmart will continue as a profitable business whether they sell a single movie next year. The studios would be crippled if Walmart decided to drop out of media sales overnight. Hollywood product would literally disappear overnight from many rural areas if Walmart decided to drop selling them.

It's one of the big reasons why Hollywood is so gung-ho about switching consumers to digital media. Any business hates having a single company having that much leverage over their business model. You can see it in Walmart's selection of movies. Independent companies outside of the Hollywood studios are far more willing to cut deals on price, which is why Walmart carries a ton of independent horror and cheap direct-to-video fare in their media mix.

BuckNaked2k

These big retailers treat Sales per Square Foot as a science. If the numbers drop low enough, they will cease selling movies outright. Especially if they are no longer regarded as a loss leader, to draw people into the store and maybe buy some other stuff while there.

dvdshonna

I don't know, but I havn't seen any.

Big difference with the demand for CD/DVD players and demand laserdisc players.

Laserdiscs were never mainstream in the first place (maybe marginally).

CDs have been around for 30+ years. DVDs for 15+ years. Both are mainstream and neither will be replaced with another mainstream physical format.

So even if this fantasy about media going totally digital came about, there are billions of CDs and DVDs in existence.
There would still be a demand for CD/DVD players for decades to come. Players that have few moving parts (a small motor and the laser moves back and forth to read the disc). So they are cheap to manufacturer.

Personally, I don't care if Walmart carries DVDs/Blu-Rays or not. I don't buy overpriced crap.

dvdshonna

I believe you bought into all the hype.

The "Digital Future" is here. Overpriced digital rentals and purchases. Subcription services (netflix, HBO) ...And consumers are still buying DVDs/Blu-rays.

Consumers are not looking for an alternative to DVD/Blurays.

The bigger issue for the vast majority of consumers, is how they can replace their cable TV with streaming services. They're tired of paying $100+/mo for content they don't watch.

dvdshonna

(Jan, 2015)
The Death of Music Sales
If CDs are "dead," so is iTunes.

CDs are dead. That doesn't seem like such a controversial statement. Maybe it should be.

The music business sold 141 million CDs in the U.S. last year. That's more than the combined number of tickets sold to the most popular movies in 2014 (Guardians) and 2013 (Iron Man 3).

So "dead," in this familiar construction, isn't the same as zero. It's more like a commonly accepted short-cut for a formerly popular thing is now withering at a commercially meaningful rate.

And if CDs are truly dead, then digital music sales are lying in the adjacent grave. Both categories are down double-digits in the last year, with iTunes sales diving at least 13 percent.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/...o-over/384790/
--------------------------------------------------------
Checkt out the graph in this article. Streaming was up 54% during the same period ( iTunes, SoundCloud, Spotify, Pandora, iHeartRadio, and music blogs) . Spotify alone has 35 million songs. A low cost subscription service.

Lifepawn

How do you physically acquire the DVD's? Do you drive to pick them up?

Do buyers pay for shipping and packaging? Do you pay for the packaging to ship in?

Are you listing the smaller lots or individual titles on eBay or Amazon or another site that takes a fee?

How much storage space do these take up in your home?

Are you reporting the income on your taxes?

How much time do you spend on this? Including sorting replies, transporting the discs, searching for what each one sells for online (to find higher value discs), listing the smaller lots, checking to make sure the right discs are there, trips to the post office, etc.

dvdshonna

I'm writing a book titled,
"How To Make Money & Meet Hot Women Watching Movies"

Would you like to buy one? Just $19.99 + $5.99 S&H

Lifepawn

Pfft! I could buy 50 DVD's for that price.

PhantomStranger

Actually, the music industry is scared to death that streaming music will absolutely gut their business model. The music market always skewed younger and their target demo has now grown up believing music should be free or super cheap. Those consumers have shifted from digital purchases to paltry streaming revenues.

dvdshonna

It is amazing how music CDs require a $15 to $17 retail price for the industry to be profitable. And now they are virtually giving it away ($8/mo for 35 million songs).

Digital is obviously the most efficient way to distribute music. Obviously not the most profitable.

Alan Smithee

Sounds like they're just doing for music what Netflix did for movies. And if that doesn't make them money, then they shouldn't license their music to it. I contend that things like Spotify wouldn't be as needed if radio didn't suck so much.

hanshotfirst1138

For artists, no.