hanshotfirst1138

Nowadays there's the Internet though. Amazon, eBay, and various other outlets will let you order whatever you want simply by typing it in. Speciality stores of most kinds can survive on collectors, at least for now, but if I want obscure Blu-ray/DVD/comic book/whatever, I can just find it on the web, if I'm willing to pay enough. That why in the realm of comics, I'm pretty much exclusive to trades. It's just so much easier.

hanshotfirst1138

There's a terrifying thought.

morriscroy

Similar to the model train hobby, one of my previous ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding treadmills was buying the 4th edition books of the tabletop rpg game Dungeons & Dragons. But fortunately, that godawful treadmill only lasted four years (from 2008 to 2012). I played weekly D&D sessions offline for over two years at the time. (I'm not playing D&D presently).

Every month during the 4E D&D era, there was at least one new 4E D&D supplement book published. (Typically they were hardcover books with 160 pages, with amazon prices around $20-$25 each). For some months, there were as many as three supplement books published.

Compounding this simultaneously, I was also on the treadmill of the rival tabletop rpg game Pathfinder, where they were publishing just as many supplement books per month. (Typically these were softcover books with 96 pages, with amazon prices around $15-$20 each. Occasionally they also published thick hardcover books).

So every month over 2008 to late-2010, I was easily spending around $150-$200+ per month on new tabletop rpg supplement books and accessories. (Mostly ordering from amazon).

morriscroy

At heart, I guess I'm very much a cheapskate when it comes to stuff outside of life's "necessities". These days, this is the main reason why my ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding is no longer focused on music cds.

Back in the 1990's, I use to like spending entire afternoons going through record stores which had giant dump bin sections of $2/$3 cds. During those days, it was great to find tons of discarded/discontinued 1980's heavy metal and punk rock cds for $2 a pop. (After the early-1990's, heavy metal was out of favor in the mainstream, with many metal bands being dropped en masse by the big major record labels. Subsequently, most of their cds were discontinued and ended up in the dump bins).

By the time it was the early-mid 2000's, such huge $2/$3 cd dump bins were not really around anymore. Especially after several huge high profile bankruptcies/liquidations of record store chains.

After that, I briefly ordered stuff from various web sites which offered heavily discounted heavy metal and/or punk rock cds. But for some reason, it wasn't quite the same for me anymore. By then, most of the music cds I was buying were mostly poorly mastered cd releases of older less popular albums from the 1980's, or they were compilations of unreleased "rare" stuff (such as demo tapes, unreleased albums, poorly recorded live concerts, etc ...). A lot of this stuff only had 500 or 1000 (or 2000) cd copies manufactured worldwide.

In the end, most of this "rare" stuff was a huge disappointment. Like finding a "holy grail" which turned out to be complete shit.

morriscroy

For clarification, what I mean by "poorly mastered cd release" is very literal.

For example, many of these poorly mastered cds I purchased of older less popular 1980's albums, sounded like they just recorded it straight from an old vinyl record copy of the album and slapped it onto a cd. One could hear all the record noises, scratches, static, rumble, etc ... in these poorly master cd versions. No effort was made to even clean up the sound.

It would have been easier to just digitize a dub of my old vinyl record copy of the album, on the computer.

(In the dvd/bluray world, it would be like taking a VHS or laserdisc version of a movie and slapping it directly onto a dvd or bluray disc).

Essentially either the original master tape was lost (or forgotten), or they didn't have access to the original master tape.




After coming across one too many crappy "vinyl dubs" slapped onto a cd, I just had it and had no desire anymore to buy such stuff.

morriscroy

If Criterion (and/or Twilight Time) pricing ends up becoming the norm across the board for physical media, then this will probably be the end of the line for me.

With that being said, probably the only way I would continue with physical media at such sky high Criterion prices across the board, would be if 4K (or 8K) ever becomes a reality as a physical disc medium. Otherwise if it is just bluray and dvd at sky high Criterion prices across the board, then I'm probably out of the hobby for good.

morriscroy

I did the trade/graphic novel thing briefly. Maybe I'm just getting old and tired, but the ones I purchased were rather disappointing to read.

Before I started buying a lot of dvds/blurays, I was reading trades of the World of Warcraft comic series. Later it was trades of stuff like "Skullkickers" and "Nemesis" (by Mark Millar).

At that time, I thought about picking up some of the Dark Horse Star Wars trades at the time, but decided against it after that dreadful experience with the World of Warcraft trades. In hindsight, it was probably a wise decision considering Disney/Lucasfilm has recently made non-canon most of the existing EU universe.

morriscroy

To come to think of it, if I had started buying a lot of Star Wars and Star Trek trades/graphic novels back in late-2010, I might not have started buying a lot of dvds/blurays in 2011.

I know now that the main reason I was buying a lot of dvds/blurays in 2011, was largely due to boredom with nothing else to do. At the time circa early 2011, I was:

- hardly reading anything
- hardly watching any movies
- hardly listening to any music
- not playing D&D nor any other games
- already stopped buying D&D and Pathfinder books
- hardly watching anything on tv (other than CSI and Criminal Minds)
- rarely went shopping
- etc ...

So essentially I was very bored at the time, with nothing much to do or to look forward to.

rw2516

That's the point I'm trying to make. As expensive as it is, railroad modeling has enough people into it for the stuff to be produced and support convention shows. So, physical media will continue to be produced.
I think where we are now is pretty much where we will stay as far as catalog titles are concerned. I don't believe MGM/UA/Fox will ever release another catalog title under their name. WB might release 2 or 3 with maybe six archives per year. Paramount, Universal and Sony are through with catalog BD altogether. Twilight Time, Criterion, Shout, Kino will be around for years putting out 99% of the catalog BDs.
The DVD MOD programs are here to stay with catalog pressed DVD expiring completely. 95% is OOP already. The only reason you can still get them is it takes years to sell off existing stock of a classic title. Does anybody believe they are still pressing tv shows like Untouchables, Green Acres, etc. We're talking the studios here, not third party labels.
There are exceptions to this:
Direct from theater new releases
Cash Cows: Star Trek, Star Wars, Bond, Jaws, Superheroes, etc.

PhantomStranger

The difference with the toy railroad industry is that Hollywood has other ways to generate revenue streams than selling physical media. It's pretty apparent Blu-ray sales have hit their sales ceiling, at best they can maintain market share. I expect to see more and more Criterion-like pricing for everything that falls outside of mainstream new releases.

morriscroy

I doubt the model train business has many other revenue streams, outside of the actual physical model trains.

For some highly specialized niches, there exists other revenue streams. For example in the tabletop rpg game niche, Dungeons and Dragons has produced some movies over the years. (Albeit they were rather awful movies). With the success of Game of Thrones, The Hobbit, etc ... it appears the owners of D&D (Hasbro) have been trying wrestle back the film rights to D&D.

http://deadline.com/2014/09/dungeons...equels-839985/

It seems like Hasbro is looking for other revenue streams, besides selling toys. (ie. Transformers, GI Joe, Battleship, etc ... movies).

BuckNaked2k

Hasbro?? I was there back in the days of TSR and Gary Gygax!

morriscroy

(Going offtopic).

IIRC, Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast (who owned D&D and Magic: The Gathering) in 1999. A few years earlier in 1997, Wizards of the Coast acquired TSR.

Same here. I use to play D&D a lot back in the day. Mostly after school, with nothing much else to do in those days. (ie. Very little homework). Gradually over the years, I played D&D less and less until I stopped playing altogether by the late-1980's.

After not playing in over a decade, I started playing again in the mid-2000's. Though I found playing D&D as an adult wasn't quite the same as when I was a kid/teenager.

What turned me off from D&D eventually, was encountering too many annoying hardcore D&D players which fit into the absolute worst geek and/or nerd caricatures + stereotypes. (Most of these really annoying players were guys in their 30s or 40s). For example:

- the types that were sticklers for canon (such as in the Forgotten Realms, Star Trek, Star Wars, etc ...) to the point of "lawyering"
- guys who rarely took showers/baths
- partially autistic/asperger types that did everything very strictly and rigidly by the book (ie. as if the D&D rulebooks were "holy scripture")
- throwing tantrums if they didn't get their way
- hardcore "serious business" types
- etc ...

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...eriousBusiness

Such individuals were mentally like "teenagers" in the body of 30 or 40 year old.

After 5+ years of too many bad experiences with too many middle-aged degenerates playing D&D, it was time to move on to something else.

BuckNaked2k

morriscroy

For that matter, I haven't even bothered picking up any of the recent new 5th edition D&D books. No point anymore, when I'm not playing at all.

But I did eventually pick up the remaining 4th edition D&D supplement books, to "complete" my 4E book collection. (The 4E product cycle ended back in mid-2012).


More recently, I've been highly resisting the temptation to jump onto the new Star Wars "treadmill" after Disney/Lucasfilm hit the reset-button on the canon. (ie. Basically most of the previous Star Wars expanded universe canon being officially invalidated). The reviews of the first two "new canon" Star Wars novels, have been rather lackluster.

Sub-Zero

December 6:

Josh-da-man

Ouch.

Wonder how the next week look with GotG.

hanshotfirst1138

GOTG has been out a week + now.

Josh-da-man

Sub-Zero's revenue graphic is for the week ending December 6.

The one that comes out next week will cover December 7-13, and include GotG.

Sub-Zero

December 13:

LorenzoL

Ouch!

Adam Tyner

"Ouch" pretty well describes it! For anyone who doesn't feel like pulling out a calculator, Blu-ray was at $127.1 million this time last year. This week in 2012, it was around $107.1 million. As great a week as $86.78 million would ordinarily be, that's depressing so close to the holidays.

bruceames

For those who are curious, Blu-ray is YoY:

-7.4% for the year (3 weeks left)
-14.4% since beginning of July
-18.1 for this quarter

For some reason the wheels fell off in July, because DVD has held steady all year.

LorenzoL

I'm thinking that Blu-ray will become more of a niche market with not all releases coming out with a Blu-ray version just like it's happening with the TV season sets. Sales figures are proving that most people don't give a crap about AV quality.

bruceames

Blu-ray suddenly declining faster than DVD is certainly not the right kind of statement to be making to the studios, who so far have been silent regarding 4K on BD.