caligulathegod

I still remember salivating over Super 8mm abridgements at S.S. Kresge (pre-K-Mart) as a child. Oh, what would it be like to actually own a film? I remember scouring the TV guide for the weekend late show for movies that would show once every few years, if you were lucky. I'd set my alarm for 3am or just stay up. Closest I could get to movies was the 791 section at the library.

Now, I own my favorite movies in a format that is equal to theatrical projection. My only remorse is paying full retail in the early days of BD ($35 or more) on films that fill $5 bins today. But even that pales in comparison to what I spent on individual laserdiscs thinking I was getting bargains.

orangerunner

It's crazy what we used to pay in the ol' days. In 1985 I still remember being happy to buy a VHS copy of The Road Warrior for $35. Tapes were just barely rolling out in the stores at prices less than $29.95 at that time.

Luckily I snapped out of the Laserdisc thing after buying 6 discs at $30 each.

I do still own a 35mm print of a film which I paid $150 for. Never played it (too expensive) but it makes for cool doorstop.

morriscroy

Same here.

The last straw for me was when I purchased and watched through Wayne's World 1 on laserdisc, and came to the realization it was crap. I would have been better off to have just rented it on vhs.

GatorDeb

I just cancelled the following pre-orders:

Batman
Sopranos
24
Exorcist
Gone with the Wind
Final Destination
Saw
Leprechaun
Green Mile, Gremlins, Ben-Hur, Natural Born Killers, Forrest Gump
Ghostbusters 1+2


The only pre-order I kept was Halloween.


It felt gooooood

hanshotfirst1138

The Ben-Hur disc is really stunning.

morriscroy

(Elaborating in more detail).

In practice, I find that once my ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding habit goes through a cycle of obsessing over a particular object of interest (such as music cds, comic books, vinyl records, etc ...), I find that subsequently I have very little to no interest anymore in that particular object of interest.

As past examples:

When I was a kid/preteen, I went through a phase of compulsively collecting/hoarding a lot of comic books. In hindsight, I'm glad I lost interest in comic books at that time. (Shortly thereafter the comic book industry went into "collector's market" overdrive, and flooded the market completely).


I went through a phase back in the mid-late 1980's where my compulsive collecting/hoarding went into overdrive when it came to vinyl records. After around 1990 or so, I had very little to no interest in vinyl records.

By then, I had moved on to compulsively collecting/hoarding music cds. This phase lasted until sometime in the mid-late 2000's. Towards the end of this phase, I was buying a lot of 1990's era music cds for $1 a pop at thrift shops, which I hardly ever listened to. Since then, I've had very little to no interest in music cds. I don't even care anymore about "completing" my music cd collection.


Someday in the near future, I may very well reach the end of my compulsive collecting/hoarding phase for dvds/blurays. (That day I don't know yet).

Though to be more precise, today I really don't care anymore about dvd movies. Paradoxically, the only dvd movies I still buy are ones that I really want to watch. (As "ordinary" this may sound to a non-ocd person).

But my ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding is still active when it comes to tv shows (on dvd or bluray) and bluray movies. (Thankfully, most of my ocd impulse buying is focused on bargain bin blurays at $5 a pop or less, and NOT on $20+ new releases).

GatorDeb

Yeah, I cycle too. But just making a list of BDs, streaming, and Netflix I want to see, it would take me all the way to 9/21/15 at 5 hours a day to get through them (and that's just stuff I really want to see).

I also found that I prefer streaming to putting discs in and out and streaming HD is good enough for me. I own House and am streaming it so why would I buy The Sopranos when I can stream it.

Made the calculations and $1038.14 gets me Netflix Blu-ray/DVD, Netflix Streaming, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, NextIssue (100+ digital magazines, tons of which I read), Kindle Unlimited, Spotify Premium, and 3 magazines through Zinio for a whole year.


Blu-rays, DVDs, streaming, TV, books, magazines, and music for the year for $20 a week. Works for me. It's my entertainment budget and as I go through phases through the year it just covers everything

Why So Blu?

Wow, that still seems excessive at roughly 74$ a month.

I have Amazon PRIME, Netflix Streaming/BD/DVD (1 disc at a time) and that's pretty much it. I will most likely be keeping Kindle Unlimited.


Amazon PRIME
Netflix
Kindle Unlimited



That's roughly $338 and some change, so it's about $28 and change a month. Not bad. You can do better, Gator!

What's cool is that I'm still at the $79 price for PRIME until October and am in my introductory month of Unlimited, so it's even less for now.

GatorDeb

I don't want to do better I love all the services I get. People magazine by itself is close to what I pay for the whole year of NextIssue and NextIssue has other gossip magazines I read and also fitness and running and biking magazines. I also use Spotify to change up the music I listen to in the car and discover new music. Zinio has 3 triathlon/biking magazines I read, and Hulu Plus allows me to watch current shows. I'll still get sets, but many sets less. Halloween is a must buy and will complete my Friday the 13th/Nightmare on Elm St/Chucky collection.

A $20 a week entertainment budget is acceptable to me, especially since I rarely eat out, I use a refillable K-Cup for coffee, and rarely go to the movies. Cable is $163 a month for phone/TV/Internet and cell is $60 a month.

Bear in mind that includes books and magazines, not just movies. Those things add up. And I own the three magazines, which is about $100-$120 in subscription fees for the year for all three if I were to get them individually.

hanshotfirst1138

I find myself eager to get various things-albums, Blus, books, etc.-but mysteriously more excited about the prospect than actually putting them in sometimes. I'm sure there's some weird-ass psychological term for it .

GatorDeb

What I'm doing currently is making lists of Kindle Unlimited books I'll never get to read $9.99 a month is cheaper than all the blind buys I was doing of all those deal of the days that I was never reading, and most of those are Kindle Unlimited.

morriscroy

I think I know what you mean. I get that all the time.

I don't know what the technical term is. One idiom describing this is "the chase is better than the catch".

I've always found that once I get the "catch" (whether a book, cd, dvd/bluray, etc ...), I lose interest in it shortly thereafter.

morriscroy

(As an offtopic aside).

When I was a kid/preteen, I use to buy magazines and put them into plastic slips (similar to oversized comic book bags). Back then, I foolishly thought that magazines would go up in price like comics books were in those days.

So I was very OCD about keeping my magazines in "mint" condition. For example, I didn't fold any of the back cover "fold ins" from issues of Mad Magazine, etc ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Fold-in

I was even doing this for crappy video games magazines back in the day.


EDIT: I completely lost interest in collecting ANY magazines, back in the mid-late 1990's. The last magazine I "collected" was some video game magazine that specialized in game design/coding. (I don't remember the title offhand).

mndtrp

This is the first I've heard of NextIssue, but it looks pretty cool. I read quite a few of those listed, so I might have to sign up for it.

morriscroy

(On a tangent).

Around a decade ago when I was compulsively buying books, my strangest "object of obsession" was collecting/hoarding old editions of engineering textbooks. (I was an engineering major in college). I was also buying a lot of textbooks of other tangential subjects like mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, etc ...

It wasn't particularly expensive, but it ate up a lot of space on my bookshelves. (Most of these engineering books I found for $2 or $3 at various local thrift shops, book fairs, church rummages, garage sales, etc ...).

These days I have very little to no interest in technical books, unless they cover a topic I am presently interested in.

EDIT: (ie. Calculus and physics textbooks have changed very little over the last 60+ years).

DVD Polizei

I don't particularly have Blu-ray remorse, but I never did and still don't prefer the company who's restricting it (and Sony will always do this, regardless of what product they offer). Blu-ray was the only way to get into a finalized HD format, so I'm ok with it.

I still prefer having a hard copy of a movie as streaming is still unreliable. Either it's my ISP or the service providing the "always-available" movie. Or both. I like knowing I can grab a disc, put in my player, and not have any worries outside of a massive storm coming to town and shutting down my electricity to my Blu-ray player.

morriscroy

Not quite an exact match, but one which might fit is "hedonic treadmill".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedonic_treadmill

morriscroy

(Long rant).

In terms of a budget, I don't hold myself to a hard dollar figure. (Largely due to mostly going through local dvd/bluray bargain bins).

These days my self-imposed restrictions are more along the lines of maximum price ceilings and the type of shows/movies I'll readily buy.

For bluray movies, these days I'll only really buy $5 (or less) titles. Most of my "ocd compulsive buying" are on blurays I find in the $2 dump bins at dollar stores and other discount outlets. Mostly less popular action/horror/sci-fi type of movies. (ie. I don't care anymore about dvd movies).


For current and newer tv shows (and also older tv shows that I haven't started buying yet), I now largely avoid buying them if they are not released on bluray. This eliminates a lot of shows which I *might* have ended up compulsively impulse buying, such as NCIS, Castle, In Plain Sight, Covert Affairs, Rizzoli and Isles, Elementary, The Good Wife, etc ...

Of the current batch of tv shows that I watch which have been released on bluray, I have largely turned down most them (such as Helix, Under The Dome, Continuum, Orphan Black, Revolution, The Following, 24, The Americans, Homeland, Defiance, etc ...) either due to lackluster writing and/or the episodes have very little to no rewatch value for me. The only current tv on bluray shows I am still buying are Person of Interest, Cinemax's Strike Back and Hawaii Five-0. (Hawaii Five-0 might be discontinued on bluray, and Strike Back is ending next year).

With that being said, for tv shows which I already have previous seasons of, I've been largely restricting myself to buying season sets when they have hit the bargin bins at around $15 each (or less). Some shows I'll pull the trigger on when they hit the $10-$11 mark (such as Psych, The Mentalist, Eureka, Warehouse 13, Hercules, Xena, House of Lies, Prison Break, etc ...).


As mentioned previously in other threads, I've been attempting to restrict my tv on dvd/bluray purchases to shows where I already have some previous seasons of. Mostly "completing" shows which have already ended, or only buying up to a certain season (such as Happy Days up to season 4, CSI up to season 9, etc ...).

But with all this being said, I'm still somewhat of a sucker for one/two-season sci-fi/fantasy/action type of shows. To get around this specific problem, I've been attempting to restrict my purchases to only such shows which don't end on a major cliffhanger. This may sound kinda lame, but awhile ago I picked up the dvd set of "Last Resort" based loosely on this criteria. Under the same criteria, I turned down the dvd/bluray sets of shows like Flash Forward, Terra Nova, The Event, Alcatraz, No Ordinary Family, Tru Calling, Camelot, Invasion, etc ...


EDIT: I'm not always successful at following these self-imposed restrictions to a T, but I do make some effort at doing so. These days this is the main reason why I can go several weeks or over a month without buying any dvds/blurays. (ie. Discount/dollar stores don't always change their stock that often).

GatorDeb

http://www.nextissue.com/partners/ca...paign=Facebook

Free trial and 50% off for two months for NextIssue.

WOODPRODUCTIONS

My philosophy for the most part in collecting DVDs/BDs has been quality vs quantity. And by quality I mean quality to me, DVDs/BDs that I really enjoy and will never get rid off.At this point I think I pretty much have all the DVDs/BDs that I ever cared of owning. But there is plenty of room for expansion and can easily triple my collection before even thinking about storage issues. Of course it helps that I probably have one of the smallest collections here based on photos that I've seen on the board. So as far as remorse, hell no. Sure I've bought some that I regret in doing so, as well as blind buys. But this only constitutes well below 5% of my total collection. I've used a lot of discretion in what I purchase, and this has worked for me. I can understand why there is remorse for some. Collecting can be addicting, compulsive, almost like being an alcoholic, drug addict, gambling etc. I know because in the past I've gone through buying binges, which I greatly enjoyed! I'm glad that eventually I regained self-control and used a lot more discretion. Looking forward to more purchases in the future going about it in this manner.

morriscroy

The closest analogy to ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding that I can think of offhand, would be a cross between a degenerate gambler and an extremely high sex drive. (But without the money and exchange of bodily fluids).

Why So Blu?

I'm not a degenerate gambler but I do have a high sex drive.


Did you ever see the original thread that was posted a few months ago about a certain forum member who had to clean up his apartment in order to pass inspection and not get kicked out of his apartment? It's a legendary thread that helped out several other members, including myself, see the error and nature of their collecting ways.

Well, if you haven't, here it is. Plan your day accordingly, because it makes for some fascinating, sad, hilarious, optimistic reading:

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/other-talk/...eanliness.html

morriscroy

I'm aware of the thread from awhile ago, but haven't read through it entirely.

My personal awareness of my own ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding issues, has been ongoing for a long time. In regard to blurays/dvds, I've been attempting to address it for more than a year.

EDIT: Most of my ramblings/rants have been about ways of restricting my impulse buying. Some are more effective than others. Some didn't work.

morriscroy

So far the the most effective permanent self-imposed restriction which has squelched my ocd compulsive collecting/hoarding habit, is restricting my purchases primarily to bargain bin blurays. This is largely exploiting the fact that hardly any new/current tv shows are released on bluray to begin with, and the selection of catalog movies/shows is significantly smaller than dvd.

Today, the only dvd movies I bother buying are actually movies that I want to watch. (As "ordinary" this may sound to a non-ocd person). I don't have much desire anymore to go on dvd impulse buying binges. But unfortunately I still have a bad habit of impulse buying a lot of $2 bargain bin blurays.

EDIT: My dvd buying binges only lasted about two years or so. (Mostly over 2012 -> early-mid 2014).

morriscroy

When I started buying a lot of blurays in 2012, initially I was buying a lot of sci-fi/fantasy/action movies from the $5-$10 bargain bins.

By the time it was mid-2013, a lot of $1/$2/$3 blurays were starting to show up at local dollar stores and other discount outlets. So I largely stopped regularly buying $5+ blurays, unless it was a movie that I wanted to watch immediately.

I'm not buying as many blurays in the quantities I use to with $1 dvds. Though still quite in significant numbers.


EDIT: In practice I find that my ocd "impulse binge buying" is mostly triggered at local offline bluray bargain bins. On the other hand, my ocd impulse buying is not triggered at all when I'm buying blurays/dvds from online stores (like amazon). (As paradoxical this may sound).

I don't feel any impulsive desires to go on huge dvd/bluray buying binges on amazon. I don't know why this is the case, in spite of all the heavily discounted dvds/blurays and/or special deals that amazon has every day .