SledHeavy

I had some friends over last night who wanted to watch a movie, and when asked my opinion on which one I said 'pick any movie, if there's one there I'm not watching, I've already gotten rid of it'.

Thinking about this later, I decided to go through my movie list (i.e. a list of movies I'm intending to buy) on my ipod and cut out more fat.

My collection tends to be rather small, but very VERY specific: generally universal enough for anyone to find a movie they like, and direct enough that it displays personal taste.

So when it comes to dvd collecting, I know a lot of you out there have a lot in bulk (and your collection in general, or how you display it is important) but based on opinion, do you think it's more credible or detrimental enough to say something about your personal taste rather than how many you've got? Quality or Quantity in general?

calhoun07

I prefer to think I have a lot of quality in my high quantity, sir.

I really have a wide variety of interests and tastes when it comes to movies and music. As a result, I end up with a TON of stuff. All of it is quality.

I am a lot like Steve Buscemi's character in Ghost World...(paraphrasing)..."I have 1500 78's. I pared it down to just the essentials."

And I just have to ask...why would you buy a DVD unless you were intending to watch it more than once? If you only want to see it once, rent it, and cut the fat that way.

RagingBull80

I dont really have anything to add to the thread but whenever I see a thread similar to this, it makes me want to go through and cut my collection down. I don't have a very large collection (by the standards of this forum) but it's not all that tiny either. I have a lot of stuff in my music and movie collections and most of it is quality but every now and then I start thinking, "you know, I've got a lot of stuff that I don't necissarily need."

Just got me thinking...

ernestrp

One mans Quality might be anothers Quantity. I think I have both.

SledHeavy

quite frankly...sir, lol, that's my dad's name guy, before I had even fathomed getting into collecting I lived at home with two brothers. We did rent, and I hardly bought. In fact normally I got dvds as gifts, and most of those we either got tired of, or they got trashed unfortunately.

NTM, I have trouble believing you'd go down the line of your movies and watch them all equally yes? Obviously there's a large group of those you watch more than the others, and hence, for a lot of people that tend to have dvds, just to have dvds, those people generally lose track of the the ones that fall back to that woodwork, and before they know they forget why they had them in the first place. It's why we have used record stores buddy.

And there are those of us out there who are elitist: those that either collect in bulk, or those who are very specific and have smaller collections, and nothing is wrong w/ either. I'm more interested in seeing how many people on the forum are more interested in one or the other.

SledHeavy

feel free to sell it to me, lol.

islandclaws

I sometimes cut some fat from my collection, but most titles I'd consider parting with would garner me maybe $5, at most, if I traded them in used. I'd rather just keep the film in a case like that. I have wildly varied tastes and, as such, own a ton of films. I haven't seen them all, but anything I watch that is TOTAL shit gets the boot.

tonyc3742

I buy stuff I know or think I will like, or that I can recoup 90-100%+ of my costs if I change my mind. Sometimes I watch something and realize i'll never watch it again, so I sell/trade it, and the cost of ownership was reasonable. I have what seems to me to be a lot, but they're all things I like (or for other family members) or think I will like or were cheap.

donniemac

I'm a "less is more" type person when it comes to my dvd and music collection. It's like the hall of fame - you can't let just anyone in or else it would minimize its significance. My collection is made up of movies that, for me, have high replay value. Oh, and I don't subscribe to the "any collection should be considered incomplete without <insert title here> in it". Another thing I avoid is the need to be a completist. I love Hitchcock but have just 5 of his films. There was a recent thread whose subject was something along the lines of owning every Best Picture winner. I can't imagine basing ownership on that, but to each their own. Then there's the whole deciding what to watch thing. Good question OP.

tonyc3742

Yeah, the completion for completion's sake bugs me. I do like a little completion, if it makes sense, if I like all of the members of the set, or if it's cheap enough (the Superman box set was cheap enough that I don't care that Superman IV came with it.)
I am a completist for series I like.
But "every Criterion", "every dir. by John Doe", etc., I don't get into that.

Yakuza Bengoshi

I'm constantly looking for fat to cut out of my DVD collection and everything else I own. I love to get rid of things I'm not putting to good use.

John Galt

Quantity is a quality of its own.

(and I've used that line for talking about more than just DVDs)

DeputyDave

OK, I'll be the first to admit to quantity over quality. But not on purpose, though. I have 25-30 DVDs that were either gifts or were bought by/for my daughter. I've been telling myself for months (maybe years) to simply dump them. Pull the ones my daughter wants to keep so she can lose them in her room and then sell the rest (part of the payoff for entering my DVDs into DVDSpot for me was that her's also got listed, now I don't think she cares). Selling them seems kind of pointless because it seems to be a huge pain in the ass for very little gain (most of the same DVDs are on ebay for $0.99 and have zero bids).

I should just throw them away but I can't bring myself to do it. I have literaly been seconds away from pulling them 9 or 10 times and stoped just short. I have some sort of psychosis. I won't buy something I don't like but can't seem to get rid of it once It's there. I know for a fact I will never, ever watch any of these movies but I can't just toss them.

kstublen

I am a completionist when it comes to certain actors and directors. When it comes to them, it is absolutely quantity over quality, although I think my selection of particular actors and directors is quality. Denzel Washington has a few movies that aren't the best to hit the screen, but because I like him as an actor so much (and I'm a completionist) I have all of his movies. The few bad titles that he does have are few, but it's nice to have them just to see the progress he has made and have a complete collection.

I also have some movies that I have only watched once and will probably never watch again. They're in my miscellaneous category, and for a lot of them, they were either gifts or on sale for a really good price. If I want to see a movie, rather than rent it I will often buy it for say, $5, simply because that is roughly the cost to rent movies at Blockbuster, and then I get to keep it. Even if I don't like it, I won't sell it or anything, simply because it isn't worth the time or the hassle; as far as throwing them away...I could never bring myself to do that...I paid for it and it's something that hasn't lost its usefulness (at least in the sense that it still works, and maybe one of my friends will want to see it). If anyone is going to throw DVDs away, let me know, I'll take 'em off your hands.

So...quality over quantity (or vice-versa)? For me, I'd have to say it just depends.

asianxcore

I used to be quantity over quality for a little while.

When I first started buying DVD's my collection was very modest, but only made up of films I knew I would love.

As the collection grew I found myself blind-buying a little too often, as well as buying things because they were cheap. Then it boiled down to what kstublen mentioned. Do I go and rent a film I've never seen for $5, or just drop down the same amount or a tiny bit more to own the film?

I'm happy to say now I'm back to buying films that I know that I will like. Why spend $15-20 on a movie I've never seen, instead of putting that towards a DVD I've been wanting for a while?

Over the past 6-8 months, I've trimmed a lot from my collection. I've sold pretty much everything I bought blind or never got to. But as others mentioned, I'm always looking my collection for stuff I wouldn't mind letting go.

movieguru

I only buy movies I intend to watch at least once. Most of the movies I buy are blind buys so I can't judge the quality of them until I have bought and watched them. I like to have a lot of movies that I haven't seen on for a rainy day. About 50% of my collection have yet to be seen. I like have choices, so having a large quantity of dvd's is useful. I usually won't bother to sell the once I have already watched and don't plan on watching again. Not worth the trouble and someone else in the family may want to see them. I figure they still might be good one day if my daughter goes to school and may use them as references for paper. The only time I sell any is when I buy an updated version or I get a coml=plete series or collection and just no longer need the single season or movie.

Artman

Yeah, I'd agree if a collection looks like the local rental store, it loses a sense of personal taste...no offense to anyone with large collections. I've been hovering around 300+ for awhile (used to have over 400)... I still get shit from some friends over how much it is...I guess it just depends on your pov.

SledHeavy

I will tell you that I've got a friend who just re-arranged his collection based on director, and he's pretty set on getting every Coen Brother's and Woody Allen movie. Frankly there's always one movie from every director I find questionable, even though I've thought about getting all of david lynch and akira kurosawa films, but I don't know if I want to make it an effort.

I totally agree with most of you though on quantity, there's a part to collecting that's like developing a library. Having the sections of that library completed w/ top quality product makes it that much better. Whether or not it's necessary to have all the sequels, or the same movie in different formats is really where I draw the line personally.

dtcarson you make a good point that I completely forgot. The turn-around value of any collecting is very important as well. And getting rid of movies at a dropped rate just plain sucks.

However "Quantity being quality" is a concept that needs to be better elaborated upon. Apart from the shock and awe aspect or as some put it, the "completist" mentality I really think the defense here is lacking.

Paul_SD

Collectors collect. It's what they do ( and I would guess it's somehow linked to our basic genetic make up as hunter/gatherers). Thing is, there are other rewards to collecting besides the primary one of actual viewing and re-viewing the content. I understand the POV that it's a waste to accumulate media you may not rewatch anytime soon- but there have been several times recently where I kicked myself for selling off a title years back that I didn't see much value in. At the time I didn't I have a need for it, but as years go by, tastes change and hopefully broaden. If you maintain a small collection due to space or income that's one thing...but from experience it's great to revisit things I thought I was sure I didn't need to see again, and find they are more significant, moving, and plain entertaining than I originally thought. Just happened recently with Will Penny which I rewatched after Heston died. The only reason I still had it was because I hadn't gotten around to getting rid of it (which I originally intended to do after first seeing it). Loved it so much this second time, there's no way it will ever leave my permanent collection now. Even if it takes another 5 years to have the impulse to see it again. Lean is good, but variety is the spice of a media library and with variety there is always second guessing of things that may not have appeal at any one particular moment in time.

BullGooseLoony

When I first started buying DVDs back in late '99, I just kind of bought movies I liked; nothing essential. If I thought it was pretty good to great I'd get it, but as I've gotten older, I've been very much about high quality and little quantity.

The thing is, I have cable w/ on demand, video games, and the internet, so for me it's not about buying every movie I "like" or completing a series, etc.

Nowadays I buy movies that I HAVE to own; just without a doubt in my mind, must get it the day it comes out, I hope there's a special store exclusive movie. It's a combo of childhood favorites and some new favorites. The funny thing is that despite only having about 125 dvds, some of the titles are what many would consider "terrible," yet for some reason, their essentials. Such as:

Alien vs. Predator
Jeepers Creepers
Jeepers Creepers 2
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider 2
End of Days
Battlefield Earth
Wild Wild West
Dune

Wolf359

BullGooseLoony

Lol yeah. The story is that in high school, my English teacher introduced me to an old friend of his, Jonathan Crane, John Travolta's producer for about 20 years. It was early 2000, and he talked to our class about producing, then after the class, we still talked about the movie, which was maybe five months away. Right before Battlefield Earth came out, my teacher hooked me up with passes to a special screening about a month in advance. It was a real experience for me, and my first screening, so the movie holds a special place in my heart, despite the fact that it's really not good.

But if you turn the sound off and watch the special effects, it's pretty cool.

MTRodaba2468

I must agree with calhoun07. I have a large amount of DVDs (well, not as much as some people on this board, but in general). However, it's all stuff I like, or in the case of stuff I've blind bought, stuff I think I'll like. Therefore, I find it to be a quality collection for my tastes.

SterlingBen

I only buy dvds I want......
Why would you buy crap dvds for quantity sake? Thats just stupid.

I would hope people with a lot of dvds have a lot of dvds that they like.

Giggles

Quality is something I think everyone is after. It's pointless to buy tons of DVDs unless your goal is to build up a "biggest DVD collection ever". Certainly I try to purchase only essentials and those I'm sure I'll watch more than once. But with the amount of blind buys I make (and it's inevitable for me), I end up with some titles I'm not sure whether I'll watch them again or not. Some of those titles I just can't get rid of just like DeputyDave described, and others I just like having. I have this feeling of possessing a library where I can find something obscure and not very popular if a friend asks me for some "strange" flick or for a a specific title.