EPKJ

"If I'm not mistaken, those 200 dvds Holly sold were duplicates."

You are very much mistaken. I suggest that you reread her original post in this thread if you even bothered to read it to begin with.

milo bloom

I don't know, I consider myself a collecter and as I mentioned, I've thinned the herd from time to time (though nowhere near that scale) Being a collector isn't just about having every little piece of junk with "Brand X" on it. I used to do that with Star Wars and Star Trek, but I quickly realized I was collecting a lot of garbage. Now I only pick up things like that truly interest me.

My DVD collection has a lot of titles I don't think are A list titles, and some are even titles I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole if not for my wife wanting them. But I still make sure I keep my DVDAF page updated, even moving them around in folders from to time. And I've been known to pickup a DVD just because of the limited packaging (Serial Experiment Lain lunchbox anyone?)

Just because I've culled a few titles I honestly didn't think I'd ever want again, doesn't take away my right to call myself a collector.

I seriously don't get this, and I see it so often too. DVDs were a tremendous leap over LD and especially VHS. The next format is all but promised to be backward compatible, and honestly, HD isn't that big of an improvent to most people. Heck, a lot of people probably just upgrade to avoid rewind fees on their VHS rentals.

I really don't see DVD being tossed out with the garbage the instant HD DVD comes out. It will most likely become a niche format like Laserdisc was. And besides, do you really think the studios will be that quick to embrace it? I mean look how long it's taking the original Star Wars movies to come to DVD? (Heaven forgive me for bringing SW into this thread)

I think DVD is highly collectible format, and just plain highly collectible. I don't see anyone having as much fun with their Precious Moments figurines. I mean, they just sit there, collecting dust, looking pretty... and staring at you with those hollow, soul-less eyes.

indycohiba

Never!

Ron_Bangel

$5 each from the store, usually $10 from friends. I always considered $5 just about right, since they probably can't sell a used DVD for more than twice that.

HistoryProf

I'm sitting at 318 right now, and have probably sold 40-50 over the two years that i've been collecting....a dozen of which were sold last spring when i needed new Golf Clubs While I know that there are plenty of titles that don't have tremendous rewatchability....I just like having them around just in case. it's great when company is over and I'm comforted by the fact that I will always have something to watch. I've gone over the collection very recently trying to cull out undesirables, and honestly only came up with 5 discs.

mljones99

Can't say that I have actually tried to reduce the size of my collection. I have sold some DVDs before that I just didn't watch more than once or twice but that only accounts for less than 10 DVDs over the course of like 6 years.

Avid

I think she can be a collector, she narrowed down the focus of her collection to the "creme de la creme" of stuff she and her husband like. A new buy has to be meet their criteria of being really good and well liked by them.

I have a strong collector streak in me. I have noticed with a number of my collections that once they get very large I start weeding the collection down to my absulute favorites or to a theme I have settled into.

I have tried to not label my DVDs as a "collection" because I would be in trouble if I did. As soon as it becomes a "collection" I would be buying titles just because my collection needed them. I also would be buying ever movie that I like, and I don't have the space for that.

I do however feel out of control with animation, it owns me. I actually dread the next wave of Disney Treasures. If I am going to buy something, I'm going to watch it, and it took me months to slog my way through the last Mickey Mouse and Goofy tins.

Caliking

i have actually been looking into doing this. it will happen soon enough i am sure. i just hate to know that i will have lost money but when i think about it...it's as good as renting i guess.

flix1

I agree, DVD will be around a long time, but I see HD DVD going mainstream quick. ... it will all depend on the price. If you had a HDTV at home, and you had the capability to do both, would you buy the regular version or the HD version of next week's new DVD release?
Just look at all the studios putting out more than one release of a movie ... and each of us "upgrading" to and selling our old ones. They know that we are suckers for them. It would just be another "release" to them. More money in their pockets, and less in ours.
... and I see the next format being just as collectable, or maybe more so. DVD was originally tailored to our standard NTSC/PAL TV formats, and it was launched at the end of the standard TV product lifespan. A new format that fully supports HDTV, at the beginning of HD's reign, will probably be much more accepted and will live much longer.

necros

How is someone not a collector if they only collect what they like? Do you have to buy every DVD on the shelves at Best Buy to be a DVD collector? No, you buy and keep the ones you like. it's just like collecting baseball cards or comic books... Some people want everything, most people just want what they like and get rid of the ones they don't.

gutwrencher

maybe some of you should get that blind-buying thing under control. I cant understand the buying of all these films...only later to finally realize they are not worth keeping or owning. not saying a person is not a collector....there are just various levels of being one...I guess. also, I know nobody on this board who buys everything. who has 10,000 dvds? 20k? how about 5k? I think most everyone buys according to thier taste, not to pad thier #ers. maybe some of us have minds more open than others. some of us are much older than a teen...therefore enjoy a "wider" history. who knows. and I'm still waiting to discover a film I loved as a kid....but hate now. I'm looking hard for a dvd that I could do without....but cant find one. each title is a piece to a bigger picture. like I said before...each title serves it's purpose and is there for a reason. the only problem with my library is that it is so incomplete. this is where the fun now begins.

Mr. Foo

Well, as for me I was up over 1600 titles including duplicates (I do a lot of trading) and just came to the realization one day that, even though I averaged only around $5 to $7 net paid per title (not even using Columbia House, though they don't have a lot of my obscure type stuff anyway), this was all just silly and started unloading stuff on this site and on half.com while I could still make a decent profit. Given the size of my collection and the limited time I have available to watch them given work and parenting responsibilities, I figured I'd never get around to watching a lot of the stuff I had, let alone more than once. While it's nice to have a library of stuff that you like available at your fingertips, I no longer think the luxury is really worth it - especially in the long run given the looming HD-DVD format. If DVD was the be-all/end-all format, then I could understand the justification of keeping a library, but since it is not, those keeping these large libraries for too long will end up losing big $ as the new format(s) make them obsolete and you know you'll want to upgrade to the HD format.

I am really glad I started "liquidating my inventory", getting rid of a lot of the pricier limited edition and rare titles that I had, as I was able to take the $ made after about 500 sales and reward my wife with a new diamond ring for Christmas as a way of saying thanks for having to put up with my insane habit over the past few years.

When it's all said and done, I hope to be down to something manageable - say under 100 of my most re-watchable titles. This gives me the chance to also continue to upgrade what is most important in home theater (well, at least to an audio/videophile) - the equipment that you're watching/listening to these shiny little discs on......

Artman

I have been wrestling with this all yr. I was at about 200 dvds with 50 more on my wishlist when it hit me - when am I going to watch all of these? Same with my games and cd's. Its almost as if it had taken on a life of its own. Suddenly it was 'too big'.

Well fast forward a few months and i've trimmed down to 175 with about 20 on my list. Not a big difference I know, but already it feels like I've lifted this burden off of my shoulders. I dont 'have' to own every movie I like anymore. I dont know, perhaps all of this 'stuff' I was after was becoming too much of an idol in a sense.

Its different for everyone I guess. Although now I'm suddenly eager to build up my book collection. Uh oh...

edit - great post Foo!

QuiGonJosh

Its pretty funny some of you guys are goin "I have too many titles...200...thats just insane I dont need that many." lol

Anyway...I usually sell mine at FYE...I've taken DVD's I paid $5 for in the $5.88 bin at WalMart and gotten $7 out of em...course its only store credit...but still...its like Free DVD's!

Gig

as ive only just started buying DVD'S really i cant say i reduce but occasionally i will sell off he odd DVD. i certainly wouldnt keep a large collection just so friends can pick up a movie anytime.

Corky Roxbury

that is the thing the studios are dying to put out high defintion movies NOW, these will be the most protected(piracy wise) movies ever. and before some of you(class316) come in here saying that Hd-DVD will be cracked as well, I am sure you can go make a thread about another movie being"cenosred"

movieking

I just wish that I had gotten rid of some of my hundreds of CDs before the invent of MP3s. Now they are pretty much worthless. I don't think that it will be the same thing with DVDs, but you never know...

darkside

MP3 has made CDs worthless? I think MP3s and the songs you can buy from Apple sound like crap. I won't be replacing any of my CDs with compressed audio.

I guess you mean MP3s have hurt the resale values of CDs which is probably true. My local used CD store still does good business though.

Holly E. Ordway

It's funny, before I checked this thread this morning I was thinking about the idea of a "collection" and what that means. It's kind of a "holy word" but it doesn't have to be.

I love watching DVDs (of course) and love having a selection at home to watch whenever I want. But is that selection a "collection"? Maybe not - because to me (as to others here) a collection implies "completing" the collection. My set of DVDs is more like a "library." It's what I have right now; it will likely change in the future, both by adding new titles (like the Indiana Jones set which is an absolute essential for me) and probably culling others that, as time goes by, I realize I don't have the motivation to keep around.

I don't have a "book collection" either - I have a "library" that has some core elements but is always changing, while fulfilling its essential function, which is to always have lots of choices available for me to read. On the other hand, my M:TG cards are most definitely part of a collection - if I'm playing an expansion, I want to get a full set, including one of each of the sucky cards that I'll never use. Here, the completeness factor is pleasing and adds enjoyment.

Or maybe, as someone else suggested, I *do* have a DVD collection - it's just a collection of "movies I like best". (And if you looked at it, it would certainly give a great indication of my tastes in movies!) But I don't have the desire to "fill in" gaps just for their own sake - for instance, the collector impulse in me says "How can you not own Season 1 of Star Trek: Next Generation when you have Seasons 2-7?" In the past I might have succumbed and bought it, but now I can answer myself "Because as much as I like TNG, Season 1 sucked!" And now that makes my "collection/library" more enjoyable - when I watch my TV sets, I like to watch them completely, in sequence. If I owned TNG Season 1, I'd feel obligated to watch it before going on to Season 2, and (because it sucked) I wouldn't enjoy my overall TNG viewing as much. Or, I'd skip over it, but then why own it? DVDs are meant to be watched, and books to be read.

It is interesting to find that I'm not the only one who finds a too-large (with too-large being entirely personally defined) collection to be distracting or overwhelming. I don't find it overwhelming at all to *watch* tons and tons of movies - in fact, I love it (and a good thing too, as a reviewer!) - but it's a different story having them all accumulate in my house.

nightmaster

This is an interesting thread . When I cull from the herd it's usually titles that were blind buys, and they tend to be ex-rental titles I got on the cheap. I don't always upgrade just because a second double dip title resurfaces to market, either......in the past year Espace From New York and Pulp Fiction are the only two titles that come to mind I have purchased a second time, and my old copies were quickly weeded out when I did so. I always had a huge VHS collection and in the past 6 months I've been selling it off to local pawns and to friends who don't mind having things on tape.......my VHS collection is down to maybe 100 titles after selling off 400 or so just to be rid of them, knowing I won't pull them out to watch. My DVD collection has grown verrrrry quickly since finally buying my first player almost 4 years ago, but the movies I'd love to have that haven't been released are getting fewer and fewer now. I think I will always cull from the herd, but as far as downsizing my DVD library to essentials, I kind of doubt it. The medium is durable, enjoyable, and I soooooo love many good movies. I make alot less blind buys now, maybe 10 or so a year. When movies I know I always loved finally make their way to DVD, I tend to pick them up if they aren't mega expensive......for example, several John Wayne titles this year, Quest For Fire, The Omega Man......but these are movies I saw at the theater and have loved ever since, so adding them to my library after so many years of being fond of them was any easy decision for me. They'll be watched again, even if only a few times a year. Justification for allowing my library to grow? Yup, I suppose so!

SleepyW

I've been slowing down pretty good lately and do occasional thininning-out. Problem is some of the movies I want to dump are favorites of the kids, so we keep them for that reason. Plus, some of the one-time-views we have will be good movies for the kids to watch when they're old enough.

necros

I disagree. And I honestly don't notice much of a difference in quality between a real CD and a MP3, I guess my ears just aren't good enough after blasting em with heavy metal for the last 20 years But, I own about 325 CDs, I've gotten rid of some 1 hit wonders over the years but for the most part I keep the CDs I buy. I have all of my CDs converted to MP3s on my computer and listen to them on random all the time. But, I still always buy the CD. Not because I want to support the band or I'm against piracy or whatever else, but just because I like to have the real CD. I'm also more of a collector when it comes to them, cuz when I find a band I like I usually buy all of their older CDs too even if they're not that great.

alex4bball

I've cut down my collection. I do it about every 6 months, give or take. I just go through it asking myself, will I really watch this ever again? If not, I put it in the sell pile. I just did my sweep and I took out about 12 movies. You have to continue to monitor it or your collection will just become too overwhelming.

n0fear88

ive not reduced, if anything (if u look @ my list) i need to get more , ive jus made 3 new purchases: American Wedding, Shrek and A Bug's Life

DVDho78DTS