tpc

I was at an electronics Expo in winter of '99. I picked up a player on a TOTAL whim. It was a Piece of crap. Oriton 100 I think. Anyway, I grabbed it. Got it home, and it had no remote, and it was an expo, so I had no way to get ahold of the seller. A replacement remote was like, 35 bucks through the manufacturer... so I used to have to manually control everything standing at the TV. In spite of that, I still started collecting DVDs. I think my first disk was Gremlins, one of my favorite movies of all time.

I only own about 160. That doesn't seem like much by DVDTalk standards, but trust me... in the real world, I am considered a DVD whore

JBDomain

Man, still remember it like yesterday.

I bought new pc with dvd-rom at the end of nov '98. Received Godzilla from my brother - bought first dvds @ BB with giftcard - Blade Platinum and Hardboiled:criterion that dec.

Six month later - summer '99 - jumped into it head first. Bought sony 53" rptv, pioneer dvd player, receiver, speakers, sub ..pretty much the works...

Lurked dvdtalk.com for almost a year then joined in 2000

Built the collection...buying thru Reel.com, Bigstar.com, Buy.com, Amazon.com, DVDExpress.com , 800.com ...also took advantage of free gift certs to amaz. from freeride/jaboom/vividence and reel.com refer codes.. ...almost paying next to nothin for a majority of my dvds.

Am a dvd addict and so are you

steebo777

I wish I was collecting (or even had money to collect then) when 800.com, reel.com, etc. were around. Those days must have been beautiful

sataniko

I remember when DVD's came out and DVD players where about $700 each for the cheapest one, I couldn't wait until they went down in price and I stopped waiting once they reached $200!!! I think that was in 98-99. I paid $189+ tax and I thought I got a great deal. Right after I went to Nobody Beats The Wiz and bought Woodstock: The Director's Cut. All with my savings (I wasn't working), I was 18-19 at the time.

Now I have ~170 DVD's

007bugs

My first DVD was Army of Darkness, bought about 2-3 months before I registered at DVDtalk. I now have 710 titles, about half from the golden age when my average/DVD was under $5.

CitizenFlynn

December 20, 1997 to be exact was the day I got into DVD. My first DVDs were Bonnie and Clyde, Goldeneye, Lethal Weapon, Austin Powers, and Batman.

Gig

god im new to the game. It must have been about november last year when i began using my dvd player on the x-box hooked up to a logic 3 soundstation and 14 inch tv. Didnt buy many dvd's cos watching films was crap! I then invested in a 28 inch panasonic tv and dvd player and philips dvd player and surround sound! Since christmas ive been buying dvd's all the time! i bought 8 dvd's in 3 days this weekend!

Josh H

Saw some at a friends place in the fall of 1998. Got a DVD drive with TV out for X-mas that year, and began buying some discs. Got more into in spring/summer 1999 when I found this site (and the bargains) and got a stand alone player.

Still, I've never been huge into it as I've been in the game for over 5 years and only have 113 DVDs. I'm just not a huge movie buff, and my buying slowed down when the crazy online bargains disappeared/starting involving more hassle. Now I just buy what I really, really want and rent the rest.

SlangNRocks

I started my dvd collection with free dvds from whatshotnow.com and a Apex 600a dvd player back in the fall/winter of 1999

danwiz

Bought my first DVD Player kind of late in the game - May 3, 2000. Waited until the price dropped to $250, but still paid $270.59 by the time they calculated taxes. Ordered my first DVD from Buy.com - "Apocalypse Now" for a song and a dance. And, that's the only DVD which I associate a number with (#1).

A word of advice. Even when you have money, buy only those titles which you really like and feel like you will want to watch mutliple times. Don't waste your monetary resources just buying for the sake of buying. Now it's nearly 4 years since I bought that first DVD, and I have about 270 Titles, most of which I like to watch about once a year. Oh, I have made some mistakes and have about 10 Titles which I need to find a buyer for, but I have wizened up since those purchases and now am much more discriminating, and I think before I buy! I was going to buy "Schindler's List" when it comes out, but thanks to this board, I THOUGHT about it, and other people said "a great movie, but too depressing, don't think I'd like to watch it every few months." I had to agree with what I read, and I am now NOT GOING to buy that DVD. I rent DVDs which I only want to watch once or twice!

Anyway, good luck to you. Have fun! Don't go crazy!

SunMonkey

The Matrix was my first DVD, purchased upon its release. I didn't get my DVD player for another month and a half due to a backorder issue.

MovieGuy26

nice to see everyone's story, keep 'em coming. be sure to include your strategies on collecting DVD's and how you get them.

MG26

scroll2b

Um, my dvd collection was kickstarted sometime in 1999 when my sister's boyfriend (now my brother in law) gave me a Pioneer 525 dvd player. I soon got the T2 Ultimate Edition for $30 dollars of my own money. Up until that time, dvds were so expensive that I waited until my birthday or the holidays, which was a pretty successful strategy because I got the Ultimate Toy Box for Christmas one time, I think.

Anyway, I had no clue about dvdtalk back then. I'm sure I would've cleaned house and more if I knew about those reel.com stackabge coupons or whatever back then. But, last February I decided enough was enough. I wanted more movies in the house, and renting them wasn't going to do. I was absolutely starving for Kurosawa's films like The Seven Samurai, which I had rented years ago through Netflix. I purchased the boxset it comes in the cheapest way I could.

Then a friend mentioned Columbia House, and mentioned dvdtalk when I balked at their scheme. So I checked you guys out, figured out how good the deals were, and flew into high gear.

Finally, freedvds.com came along! And I haven't had to really buy a dvd since. Which, in the words of Governor Arnold, is 'FANTASTIC!' Of course occasionally there's news in the bargain forum like the Claude Chabrol collection going for $15, etc. (However, I'm not a dvdtalk geek yet. I refuse to put a list of the dvds I own, cause that takes too much time. I do know it can be good for tracking what's being borrowed, etc.... but I've stopped that a while ago, too.) Great thread!

mljones99

it started with a DVD player my mom bought me way back in 1997. My first DVD was Scream 2.

PalmerJoss

I got my first dvd player just before christmas 1998, and I went out to the store the next day and bought a ton of titles, mostly from New Line and Warners like:

Boogie Nights
Contact
Devil's Advocate
Good Will Hunting SE
Robocop Criterion
Silence of the Lambs Criterion

Now I usually buy at least one dvd per week, and I rent anything I'd like to see, but not necessarily own.

RockyMtnBri

Back in June of 1998 I decided to make the jump for laserdisc to DVD, and bought my first player (Panasonic A110 - $400) then. My first DVDs were Austin Powers, Contact, and the Fifth Element.

That purchase actually prompted me to upgrade my sound system a year later, with a Yamaha RX-V2095 receiver ($1500).

900+ DVDs later I'm still collecting and still loving it! I miss those salad days too - it was amazing how much some studios and retailers did to make the format work.

Dabaomb

I'm 24 now and started really collecting in June of 2002 when I was 22.

My first DVD was the Lawrence of Arabia LE that I got as a gift in the summer of 2001. I got my first DVD player in April of 2002 (ghetto Apex 3201 from CompUSA for $49.99 after rebate).

I never watched LOA cuz it was like 6 hours long. I bought The Patriot with Mel Gibson from Overstock.com that same month for $9.49 and I was amazed by the picture quality and extras on a DVD.

I then got the Harry Potter & the Sorceror's Stone from CompUSA for $9.99.

In June of 2003, I walked into a Blockbuster which was having a buy 2, get 1 free pre-viewed DVD sale so I bought like 20 or so that month. This is when I didn't no about the wackness of full screen so I have 2 fullscreen DVDs cuz of this (American Pie 2 & The Mummy Returns)...I actually had a third (The Grinch) but I sold it on half.com and upgraded to the 2-disc version. Many of these pre-viewed are scratched too but they still play.

I then found out about DVD.com and got hooked. Lots of deals from the Bargains forum and from CH.

I used to buy everything if it was a good deal even if I wasn't likely to watch it but I stopped that now (I have an obsessive compulsive problem...used to be with comics and sports cards when I was a kid, then CDs, then clothes, now DVDs).

Since I'm working now and have some discretionary income (I don't drink or smoke so this is my only vice). My 3 loves are Jesus, weightlifting, and DVDs so that's where my money goes.

620 DVDs later is where I stand now. Must slow down though but this site isn't helpin' me at it

QuiGonJosh

So you've still never watched LoA? WTF is wrong with you! One of the true greats of cinema it is!

bodomnet

My sister bought me bride of chucky + pearl harbor + little nicky as a gift, and I used my ps2. Got a dvd player a year or so later. I have only started collecting them like these few months really.

Yocke

My first dvd was Rush Hour. I bought it used, and I thought I was really cool since I had it on dvd before it came out in theatres here in Sweden. Nowadays that happens more often than not, or so it seems.

twitchreflex

We bought a PC with a built in DVD drive in '98ish.
I ran out to get Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, and that was the beginning of my undoing (or at least my wallet's undoing).

Dazed

Got Matrix and then bought a PS2 to watch it on

I still use my PS2 but its starting to die on me (sometimes not recognising when a DVD is put in).

My next player will be region free as im sick of the way many R1 discs are released.

lizard

I never collected video tapes or got into laser disc, but when I read about DVD it sounded like the technology had finally arrived. Like many others, I bought my first DVD before I had a player: The Mask of Zorro in August 1999 (from Bigstar.com, remember them?). At the time I was busy with building and moving into a new house, so the DVD player had to wait. I also got the early release of Pride and Prejudice as a gift in December 1999. The next two were The Last Starfighter and Mulan.

Finally ordered the player (Panasonic A-120) on-line and found it on the expected day in January 2000 sitting in the snow (in a plastic bag), since the UPS truck can't make it down my 400 foot driveway in winter. It worked fine and when I upgraded to a progressive scan player I sold the old one to some friends and it is still going strong.

In the early days I took advantage of the crazy deals we used to get at the end of the Internet bubble (anyone remember Freeride?). But once I discovered the Columbia House thread here at DVD Talk the vast majority of my DVDs have come from CH, initially at an average of $9 each; the last year or two at a cost of $7 each. For DVDs that CH doesn't carry I search out the best deals I can find or get them as gifts from family.

Thanks to diligent bargain shopping and Columbia House I would guess that my average DVD cost is well under $10, excluding box sets.

cupcake jesus

I started on Christmas 2000. I got a Samsung DVD player, which is still my primary player, Heat, The Shawshank Redemption, and U2: Rattle & Hum (when it was still 30 bucks retail).

Soon after, I bought Se7en: Platinum Edition, Fight Club: SE, and Magnolia: Platinum Edition with some Christmas money and my Media Play employee discount. Those three really hooked me.

I was a sophomore in college at the time, and one of three people on my dorm floor with a player. I collected steadily, because I had a good part time job, and extra money (went to school on loans that I'm paying now, though). I graduated this May, and now that I have a full-time job, my collection's grown by leaps and bounds.

LivingINClip

I don't remember how old I was or the year, but I know it was at least five years ago or more. Bought a computer with a DVD-ROM (back when that was a big deal) and picked up A Bugs Life the same day. Was amazed at the video quality, ended up with a small library, but no DVD player. Kept using my DVD-ROM, until the PS2 come out. Then started using it, finally, I eventually broke down and bought a five-disc DVD player. Now, I am around 600 titles - but it's not all mine. Both parents also buy them, and we keep them all in one room.
(I live at home. )