I was at the Best Buy return desk today, exchaning a DVD that was scratched. The worker and I started talking and she said something that shocked me,and I know will shock several of my fellow DVD-talkers.
She said she throws the DVD cases away and just keeps the disc and holds it in one of those album holders. She said the boxes just take up too much space. I was just shocked!
Have you ever heard of anyone else doing this?

Last year I caught the guy that lived next to me taking out a big box to the dumpster. He said that he was just moving them all to cases because they took up too much room. I salvaged the ones that were in good shape and now have a ton of blank cases in case any of the ones I get used are in bad condition or something.

Did you dumpster dive?

Is this danol?

Not really surprised. A lot of people keep their music CDs in the big folders/binders.

I've recently been thinking about putting all of my DVDs (2500+) in some sort of binder/sleeve storage system also.

I won't throw out the cases, but I'm not suprised that people do. The ordinary cases are oversized for mass storage if that is important to the person.

No. I've never in my life ever heard of anyone discarding brand new DVDs cases, for whatever reason. That's a waste money because not only your paying for the disc, but your paying for the case, and other contents included inside, especially the box sets.

I toss the cases to all sorts of stuff. If I don't have the room for it, out it goes. I've ripped all of my cd's to the computer, made some copies of my most listened to albums, and put the originals in storage. At the moment, my dvd's aren't taking up too much room. If they ever do, I'll put them in binders. I'll probably put the cases in storage, but if it comes down to it, I'll donate them.

I don't see what's so shocking about it. Ultimately, I buy the movie, not a plastic box.

My sister does the same thing, and for the same reason.

I personally would never do this, but I don't think it's a big deal that other people do it.

I'm pretty fussy about my collection but there are some less important titles in my collection that down the road I might try to consolidate this way. I would never take a nice set like the Sin City Special Edition and just toss the case away but it wouldn't kill me to take Knock Off out of it's case to make room for more DVDs.

And when someone steals your disc folder you're shit out of a DVD collection. That just happened to a guy I know, sucks for him. Can't really happen so easily with a bookcase full of cases.

Does she throw the cases out with the cover art? I imagine someone coming across these in a dumpster thinking they've hit a jackpot only to find them empty.

People do the strangest things ... not something I'd even consider doing.

Probably! I don't see why they would keep the cover art either, minus the case. supfool made a valid point about the convenience of your entire DVD/CD collection being stolen when they are stored into a binder. Many people don't realize this, and whenever a burglary occurs, it will be too late.

Not to mention that I've never found a cd/dvd binder that didn't scratch the discs.
And what if you want to sell a disc later, you have no case to put it in! Who's going to pay a decent price for just a disc with no case or cover art?

This has been discussed in other threads before. Most people that really care about their collection won't do this.

Exactly. Watch auctions on eBay where the seller only has the discs in a CD binder. They make a hell of a lot less money than someone with the cases.

And most importantly, as supfool! said, it's a lot easier to break in to someone's house and grab a small CD case and run. It's not as easy to break in and find a way to take cases off the shelf and make it as quick and inconspicuous.

And not only do I like to preserve my collection, I guess I'm just a vain prick and I like the look on people's faces when they walk into my TV room and see 3 shelving units lining the wall holding over 1,000 titles. I revel in my geekdom.

I do it.

I collect movies, not plastic cases. I mean, it's not like I put the plastic case in the DVD player and stare at it for two hours. And those cases are horrendously space-inefficient.

(I do hold onto the art in case I should ever have the urge to go back. But I've never had that urge.)

As for scratches, I've been doing this for over a decade with over 1000 CDs and DVDs and have never had a single problem. That's more than I can say for the traditional cases.

As for resale...I have no plans to sell my DVDs.

But don't you prefer your DVDs to be secured, and protected inside their separate original cases? If they were laserdiscs, or HD-DVDs, surely you would want them to be kept inside their covers. DVDs should be the same.
The cases are not the reason for DVDs being scratched, if they are properly inserted onto the spindle, to prevent movement. If DVDs are scratched, it must be from another type of misused. I have a very large collection myself, and not had a problem with my DVDs being scratched because of the case. I don't see how it could happen.
For the time being. In the near future, you may change your mind, and decide to sell some of them for whatever reason.

If I could find good quality albums or file totes or something that could store the discs (including boxsets) and coverart in a logical fashion, I'd convert my collection over in a heartbeat.

Same here. I have NEVER sold any of my DVDs. Give them away... yes, but sell... never.

Never say Never.

I know people who do this, but I can't imagine why. How do you keep them organized? You either have shift discs around everytime you get a new movie, or just stick them at the end of the album, making it impossible for anyone but John Cusack to find anything.

I throw away my DVDs after I copy them to my computer.

it's not that big of a deal... who cares what other people do with the crap they buy

Oh, I can say never in this instance. Over the past 6 years I've given away 30-40 discs. Sold: 0.

That's why I'd like to have a file tote with cards/sleeves/jackets for each title. Easy to insert and split across multiple cases/totes.

ya know, I throw the cases away all the time, unless it's one I want to display....

ahem.. i do this.. I have 1000 DVDs. Hate cases. throw them in a box and give em away to anybody who wants them.. so I throw them away (in a box) but they do get recycled.

It's a breeze to keep them organized. I always only initially use 1/2 of the page (1 or 2 discs per page) so this gives me lots of room to add without changing the book. When things get really tight, I just add a page.

Once in 7 years I had to spend about 1.5 hours to reset everything. Small price to pay to having 1000 discs in less then 2 feet of space. i use DVD profiler to keep track of what I have, what I have seen, etc...

Plus there is a real side benefit of only having to fight with those blasted DVD case spindle/holders only ONCE! It's a lot easier to get em out of a DVD organizer.

i wouldn't go back to storing discs in cases if you paid me..

I keep my DVDs in a binder, but only because, for me, they're easier to get to that way. It's also nice to flip through the pages when I'm not sure what I want to watch.

I haven't gotten rid of the cases, though, and I don't plan to. I keep my all-time favorites out on display, the rest in a cabinet under my TV.

Never had a problem with a damaged disc, BTW.