DeputyDave

Space has now become a premium. I now have officially run out of room to place one single more DVD. I need to face facts, I either completely replace my shelves with larger ones (I have two large IKEA Billy shelves and there is no room for another) or figure something else out. The problem with replacing my shelves is that it would be a bit expensive and I’d have to replace my matching TV stand (the shelves flank the TV so they would need to be similar).

As a test I just pulled the slip covers off my first shelf (12 Monkeys thru Alien Quadrilogy) and now have space for 2 more DVDs. The first shelf is an abnormality because 21 of the DVDs had covers , but on average I have 10 slip covers per shelf. That would mean I could make space for 18 more DVDs.

The question is that in a collection of 730+ DVDs, is that worth it?

Not so much any more but I have in the past spent a lot of time making sure the DVD I bought had the best cover, even driving to a farther store in order to get an exclusive cover. Comparing several DVDs to make sure I got the most pristine one. Looking at them now I wonder why. 90% of them are exactly the same cover as the case and frankly they are a bit of a pain in the ass considering the extra steps involved in watching the movie.

Though 18 empty spaces don’t seem like a lot, my buying has dropped drastically since I bought my Blu-ray. I still buy some older titles coming out but have cut way back on the new ones. The reason is that I want the best version but can’t bring myself to pay $25 to $30 for it. Dozens of movies have come out in the last few months that I would have bought the first week for $15 on DVD have just been Blu-ray rentals. 18 empty spaces might give me a few months of breathing room before I take the even more drastic step of getting rid of actual DVDs that are no longer really watched.

But I am a collector at heart. It’s a hard step to take. Even as I pulled the covers off that first shelf I was very careful with them, wondering where I could store a box full of 90 of them.

Any thoughts?

Kurt D

For the amount of thought, effort and stress, I'd say 18 spaces is not worth it.

TheDuke

If you do decide to go through with it, and you have a Pan's Labyrinth slip cover I would love to buy it from you (~2 bones or so)

RobCA

That's why I throw almost all my slipcovers away. But if I'd kept them all this time, I don't think I'd get rid of them just to make room for 18 more DVDs.

Rob

philip74

first thought would be selling them. if you do please pm me with with list!!

Disc-Flipper

with my Billy Bookcases, I'm putting DVDs on the shelves two-deep to double the storage space...

danwiz

Have you considered converting to Thinpaks?? That would double your free space.

DeputyDave

Yeah, I have. I almost tried a few times but it seems like a lot of work.

I never even thought about selling them. Now that seems like a lot of extra work. I guess I could send some to a few fellow DVDTalkers, but I wouldn't charge for it.

The Valeyard

If you do decide to dump them, please let us know.

pridesticks06

Yeah, I don't think it's worth the hassle and stress to dump them for a temporary fix for 18 cases. Might be smarter to look into shelving or thinpaks, though it's your decision. As stated before, if you decide to rid yourself of the slipcovers, there are many here, myself included, that would take them off your hands.

hindolio

i concur with the ^

imho, it is not worth the 18 extra dvd slots to get rid of items personally collected (for whatever reason and even if slipcovers are arguably somewhat lame). and even if you did dump the slips, how long would 18 extra slots take to fill up? then you might be in this same situation in two weeks? 2 months? 2 days?

look for a longer-term solution for your needs, taking into account all of your needs. thinpacks are heresy to me, but if thats what you must do, so be it. but i would suggest some kind of larger storage capacity if you intend to continue the collection. good luck

mr. b_dvd

I'm sort of in the same boat as you with storage. I have my dvd collection in my closet on some built in shelving, and I also have stacks of them on the dresser and by the bed. I am going to be getting some shelves from Ikea, and the Billy ones are the ones I've always thought of getting. Do you have the extra shelf on the top? If there is ANY space around the house for another Billy shelf, I'd go that route before tossing all my slipcovers for a little bit of room for 18 dvds.

I have lots of dvds that I don't really consider mine since I bought them for my wife and kids. I will probably do thinpaks on those since they don't really care. That is after I thin out my collection. I'm approaching the 1000 dvd marker, so I really need to figure out what I'm going to do soon.

I don't think I could bring myself to get rid of the slipcovers, although I have thought of it. I'm also like you in that I will pass on a movie if I know there is a slipcover for it and I can't find it with the slipcover (if I don't buy it on release week with the slipcover that is). I've gone to another Best Buy to see if they had the movie with the slipcover.

I just picked up the film The Number 23 yesterday at Best Buy. I'd been wanting to watch it, but I wanted to wait for a price drop. I figured $6.99 was a great price, and I was stoked to find it with a mint slipcover.

Trevor

Out of similar necessity (maybe 5000 DVDs spread thru several bookcases and shelving units) I am in the process of switching into slimcases or even binders for a few things like TV series.

It doesn't take as long as I feared. I just buy them in bulk occasionally, and do 20 or so a night.

Right now, I'm keeping all the old packaging in storage, but I may sell/give it away at some point.

HotThang

I converted 95% of my slipcases to thinpcks and it really wasn't a lot of work at all. The only downsides for me are that you have to sort of refold the slipcovers to fit the thinpacks so now they all have creases down the spine. Also, I can't just look at the shelf at titles on the spines to decide what to watch since there are essentially no more spines. :-) Now I have to figure out how to convert the snappers to thinpacks! I also am thisclose to putting all of my TV series' in thinpacks but the covers are so purty! I just can't bear to do it yet! LOL

Trevor

You can fold them differently and still read the spines. Just fold or trim 3.5mm on each side and they come out perfectly readable and centered.

wowbagger

If you're going to do this and happen to have that cover for the extended Lord of the Rings trilogy, I'd be interested in it.

Bleddyn Williams

Exactly what I have done. I use Delicious Library (Mac-only cataloging program to be able to "browse" my shelves...

http://delicious-monster.com/

DeputyDave

Well, I decided to just go ahead and get rid of most of my covers. I'm surprised how much room it made. I basically pulled any slip cover that was the same as the inner cover. I kept the unique ones.

I don't want to go through the bother of selling them, or the expense of mailing them out, or even the bother of dealing with PayPal for postage. So here's the deal, if you want a cover send me a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) of the type you want it sent back in. If you don't want it to be flattened in transit you might want to include a blank cover or something else to keep the cover in the proper shape.

I almost didn't post this because I didn't want to go through the bother of typing all of these titles (you can tell I'm a pretty lazy person), but then I figured a photo might work as well. If you can't tell what a cover is or which version it might be (they're all widescreen of course) just ask. The first person to send me a private message about a cover gets it. I'll give you my address then.

The photo is in the next post.

DeputyDave

On the third shelf the covers are only the ones lengthwise in the middle.

DeputyDave

Claimed:
Fantastic 4 (BillWatkins)
Dawn of the Dead (BillWatkins)
Big Red One (jnyahay)
First Blood (jnyahay)
Kung Fu Hustle (jnyahay)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (kevinlord190)
Land of the Dead (kevinlord190)
3:10 to Yuma (kevinlord190)
Mulan (robe619)
Cars (shyguy1083)
The Incredibles (shyguy1083)
Ratatouille (shyguy1083)
The Frighteners (shyguy1083)
Hero (shyguy1083)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (shyguy1083)
Pan's Labyrinth (TheDuke)

kevinlord190

ill take forgetting sarah marshall slip and land of the dead and 3:10 to yuma

hindolio

nooooooo!

oh well please let us know how it turns out with the space issue in the future. and good luck!

jjcool

This.

I would focus on the stuff that doesn't have slipcovers first, since you seem to like those. I would switch all the non slipcovered dvds to thin cases. That would be a good spot to start. I changed out every case, except for limited or special packaging, for as thin a case as I could get. I cut the space my collection takes up in half. Took me a bit to do the changeover, now all I have is new additions to do before they go on the shelf. I too keep the old cases in storage, since I had room. Not sure what I will do with it, as I really can't see switching back.

DeputyDave

Just in case anyone is still interested I still have a lot left and the wife isn't gonna let 'em lay around forever.

TheDuke

I would still like Pan's Labyrinth