No.

I buy what I want when I want to buy it.

After 10 years I only have about 300 discs since I only buy movies I like to watch repeatedly.

Except for when I first bought my player and joined DVDTalk (1999), I never really bought a lot of DVDs really. In the early days, I bought a lot because there were a lot of deals ($8-10 new releases).

My DVD buying has been pretty slow since then, but its probably less frequent now. I've pruned my collection since day 1, selling/trading stuff I found myself not wanting to watch much anymore.

My buying has probably slowed even more recently because of both money and time. I don't find myself having much time to watch stuff anymore... Plus I get free "rentals" from work.

With that said, I just bought a ton of crap in the last 2 months. I spent about $400 last Saturday on DVDs, but only because I got them all for about 50% less than the lowest price I could find them online. I'll probably sell half of them so I'd essentially get the other half for free. And prior to that I've bought 5 DVDs that I got at a really good price (~$6/dvd). My only "regular" price purchase in the last 6 months or so was the Star Wars Trilogy.

DVD players came out in 1994?

I thought I'd be reducing the number bought this fall, but $5.20/DVD from CH has a way of increasing my unwatched backlog. I usually thin the collection as I go along. I expect about half of my recent CH order will be traded in after I watch them.

I go through lulls. There will be a couple of months where I might purchase 2-3 in the month, and then I'll decide I want to go crazy and will buy 20-25 a month for a few months. Right now, I'm on the upswing and am buying like crazy (damn you, Amazon!).

Of course, my wife also shares the DVD-bug, so sometimes even when I'm not going crazy buying them, SHE will be. So, it works out and the collection keeps growing.

I also find myself buying fewer movies on DVD. TV shows, on the other hand, are another story.

I think the reason I bought so many DVDs at first is because I was not only replacing crappy VHS, but also willing to check out new titles on the new format, especially when they had bonus features. But over the last year or so, I have found my buying habits going back to what they were before I got in to DVD. When I bought VHS, I bought only a handful of movies a year, and usually waited until I could get the tapes on a sale. I bought only movies I knew for sure I would want to watch several times over, and mediocre to OK movies I would either be satisfied in renting once in a while or not watching at all.

I think another reason I am not buying DVD movies as much is because I am usually aware of special editions and other pumped up editions that come later on. If the DVD is lacking in bonus features, and it's a big title (like Man on Fire), it doesn't matter how much I liked that movie, I am confident a better edition will come later on.

But TV shows, I know what shows I already like and want to buy, and also I know that the studio isn't going to double dip on a TV show, so I am more prone to buy those right away. I think all the DVDs I have on order for the month of October are TV shows on DVD.

I buy a dvd about once every few months now, whereas I used to buy like 5 a week. To me, there are just more important things to spend money on now. And I don't have as much as time as I did a few years ago to watch all these movies.

Yeah, I buy less. But mostly because I have what I want, and once you've gone through 1000 DVDs...

My compromise was to subscribe to Netflix. I can watch 12-15 DVDs a month for the price of one that I probably wouldn't watch more than once or twice. I still buy DVDs but not anywhere near as many of them.

Another vote for a drastic increase in TV on DVD purchases, copled with a drastic decrease of movie purchases.

A year ago, I think I had 7 or 8 TV show box sets. Now, its about a hundred.

I still buy movies, but not nearly as many as I used to. Now I mainly trade for new ones, and buy more Tv sets.

I think I'm buying more now actually. Good stuff just keeps on coming out! :)

Re: Anybody else drastically reduce numbers of dvds purchased?
 

For a minute there, I thought I authored this post. :p

The only difference from me is that I traded in about 100 and had over 900(!) DVDs in my collection. I felt the same way, that my collection was growning with no rhyme or reason. I never saw a DVD that I didn't like (ok... except non-anamorphic! :D) - I got many good deals and kept looking for more. I think the hunt for a good deal was funner than actually watching them!

I am in the beginning stages of knocking my down to the ones I enjoy repeated watching. The BBV trade-in deal allowed me to recover over 100% of my costs on the ones I traded in. With my $800+ gift card trade-in balance now, I will selectively choose from the new releases.

All thanks to the GREATEST BlockBuster deal ever! :thumbsup:

Yes and no. I never really purchased that many dvds since I only buy movies that I really want. But lately I have been trying to get my wishlist down. I have about 150 movies in there at the moment. If I find good sales on them I buy them. Once I get caught up (if ever) I will slow down.

Yes and no for me. I've amassed a good sized collection of current stuff I like while picking up catalog movie titles spanning several decades. At this point I'm doing the same but there are now far less older titles I need to pick up. Having said that I still probably pick up at least 5 movies a month....hard to resist the cheaper prices.

No, I pretty much buy what I want. If there is a slow down it is because CH changed the approval time for applications. I remember flipping 8-10 accounts in one month last summer; now I'm lucky to get 1-2 accounts approved in a month.

I'll second this to a point. I'm all over the board. Since I've been able to collect just about everything I've sought out from the past, I've been only looking forward to the future. Since discovering foreign film .. mostly Japanese and Korean, I'm very eager to jump on board in any given month that is lush with new foreign releases. So, my 1 to 2 per week average will shoot up to 5 depending on what's around the corner. Then again, I might just pass across a certain website or two and find a lot of interesting movies I've never heard about. Since blind buying is common, I indulge. When blinding falls short, I do some trimming.

Then again, when I get sick of holey underwear or mac n' cheese, I just might take it back just a bit .... then again?

I slowed down quite a bit after i got HDTV,after watching some HD movies on HBO that where a lot better PQ then any DVD on the market(heck a stupid tv show like the bernie mac show in HD blows away the superbit fifth element or LOTR EE in PQ) i figured i better slow down on regular dvd's and wait until HDDVD comes out(i already have 700 DVD'S so i had a lot of what i wanted anyway)I plan on only getting a few select titles in the next year and a half such as ROTK EE,so my DVD buying has gone from 20 a month to 2 a month

i reduced alot and all of a sudden im buying more again. mainly tv show box sets.

When they stop releasing 'em, I'll stop buying 'em.

No, can't say I've slowed down at all.

After amassing a huge collection also, I almost don't want to think about the possibility of having to collect HDDVD in the future.

I have been cutting back significantly in anticipation for HDDVD also buying only when sales come up that are too good to pass up.

I've slowed down, but only because I'm low on funds. I'm spending all my money redecorating a couple of rooms in my house.

I've stopped buying (almost) completely, once I realized I haven't watched 80% of the discs that I have purchased over the years. Example: I still have all the X-files sets shrink wrapped I have know idea when I'll have the time to watch them, let alone the 300+ movies still sealed collecting dust on my shelves.

A week ago I was in Best Buy and I had 4 discs in my hands heading for the cashier when I thought to myself when the hell I'd even get a chance to watch this stuff, I put them down on the end cap near the cash register and walked out empty handed. I felt guilty for like two seconds. This week I didn't even drive to BB, so I figure in two weeks alone I've saved at-least $150. including tax on purchases I didn't need in the first place!

We need to start a 12 step program 'cause I know it's only a matter of time before I cave and go on a bender.

Ditto.......

I'm spending most of my money rebuilding my life after a prolonged unemployment period almost destroyed it.

The first few years, buying was accelerated because I had a lifetime of favorite movies to get.

Now, I have all the old favorites I wanted -- so the only new purchases are current theatrical ones I'd want (a small handfull a year)

Ditto -- this is how it goes. If you look at the date members here registered and read their responses, you see a definite trend.

Generally speaking, here is the DVDTalk cycle.

1) We all join here

2) We buy a ton of old catalog titles

3) We decide we have enough (aka realize we have more than 25% of our DVDs still in the wrapper, with no plans of watching them ANYTIME soon)

4) We "thin the herd" to appease our spouse/conscience

5) We binge and purge a few more cycles

6) We stabilize the collection, buying only a few new releases and the major catalog titles (ie, Star Wars) -- and still have to thin the herd once a year or so.

7) We continue coming here to keep up on re-releases, new releases, camraderie, etc.

This really is not a good time of year to ask this question, because there is a lot of good catalog stuff and the summer blockbusters coming out b/c of Christmas.

Ask this question again in March, and you'll see a lot more people say "yes."



BTW, this post does not apply to TV on DVD. Luckily, this is an addiction that I don't have to contend with, as I generally think TV shows suck (except Scrubs, Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and a few other exceptions).