I was going to post pics of my collection, but figure I'll just ask since this seems the place to ask.

How do you all feel about storing your collections out in the open?
I'm used to having my collection in my enclosed bedroom, but am finally moving out to an apartment at the beginning of August and am now running into that problem of where to store my DVDs. With a smaller bedroom and large living area, it just seems to make the most sense to move them out of the bedroom.

So, those of you in apartments and even in your houses, how do you feel about your fears of guests or maintenance people swiping your DVDs?

While I was living in an apartment, I kept DVD bookshelves and collection in my bedroom, mainly because of the fact that the bookshelves would have dominated my living room. Now that I own my own home, I keep them upstairs in my office, for the same reason.

Mine are out in the open simply because my bedroom can't hold all of my collection. I haven't "lost" any yet.

In my previous place my dvds were in the open in the finished basement. I never had an issue of them going missing. There was a signout sheet for my friends/relatives that came over and would want something. Everyone was good about following the instructions of filling out the sheet. It was easy for me to keep track of things and hound the right people if discs were MIA for too long.
In my current place, I wanted to place my dvds in the living room along a wall or 2nd bedroom along the wall. Once I got my stuff in though (couch and bed) I realized I did not have enough space thats how they ended up in the closet.
I'm not afraid of maintance folks taking my other personal things, so I'm not afraid of them taking my dvds.

Wow, dejavu!

I'm not too worried about my DVDs walking away, we don't have that many people over and those that do come over I would be shocked if anyone "borrowed" them without asking.

I got a question about organizing my shelves. I currently have an area for TV, Criterion, Sports, Stand-Up/Music, animated, and then everything else. But with a new shelf on the way i need to make another catagory. I was thinking box sets but wasn't sure. Any idea's? thanks

When I was in my apartment, I had locking cabinets in my living room. Sure, a determined burglar could get in them, but the "casual" thief, like a apartment complex maintenance guy with keys to my place, would not be able to get in without it being noticeable.

Now that I have my house, my HT is in the basement, and most of my DVD's are on shelves I mounted or open stands. Very few people come over, and no one is ever in the basement unattended if they do come over.

Another thing, if you have to worry about your friends swiping your DVDs I suggest you get new friends.

I find it more of a problem of people wanting to borrow DVDs and getting disappointed when I turn them down

Kocheese99, thats exactly how I have my collection set up. I have a shelf for boxsets, it was first done for trilogies and then I realized I had boxsets like the Marx Bros collection, and they had to go somewhere so I just added them to that shelf.
Also with my Criterions I add all "classic" films. These include any 2 disc Warners and any black and white films.
Near them I also have multidisc sets like the 4-disc Kingdom of heaven, extended cuts/multi disc versions of films. On a different shelf I keep all slipcases together.
So for example the new versions fo Con Air etc, are kept on the slipcase shelf because it is only a 2 disc edition.

Instead of turning friends down, I tell them I require a $20 security deposit. Sometimes they agree, but usually they quit asking me to borrow.

I usually loan out my movies and use DVD Profiler to keep track of which movies I have loaned out. You can even set a due date.

I haven't had anybody ask me for awhile but since I had one come back scratches as well as the case pretty dinged up I haven't been offering. I let my brother-in-law borrow some because he is even pickier than I am.

With the boxsets, how do you deal with something like Batman? Do you put Batman Begins next to it? I've thought of doing the Multidisk Special Edition type things but i'm just curious as to how you determine what goes in that section. Would the SE of Seven or Predator go in that section? Or do you mean like the truly special Ed. like Gone With the Wind 4 disk, HellBoy 3disk, Munich SE, etc.. Thanks for the help.

my criteria for "box set area" is if the set has more than one movie included.

and for the batman set, i do put any other movie that is in the series like batman begins. I also put all of Romero's zombie movies together with the boxset of Dawn of the Dead. some pics are here

:jawdrop: Wow! How many do you have?

...Damn...

Love the little 'open' spot for the lightswitches, lol.

glass: Wow...very nice set-up!

yes very nice setup indeed. Post pictures of your TV too, and components.

http://www.intervocative.com/dvdcollection.aspx/Glass

1278 so far

I put related titles together. I have a Batman collection with all his stuff and soon after I have JL and Superman.

Great collection! where did you get the shelves? prepackaged (with brackets and all) or did you have to get the components seperately?

You can add one more shelf above your current top most shelf.

Then you can store all your box-sets up there and get rid of that brown bookcase on the side wall there.

Yes but will he be able to reach them. I wouldn't want to have to use a footstool to reach some of my DVDs, if I was short. Not that I am or saying that he is.