These are really fun films, but after reading this thread I just sold mine on Amazon Marketplace for $100 and for that much I don't think I'll miss it. I'm sure with DVD, digital downloads, and even cable I'll have no problem seeing these films again.

I don't think this set was even worth $20 which is why I never bought it. Just not a fan of 50s Sci-Fi. If I had picked it up I would cash in on it immediately.

I'm still shocked that this set was easy to buy for over a year and never seemed to sell. It finally is out of print and now everyone wants it. Stupid.

http://cgi.ebay.com/CLASSIC-SCI-FI-U...QQcmdZViewItem

The set was released last September so it hasn't been over a year. "Never seemed to sell"? Gee, I wonder why they are all sold out? Eventually when anything goes OOP, there will still be people who never bought it and want it and that will have to pay collector's prices because they didn't buy it in time. There's really nothing 'stupid' about it. And for fans of this type of film (it's target audience), it was well worth $20. And based on some sales mentioned here, it is easily fetching $100 at the moment.

Best Buys had these easily available since they came out and I was seeing it up to a week or two ago. Anyone that really wanted it could have bought it for $20. This is a case of people trying to get it now that it is out of print. Anyone that really wanted this set for the movies did not have to pay over $20.

According to that ebay link, it went OOP quickly due to licensing issues. I had no idea it was worth that much though. Definately worth $20, but I wouldn't spend $100. Glad I got mine right away.

Not everone out there reads DVD-Talk and HTF. A lot of people also don't shop at Best Buy and probably had no clue this was even released at the time. Most likely, a lot of people searched on Amazon for INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN or one of the other films and then found the listing for the Best Buy set. Now that the stock is depleted, people who discover it now will have to pay. It's not like there's this mad rush of people jumping on this all of a sudden. It's just that the stock is finally dried up. Obviously "anyone who really wanted this set for the movies" did already buy it and that's why there are none left. There are still more people who want it, though. It's supply and demand.

BS. Its people chasing the OOP disc. You think there are that many Salo fans out there as well.

Ya, I'm gonna pay $100 for something that I don't want just because it's OOP.

You may not, but many, many people do.

I stand corrupted... err, corrected.

Is it a consistent thing, or is that the only auction? I did a search last night and didn't see any currently up for bid.

There was another auction that was actually a decent deal...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Classic-Sci-Fi-U...QQcmdZViewItem

I hope the guy who paid $100 doesn't see this one.

The winning bidder of the ebay auction you linked to above (filmusik bought it for $14.99) is also the seller on the first ebay link in this thread (sold for $100)...I wonder if the "buyer" for $100 realizes this...

I guess this gives new meaning to the term "flipper."

I'm sure a few people that might have wanted it missed it, but I have seen this thing over and over the last 10 years. The people driving up the price are the people that want it only because its OOP. This thing gets released again and eBay will be flooded with copies people are trying to dump. I have cashed in on these suckers time and time again.

Any real Tarantula fan would have found this disc in the 9 months it sat on Best Buy shelves or when it was on Amazon for a few months. Most of the others driving up the price now are the usual group of OOP disc chasers and speculators trying to make a profit down the road when they can resell it for $200 or $300.

There aren't a lot of copies out there because this set probably sold terribly and was limited to begin with. This is a perfect candidate for speculation as long as Universal doesn't release it again. It probably didn't sell well the first time so they may leave those films oop for years.

Exactly. Its not fans of these films driving up prices its speculators and oop disc chasers.

I am well aware of the collector mentality, thank you very much. I understand why some people need to own every Criterion. There's no Criterion spine number on this set, though, so unless someone is collecting every single OOP disc ever made (literally thousands and thousands), the argument that people are rushing out to buy this just because it's OOP is ridiculous. I could maybe agree if it's just a collector who must own every Best Buy exclusive. Otherwise, there's no difference between this disc and something like:

http://www.amazon.com/Pilates-Go-Gol...551505&sr=1-31

That's OOP, too - why aren't people paying $100 for that? It's OOP so everyone should be rushing out to get one.

Yes, people snatching these up to re-sell can make the prices go up. That always occurs and that's the world of OOP dvd's, but there's no profit unless the product is something people want. Resellers aren't the ones paying $100 for it in the hopes of turning a profit. The resellers buy it for $14.99 and sell it for $100. People who actually want the set are paying $100. There are a lot of fans of these films and I am sure many missed out on that availability window. Based on a bunch of the reviews on Amazon, it is apparant a lot of people who bought the set only heard about it because of that Amazon listing.

And if it didn't sell well, then why are they sold out? That makes no sense.

So you think there is a huge glut of Tarantula fans driving up these prices.

I've seen this thing over and over again with Criterions, Little Shop of Horrors, Platoon, Marx Bros, MST3K the Movie and dozens of other releases from major publishers. The draw is partly the content (and you will get some fans that missed the disc), but what really drives up the prices is people that want something they can't have and people speculating and trying to flip the disc for a profit (we have a clear example right on this page).

This reminds me of all the Image Universal discs like MST3K and the Marx Bros that I bought out of clearance bins because they weren't selling. However, once it was announced that those movies were out of print people went crazy trying to buy them. I sold my Marx Bros box set that I paid $20 for on clearance for $250 and then turned around 8 months later and bought the release from Universal for a fraction of the price. Most of these aren't even big sellers when they come back into print. It is mostly about having something perceived as rare and many times trying to hold it to flip for profit.

Let this thing come back into print and see how easy it is to get one cheap on eBay when all these "fans" dump their copies.

No, but there is definitely quite a large following for SHRINKING MAN.

Once again, re-sellers are not the ones paying $100 for this thing. You believe it's simply people who collect OOP dvd's only because they are OOP. I think it's people who actually want the films. It could be a bit of both.

You're probably right that a lot of the high prices for this set stem from OOP speculators. But your disdain for the films seems to be keeping you from considering that there are people who actually love the films and who failed to pick up the set because it was available for a limited time from a single retail chain. In any case, it would be strange if these films didn't get a wide release at some point down the road. But with Universal, who knows?

There aren't any selling on Ebay right now that I can find, but I wonder how many will appear in the next few days thanks to this thread.

Ah, I see. No, actually I love films from the 30s through the 50s and run out to get them when they are available. This set wasn't my personal cup of tea (I nearly bought it anyway a few times), but I have jumped on all the other sets Universal has released be it the Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff sets like this one or the classic monster sets. I don't wait around for them to go out of print.

People who are fans of films like this are on the lookout for them. That is why I don't buy the story that people just now heard about this set. Everyone has a DVD player now and I find it hard to believe the vast majority of potential buyers for this set missed it at Best Buy for 9 months and on Amazon where it lasted for months. Even so, how did everyone find out about it now?

Problem is there aren't a lot of us that are fans of this era. That is why these become scarce when they go out of print. They don't sell many to begin with and all of us that are fans will not let our sets go. That leaves the small number of titles that are left to be fought over by the few people that did miss it and the vast number of OOP collectors and speculators.

I don't mean to crap on the set. It was well worth $20 for anyone that was a fan of even one of the films. My point is its not going for $100+ on the merit of the films as much as the scarcity of the remaining copies. That is just how this thing always works.

Believe me, I hope Universal sees this and puts it back into print so real fans of 50s Sci-Fi can own it without getting ripped off.

Actually the set really wasn't that well publicised - oh, there were articles on DVDReview and DVD-Drive-In, but aside from that, not much. It would have been quite easy to miss.

There was also a LOT of confusion about the status of the set, as to whether it really was a Limited Edition that only Best Buy would stock. A lot of people thought that this meant it would go on general release once Best Buy's "exclusive" sold out there. I daresay that feeling was reinforced when Amazon started selling it.

Probably quite a few people were fooled into thinking that a general release was happening, when it wasn't.

I knew all about the set because I keep up on that sort of stuff, frequenting lots of sites - but surprisingly lots of people aren't.

The high prices are just people looking to turn a fast buck by taking advantage of collectors who, for one reason or another, missed out and are now looking to get the set...and who are likely willing to pay in order to do so.

I really enjoyed this set, but I gotta admit, if someone's willing to pay that much for it, I'd sell it in a heartbeat. I guess I should put mine up for sale.