Blind Buys
 

Thanks to this forum, I have found my way to DVDSpot.com, where I have made a list of our library. While doing so, I realized how many titles we own that either I or my wife had seen, but not the other. I also discovered a handful of titles we bought that neither of us had seen (or even knew much about). I got to wondering, then, since I know our library of under 600 is small compared to many of yours, where you stood on blind buys.

It depends on the movie.

Depends on Special Features for me mostly. Or course cast, director, and price influence my decision as well but mostly it'll come down to how packed a disk is.
For example I blind-ordered THE FALL this week. It looks beautiful and Im a fan of the director but the fact that it has over 5 hours of special features is what made this a blind buy instead of a rental first.

It depends on the actors, director, and genre (I'm more likely to buy horror movies blind since I tend to love them even if they're bad).

Same for me. I definitely lean towards horror flicks more than anything when it comes to blind buys.

Since I don't go to see movies in the theater anymore, every new movie is a blind buy for me.

Basically if I'm interested in the movie then I'll buy it. The basic story comes first, then cast & then the crew.

Depends on if:

A) It was a movie I was desperate to see in the theaters that didn't open due to limited distribution (i.e. My Blueberry Nights; The Life Before Her Eyes)

B) It's on sale for SUPER cheap and I need to catch up on classics and whatnot (i.e. Shadows and Fog; A River Runs Throught It; Talk to Her; The Passenger)

I've blind bought:

8 1/2
The 11th Hour
AKA
Alice
All About Eve
All the President's Men
The Ballad of Jack and Rose
Barton Fink
Beverly Hills Cop
Blazing Saddles
Born on the Fourth of July
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Bullitt
Cape Fear
Carlito's Way
Casino
Chinatown
The Color of Money
Creepshow
Dead Man Walking
Death Rides a Horse
Deliver Us from Eva
Desperate Living
The Devil's Backbone
Dog Day Afternoon
Double Indemnity
East of Eden
Easy Rider
The End of the Affair
Equilibrium
Fargo
Four Rooms
Get Shorty
The Gravedancers
Guys and Dolls
Heat
In Bruges
In the Line of Fire
INLAND EMPIRE
JFK
Kramer Vs. Kramer
Lawrence of Arabia
The Life Before Her Eyes
Mean Streets
My Blueberry Nights
Nashville
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
Now You Know
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Passenger
Pitch Black
Platoon
The Proposition (Steelbook)
Raging Bull
Rambling Rose
Rebel Without a Cause
A River Runs Through It
sex, lies and videotape.
Shadows and Fog
Sherrybaby
Stop-Loss
Swingers
Talk to Her
THX 1138
True Romance
Unforgiven

And half of the Welcome to the Grindhouse series.

Pretty much what was stated above, and I would have to be in the right mood.

My worst blind buy - (The Reaping) I still regret it.

Best blind buy - (kill bill collection) (American Psycho)

I hardly ever buy "new" dvds. The only new dvds I buy are ones Ive seen and love and can't live without the day of release, e.g. No Country For Old Men.

There are some great used dvd stores around here, so I always blind buy, especially Criterions because they are usually priced $10 - $15 and I can always sell them for more if I don't like a particular title.

Most of the used stuff is $6 - $9 in like new condition. Thats nothing!

I am all about blind buys.

Since I hardly go to the theatres now, my blind buys are based upon priceeand interest

I had a no blind buy rule for a long long time. Then I found $3 DVDs at Big Lots. I've bought about 10 or so there. Most were $2.40 during the 20% off sale.

-beebs

I've made a good number of blind buys, but probably nothing over $5. And I'm somewhat selective, oftentimes checking out the reviews on DVD Talk among other places.

W/ both Netflix & Blockbuster and not to mention how quickly things can drop in price and/or the number of re-releases/new versions that come out I very rarely blind buy anything anymore.

I used to blind buy almost everything up till a year ago...now I use Blockbuster Online to test the waters. No way I would blind buy a Blu-Ray disc these days.

Pretty much if there's an actor/actress that I like in it I'll blind buy a movie. Or if it's highly recommended by a close friend, which with what Blockbuster has for deals sometimes it's not much more to purchase then to rent it.

The economy has nothing to do with it, at least for me.

I buy what I like to watch repeatedly and add to my collection. I never buy something I have not seen somewhere first.

95% of my collection is blind buys. Bought based on reviews and my own personal predictions. 95% of the time I watch the movie once anyways.

Generally don't do blind buys anymore. I'll Netflix and if I want to buy, then I'll do that.

Same here. Stopped going to the theaters a couple of years ago, but even then those were only a small percentage of my disc purchases.

mainly my blind buys are based on directors...here's some that i will buy no matter how bad the trailer looks:

woody allen
david lynch
david cronenberg
paul thomas anderson
wes anderson
david fincher
darren aronofsky
richard linklater

but to be honest i can't really think of any of their trailers ever boring me or turning me off.

oh and i also blind buy a lot of blue underground and anchor bay releases. they never really let me down.

Same for me. Two of my recent blind buys were The Mist (because I loved the book) and The Departed (because it was cheap and I heard good things---> see below).

Also, if people with similar tastes as me rave about a movie, I am more likely to blind buy it.

I'll say "if I like the director" because I'm more likely to blind buy something from a director I like than a cast member. Really, though, it depends on a lot of other factors too. Price, cast, director, year... there are many factors.

Anything from 1968-1977 is a good gamble for me. Later decades, track record not so good. Idiocracy was a decent blind buy....

Well its a toss up between the cast and extra change for me but most of the time its if I have extra change to throw around..LOL

I only pay 5.50ish average price for new releases anyway so what is a few blind buys now and then.