Trevor

Nice post Brian.

Yep, I think the key words for all of us are "for me". Everyone has their own preferences and justifications for how they do things. No two of us will ever 100% agree, but hopefully we learn things from each other and perhaps even change from time to time. If a few parts of my personality changed I could see doing things almost exactly as you. But for now, and for me, I like a having a huge library, knowing that no matter what I'm in the mood for, I can find it on my shelves. I like the fact that I have thousands and thousands of hours of both old favorites, and completely unwatched material just waiting for me. I'm slowly getting to the point where I watch more than I buy, and I'm trying to make progress on my unwatched pile room; but I actually never want to have a collection that is 100%, or even 90% watched. I'll always want lots of "new" available.

Scary thought. No one should be like me. Some of my little ocd-like quirks are starting to worry me, but that's for another thread....

GenPion

For me it's something like this:

Sell, Sell, Sell...

... Buy, Buy, Buy.




Yep. I know.

Anubis2005X

That's just it though, I don't consider myself a collector anymore. I've no desire to end up like this guy...

madcougar

I'm with you brother. When I hit about 500 DVDs people started thinking I was freaking Blockbuster. After lending out a couple of DVDs and having to hunt them down months later - only to find they were basically used as coasters - I said "never again."

hindolio

daddy!

advdfreak

The resell value is just not worth the hassle of trying to get rid of any of my movies. I usually just wind up giving the ones I don't want away to friends or family.

visitor Q

Interesting. I'm just shy under 1,000 but I don't have constant traffic comparing my collection to Blockbuster - which is probably a very good thing. There are three or four people that I have no problems lending stuff out to ...and I have no problem laying out the groundwork in advance. And although there are the occasional delays in return they are always returned in the shape they were given. You guys that have problems should really consider which of your friends/family are "truly" respectful to even consider your wishes.

Sorry to hear it seems to be so much of a problem. Then again ...humans really are generally speaking.

JimRochester

I had the same thing. My sister-in-laws' kids and step kids would come over to borrow movies, actually complain about not having enough new titles, then have their mother return them weeks later when she found them lying on the floor. Another great reason for DVD-r's.

Fortunately they haven't gone Blu yet so they haven't borrowed anything in ages. My uncle borrows some BR's but he is extremely careful and always watches and returns in a timely manner.

With me it was just as much a matter of room as it was the money and time to watch. I had 2 entertainment centers jammed full, plus a few shelves and about 5 DVD binders. Forget that shlt.

For those with thousands (or 3287). Without purchasing another disc that's a movie a day for 9 years. Hey people collect money they can't spend, stamps they can't mail, cars they don't drive and guns they can't shoot. I have no problem if others are collecting movies you'll never have time to watch. It's just that the other examples hold their value or appreciate. With depreciating assets like DVD's I'd rather let Blockbuster own the "watch once and forget it" titles.

Dr. DVD

I would like to dump some of my DVDs, but most are ones that I bought for $4 or $5 a piece to start. Over that past two years I've found you can either pay $20+ for a release the day it comes out, or wait a couple of months and then get that one plus 3 others you might like for $20 at Blockbuster. Aside from major movies that I really liked in the theater, I seldom buy DVDs the day they hit shelves anymore. The last one I got before Watchmen on its release day was The Dark Knight.

For those that do sell, it seems online is the best way to make money. I used to like going to used dealers/pawn shop type places to have cash in hand, but it seems with the recession they are able to low ball offers on stuff and get away with it. Is an online account worth it?

JimRochester

I sold a bunch on Half.com but taking into account the envelope and any tracking which come out of the proceeds, anything less than 3 or 4 bucks is a waste. Those I just give away. Family titles always sell well and bring good money.

Trevor

I may be repeating myself, so many similar threads, but for me, I'd rather hold them myself.

One, I buy for less many pay to rent. I know that some rent for cheap (netflix fast cycling or redbox mediocre selection), but I'm positive that some people have spent more on renting DVDs in the past 10 years than I have spent on purchasing them. They have nothing to show for that money spent, and I have ~5000 titles.

Two, I like having multiple choices at my immediate disposal. With renting thru the mail, by the time the item from my queue arrives, I'm not in the mood to watch it anymore. With thousands of watched and unwatched films, shorts, and TV seasons right here, I never have a problem finding something I'm excited about watching.

So I don't look at it as a depreciating asset, given that they may last forever, and are enjoyed by myself, my family, my friends, and someday my survivors. And again, I spend less to own than many spend to rent.

JimRochester

We are actually agreeing more than we are disagreeing. With close to 1000 titles myself I can't be accused of being a minimalist. The difference is I want to reduce my numbers. We both love a variety of films. We both like having a substantial collection from which to choose. We both have movies we know are frequent or repeat watchers. There are movies I want to see NOW as well. If I want to see a movie right away I still have the option to buy it or head to Blockbuster and do an in store exchange.

I have no interest in purchasing SD anymore even from the $3 bargain bin. I rent BD from Blockbuster for $20 month I average 3 - 4 movies a week. Cost about $1.50 each for rental. I know even the most ambitious bargain hunter is not picking up his BD's for $1.50 each, at least not in any volume. IF you do the math; at $240 year, that would be $2400 over 10 years and you're right, other than the enjoyment of seeing them, I "own" nothing. Even when I was purchasing used for several dollars, I got burned by too many crappy blind buys. Then I kept them "just in case" someone wanted to see it or I would change my mind. A crap movie is a crap movie, I'm not going to hang on to it and store just so my heirs can own it in 30 years when I'm gone.

Hey I've got a 1978 collector car in the garage that gets maybe 200 miles a year put on it. So many would say I'm crazy for having a car that basically sits in the garage.

I'm still buying but much more carefully and critically now. I only buy if I've seen the move and know it's a keeper, or if I run across a bargain used. When I got laid off twice in the same year last year I realized unemployment doesn't buy Blu-ray when you have a mortgage and 2 kids in college. I had to finance my addiction somehow. When I looked on the shelf and really analyzed how much crap I had accumulated that was never watched or watched once and no one liked it, selling was a great way to finance some new stuff and my storage woes were gone.

Trust me, I envy the person that can purchase, store and enjoy everything they buy. My point is that I just don't think it's practical for the majority of collectors to get into the multpile thousands and expect to just keep going.

Trevor

^ You're right Jim. And as I said before, each of us is going to have individual quirks, desires, preferences, and downright needs depending on how our "real life" changes. I see a strong possibility of someday getting a little closer to your "collector style". But right now, I'm either really easy to please, or do a great job of picking blind buys (combination of both of course), plus my finances and storage space can allow me to stay as I am. But if finances change, space changes, a new hobby emerges, or a woman encourages me, I could theoretically get rid of half my collection fairly easily. If I had to bet my life though, I see myself with about 7,000 films/seasons by the time I feel like I'm "done". There is still so much out there that I want to watch/own; I'm just now barely discovering French, Japanese, and other foreign cinema. This Criterion sale is going to ruin my summer vacation savings.....

Xiroteus

I will never need thousands of films, I was at 215 and taking a hard look at what I owned, thing is I do like each film on some level, many more then others, they are not worth anything to sell though, a couple dollars for a film that is okay? Might as well keep it. I starting thinking that a nice video library is not a bad thing, I always thought of it as I will never be able to watch that many films etc... Films can be purchased for rather cheap at times, so why not as long as I like it.

Buying a few things in Blu-Ray as well, I can pick up DVD's for less then $2.50 at the pawn shops, hard to pass up at times.

kristina

I used to collect TV shows but quit after awhile. Had to sell alot of them b/c they already run on TV daily. I look through the rest of my collection a few times a year just to make sure I'm still attached to the ones I have.

Mike-K

I have a moderate collection; 228. I don't often purge because it's unusual that I'm sure I won't watch a movie again. Even if I don't consider it to be great, it still may have replay value at some time.

That being said, I'll trade some in when I can be confident that I have 10 - 20 that that I won't watch again. That's a rare instance, though, especially considering that I've purchased many at

chanster

Had probably about 500 at my max in 2002 or so. Sold almost all the discs that had value to them, kept the big franchises and names (Alien, Raiders, Star Wars, Godfather, etc, Hitchcock, Schwarzenneger, 80's genre classics) Put the rest in a CD binder and then sold the cases. Now I watch a lot of HD cable and TIVO what I want to keep.

Kim Olav Svines

Says the guy with "Adrian Monk" as his avatar

I'm the same. I've about 7000 titles as of now, and I don't see myself stopping anytime soon. There's just so much I want to see (that includes smaller titles which you won't find for rent), and some are hard-to-find titles. And I am a collector, which is quite different from just wanting to watch a DVD now and then.

Cactus Jack

Is that you, Jim Cramer?