I have been a movie fan since I was a little kid. My first collection was some 8mm film shorts..then when VHS came out I stated collecting those. Next was when Laser Disc came out, I got rid of my pitiful low resolution vhs tapes and was in the small but "in the know" crowd. When dvd came out-I resisted at first, but the lower price of dvd and rapid growth convinced me to switch again. Each time I switched to new format-got rid of my old collection at much cheaper price then I paid and what was even more crazy was a lot of the stuff I got rid of was new/unwatched and I still replaced them in new format. To top it off, I would an even buy a more super duper edition when it came out to replace the unwatched dvd I already had-sometimes more then 1 edition-Hello Anchor Bay. So now I am HD/BD and the process repeats again but even at a higher level. I would have to retire to view all my unwatched dvds.
I do not know why I do this..I just enjoy having the movie available and in best format "just in case" I want to watch them I think. My brother does not understand why I like to collect a bunch of "plastic" but I just love it.
I really want to hear why you do it and your story.

I got into vhs and bought a shit load of them. Everyone in my family thought I was crazy. But then they all started coming to me and wanted to borrow them. At first I hesitated and made a remark to them, "Oh, I'm too crazy for buying them and now you want me to lend them to you?" They were always saying that I'm blowing my money. I told them that they buy just as much beer and cigarettes as I do movies. I can sale my movies and get money back. Do that with your stuff.

When laser disc came out, I was glad because I was running out of room. But when I read that a 1 and a half hour movie, you had to stop and flip the laser disc over to finish watching it, I past on it. But when DVDs came out, I jumped all over them. Started selling off vhs tapes that was available on dvd. The highest I made on ebay for selling a vhs tape was $35 for Who'll Stop the Rain. So far I've past on HD/BD

To be honest, I never had much of a library of movies. I enjoyed going to the theater when possible, which in my childhood wasn't often. The timing just worked out right, though. Just as work and school got in the way of my theatrical attendance, at the same time theater crowds de-civilized themselves, DVD came along. Since I only owned a handful of VHS tapes in the first place, it was pretty easy to make the format transition.

I like that the DVD experience is more involved than simply seeing the film. One of my favorite things has always been to look behind-the-scenes, and DVD features do that. I love commentary tracks. Just as I finished getting most of the titles I really wanted to build my library around, DVD pricing completely tumbled. It became very easy to start buying $5 DVDs of titles that, on VHS, I might not even have rented. Being able to immerse myself in the film through DVD extras, though, make it too tempting. Plus, I like that I can buy used DVDs with much more confidence than used VHS, and I like that DVD cases take up so much less space than VHS boxes.

I too love movies, but never bought into the VHS. Bulky, clumsy, expensive, etc. Laser Disk never really got big fanfare so that was easy to skip. Only when DVD came about did I start to buy films. HD/BR does not impress me that much to ditch my collection, which is rather modest (~300) compared to some of people on this forum.

They're more useful than another collection - you can't watch a couple hours of good quality entertainment on a baseball card.

Because I love movies....

Plus you are almost never bored with so much to watch....
And I love introducing people to films I enjoy....

I collect DVDs for a few reasons:

1) sometimes, a movie connects with me in such a special way, that I feel like it's one of "my" movies, not a movie I made, but a movie that is special to me, whether it is good or bad, i.e. Die Hard, End of Days, Ghostbusters, Gangs of New York, Pearl Harbor, Chicago.

2) I like to own the "major" summer releases. I have a thing for summer blockbusters, so as long as they're at least okay, I'll probably get caught in the craze come early October-December. Sometimes, I end up with movies I really didn't need (Pirates 2 & 3, Matrix 2 & 3, Hancock) that I'm still happy own.

3) Special cases & bonus discs. Provided I enjoyed the movie at least a little bit, nothing will sell me faster than a steelbook. It takes a movie that I got pretty much nothing out of to avoid the steelbook (X-Files 2, 10,000 B.C.). Tins are a close second, but you don't really see a lot of these for major releases. Bonus discs can be iffy, depending on the release.

4) Wrestling. I have to face it. A lot of people just don't care about wrestling. So If I go into Best Buy, they're definitely going to have four or five copies of "Batman Begins," but they're probably not going to have a copy of "Judgment Day" from the same year. I buy the wrestling events that either have a lot of good matches, a few great matches, or of some kind of significance (No Mercy 2007; not a great event, but the wwe title changes hands three times). I'm not one of those collectors that buys every release, it just doesn't interest me.

I can totally relate to you on this, and I think for me also it mostly boils down to the part I quoted above.

Same for me. But time and experience has started to show me that I don't need to buy every movie I think I might want to watch someday. I own so many movies that I have never even watched once since buying them. I don't love these movies any less, I just don't have the time for them. This has been what has kept me from selling a lot of them off. Part of the reason that I don't watch a lot of my DVDs now is because I have young kids. I suspect that when they are a little older, I'll have a little more time to catch up.

I don't "collect" DVDs, never have.

I collect movies b/c I have a passion for the medium & I love having people over to share my love of films with them, having a great library for them to choose from.

i'm a nerd.


but in all seriousness, i love film. since i was a kid i've always loved 4 things, movies, sports, shoes and wrestling. i have collections of all these things to this day. i still have tons of vhs tapes, i don't care if i have the dvd and or bd by now, i just love to collect things that i enjoy. he with the most toys wins, right!?

For me it's also about a love affair with film that began when I was a child. My parents used to take my sister and me to see films in the theater all the time when I was growing up. Some of my earliest memories of life involve being at the movie theater watching movies. I distinctly remember my parents taking me to see this series of black and white, Russian films that were subtitled before I could read. I grew up on films, it's as simple as that.

I collect DVDs now, first and foremost, because of my love of movies.

I am guilty of making blind buy purchases rather than renting, etc. due to the nature of the DVD market, and owning far too many films yet not owning all of my favorites. So I guess I am a collector for the sake of collecting as well, but it's not my main driving force.

I've always collected something ever since I was a kid.

Coins, sports cards, Star Wars toys, Action figures, Movie posters, Comic books, VHS and now DVDs.

I just wish I still had ALL of it to sell in one large auction.

Buying movies gives me some temporary fulfillment that my life is otherwise lacking.

I collect dvds because I like having the option to watch whatever I feel like watching when I feel like watching it.

I collect dvds because I want to expose my son to the great movies I saw growing up.

I collect dvds because movies in general have always been a huge part of my life.

I like movies.

I don't have a g/f.

There ya go

Keeps me away from the wife

I love movies. Like everything I love, I need them so much closer.

-beebs

There was a time when I said, if I want to watch something I can just rent it or check it out from the library, four years and two hundred DVD's later that did not work out so well, I like owning films I will watch again.

All of the above. In the misguided belief that someday I'll have time to watch them. To anger my wife, who never wants to watch anything in my collection.

Bottom line is sub-clinical OCD. I'll never get to all of my movies, at least not a second time for those worth the effort...I should utilize Netflix more than I do!

because it is cheaper than heroin.

Gotta love the honesty.

You know, it's a funny thing, I used to think the reason I buy DVDs was because I didn't have a girlfriend, and then I found when I was in a relationship, I bought just as many, if not more. Which actually kinda scares me, because that means there's no way to control it.

Because I like to "Watch" DVD's.

Exactly