My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I thought I would share this little story. I was visiting some of my wife's family in the lake of the ozarks region over the weekend and stopped by a local pawn shop in the area on saturday and bought a DVD book binder thing that holds 250 movies for $50. It was completly full and since it was close to closing time I only glanced through it and noticed a few films I was interested in so I went ahead and bought it. I thought the worst that could happen is I get a bunch of crap to sell at a yard sale for $.50 each and still at least double my money. I get home today and start going through the whole thing and like half of the movies here are all Criterions. They may not have the original covers/booklets but I can easily get new covers printed for them. I have copies of The Killer, Hard Boiled, Robocop, The Silence of the Lambs, George Washington, 2-Disc version of Rebecca, Carnival of Souls, Dazed and Confused, Sid & Nancy, My Man Godfrey and a ton more. I can't believe that I found this and for such a great price. I now have a lot of watching to do lol

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Seems like some film fan's binder was stolen and sold off at that pawn shop. I wouldn't see why any Criterion fan (a collector with those old school Criterions especially) would wanna get rid of something like that a pawn shop...

Nice find, but some dude is crying in his sleep over lost OOPs....

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

It does sound stolen or someone passed away. $50 is a great price but the average Joe wouldn't pay it as they would show no interest in such flicks anyway and would probably be put off by no DVD cases. (Not me in either case, I dump my cases and use slimline jewel cases.)
That's definitely a great find.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

A true collector wouldn't keep those in a binder.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

That's what I was going to say. Kills the resell value, and how do you account for the spine numbers? Little sticker dots on the sleeves?

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

You do realize there is a thread on the first page called "Best Finds" that this could have been posted in, right?

But yeah, sounds like you've got a bunch of stolen DVDs to me.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I was thinking the same thing.

Someone who's going to go out of his way to collect all of those Criterions doesn't seem like somebody who's going to sell them off at a pawn shop for a fast $20 bill.

Seems more likely that some tweaker grabbed a binder full of DVDs from somebody.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I think they toss away the cases and put the DVDs in a binder to save space since they do not have room for it

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

My first thought was also skepticism over a Criterion collector hocking a library like that. But then, over the weekend I was at Half Price Books and lit up when I came across The Seventh Seal Criterion used for $14.98. As I was at the counter, I asked to see the discs more out of habit than anything else. Lo and behold, both discs were scuffed. Likely, they would have still played but it soured me and I passed. It never crossed my mind that someone who would own a Criterion release would take such little care of it.

People do strange things, I suppose is the moral of the story.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Enjoy my movies OP.

:(

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I'm on a jazz forum, and a fair number of folks got rid of cases, and went to binders for space issues...if someone is in a tiny apartment, that they have to share with a spouse, space can be an issue....who knows, might have had the cases in a box in storage somewhere, or could have even gone from their apartment to girlfriends, and just liked the convenience of an easy to move collection.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Oh, I know a lot of people dump boxes, but it seems like an un-Criterion thing to do, especially with the older titles like manicsounds mentioned.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

It's more like "I'll keep the rare ones and special ones in this binder where if someone were to steal from me, they'll never find the actual discs".... backfire.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Hasn't watching Hardcore Pawn taught you that people will pawn anything for a few bucks to go to the casino?

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I've found Criterion DVDs at the pawn shops around here that are all beaten up, and I ask myself why anyone would bother buying anything from the Criterion Collection and not take care of 'em. Only a real collector would even bother with CC's.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I have found a few good Criterions at pawnshops and used stores. The three that come to mind most readily are How to Get Ahead in Advertising, My Man Godfrey, and Quai Des Orfevres.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Even the most beautiful women are subject to domestic abuse....

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

True. Still, one expects even abusive jerks to seek out beautiful women whereas one does not expect the kind of person who takes poor care of his or her DVDs to have even a passing interest in a Criterion release.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

I'd say especially abusive jerks, but that would just derail the thread.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Aye (on both points). My wife and I were out this evening and popped in on the same Half Price Books. Apparently someone was more willing to take a chance on the scuffed Seventh Seal than I had been, because it was gone. I hope it plays fine for whomever bought it.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

pics please.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

When I got into Blu, I moved all my dvds to a binder, and stored the boxes in my mothers attic. Every time someone came over, they always made such a fuss over how many movies I had, so I just put them out of sight to skip the always useless/awkward conversation.

..... even the CRITERIONS!

and when I had my little fit with substance abuse, I sold many to pawn shops, getting prices as low as 1-2 bucks for OOP Criterions (that were still worth something at the time). Don't underestimate a collector's ability to stop caring about his collection. ha.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

You have collectors and movie lovers. I gave up hanging on to my DVD cases but I still love watching my DVDs. I came to the realization that DVD cases are space hogs and that I wasn't collecting movies simply to resell them. The couple of movies that I might have sold for a few bucks wasn't worth the wasted space that keeping the discs in cases were taking. Yes, it was hard at first throwing out the cases but I am so happy that I did (and so is the wife). Now i don't freak if I get a crappy, damaged DVD case as it's going into the rubbish anyway. It's hardly worth the additional cost of keeping the unused cases in storage somewher. I do keep the paperwork that comes with the discs. Each their own, it's not a big deal or means a person loves their DVD collection any less. In some ways, it may even mean they love it more since they don't plan to part with it.

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Reminds me of the low-lifes that stole Criterions from the local library and sold them to the pawn shop. I never felt obliged to return them, considering said people could always go back, get them and sell them again. Needless to say they ended up in loving home. (I got Oliver Twist, Rushmore, Yojimbo and one other title whose name I forget).

Re: My epic criterion find at a pawn shop
 

Funny how the OP never came back after everyone suggested his haul was stolen merchandise. :lol: