rbrown498

When I first started collecting VHS over 30 years ago, I routinely loaned tapes out to friends and family members, but after I realized that several of them hadn't come back and most probably weren't EVER going to come back, I stopped loaning them out.

I still have a no-loan policy these days. When most people see or hear of my collection, the first words out of their mouths are usually along the lines of "Well, I guess that I'll never have to use Redbox again--I can just borrow from you!" When I tell them that I don't loan out my stuff, then they (again, usually) get all huffy about it, as if it's a personal issue that I have with them. So then I have to explain that it's a blanket rule and that I"m not singling them out.

So, to get back to the question...do you loan out your movies? If so, do you only loan to close friends and family, or will you loan to co-workers? Where do you draw the line?

DJariya

Only family if they ask. I don't offer to loan my stuff if people aren't genuinely interested in watching it.

TheBigDave

In the past, I'd loan DVDs/BDs to my brother's family. They'd keep it for weeks, and stuff would come back damaged or in the wrong case. About 10% of the time, I'd never get it back. The dogs would eat it, or the kids would lose it. But they're family, so you can't say no.

Now that I switched to Vudu, I don't have to worry about it. They have access to my entire collection, and can watch whenever they want.

tripplej

I only loan to people I know will give them back to me.

Quack

Only if I know the friend is solid enough if they didn't give it back/lose it, they would be repaying me in full.

I have no issues with loaning to my siblings.

Trevor

Anyone who asks.

GoldenWheels

Only my best friend and my step-bro.

I've got some real deadbeat/absentminded friends, unfortunately. Lost my Bava sets to a friend several years ago, never again.

shadokitty

I've only been asked once. A friend asked to borrow my two movie set of the first two Fast and the Furious movies when I was in the Air Force for her husband to watch, and I got them back in a timely fashion.

Cardsfan111

I have before, with mixed results. I have a few DVDs I haven't seen in several years. I'd probably continue to do so should anyone ask.

milo bloom

We have to friends/family on rare occasions, but it really doesn't come up that often.

Though I still wonder if I loaned my Fight Club DVD to somebody and never got it back. I went to look for it on my shelf one day and it was simply gone. I ended up buying the Blu, but I'm still bothered by where the DVD went.

sracer

I really try not to anymore. I've had too many discs borrowed that came back scratched or not returned at all. Some of them have been limited edition OOP.

orangerunner

Only if it is a person I trust that has the same attitudes about taking care of discs, holding them by the edge or centre hole, no throwing the disc on the coffee table when you're done. Common sense things that are often not so common.

I usually put the disc into a CD jewel case, I never loan out the packaging. Just one more thing that can be easily damaged.

SterlingBen

No.

kd5

My younger brother maybe, but to anyone else, no. I don't care for the way most people handle discs. I watch the way people handle vinyl LPs and it makes me cringe when I see them get their greasy fingerprints all over the grooves. I see DVDs/BDs that look as if people have been sliding around on them in the driveway and I wonder how they could ever do that to something they paid money for, let alone borrowed from someone else.

That won't happen to mine.

lwhy?

I will loan discs to my sister mainly because she's a neat freak and I know she'll take good care of the discs. I won't let anyone else borrow them after one of my coworkers brought back my Community box set with cat hair on the discs....

bobert3

Yes, but it does depend on what they are asking to borrow. No you can't borrow my Criterions or any of my OOP things.

BobO'Link

In the early days of the CD I watched a salesman attempting to sell some people on CD players and discs take a CD, drop it to the floor (tiled), put his foot on it, and give his foot a bit of grinding it into the floor type movement, all the time telling them how CDs were impervious to damage and the disc would still play. The look on his face when it *wouldn't* play was priceless. That day he gained first hand experience in handling them as gently as vinyl. But, sadly, that mentality prevails today. I constantly see discs, CDs and DVDs, placed on any handy surface with the play side up. While that's better on DVD media, as there's less chance of the play side getting a nasty scratch, it can be total death to a CD as it's the label side which is more delicate with that media.

To answer the question:

Only to a couple of coworkers who are as anal as am I about handling/storing their media. Everyone else gets a polite "Sorry, I don't loan discs."

Trevor

Wow, I knew we had some OCD types here, I'm obviously one of them in many areas, but I can't even begin to grasp the mentality of not sharing my hobbies with others. I might put them in separate cases to protect non-standard or collectible packaging, but no disc is off limits.

kd5

Easiest explanation I have is that I bought these for my wife and I to watch, not for the neighborhood to entertain themselves with.

I learned with my album collection that very few people have the kind of respect for other people's property that I have. Getting burned one too many times soured my desire to trust.

mickey65

Very rarely.

Gobear

Family only. I have spent too much money collecting discs to lend them and not get them back or have them returned damaged. Like others, I had some bad experiences early on that taught me that some people have no concept of respect for property.

mndtrp

Prior to boxing them all up, occasionally. I've only lent to people who I knew would take care of the disc, and I haven't had any lost or damaged.

BobO'Link

After having several albums (vinyl), music books, comics, magazines, and novels returned in less than good condition if not out right "stolen" *or* they loaned it out to one of *their* friends/relatives(!?! - "I didn't think you'd mind") I stopped loaning. Many people have little to no respect for others' property.

Brian T

Sometimes you have to! I cut off non-parental family back in the days of VHS, when several tapes came back to me with all of the boxes crushed. I'm sure other extended family members might not have been so careless, but I didn't care to find out.

Cut my girlfriend off discs decades later. Too many scratches. She either watches with me or gets it via streaming or from the library system here, where the discs already look like what she's used to.

If your collection is like mine, and you take care of it in even the most basic of ways, then my collection is yours. In practice, that's been applicable to a very, very small number of people.

Albert71292

No way!