slop101

For me it was pretty gradual, though it mostly started right around the time "mom&pop" stores started closing in earnest, which was right after blu-ray first caught on.

fumanstan

Yeah, I miss those release day trips to stores. Around the shift to Blu-ray is probably when it stopped being a weekly thing for me too as that's when I stopped caring about collecting special/limited edition packaging and blind buying so many movies.

Speaking of, the shift to red box and now easily streaming a rental has basically completely stopped the blind buy purchases for me.

LorenzoL

I have been cutting back the last few years ever since I got married in 2015. My wife is not solely responsible for the cutting back as my need to buy the movies on Tuesdays became less prevalent with the demise of Future Shop (retailer here in Canada) and Best Buy reduction on their inventory in stores. Also Amazon.ca and Best Buy Canada online has really sucked in terms of their Black Friday and Boxing Day sales so that has helped me avoid spending money. We recently bought a house and moving, made me realize the money I wasted of buying things that just sits there unopened and unwatched in most cases. Money and space have become my main concern so I'll be selling/donating most of my collection away. I have some beauties such as The Third Man CC blu-ray sealed along with Chungking Express CC also sealed.

I want to digitize my collection and set up a Plex server just like some members here have done. Any tips and advice on how to do that for someone who's not so proficient technologically, please PM and it would be greatly appreciated.

Brian T

This is probably too late for you since you're moving, but the Amazon Canada Marketplace is the best place to sell discs, provided you can list them, store them in the meantime (like in your new basement?) and wait, which it sounds like you probably can't. But if you can, it's certainly the most viable option for the more valuable stuff in your collection, miles better than ebay, kijiji, trade-in shops, etc. As long as your collection wasn't entirely comprised of overly "common" titles that eventually found their way into the $5.00 Walmart bins (etc), and are in new or like-new condition, then you might be surprised at how much you can get, even after the cost of postage and a bubble mailer, and even if most of your purchases were originally at borderline-offensive Canadian prices.

Personally, my purchasing hasn't slowed much, although unlike seemingly a lot of folks here I've never been a "new release" or "gotta have it first week" guy (except with, say, very occasional Severin or Vinegar Syndrome special editions in recent years), and will always wait for sales because they're inevitable. I also sign out a LOT of new releases (mainstream and boutique) from the public library system here, which never ceases to surprise me with what they have in stock. The key, though -- and admittedly it's a big advantage -- has been having regular, easy access to the border for well over 30 years now when I visit family back home a couple times a month, which allows me to partake in America's FAR more generous sales, both online (now) with shipment to U.S. post boxes instead of direct to Canada, and in stores (previously). I virtually never pay duties coming back to Canada, especially on "old" media that customs people could care less about. I do realize that that's not an option for everyone, of course.

Getting a Marketplace account, though, was wise as it allowed me to sell off my U.S. purchases that aren't worth keeping long-term (lots of blind buys, boutique stuff, or SE re-buys of stuff I haven't seen since my youth). The Canadian secondary market is nowhere near as large as the U.S., obviously, but it's also not as saturated with product and home-grown sellers, and there's not a lot of "boutique" discs (Severin, Code Red, Criterion, VS, Arrow, Milestone, etc) that will ship to you from within the country. Also, stuff that goes for a few pennies or dollars on the U.S. Marketplace can fetch 10x to 50x that up here. Not everything, mind you, but a lot. I'd recommend checking your potentially valuable discs there before randomly unloading them for less or donating them.

Using your two examples, current Amazon.ca pricing for Third Man Criterion Blu starts at $250, Chungking Express at $210, both "New", the latter shipping from the U.S. with all the attendant hassles and delays. You could probably sell yours for half that if you wanted, just to move them out, and still make a nice profit. And they will sell, in time. I sold a duplicate Third Man a few years ago for around $170. It was listed for several months, but I'll take that over some used place downtown offering me about one-fifth their resale value hoping I'm too ignorant to know better.

Coral

How common is that though?

I have some out of print SACDs which are listed on the Amazon marketplace anywhere from $50 to $400. I really can't see anyone paying these prices, or anything close to it.

Brian T

Can't comment on SACD's as I know nothing about them, but with DVDs and Blu-rays there are some serious (and even many casual) collectors in this country who simply don't have access to the stuff a lot of us have collected over the years because they don't live in the major cities, or don't have easy access to the border, didn't have a Future Shop/Best Buy in town, or whatever. And when something's OOP and they've just gotta have it, well, they'll pay. My THIRD MAN example is an outlier, but I still make a profit on probably 80% of the stuff I sell, anything from a few bucks more than I paid to maybe doubling, tripling or quadrupling depending on limited editions, OOP status, scarcity, whatever. Like I said, though, I don't buy (or blind buy) much popular mainstream stuff; I get it from the library for free and whenever it's available to me (no rush). My listings comprise a LOT of offbeat, boutique and cult titles I've picked up on sale in the U.S. for my own entertainment first and foremost. If I like them enough, or the presentations are lavish enough, they'll probably stay; otherwise, I move 'em on.

And as I mentioned you might not get exactly what you paid for (or more) for your disc, but you'll get a lot more than you would from a trade-in place (if you can find one) or, obviously, from a donation to a place where someone else might snap it up for resale while you get nothing.

Random examples of stuff I've sold in the past month or so (spoilered for those who aren't interested)


I'd could list (lots) more, but most are like these, some big profits, some small, only a few where I lost money and even then I can usually consider it the "cost of a rental" just to see the movie in the first place.

Still, though, it won't work for everyone. But if you've got valuable stuff in your collection and you don't mind sitting on it for however long (or quickly) it takes to sell, then it's the best option up here. I've got several hundred listings and reasonable room in my apartment to store them until they sell. If you're looking to just clear it out because of a new house, or the girlfriend says so, or whatever, then it's probably more satisfying to just get rid of it all at once for whatever $$ you can, or donate it in the hopes that it will be enjoyed by someone else. I've done that, too, albeit always with cheap common stuff I got in the Walmart bins. Not much point in listing those on the Marketplace when people are selling them for a buck or two.

Amazon also has some special fulfillment thing where you can send all your stuff to their warehouse and they handle the shipping when an item sells, thus clearing up your space. Seems convenient, but I still prefer to be responsible for the stuff I sell, especially as I'm doing so as a movie fan rather than trying to make a business out of it as a lot of Marketplace sellers seem to do.

Alan Smithee

Two laserdisc editions, D-VHS and both DVD and Blu-Ray box sets

JeffTheAlpaca

Lately I got the bug again since a lot of older movies are now finally getting released on Blu-ray like Young Guns 2, Dick, Dragnet, Higher Learning, and a few others.

big e

That's almost the exact opposite for me; these smaller companies are releasing all this deep catalog stuff, but it's nothing I'm interested in, so I'm still not buying anything.

orangerunner

On one hand I'm happy to see these lesser-known titles getting a Blu-ray but on the other hand because they are smaller titles distributed in smaller volumes by a smaller company, the prices will probably continue to hover around $20-$30.

It begs the question "How much much is this title really worth to me?" Unless there's a unique title that really interests me, my unwatched DVD copy is usually good enough.

Then again, the industry would completely crash if everyone felt the way I do.

JimRochester

There are still a few deep catalog titles I want plus a few extended or director cuts from the DVD that didn't make it to BR. I'm also slowly getting rid of my HD DVD's in favor of the BR version since most can be had for

JoeyOhhhh

The lack of Blu ray releases but HD streaming options is what had started me to pivot to streaming and I've continued to move forward that way ever since.

Buying habit has now become if it is an absolute favorite I'll pick up the 4k, otherwise I'll pick up something digitally for $5 price point digitally

JimRochester

Just ordered 3 BR to replace HD DVD, a 4K to replace a BR my son took, 2- 4K to replace an old DVD plus a few more. Seven total and pulled 14 off the shelf. The HD DVD go in the garbage, the others for my son or father-in-law or library.

PhantomStranger

The one good decision I made regarding media collecting was avoiding HD DVD entirely and not going hog wild into 3-D Blu-rays.

JimRochester

I picked up a few 3D BR as part of combo packs but then bought a 3D capable TV. I think I had around 40 or 50 HD DVD at the most. I just whittled away a few more down to 19. Not replacing all with BR, but just about all of them can be had for

mattysemo247

If anyone wants a reality check, just wait until you end up moving. Recently I just finished packing, and it took four 27 gallon storage bins to fit most (not all) of my blu ray collection in. Not counting some smaller boxes for box sets and steelbooks that I didn't want shifting around too much during the move. At least one of those bins was packed full of unopened movies (fucking Best Buy trade and save program lol). Thankfully that really helped put things into perspective for me and I have cut back SIGNIFICANTLY. At this point I don't even want to think about unpacking those bins.

stvn1974

I recently sold off most of my collection. I just kept my favorite films and TV shows that I rewatch quite often. I was going to replace some of the films that I sold off on UHD but then I realized I didn't watch them when I had them on BD so I stopped myself. Also, while I might really like the film it doesn't mean I need to own it. One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, The Godfather films and Hitchcock's work might be some of my favorite films but I am not going to watch them enough to need to own them. As for going forward Hollywood hasn't really released anything in the last ten years that I feel warrants a purchase and I doubt it changes in the future.

BobO'Link

I received a similar "wake up" recently when we had some work done and I had to pack up all my DVDs/BRs to allow it to happen. It was in several rooms so I'd never seen it all together. I needed 35(!) 32 gallon totes for everything! Holy cow! I knew I had a lot but didn't realize it was that much. 15 totes were unopened product (about 1/4 was BR upgrades). I had 3 totes full of duplicate titles. Those are things where I'd purchased several seasons of a show and then picked up the complete series set for less than the last few seasons I needed. Right now all I've moved back in are the unopened titles. The rest are still in totes in storage and I'm in no hurry to get them unpacked.

Seeing that also prompted me to cancel several blind-buy pre-orders and reconsider a few of the upgrades on order. I'll be looking much more carefully going forward and plan on purchasing far less.

melasnus

Where is a good place to sell?

stvn1974

I sold most of mine to FYE but right after they bought my final batch they closed the store here. I sold them over four weekends. I would take a load on Saturday and Sunday. I actually got a lot more than I thought I would. Vintage Stock sucks by comparison. Plus I am banned from selling anything there now. Apparently if you sell Harry Potter DVDs and then replace them with BD and then sell those to replace with another version and then sell those to get the 4K versions the computer puts out some warning accusing you of selling stolen items.

mattysemo247

I unloaded some stuff at V Stock too and yeah, the prices suck, but at least I got rid of some stuff that was just collecting dust. I still have another box in my car too.

WeeBey

I got rid of my entire collection, most of which I had to throw in the trash. Either no one would take them or going through the process of selling them wasn't worth the 50 cents or less I would get.

Really, only the criterions and a few box sets went for cash. In retrospect, I was storing useless crap no one wanted in my home for some reason. Literal garbage. I made a mint on a sealed criterion Third Man and unsealed Chungking Express.

To the guy who still has his sealed Chungking, I recommend getting rid of it ASAP. As soon as Criterion announces a rerelease with the 4K master, it will be worthless. Remember, Criterion still has the rights to the movie so this can happen any month now.

melasnus

Thanks for the tip.

Don't dump 'em!
Donate them to the public library or Boys Club or some other non-profit and write 'em off your taxes.

I think I have those somewhere...

DJariya

Yeah throwing movies in the trash is a waste, especially of the good money you spent. I don't get why someone would throw it away.

Definitely take stuff you don't want and don't want to dedicate time to try to sell (books, movies, CDs) to your local library. They will be more than happy to take it. If they can't use it, they can always sell it to purchase stuff they actually need. You get a tax write off and you help your community.

Josh-da-man

Do they card you and track your sales?

Maybe they flagged you because you were selling multiple copies of movies, even though they were different editions?