Hellraiser: Deader is another BD that goes for some bucks.

One advantage for Canadian sellers, at least, is that a lot of those wishful thinkers are actually American and (to a lesser degree) Euro sellers, some of whom also have accounts on the U.S. and Euro sites where the exact same discs are listed for considerably less money (even factoring in the exchange). When Amazon first started allowing anyone to sell anywhere it bothered me, but then I realized the actual number of Canadian sellers (at least for DVDs and Blu-rays) is comparatively low on the Canadian site, and when a platoon of American and UK sellers attempt to drive prices into the stratosphere, it gives folks like me an opportunity to undercut all of them while making a more realistic profit and being able to ship faster (I don't sell outside the country). I'd rather sell a disc and clear the space it occupied before a re-release comes out (making my version potentially worthless), then have it sit around for years -- or forever -- at a ridiculously inflated price just because everyone is jumping on the bandwagon. It can sting a bit when a title never seems to get reissued, and the prices globally keep rising while I've already unloaded mine for a fraction of what the wishful thinkers were asking, but alas I've only got so much room to keep this stuff.

I will say, though, that eBay, Kijiji and every other private-seller type of site are home to pipe-dreamers, too, so as others have mentioned you really need to track certain sellers or 'watch' multiple listings of specific titles. On eBay it's strange to see the same sellers renewing the same over-priced discs week after week. Aren't there fees associated with that, or do they only charge when you sell an item? I haven't sold stuff on eBay for ages (though I was a steady seller for a couple of years before I moved), but I would think ongoing listing fees would eat into eventual profits?

Nowadays I wonder how many of the "professional" sellers on ebay, amazon, etc ... were the type of people who were in the liquidation/overstock business back in the day. Or folks who ran warehouses and got a lot of old unwanted inventory to "dipose" of (from clients who didn't pay their bills).

The type of folks who would have ran a "liquidation outlet" retail store offline before the internet was ubiquitous.

That Beavis & Butthead set brings me back to the old days of this forum. I believe it was Circuit City that leaked out copies before they were pulled? Never found a copy until much later.

This wouldn't surprise me at all. I'm sure a lot of them have also jumped on the "Amazon pallet" bandwagon, where they buy pallets stacked high with random returned crap for pennies on the dollar, then relist it all on the marketplace for whatever profit they can get. It's quite a racket. Hell, Amazon (and probably eBay) is home to so many rackets these days, it's hard to keep track . . .

Back in the day in the 1990s and early-2000s, I use to like shopping at the local liquidation outlets.

Gradually over the past 15 years or so, I have noticed many liquidation outlets have disappeared altogether. Especially ones which cater to cd/dvd/bluray.

The only liquidation outlets left I still see nowadays offline, are for out-of-style clothing from several years ago. Basically every time a huge clothing retailer goes out of business, all the old inventory somehow ends up at these local liquidation outlet stores.

It's funny you mention that. Sometimes a vendor will have multiple copies of an out-of-print title that was probably unearthed from a warehouse somewhere.

On the other hand, I recall an out-of-print DVD title such as "Folks!" (Region 1 Anchor Bay) which a year or two ago used to sell in the $60-$70 range for a used copy.

Today it sells for about $15 on eBay. Why?

There's a vendor selling his own burned unlicensed DVD-R "MOD" (Movies on Demand) copy of the film for $9.95 and buyers (and eBay) don't really seem to care about the legalities of such practices. The guy has sold (presumably) many fakes and describes anyone who gives him a negative feedback for mentioning his bootleg products a "TOTAL LOSER!!!". Five-Star service all the way!

Just because it sold for a high price a while ago doesn't guarantee the price will remain high, despite the fact that they never went back into print.

Yeah, probably the few folks willing to shell out big bucks for it has already overpaid for it and it’s on to the second wave of more thrifty folks that still want that said title.

OOP DVDs are often affected by the announcement of a coming Blu-ray/4K edition.

True enough. Isn't it odd how the most rare and valuable titles (past or present) always seem to be the most horrible, unwatchable movies that aren't even worth two hours of ones time, let alone paying $20-$70 for the privilege of owning it? Think "Folks!", "Worth Winning", "Sidekicks", "The Boyfriend School", "Satisfaction" "Shag The Movie" etc.

Usually the valuable movies have legitimate fanbases, or at least a following of some size. The Third Man would be infinitely less valuable if it wasn't a great movie with Orson Welles.

Shag is on Blu-Ray now, I reviewed it here. I found a sealed DVD of Satisfaction at a Dollar General in Kansas of all places. (Found a used copy of Folks at a thrift store in Nevada on the same trip, but I rarely buy used DVDs and already saw that movie during its theatrical run which was enough.)

MST3K Vol 10, the original release that had Godzilla vs Megalon, goes for $200. It was quickly pulled and reissued with Giant Gila Monster.

the second I found out it was pulled I found an Amazon seller who hadn’t raised their price and got lucky.

Watchmen: Director's Cut (Amazon Exclusive Nite Owl Ship) [Blu-ray]


I see this sold for $150 on eBay recently. I've got one unopened in a box somewhere in my closet. I should probably sell it.

It's original price was $110 so after fees and shipping it's pretty much a wash.

Given the current market conditions for physical media, breaking-even on a re-sale is considered a "win".

A lot of people here got it for $15 on an Amazon Lightning Deal back in 2010.

Thats how I got mine.

Another I didn’t realize went for sort of high amounts that I own is Ultimate Jordan: Deluxe Limited Edition. It’s a four disc Michael Jordan set that has some documentaries​​​​​, his Hall of Fame induction, some interviews, and five full games. Looks like it goes from like $55 to $75 or so on eBay. On Amazon used copies are listed from like $90 to $190.

WOW. I remember that one, and yeah, I think it was CC who put out copies even though it had been recalled.

I remember getting the recalled Little Shop of Horrors DVD with alternate ending from Borders. I believe that was recalled as well.

I bought that as well, before the recall. Once the prices started spiking, it was painful to even consider selling it because the format was still in its infancy and one couldn't be assured that the ending would ever be seen on disc again. A few years later, I took my chances and ended up getting, I think, around $250 for it on eBay. I'm sure others sold it for higher, but it was still a healthy ROI. Pretty sure I backed it up . . . somehow, just to be safe. Quite a relief when the SE came out later on.

https://ew.com/article/1998/03/06/li...tage-recalled/

Spider-man 67 (animated series) is offered by Amazon for 254 dollars while one seller has it new for 199 dollars.

Remember the Ed Wood dvd that got released to a few stores then got yanked? I ended up with a bootleg on that whole deal.

i think this Angel 3-movie bluray set i just got for $50, might go up soon...