milo bloom

I still have my Blade Runner briefcase. It's my second one actually. I got the original DVD version when it first came out, then many years later I found a promo version at a thrift store with just a promo DVD for the set inside so I bought that, sold my original then bought the 5 disc Blu-Ray, so my briefcase is actually a little more special.

And that's part of why I don't want to get rid of too much. My wife would love if everything was streaming, so we don't really own things like the Star Trek TV shows and such anymore, but I have the movies for the special features. And I've been saying for years that I'm slowing down my buying, but I keep finding things here and there that I like (not so much at thrift stores any more, those are getting pretty slim pickings).

I still have a stack of discs to get rid of, but many of them are DVDs that I found blu-ray versions of to upgrade. And I'm letting go of my M*A*S*H seasons because that's something that will always be streaming. And I have some anime sets that are just too nice to let go of.

So, I guess that's one thing is that I'm not as likely to buy chaff titles, particularly on DVD, just to have it.

I do want to go through and watch stuff and see if I want to sell it, like a lot of Criterion titles I bought just because they were Criterion. I'm sure I could let go of a dozen or more of those.

zyzzle

Sure, I'd be totally deluded to not realize that surely 90%, probably 95% of all titles ever released to physical media are essentially worthless now. These are the "commons" of the world, the rubbish that's always going to be available in some form or fashion. These are the crappy, mainstream films which the plebians enjoy and consume.

I was speaking more toward the niche consumers when expessing my opinions. We will be the ones hardest hit by the extinction of physical media. We'll be marginalized, and if we want to acquire "the vaulted 5%" of cult / offbeat / obscure titles, they'll be unavailable in the quality we've become used to and / or priced at hundreds of dollars by greedy scalpers who've scooped them up to profit thereby off those who didn't collect them now.

So, your point is indeed very valid in the general sense; I was talking more in the sense of individual, rare collectors who are feeling the itch to suddenly dump their physical media collections now because they might be fooled into thinking something better is coming along the pike.

Koby

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davidlynchfan

MCU and DC-verse, all day and everyday, brah.

Artman

Hey all, yep same thing I've been going through. Like most everyone here, I grew up with the collection culture...baseball cards, etc and when movies became a viable collector item..I was all in. Now of course, 25yrs after DVD's became a reality, I'm rethinking everything. Space is really the biggest issue, and as I've now crossed into my 40's (as I suspect most of us have) - mortality has also entered my mindset.(do I want my family to deal with all of it) I've culled my physical collection down to about 250 films - ones that I know I like to re-watch, and actually do provide a more personal representation of my tastes. I'm a sucker for packaging, steelbooks, etc so that does play a part....but in just the couple of weeks since I've culled, I've found my appreciation of my collection has gone up. In short - physical copies for films I really care deeply about, digital for everything else.

maxfisher

My original DVD collection got up to around 500 by the time blu-ray came out. I got a PS3 in 2007 and averaged about 300 blu-rays per year for a decade, replacing all but a handful of DVDs of movies that never got an upgrade. The quality and ubiquity of streaming has really limited my buying habits over the past five years and I've sold off hundreds of titles as well. Anymore, if I'm looking at buying something, I ask myself two questions:

1) Is this the likely best quality version of a movie that I truly care about and will revisit?
2) Is this a movie that I really want to see that's unlikely to hit streaming in the next couple months?

If the answer to either is yes, I'll pick it up. Otherwise, I pass. I'm down to buying around 25 titles a year, split about 2:1 between upgrading old favorites to 4K and new releases. My overall collection is currently at 2,418, but there are a good number of boxsets in that, so it's probably at least 2,500. I don't really see getting rid of them given that I enjoy having the collection and know that its dollar value is relatively small.

The more vexing thing to me is what to do with my CD collection. I haven't bought a CD in nearly seven years, but am sitting on a collection of over 3,000. 99% of my collection is available on Apple Music and anymore I exclusively listen to downloads & steaming, as my ears just aren't good enough to pick up a huge difference between those and CD. I've perused ebay sell prices for a small sampling of my collection and it looks like the majority of my albums would go for $3 - $8, while a small percentage would be more in the neighborhood of $30 to $50. But it feels like a monumental task to figure price estimates for everything, decide what to sell individually vs as a lot and then list, sell and ship it all.

g

Screenarchives.com says they buy cd's. They specialize in that so maybe they still pay alright. They say to send a list for pricing.
https://www1.screenarchives.com/collections.cfm

g

I think I would struggle to get it down 2500 let alone 250. I'm thinking people buy books to cover the walls why not use Blu ray or DVD like they use books for interior decorating as well as watching.

E Unit

I’ve tried this before. Expect to get pennies per disc/movies.

PhantomStranger

CD resellers aren't offering very much at all. They are really only for people who can't be bothered.

Gizmo

My local Best Buy remodeled and got rid of all physical media. They still have a small selection of games but no DVD/BD. I asked and they said they might bring some back in a few months.

WTF?

PhantomStranger

The writing is on the wall at Best Buy and Target. I've seen Best Buys with heavily diminished media racks but never one with none at all.

orangerunner

The Best Buy near me has removed most of their physical media. All that is left is a small rack near the check-stand and one small portable aisle rack with only 4K titles.

bunkaroo

I’ll be more concerned when they drop it from their website like they did CDs. I’m getting all my pre-orders through Best Buy and they are incredibly consistent and I get my stuff usually the Saturday before release even with free shipping. I won’t go back to Amazon. They started fucking up in spring 2021 and every time I try them again it’s the same shit.

DJariya

I pretty much don’t go to B&M’s anymore for physical media. Just not worth it. I’ll get most on Amazon and the actual retailer website.

Alan Smithee

What does Best Buy think I’m going in there for now? I used to always stop by any location whenever I was near one, last week I had an hour in the area as I had to leave my phone at the Apple Store for service and I didn’t even bother going into Best Buy. If I buy a $10,000 home theater system there they should expect that streaming won’t cut it for that- and even if it did it’s not like they can push CinemaNow anymore. They haven’t even had the computer supplies I’ve needed when I checked them for that. God I miss Fry’s, would’ve much rather have lost Best Buy than them.

Josh-da-man

Huh. I didn't know you can't even order CDs from their website. Went there and checked it looks like they only sell music on vinyl now.

Which, to be honest, I wouldn't mind CDs going away entirely and vinyl being the only physical medium for music.

I know a few CD loyalists, but it seems like that format is sort of caught between the people who stream all of their music and vinyl collectors.

Josh-da-man

You're an outlier.

Stores are dropping CDs, DVDs, blu-rays, and 4K-UHD formats because aren't buying them anymore.

The stores aren't driving the decline of physical media. The consumers are. The vast majority of people would rather pay a small monthly fee to Spotify or another streaming service to get access to all of the music they want than spend a bunch of money on CDs. Same with movies and tv content; they'd rather just watch stuff on Netflix and Disney+ for $20ish a month than spend a bunch of money on DVDs and blu-rays.

And we also have the millennial generation who are living in smaller apartments and tend to move more, so having to lug around a bunch of boxes of CDs and DVDs isn't an attractive prospect for them.

Gizmo

I just think it's weird there was not even a Top 25 shelf or the latest New releases. Nothing. The kid looked surprised I was even asking!

TheBang

Streaming revenue dwarves physical media revenue. Here's the 2021 report from the RIAA:

https://www.riaa.com/wp-content/uplo...nue-Report.pdf

Streaming revenue was $10 billion, and all physical media was $1.1 billion.

CD units sold actually went up last year, but that's only because 2020 was so horrible because of COVID. Vinyl units sold almost matched CDs last year, and almost doubled CD's revenues (due to higher per-unit pricing). And as a point of comparison, CDs shipped 97 million units in 2016, compared to 46 million units last year. In that same period, streaming revenue went from $3.9 billion to $10 billion.

Adam Tyner

Yup, it’s been that way for a fair few years now.

Alan Smithee

My CD buying actually slowed down before the “majority”, it was a combination of the greedy labels raising prices and not being much into the new music that came along.

Ironically I pay for Apple Music now because of their Dolby Atmos music most of which isn’t available on disc. I easily would’ve dropped a good amount of cash for the Elton John best-of set in Atmos on one format or another, but it doesn’t exist.

But if people aren’t going into Best Buy for music or movies anymore, what ARE they going in for? What else do they have that changes every week? Maybe our Virgin Megastore would still be around if Best Buy had never opened right next to them and killed them on pricing.

TomOpus

You need to accept that what brought you joy is gone. Long gone. Blame consumers. Blame streaming and online buying.

John Galt

My last 4-5 trips to Best Buy I didn't even bother to go into the store. Used to, I would go in, browse the A/V area, browse the movies, then go get what I initially went in for. Now I just order online, park in their Pick Up space and use the app to get my purchase brought out to me.

Josh Z

I don't think that's his question. What is the point of Best Buy still having brick-and-mortar locations anymore? What do people go there to buy these days?