I have been buying music on cd since the mid 80s, so I have about 200 of them. However, I stopped buying them, because of music streaming. They weigh a lot, and are hard to move. Movies, like books, I’d have to watch many of them, to finally find a movie that strikes a chord with me. So, I have about 30 movies, and 30 books. So, movie streaming helps me find the movies I want to buy. And yes, my collections a lot about me. Namely, I have great taste, and everyone else has bad taste, or a hoard collector. 😝🤣
These are also my thoughts. I've never been a fan of collecting just for the sake of having a certain movie or every title from a specific label whether you like the title or not. I want to look at my collection and know that I love all the movies I've gathered. And while I like slipcovers I would never overpay for a slip or refuse to buy a favorite because of the lack of a slip. It's the movie that matters.
@@sausagefestcity5078 that's the best kind of collection. After years of VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and now 4K, I've lost a lot of movies from my childhood through the various format changes. In the process of rebuilding my collection now. Part of me feels like if I love a movie I have to buy it now. It's not a guarantee that they'll be in print forever. For me, they're more than just movies, they're memories - a part of my past.
Great conversation Heath. This really hit home because I feel like nowadays movie collecting has never been less about the movies and more about all of the specs and the art and every other reason under the sun other than just the movie itself.
I agree with everything said in this video. Every movie or tv show in my collection I bought with the intention of keeping forever because I enjoyed that movie or show and will revisit it over and over. If I do sell something its either because I upgraded or no longer want that in my collection. I have bought movies that I think will be good and just are not and will sell that. One thing I really don't like is the limited editions that will go out of print and the aftermarket price is just way too high to purchase. I don't have the money to buy every title I want so if something goes out of print I may never own that or see it ever, if the price is way too high. I have got many good recommendations from Heath's videos and I want to thank you for that. I have seen some movies that I never knew existed and enjoyed them. I really hope the bottom doesn't fall out of the market like comics back in the 90's.
I used to have a relatively small collection of DVDs, enough to fill one Ottoman or so. I used to wander around op shops and I knew all the DVDs I owned, so I wouldn't accidentally double up. Now I'm at the point where I own the first three seasons of Community and all the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, at least three or four times over. At some point I might sit down and cull some double ups from my collection, but it feels strange that even when I know I have two or more of a certain movie or TV show, I still end up swiping spare copies. I don't know if it's more to make sure that if a disc skips, I can swap it out to get one good set, or if it's so I can hold onto spares, before finding a friend to introduce them to. I don't know if I have properly conclusive thoughts on this. But it was fun to write.
The problem with collecting movies (or anything for that matter) is that there’s just not enough time in the day. Each of these is a two-hour experience. I try to watch as much as I can, but I just can’t get around to everything!!
Bought my first movie back in the middle of the 1980s which was the original Piranha. It was an ex-rental. From then on I've been collecting movies for almost 40 years. Starting with VHS to laserdisc to dvd/blurays. My attitude toward collect has change over the years from buying movies because I could to now buying for what is my favourite and wanting in my collection. I live on a small island where video stores is no longer, so have to rely on amazon for most of my buying or the occasional vist to the UK and vist HMV(which is such a treat). I must say, I love collecting more today then ever! Love to see you guys talk about this!
It's hard to really pin down why I love physical media.I've never been one to have to watch something in the best ever quality sound and vision.95% of my collection is still standard Dvd ( I have a few thousand at a rough estimate).I have very few Blu-ray and and no 4K.To get back to the topic I think I like to own a movie maybe partly because of the fear that if I didn't have it one day it may be very difficult to see on any streaming platform for one.If I want to watch Alien or Predator I can go straight to my shelf knowing it's always available.I guess there's still the fear that the actual players may one day stop being produced but I think that's unlikely for the long term.So the answer for me I guess is the fear of loss of movies I love.Enjoyed Video I'm always interested in this subject and other collectors thoughts.Love your channel.
Hi Heath, I really enjoyed this video. I collect movies for three reasons only: 1) who's in the movie 2) the story and 3) nostalgia factor. When I say nostalgia I mean I will purposely buy a movie on VHS because I can't get the movie on dvd or bluray. That is my reason for collecting in a nutshell. I have streaming services, but I would rather watch a movie from my collection than watch on AmazonPrime, Netflix or other streaming sites. My kids use those streaming services, and they tend to give me grief over my collection. I have a good example for you: Last weekend my son was over visiting and he came to me and said, "Mom, I now understand WHY you collect movies", and I replied with "really?! when did that happen? He said, just now, his sister wanted to watch The Wolf of Wall Street and she couldn't find it on Netflix, so she ended up renting it on Amazon Prime. My response to that was, "huh, how much did that cost?" Apparently, she paid close to $5 for it. I informed him I had the dvd and she could have watched it for free. So, this is my other reason for collecting. Streaming services are useful, I can watch the Marvel movies I don't own yet, or Star Wars series that I don't own yet, or other movies that I don't own. But for the most part, I watch movies from my collection over streaming services. Those are my thoughts on the subject. Again, great video! Take care, - Maria
Good chat. I no longer get worked up about limited editions. In the 90s I spent a small fortune on laserdiscs. What a mistake. I had no idea what was coming. And so much now gets re-released. I can't even keep up with it all. I'm just enjoying what I have and what I can afford to get.
PREACH! Great conversation guys. I totally agree with the state of movies right now. Buy what you love, buy what interests you, and buy what you want to explore!
As soon as a company starts to not taking short term profits over catering to a community, they will eventually go out of business. Criterion still exists to this day, not because they did fancy laserdisc editions of Citizen Kane that barely sold to classic cinema lovers, but because they released deluxe editions of Armageddon and The Rock that were derided by every cinema lover who thought they were tarnishing the brand. I heard that straight from the Project Director of Criterion at a Q&A. He freely admitted those titles saved Criterion from bankruptcy. I’m all for the wide release of whatever, but sometimes a company needs to make unpopular decisions with a niche of collectors to make higher profits when possible.
I agree with everything you guys are saying. I also collect because exploring and learning are fulfilling. I love exploring filmographies of directors, actors, genres, movements, etc. I’m constantly a student of cinema and I’ll never finish the subject and truly be an “authority” or “the expert” and I’m perfectly okay with that.
@@megamikethemovieman I’ve been exploring the Universal Horror films that were outside of the “Monster” genre of the 1930’s and 1940’s recently. The Scream Factory Universal Horror collections have been intriguing. While not Universal, The Undying Monster is also a recent title that has been on my mind a lot since seeing it.
@@bradpaige6328 I need to dive more into classic horror movies myself, I enjoyed the 4K universal monster set I picked up. I have lots of collection and physical media topics videos on my channel, feel free to stop by to enjoy some videos and so we can talk movies my friend.
Excellent video. I really enjoyed this discussion and agree with the points that were made. One of the oddest things are people trying to determine the long-term "value" of their collection. As anyone old enough to remember VHS tapes and DVDs will know, physical media is not an "investment." Over time, most titles will lose their monetary value. The true value is what the title means to you as a fan of the movie.
Great discussion guys! We've gotten to the point with some VHS sealed collectors where they collect solely for the physical aspect, with no intention of watching the movie or re-selling. The amazing thing to me to watch is how emotional some of these collectors are about art they aren't enjoying. I saw a guy on IG who paid $400 to overnight a sealed VHS tape and get it graded and it was apparently stolen in the mail. He looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown talking about it. This is for a movie he's never seen and has no intention of watching.
Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing I see that makes me so sad. The paperback horror novel scene has blown up too, because people are buying them for the cover art and not to read. Sometimes it still takes me by surprise.
Great topic. I don’t collect because I think I can make money with it but I do like to think that my collection has some monetary value. It’s valuable to me.
This is the perfect topic for me to say something. Right now I can't think of what movie it was but I couldn't get a movie at the time of release and it sold out completely. There were numerous people that did unboxings of the movie and they didn't even like the movie itself. They only wanted it for the artwork on the packaging. There's me, someone who loved the movie but couldn't get it.
Exactly or they’ll buy a whole load of copies of the movie that you want until it’s sold out and then they’ll flip it on eBay for more than they paid. It’s disgusting those aren’t true movie fans
Great discussion. I consider myself a curator. I have a large collection. But I collect what I love. Never collected for slips or limited editions or what I can get for it at a later date. I collect all formats as I just want to watch the film. I have gotten hate because of buying a DVD or a vhs or waiting for a better price after the hype died and I don't get a slip. I just love film and want to soak it all in. Thank you for another great video
I like collecting physical media too because I want to have physical copies of my favorite movies and cartoons etc. My favorite company is without a doubt Shout Factory. I love the picture quality and style of packaging that Shout Factory does.
I’m guilty of the silly entrepreneurial feelings sometimes. But I am always curating my collection to be: comfort content from my childhood, great family movies, truly great Christian films (Terrance Malik, Mel Gibson etc) and music from my teens to late 20’s (cassette & vinyl). My son and I keep stuff on eBay bc we are constantly removing things we don’t absolutely love.
Ain't nothin' wrong with pruning! I'm putting stuff on the Cereal At Midnight Ebay store all the time. It's when profit becomes a prime motivator that I think it can get ugly real quick.
Nice! I was the guest host of a live watch party for Batteries Not Included from the people behind In Search of Darkness and In Search of Tomorrow. ruclips.net/video/2Q9-5D6VePM/видео.html
To me there's a difference between people with a collecting problem and people with a speculator problem. I can't speak to what drives the latter beyond money (I'm no speculator), but as someone who buys nearly every Vinegar Syndrome and VS partner label release, I know why I'm struggling to escape the collector loop. There's something in the human mind where, if there's X number of a thing to own and you own more than half of X, your brain is going to be strongly inclined towards owning all of X. And, for me at least, that inclination is buoyed by the fact that I've never seen a lot of the movies that come out through these boutique labels. So the FOMO kicks in, too. How one controls the urge to buy more movies because every release might be a new favorite? That's something I still struggle with. But I think the trick is to set a boundary for a little while. Limit how many releases you buy for a few months or how much money you'll spend. And I think once you see how much you aren't missing out, it becomes much easier to buy just for the love of owning movies. That's a conceit, but it's a healthy one, I think.
I got to the point where I ran out of room and I had to take a few steps back and ask myself am I going to watch all these movies and The answer that keeps coming back to in my head is no . So about two or three years ago I started going through my collection and taking out all the movies that I really I’m not gonna watch or I have no interest in. When I look at the movies when I’m pulling them off the shelf I usually say to myself why the hell did I buy this? So now I only collect movies that are pretty much my favorite movies from the time I started watching movies as a kid till now also my collection reflects me more as a Movie fan than anything else.
This one definitely hit with me, great conversation. As someone new to collecting horror movies over the past year, it does suck when limited editions come out and I always feel the need to buy things as soon as I can, even if I don't have the money, in fear of them running out of print.
The reason that I collect physical media is for nostalgia purposes because there are so many cartoons from the 80's and 90's that I like. I even like Hanna-Barbera cartoons as well.
nice to see guys who have been collecting as long as I have, feel the same way about collecting. Been hunting for movies and comics for years and years and the thrill of the hunt and watching the film and reading the comic is why I'm into collecting. You'll never see a slabbed comic or movie in my collection, unless I win one in a contest, and those I'll trade for something I really want. Slip covers and steel books and 1 clicks are the holofoil comics of the 90's.... just a gimmick to drag the speculators in, cause they're the quick and easy cash. I enjoy your videos and hope you do this for quite a while.
Right on! I mean, I have Steelbooks and I like cool slipcovers, so this wasn't an attack on those, but there's a new audience that's being exploited and they're going right along with it. As for longevity, I plan to do this FOREVER!
I love collecting films and totally agree that your collection should reflect you. I personally do like to collect limited editions but it has to be from a movie or series that I really like I don't care about the value it's just cool to have.
Another piece to the "treating movies like trading cards" conversation is that fact that thrift stores and corporations that own thrift stores are catching onto this scanning practice. Too often, I've gone into little mom and pop thrift stores and small pawn shops as well as some of the big guys like Savers and seen scratched up copies of a movie for 10-20 dollars (in some cases 30 dollars) simply because it's "out of print" or rare; way over the usual 1-2 dollars they should be asking (especially for donated items in the case of thrift stores.) All resellers, corporate or individual, and others like them are doing is just creating a bubble for all of us cinephiles, and at some point, the bubble is going to burst. In my opinion, we are already at a point where DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS values are overinflated, and it's just going to become impossible to collect affordably for the things that we love, and to preserve these films. It shocks me that some RUclipsrs who resell at high dollars are the "Physical Media Forever!" types, while at the same time monetizing and inflating the market for the thing they claim to love. A balance has to be struck somewhere, and I think that if we don't acknowledge this soon, movie preservation will become an impossible task for those of us, regardless of income, who appreciate the medium, and want it to thrive.
Thanks for this discussion, fellas. It's a subject I think about time to time. I blind buy a lot of movies only for the sake of buying something because it looks or sounds neat, or it could be up my alley. As well as the fear of missing out on a limited slipcover or box ala Vinegar Syndrome/Arrow/Severin, etc. I'm sure if I go through my movies, about a 1/4 I don't really care about and have no real passion towards them. Just bought it because I felt I was going to miss out on something. I keep saying to myself I need to just buy the movies that I really want and enjoy watching. As well as asking myself why would I want this certain movie? We can't take any of this stuff with us when we die so it just seems more and more silly as I get older to be still doing this. Why take the time and money to use that energy on stressing out on purchasing a movie or record or whatever is collectible, to end up checking it out and then not enjoying it? It's a vicious cycle that never seems to end unless I tell myself, NO! I'm more of a music fan then film, and also an avid record collector as well... and after all this time I honestly could of bought some OG pressings on certain albums I love and will never get tired of, but instead I spent my money on a movie that I don't really know or care about. Ughhhh
You mentioned records, and I think what we're talking about is HUGE in the record community. Record Store Day is just a few days away and thousands of fans will be hitting their local shops to purchase limited edition colored pressings of rarities that have been under-printed and will be guaranteed to be sold out by 11 am. I used to LOVE Record Store Day but now it's like a speculator holiday. If you care about the music, it's a frustrating event.
I collect for the sake of having a library that i own and maintain. I haven't streamed or payed for cable tv in over 20 years. I have been my own programmer. I alone control what i watch-not algorithms or studio executives.
For me, collecting video media was the natural extension of my first love - collecting music. I had loved music as far back as I can remember. As I think about it, the more disenchanted I got with with mainstream radio, the more I got into collecting. I got tired of hearing the same songs all of the time. It makes sense that after developing a taste for horror via Elm Street and the HBO Tales From The Crypt series, that horror would be what I primarily collect. Even with all the boutique labels, I tend to think horror is still far removed from mainstream. I tend to be more selective when it comes to what call "normal" media, buying only what I really love and want to watch whenever I choose.
Oh how I remember collecting in the 90s-having to go to a speciality section in order to buy VHS tapes in Widescreen or Letterbox. Honestly, I collect for the love of cinema; I’ll blind buy if the cost is low enough and the story seems interesting, but never because it might increase in value or because it’s LE. One of my little joys is during the Kino Sale, going through the entire list of films, adding them to the cart, and then narrowing down my choices by binging old trailers and reading disc reviews. My biggest gripe has got to be with Steelbooks; that particularly reminds me of the days of chromium covers, and prisms, and holograms, and all the other gimmicks that got us kids running back to get every cover, back in the day. Steelbooks used to be a cool incentive to get to the store early, because they were rare, and didn’t cost anything-it was just first come, first served, and that was it. Now the market is flooded with them, because studios realized how people were reacting; now you can’t get them unless you throw down the money for 4K (which is fine, because I do buy 4K discs, but it’s somewhat of a strong arming tactic). Honestly, I’ve quit buying Steelbooks unless I find them randomly at secondhand stores for cheap; there’re just too many factors-bad delivery methods, scratches and dents that you can’t see until you open them-for my wallet and my OCD mentality to deal with. In the end, the discs are what matter most. Strange to think that a company like Titans of Cult could essentially just sell the packaging and forgo the discs, and people would still pay top dollar, while the company saves money. Strange. But to each their own. Great discussion, really enjoyed it!!
Hi Heath. I recently discovered your channel within the last two months. I appreciate hearing your authentic opinions on film and love hearing your infectious enthusiasm for the medium. You, and many other people in this space have encouraged me to start my own collection of the movies that I love. Just like you and your guest said: this hobby is about watching and owning the things we love! Keep up the great videos!
For me I collect because I love movies as always have. When the pandemic happened I started collecting even more thanks to the KL sales and posting on IG my finds. Of course I see a lot of collectors on IG that buy multiple copies because of slipcovers, store exclusives, etc and I’m like “Why?” If I buy a store exclusive, I buy it for the content and not cause of some flimsy slipcover.
Pre streaming I started collecting but I was a broke kid so my collection was pretty small. When streaming became a thing like many others I stopped for awhile. I thought streaming was the way to go until I noticed a huge issue. I was watching a show from my childhood on Paramount plus. The first season was just fine but by the second season half the episodes were missing. I looked it up and apparently those episodes featured music the show had lost the rights to. It was at that point I re-learned the value of owning my movies and shows, they can't take away episodes if I own the physical copy. As a bonus I found buying physical media on the secondary market has become super cheap since so many sold off their collections.
Your collection is you in a nutshell, things that you enjoy or are/ were curious about, I've bought lots of movies that I hadn't seen before before I bought them and some I love some I hated but I still end up keeping most of the time tbh
I agree with you guys. So many people are trying to make a living on buying and reselling movies. That's crazy. Now I get the collecting a special slip cover or steelbook for yourself because you like that movie exceptional well and you want the artwork to be top notch. But bottom line is the movie itself should be the main focus.
The worst is when the resellers and scalpers say "I'm just trying to help the community!" I'm like "By forcing scarcity and driving demand directly to your bank account?" There's no way they can really believe that.
@@CerealAtMidnight What gets me about these resellers is that they are the first ones to crow "physical media for life!" while going to thrift stores and bragging about getting to a particular "rare" movie before another collector just to resell it at a premium. I've run into scalpers twice in my life, and it really upsets me when they are pushy and give you the sob story of "I'm just trying to make a living." No, you are making the scarcity bubble bigger and being a douchebag about it just because you can. I try to avoid those people as much as I can, and just keep hunting for and watching the movies I love. The day I look at a physical copy of a movie that I love and see dollar signs and value just because it is "rare" is the day I stop collecting.
I was super lucky to work in a comic book/collectables shop in the late 80's and early 90's got to meet some of the coolest people doing something I really loved. Still have some of those friends.
I could say I began collecting VHS in the 80s mostly horror. At the beginning I could only afford recordings but later on I began buying originals. I managed to have over 1,000 horror VHS. When DVD came around I sold 100s of VHS because everything was coming out on DVD. My first DVD movie was Dawn Of The Mummy and after that there was no looking back. Later I have been sorry of selling the VHS that I sold including about 100 from Venezuela I feel now that my videocassettes collection is incomplete. Now I buy Blu-Rays and a few 4Ks. I collect because I want to have these movies or tv shows to be readily available when I want to see them over and over again. I am not into streaming but I do see it's place in entertainment but I prefer physical media because you own it forever. I have 100s of VHS, 3,000+ DVDs, 200 Blu-Rays and like 20 4Ks and I enjoy them so much. Very interesting topics you guys cool video Heath.👉😀👈
I started collecting video nasties in the early 1980s. That was how I started being a collector. Moved onto DVD in 2001 importing The Beyond as my first disc. 👍
I understand if you double dip on movies you love and you buy a steelbook and digibook and standard Blu Ray. But if it ends up with you buying steelbook and limited editions of movies you don't care about that's when it doesn't make sense anymore.
I have a lot of movies that I am happy to own on a standard release DVD that I found used at a thrift shop. I don't need the criterion release for things all the time. I'm just happy to have the movie and be able to watch it when I want.
Great video guys , I agree with everything you guys said. I collect for myself, everything in my collection is what I want to watch and rewatch. I collect movie and TV shows mostly TV now , where I grew in the 70s and 80s TV was my thing in those days now that I'm older it's coming back around more. I have picked up the odd show or movie that I have never seen and some I like and some I haven't. Dark Shadows, for example, I remember it back then but never thought about it on dvd, it's a soap opera they have never been released on dvd. Then I seen someone selling this coffin set of Dark Shadows, for $100. Did some research, seen the pricing and thought, wow, he's selling it for a good price. So thought I'd check with Aaron, and get his thoughts, I knew nothing on this set, he told me what to look for, so did. All that said , it's a set that I'm keeping and started watching and at the pace I'm watching it will probably take me 2 - 3 years. And after that I'll probably start all over again. Keep Curating.
Totally in it for the media itself. I want it in the best quality possible so I can get the maximum enjoyment out of it. It's a hobby that I am passionate about and will continue to support as long as I can.
@@EntertainmentKorner more Blu-ray’s then? I collect a variety, Blu-ray’s & 4ks. I have lots of collections and physical media topic videos on my channel too, feel free to stop by to enjoy some videos and so we can talk more movies my friend.
@@megamikethemovieman Yeah! I guess I should have clarified. Best quality means I'm totally cool with 1080p. Although I'm really into animated tv shows and not a lot of them have even complete series DVDs so I pick up whatever I can.
Very good show. I agree with and do collect what I am passionate about because I enjoy what’s on the screen and how it’s made. I don’t really care about the package and just keep it on a bookshelf.
I only get what I want and what I like to watch and own. I see no point in buying something u dont like just for the sake of cataloging or "having it". Its not a hobby to me, I truely love the films I collect..
Ooh. This was a great conversation 👏. I am closest to those who buy because of the FOMO. I would love to buy because of my passion for stories, but I don't like a lot of them. I grew up on John Hughes, Clash of the Titans, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Marvel and modern genre-melting stories are harder for me to appreciate. Thanks.
I couldn't have said it better! Agreed 100%, I have been through the Speculator market for comics and have recognized the invasion of home video for quite a while!
I collect because of autism and obsessive tendencies. I often lose interest in one area of collecting and move on to something else. For example I was into collecting Blu Rays recently and now they don't excite me as much, I now am into collecting autographed photos. In a few months my interest in Blu Rays will probably return. What a fulfilling life I live.
Im going to sate the obvious here...There's actually 2 different kinds of collectors of anything. A) The fake collectible market for the average everyday person who is a non-collector. Those folks collect mainstream stuff that doesn't have genuine value because everybody buys them, keeps the package sealed and none of them get used or appreciated. So if there are 1500 made, all (or most of) 1500 survive in brand new state. B) The real enthusiasts who collect stuff because they actually enjoy it. Those collectibles are for items that are made in small numbers because there is only a small market in the first place. Those buyers don't care if the item in question has any collector market resale value. A is the Marvel movie collector, and B is the Way Down East collector. Both have limited issues but for dramatically different reasons.
Very well put. I find this video ironic, in that I have been thinking the same thoughts about what I have been seeking out. For example, I was looking for a copy of Raising Arizona. I have the dvd, but was thinking about getting the Blu-ray. On eBay, there are plenty of copies, but very few with limited OOP slip cover. I am tempted because it is cool artwork, but why pay up just for the slip? It doesn’t change what’s inside the case? I guess I get pulled in by those buzz words. I have decided that my dvd copy is fine. Really enjoyed this video, as it proved that I am not alone in these feelings. I will keep this conversation in mind for future purchases and look for movies that I really enjoy, rather than just what others view as popular. Thanks again for sharing.
Awesome! I have and love LOTS of limited editions and I'm fortunate that I get to talk about so many of them! For me, I enjoy the booklets full of essays (which I do read!) and the extra bonus features. But when those limited edition start to stress us out or we resent them, or are seeking to pay huge sums of money for paper goodies, that's when it may be time to say "do I really need this, or do I just fear missing out?"
Nice conversation and talking points. Recently I did the stream first and then buy the Blu-ray for Lady Snowblood set from criterion. I have and watched it first on the Criterion Channel and a few RUclips reviews then I decided to get the set from criterion because I really enjoyed the films. My pride if my collection is the Akira Kurosawa 100 anniversary box set.
I always stand by a code of honor that says I will not buy a physical form of a movie until I have seen it first. And if for whatever reason I can’t find the movie on any streaming service then I must find another way. This helps keep me from buying movies I don’t like or don’t need and avoids clutter.
I will mostly start buying only 4k movies from here on out. I don't want to double dip and mostly all 4k UHD movies are the best they will ever get and keep most of their value
Good video Aaron, I like owning my favourite films in the best possible quality. Streaming services are good & convenient but physical media is worth owning.
Thank You Heath I buy Movies that I really love like a good story and i wanna watch my Favorits over and over and not how much money i get form my Collection 🤦♂️ All i can say is collect what you really love 🥰
I've never seen myself as a collector, even though I've been collecting films since the 1970's. Back then I was buying movies in Super 8 film format. Later I collected VHS, DVD, Blu ray, 4K and even nowadays Digital Downloads. However, I bought all these films because I love movies, I am a cinephile. I buy DVD'S/Blu Ray's because I want to watch the movies and more importantly learn about the films through the included extras ! When I upgrade my movies to DVD or Blu ray, I give my previous copies to friends or charity shops. I have no interest in profiteering from the films I have enjoyed, but that's just me. For me it's all about the film, not limited edition slip cases or artwork. If a time comes, when I can stream all the films I want to and have access to all extras available . I would be very happy to give my film collection away, the next day.
Diggin' this channel! I love to collect and own a wide variety of cool films, but not for packaging, spin numbers, resale, or status. My collection is to represent my tastes through ages. I am particular in my presentation due my my pride of owner ship ( I like a Chrono/Alpha order) and do have to weed out some bind buys from time to time.
Yeah the idea of collecting stuff you don't even like is... insane. I have way too much stuff I do care about as is. And the only time I have multiple copies is if it's something obscure and I worry about losing it if something happened to that one copy. Endless versions just for the sake of different covers etc... nah.
I find myself grabbing Fox blu-rays at pawn shops of titles that I like but don’t own ever since Disney bought Fox especially R-rated titles. My latest quest is to acquire a copy of “Never Let Me Go” on blu-Ray. I snagged a DVD copy, but I still want a blu-ray copy. I saw it when it came out in theaters and really liked it. It was a box-office flop and sure the movie has its flaws, but I love the questions it brings up. Another Fox title that was not hugely popular in theaters was Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine”. Sure, it’s not perfect but it’s a film I come back to now and then and I’m glad I grabbed the blu-ray. Also, super happy I grabbed that Star Wars blu-Ray boxed set of the first six films before Disney acquired Fox. I got it on sale from Best Buy for $50. After Disney acquired Fox and before the 4K releases they reissued the same exact set with different packaging at a new (more expensive) Disney price which at the time was $99.99. Sometimes they’d put it on sale for $79.99.
I have the Criterion Godzilla and Arrow Gamera sets. Will I ever sell them on the 'collector's market'? Heck no! I love them and they are part of me. I'm seeing more and more titles in the 'LE OOP' category. . . and yes often before I'm even aware of their existence. The companies that do this are cutting off their nose to spite their face IMO - customers are getting more and more fatigued with what can only be seen as artificial demand inflation, and sooner or later will end their support.
I liked to stream Star Trek(Original) on Amazon. A few months ago Amzn removed them. Now you have to pay to stream them. So i bought the box set on Blu Ray a few weeks ago. The picture quality is better , no clocking and some extra features too.
@@CerealAtMidnight I go back and forth. I probably watch the enhanced versions slightly more. But i really like having the originals too. I thought Amzn would have them up forever. I was shocked when they were taken down.
I'm more of a movie lover! I am not a fan of collecting movies just to have them on my shelf! I've been watching Heath on Cereal at Midnight for a couple of years now & enjoy his take on collecting! I laugh to myself when people talk about slip covers! They are fine, but the movie is the thing in my book!
For years I was trying to build a publicly accessible private library. I tried to get everything under the philosophy that someone somewhere will want it someday. I still do that sometimes. I can't help myself. So my collection is 75% what I like and 25% B-grade and C-grade material that I own just in case somebody wants it. And they can have it. If I sell it, I'd likely charge no more than what I paid for it and an extra dollar or two. I'm not in it for money. I'm in it to make people happy, myself included.
I totally agree and have been buying DVDs and Blu-ray (and now 4K), for 14 years or so, as a way to own all my favorite movies as a major film buff. However, the inverse is that I want to own the highest quality print, most beautiful or aesthetically pleasing packaging, with special features, booklets, etc. included. So I have a hard time settling for a “standard edition” of my favorites because I feel like I’m getting let down. That’s why I love Criterion, Indicator, Arrow, KL, Severin, etc. However, I was really disappointed when I found out later pressings of Arrow Video releases don’t include booklets, same with Indicator SE releases. At least Criterion doesn’t put out “standard” versions of their releases. I kinda feel like that’s a tactic that favors scalpers, greedy collectors, etc.
Great video guys! You hit on a lot of the topics I think about being in this movie fan/collector community. I have been thinking about covering this kind of topic on my channel but I think this one says it all. Thanks!
I'm not really a collector, but over 15 years I have hundreds of movies/concerts. I didn't know slipcovers were a thing people wanted, I've always thrown them away. 😀 I thought it was wasteful packaging.
It’s bad to have so many movies in the comfort of our own home. It makes me not rewatch as many of my favorite movies bc I know there are so many other movies that I haven’t seen that I can watch now. Then when you are wanting to watch a certain movie or just something not in your collection or not at the theater, it was always nice and a thrill to go to a rental store like blockbuster, family video, Hollywood video etc. Things were more special back then :(.
I collect things I enjoy and so I guess in a way like he said I’m a curator. I am a big collector of classic and some current animation on dvd 📀 and bluray.
I'll never understand the people who buy steelbooks or expensive premium copies of movies and then just never open them. I have a few premiums, but I got them because I wanted nice copies of movies I love and want to rewatch. At that point you aren't collecting the movie or even the packing (because you can't see most of it underneath shrinkwrap) just the front cover. They just become super thick posters
i agree with the both of you generally a movie is more likely to viewed either as a newly purchased item in the store or online or movies that are older that can be found second hand at used stores or even on ebay for example, despite the fact that apple dictates the market when it comes to the peanuts specials and their hard to deal with them ppl should be able to underhand them and go for the dvds, blurays and heck even used vhs's of the peanuts specials whereas pramountt, allows the peanuts movies from the 70s and 80s on to bluray with digitals why we collect movies is that we love genres and for me, one of the genres i enjoy is animation
I don't consider myself as a collector as I don't buy things to collect, I only buy things to watch, and if I have something that's rare but I don't really enjoy the movie or TV show and know I wont watch it again, I'll just sell it, whereas I guess a collector would still enjoy having it in their collection because of it being rare or whatever. It sure is great though having a large collection of movies and TV shows that I love. And I enjoy looking at the collection. I feel the same about my large collections of video games and Rubik's cube type puzzles and other puzzles too.
Hey guys, great chat. I also prefer to stay away from the term collector. I am a movie fan. I agree with many of your thoughts discussed in the video. If the prices of these tittles get to a point where it is out of reach financially for those of us who actually love film. People will turn to streaming or pirating stuff. I really don't appreciate it when a company tries to cause a hype around a release through fear mongering. I still buy stuff on DVD because it's way cheaper in most circumstances. I personally couldn't care less about a slipcover. I want to own the movie, to watch it. If I want the specific poster art, I'll invest in a poster and actually hang it on my wall. Bluray, DVDs, VHS, all these things take up so much real estate in our homes. I only buy what I really enjoy and will re-watch. I don't understand amassing movies just to say you have them, if they have no real meaning to you. One of the movies I missed out on from Vinegar Syndrome was Champagne And Bullets. A copy of that goes for way too much in my opinion. I would take that without the slip on Bluray or on DVD or VHS if I can find it for the right price. Hopefully one day I'll get my hands on it:) Sorry for the long response but the topic is so relevant to so many of us fans.
I'm always in the store scanning blu-rays and looking them up and I feel like most people think that I'm trying to flip them but really I'm just trying to look up prices online in case I can find cheaper or just a compare prices or some ratings if I've never heard of the movie. I buy movies that I think I will enjoy and even the ones I don't I still hold on to I could care less about selling them or flipping any movies for money I just love having physical movies video games magazines.
Hi retired r/vhs mod here. Vhs grading is a joke. I have been starting to refer to my "Collection" as a Film Library and culling out all the titles we dont want to rewatch or are very common titles.
I completely relate to the out of control slip cover collecting, however I'm reluctant to disparage collecting for the sole sake of collecting because anything that keeps people buying physical media is okay with me.
But if they're buying for the wrong reasons, are they really helping the format, or are they artificially inflating a market that will then lead to an inevitable crash? The last time Aaron and I saw something like this, it ended very, very badly.
I collect because I know I'll want to re-watch a title or if I have no way of seeing it beforehand. Sometimes I do lose interest in titles, but that's usually the ones that I've owned for 5-10 years. It all started with my whole family collecting VHS, then we made the jump to DVD, then I on my own began collecting Blu-Ray and almost 2 years ago I began collecting 4K. My collection is almost at 2000 titles now, but there are titles I haven't seen for years now so who knows how many I'll end up with when I re-watch some of those. I have been seeing a new annoying trend lately and that is that the tv shows Warner releases are going out of print, or more accurately, the individual seasons. I own seasons 1-2 of The Originals, for instance, now I most likely can't get a hold of seasons 3-4 on Blu-Ray with Norwegian subtitles because the last season was only released on DVD and since the complete sets are the only thing that is still in print from them and no one is selling those seasons used or anything here I'm most likely gonna have to get the US Warned Archive releases of those seasons. My mom is also experiencing issues with finding a couple of seasons of Person of Interest on Blu-Ray individually with Norwegian subtitles. I've talked to them about this and they're saying that complete sets are what is going to be manufactured going forward. I honestly don't get why they are suddenly doing this now. Whatever, rant over.
Could not agree more with you both, Thank you Heath! The Disney model is ridiculous. I finally got a copy of Hawaii 1966 on Blu ray because it was recently re-released by a label, Sandpiper, I hadn’t heard of. Are they a legit label Heath? Got it on sale at Deep Discount! I missed out on the “Limited edition” Twilight Time release and don’t want to pay $75-$100 for a used disc. When I joined your site wasn’t happy that I had missed out on The Egyptian, an early Twilight time release. It’s been over 10 years and no re-release, it’s really absurd.
Sandpiper is legit, but I've never owned or seen any of their stuff first hand. They've only put out about 14 titles to date, as far as I can tell. But they seem to be the real deal!
I see collecting physical media as a means of preservation. Logic dictates as time goes on media of yesteryear will be grossly offensive to the "in-group" of the present and will be censored off the internet. Physical media gives us a chance at preserving good media for the next generation.
I collect both physical movies and games, and like you it is a passion for me too. But I do agree with you that its sad to see people only "collect" for value and not from their hearts. Im a member of a physical game collector group on facebook and the posts there has become more about selling and value than actual collecting. Its a shame.
What Amazon did with Comixology instilled my belief in collecting. Comixology was a great way to read comics cheap, pricing had gotten out of control and digital was a viable alternative. Well Amazon comes along and destroyed the website and moved everything to it's own reader. Problem with the reader is...it's hard to read. The tipping point is coming I like have physical copies of films and TV shows that I can watch often times things that are never put on those digital platforms.
I'm still really enjoying my Comixology membership, even though I don't appreciate what Amazon did when they shut down that website. I read the books on my iPad and they still look great there, but I hear the computer version is not good at all.
Great discussion. I was also a comics collector back in the 90s and remember all those gimmick covers (that were often wrapped around comics with pretty poor story-lines despite the amazing art). You have to wonder how many of those titles from the early to mid-90s should have ever gotten the greenlight for publishing given that they were mostly just churned out for quick money. I've actually noticed the same thing with some of the current movie releases -- it seems to be common to see really neat, nice artwork or slipcovers wrapped around a movie that doesn't quite live up to the packaging. I do wonder, though, if that's not a necessary evil to some degree. I don't want to pick on a specific film, but there have been a lot of recent releases of older, low budget films, and you have to wonder if some of those would have ever gotten a blu-ray release without that gimmicked packaging. As you all state, the companies putting these titles out are businesses that have to make money -- so the gimmicked covers bring in the speculators who basically help create the market to make the release a viable option to allow the actual fans of the film to get a copy of the physical release. I recall from a previous discussion you've had on your channel that putting out a pressed blu-ray seems to require a licensing fee to Sony as well as a minimum quantity of the pressing. Regarding the Shout/Scream exclusive releases of the Corman titles -- I do see the annoyance with that, and certainly it seems like a FOMO tactic. It's not just Corman titles though -- Communion is a recent Shout exclusive that's also limited to 1500 copies as is Bluebeard. Regarding the limitations though, how do you feel that compares to Twilight Time's approach of limiting their releases to 3000 copies? Obviously, a difference there is TT was licensing those titles whereas Shout owns (at least) the Corman library; but I'm not sure that approach made a lot of those films subject to speculation -- many of them are still available for sale at Screen Archives when they took over the inventory. I do wonder to what extent limiting a release to 1500 actually results in people who actively want the movie physically (for the sake of the movie itself, not collectors who are just collecting something rare) being left out?
Twilight Time is an interesting example. I'm far from an expert on that company...I have maybe 30 of their releases and most of them were purchased during and after their going out of business sale. My understanding is that they were a very small company and among the very first boutique labels who were bringing deep catalog titles (read: really old movies) to an audience. At the time, I think all the market would sustain was 3,000 copies and that may have even been a part of their agreement to license them in the first place. But I can tell you that those high prices and the fact that so many titles went out of print absolutely did keep me away. But I also think they were much, much smaller than Shout Factory and their 3,000 units limit was double what Shout offers. Some of those releases stuck around for years before selling out, so maybe they knew what their margins were.
@@CerealAtMidnight You're absolutely right -- Twilight Time was tiny compared to Shout. I guess my question relates to your last point -- the 3,000 units may have been them knowing their margins, which makes me wonder if that's part of Shout's approach to some of their releases being limited to 1500 units. If I recall correctly (and I think this was from a discussion you had with someone from ClassicFlix perhaps), when printing a bluray you have to do a minimum of 1000 copies, and then re-pressings have to be at least 500 copies at a time (and may require additional license costs with Sony). Note, I could be totally misremembering those details or that discussion. Some of these limited pressings that Shout is doing are pretty niche titles that may not have a wide audience or fan base, so perhaps that's part of their rationale? If so, I would assume that part of their approach to making them site-exclusive purchases relates to the information you heard from folks like David Sterling, JR Bookwalter, and Fred Olen Ray -- that being Amazon can be difficult to work with (which I'm sure is compounded for small quantities). I'm not necessarily trying to defend Shout on that specific choice with some of their pressings, just trying to say that perhaps there's more of a business purpose behind it rather than trying to create FOMO-based speculative buying. As I recall, they were originally doing those limited releases at just 1000 copies, and then moved up to 1500 perhaps because the market factors justified it since some of those 1000 copies only releases sold out so quickly. I wouldn't be surprised if there are other releases (from other companies) out there that are fairly limited (and folks simply aren't aware of those limitations as they are with Shout, who are more forthcoming with the data around the print runs). For example, I have to wonder about the print runs of some of these Echo Bridge releases that are only sold through Walmart (and then Dollar Tree when they are returned/liquidated). Many of those are extremely obscure films, and one has to wonder how many copies actually get sold. Given that so many end up at Dollar Tree, I wouldn't be surprised if the print runs on those are equally small given that they are only expecting to sell a few hundred copies and are basically just printing the minimum needed for the licensing requirements. So, I think there's maybe two ways to look at the limited aspect of those releases -- the notion that Shout publicizes the fact that they are limited quantities could be seen as a FOMO approach to generate sales OR that perhaps they are just trying to be fully transparent with the print runs on a title that they don't expect to sell that well but that they still want to put out in the marketplace. Or maybe it's both?
Ah, I see! I'm sure Shout has decided that 1500 is a good limit for those releases. I suppose part of what bothers me so much is that they're the only retailer I'm aware of who seems to not want most people to know about those releases. They're site exclusives. They'll never pop up on Amazon, at Best Buy, Target, or the online spaces where most people buy their movies. I can't think of a single other company that does that: not Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, ClassicFlix, 88 Films, Synapse, Kino Lorber, Arrow, heck, even a lot of the stuff that J.R. Bookwalter sells at Makeflix gets listed on Amazon, too. How do you sell a release if people don't know about it? If a company's goal is to make money, and if they own those films, I can't figure out why they don't want to sell them and why they want to encourage a small group to buy up to 5 copies each of a very small supply. I'd love to talk to them about it, but they don't return my emails.
@@CerealAtMidnight Certainly a lot of the smaller labels have their stuff for sale through Amazon, but I'm not sure that all of them have everything available through Amazon. For example, some of those Vinegar Syndrome releases with the rare slipcovers seem to be available only on ttheir site (and also quite limited in quantity). But I get what you're saying -- why sell it if you're not going to publicize it. The flip side of looking at it, though, is to consider that many customers of the Shout releases are primarily movie collectors who know about Shout Factory (and may even be on their mailing lists or routinely peruse the press announcements that hit blu-ray.com, which is how I often know about their upcoming stuff). And to go back to the VS comparison -- I'm not sure I've ever seen any of their releases on the shelves of Best Buy, Walmart, or Target (which barely carries anything beyond Disney these days), and it seems like you may have to be a subscriber to get access to some of their releases (or at least to have a good chance of getting some of the limited release stuff). And these releases aren't Shout's only site-exclusive offerings -- for example, if you wanted the Halloween 4Ks with the vinyl recordings from John Carpenter, those were site-only purchases; any of the new releases that come with the limited edition posters have to be purchased on their site; and the same with some of the NECA exclusive figures. So, again, I'm not trying to defend Shout because, we don't know what their rationale is (it would be awesome if you could interview someone from there sometime). I'm sure selling through Amazon (particularly for a limited release) cuts significantly into the profit margin, which can be a problem for titles like The Brain Eaters which may struggle to result in 1500 total sales. I just think the flip-side of the situation is that at least they are putting some of these titles out (which larger studios wouldn't do); they are making them available to (at least some) customers that want them; and at least they are being up front about the print runs so that, if people really want them, they know not to wait to get them. It'd be great if nothing ever went out of print, but given the economics of the physical media business model (blu-ray licensing costs to Sony, repressing costs, inventory/storage, etc.), I think the only way that maybe happens for some titles is through a MOD approach (such as what Warner Archive does with some of their DVDs which are burned DVD-Rs) or even what MakeFlix is doing. The "5 copies per customer" limitation from Shout for these releases doesn't bother me that much because at least there's some limitation in place to prevent things from totally being speculative buying (so, I'm not sure that limitation actively encourages people to buy up to 5 copies, but rather discourages the potential of a reseller trying to scoop up dozens at a time).
No, you're right, not all labels list every release on Amazon. Also, this is more timely than ever because just yesterday Shout Factory listed 3 new limited editions as website exclusives, limited to 1500 copies each. They are Cockfighter with Warren Oates (possibly a site exclusive because of animal cruelty), Watchers II, and the 1970s TV movie version of Dr. Strange, made in cooperation with Marvel Comics and Stan Lee. I'm seeing lots of people who are shocked that Doctor Strange is limited to 1500 copies and didn't get a wide release, especially since it's a great tie-in marketing opportunity to the upcoming Multiverse of Madness movie. For the record, I'm completely in favor of a MOD model. If disc pressing costs become to high, I'm even okay with burned on demand discs, as long as the price point is right. That's my biggest complaint about these Shout Factory titles: make them in as small of batches as necessary, but please don't vault movies and keep them from being seen, especially if you own the film's rights, as they do with the Corman catalog. Movies are made to be enjoyed! Movie distributors have a responsibility to make sure that films are available. It's arguably their sole function: to distribute.
I collect movies for the love of horror old and new but what I've seen on the increase in over the last few years is when scalpers,resellers and eBay/Amazon sellers realise there is a market for a certain product and artificially inflate prices for products that they buy in bulk and genuine buyers miss out on or have to an extra 30%+ on. These markets have become the new concert ticket revenue since lockdown. Some of the titles you couldn't give away. Sad really that the love of watching older movies is now down to how much you are willing to spend to get the disc or sell out for by becoming an influencer.
I do consider myself a collector and I don't associate that with speculating per se, but it's funny because although I'm quick to say that with comics and toys (which I may or may not protect, upgrade, and finish series by habit), I usually say with books, music, and movies that I don't so much collect as I just own a lot of what I like.I don't care at all about steelbooks, slipcases, etc. In fact if the slipcase is the same as the cover, I just recycle it. The few steelbooks I have are because it's the edition I found or it has special features I want. I am, however, enough of a completionist that I will buy a movie I don't particularly like if I have all the others in the series (e.g., with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser, etc).
I collect movies to watch, and as such haven't been exposed to the "speculator" market. It's so weird to me. Unlike other collectible markets, the rereleases and the remastering would lead to devaluation of titles. Personally I just don't see "first editions" having much value in films, like I said I just don't get it.
The basic assessment We are Hunter Gather species Our whole Civilization was built by collecting from Knowledge to Tools to everything in the modern world built by Technology . I still collect DVDs the new quality of players and TVs have enhanced the DVDs So DVDS collecting has given New life.2010 most movies from this point in time .The DVDS made at this time had new transfers because of the manufacturer needed to upgrade equipment and blank disks Good Video 😎
I'm definitely a collector. Years ago, I used to watch 2 or 3 movies, every day. Now, it's like one movie per week. I still buy about 100 movies per year. Anything I'm slightly interested in, anything I liked a a kid, and most things by my favorite directors. I have lots of doubles (and some triple and quadruples) in my collection. But, if I ever plan on getting rid of a movie, I'll offer it to friends. If nobody wants it, I'll trade it in for store credit at the movie shop. I hate bootleggers. Now, when I get home from work, I watch people on RUclips reacting to movies I've seen a bunch of times. Or, movie reviews. Or, THIS video, where you talk about physical media. Instead of watching all the stuff that I buy. Good conversation though. Now I need to find The Second Sight version of Return of the Living Dead. Just to see what I'm missing.
Sad to hear this. What happened to your passion for movies, and do you think it might be reignited if you stopped buying them and reconnected to what you loved in the first place?
@@CerealAtMidnight I have about 5 hours, from when I get home from work, to when I go to bed. Some of the reviews I watch are over an hour long. Plus, all the history, science, cooking, and movies reaction videos. Lots of rabbit holes to fall down. I keep buying movies. Because I do plan on watching them all, eventually. I'm on vacation from work next week. So, I'll have plenty of time to watch a bunch of blu-rays. I also try to watch 1 horror-related movie, every day in October. I think more time to myself will make me able watch more movies.
As someone who likes circuit bending, loves movies, books, comics and toys the flipper market has just made the hunt just not worth it anymore. Hell Goodwill here in the Nay Area puts all the interesting stuff up on their auction site now leaving nothing much for me to find anymore. It just makes me sad, as I really don’t want to pay scalper or auction prices for these things at all so what do I do now? I mean I have Green Apple Books and Half Price Books but honestly I would love to find a good deal on some trades or cool old 80s keyboard and not have to worry about if I am going to be able to eat this week because of it. Also, as someone who has had very large collections of movies comics and music (cds vinyl and cassettes) stolen - it is so hard to justify continuing a collection. But this is me feeling the loss of all the cool films and stuff that I had over the years.
I've never understood the whole slip cover fanaticism. I personally couldn't care less about them. I'll probably start selling mine to help pay for more discs
In my head I'd like to think my end goal would be to have the biggest blu ray collection in the world. Now my baseline for collecting is buy what you've previously seen before and want to own, if I blind buy it comes highly recommended or is a cultural phenomenon, and if it is something unique that would make my collection different from anyone elses. I am OCD about alot of things so I don't use my slip covers and I'm not a fan of bundle sets (I feel it looks nicer to have each movie in its own case.) I've also built a home theater room with a projector and theater seats, it's 99% like a genuine theater experience without all the hassle of cost and audiences or staff ruining the ambiance. My theater room gives me an excuse to rewatch alot of my collection.
It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith gets unlimited access to books and then breaks his glasses. If we had the biggest collection in the world, we'd never be able to watch any of it because there'd be too much to get to! Unless we're immortals in Highlander. Which would be cool. Time enough at last!
A collection is an extention of your personality. It's like seeing different bits of your personality in physical form displayed on a shelf.
What kinds of movies do you mostly collect?
@@megamikethemovieman megamike your everywhere 😂
Truth.
I have been buying music on cd since the mid 80s, so I have about 200 of them. However, I stopped buying them, because of music streaming. They weigh a lot, and are hard to move.
Movies, like books, I’d have to watch many of them, to finally find a movie that strikes a chord with me. So, I have about 30 movies, and 30 books.
So, movie streaming helps me find the movies I want to buy. And yes, my collections a lot about me. Namely, I have great taste, and everyone else has bad taste, or a hoard collector. 😝🤣
These are also my thoughts. I've never been a fan of collecting just for the sake of having a certain movie or every title from a specific label whether you like the title or not. I want to look at my collection and know that I love all the movies I've gathered. And while I like slipcovers I would never overpay for a slip or refuse to buy a favorite because of the lack of a slip. It's the movie that matters.
I collect a bit of everything. I've lately started collecting by director. In the past I collected by themes such as Disney animated, or Looney Tunes.
I know. I have almost every movie I ever grew up with and that I love . My collection is full of movies I could watch anytime over and over again.
@@sausagefestcity5078 that's the best kind of collection. After years of VHS, DVD, Blu-ray and now 4K, I've lost a lot of movies from my childhood through the various format changes. In the process of rebuilding my collection now.
Part of me feels like if I love a movie I have to buy it now. It's not a guarantee that they'll be in print forever. For me, they're more than just movies, they're memories - a part of my past.
Great conversation Heath. This really hit home because I feel like nowadays movie collecting has never been less about the movies and more about all of the specs and the art and every other reason under the sun other than just the movie itself.
That's exactly how I feel. The actual talk about the movie itself comes last, or not at all. It was time to say something.
I agree with everything said in this video. Every movie or tv show in my collection I bought with the intention of keeping forever because I enjoyed that movie or show and will revisit it over and over. If I do sell something its either because I upgraded or no longer want that in my collection. I have bought movies that I think will be good and just are not and will sell that. One thing I really don't like is the limited editions that will go out of print and the aftermarket price is just way too high to purchase. I don't have the money to buy every title I want so if something goes out of print I may never own that or see it ever, if the price is way too high. I have got many good recommendations from Heath's videos and I want to thank you for that. I have seen some movies that I never knew existed and enjoyed them. I really hope the bottom doesn't fall out of the market like comics back in the 90's.
I used to have a relatively small collection of DVDs, enough to fill one Ottoman or so. I used to wander around op shops and I knew all the DVDs I owned, so I wouldn't accidentally double up. Now I'm at the point where I own the first three seasons of Community and all the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies, at least three or four times over. At some point I might sit down and cull some double ups from my collection, but it feels strange that even when I know I have two or more of a certain movie or TV show, I still end up swiping spare copies. I don't know if it's more to make sure that if a disc skips, I can swap it out to get one good set, or if it's so I can hold onto spares, before finding a friend to introduce them to.
I don't know if I have properly conclusive thoughts on this. But it was fun to write.
The problem with collecting movies (or anything for that matter) is that there’s just not enough time in the day. Each of these is a two-hour experience. I try to watch as much as I can, but I just can’t get around to everything!!
Bought my first movie back in the middle of the 1980s which was the original Piranha. It was an ex-rental. From then on I've been collecting movies for almost 40 years. Starting with VHS to laserdisc to dvd/blurays. My attitude toward collect has change over the years from buying movies because I could to now buying for what is my favourite and wanting in my collection. I live on a small island where video stores is no longer, so have to rely on amazon for most of my buying or the occasional vist to the UK and vist HMV(which is such a treat). I must say, I love collecting more today then ever! Love to see you guys talk about this!
It's hard to really pin down why I love physical media.I've never been one to have to watch something in the best ever quality sound and vision.95% of my collection is still standard Dvd ( I have a few thousand at a rough estimate).I have very few Blu-ray and and no 4K.To get back to the topic I think I like to own a movie maybe partly because of the fear that if I didn't have it one day it may be very difficult to see on any streaming platform for one.If I want to watch Alien or Predator I can go straight to my shelf knowing it's always available.I guess there's still the fear that the actual players may one day stop being produced but I think that's unlikely for the long term.So the answer for me I guess is the fear of loss of movies I love.Enjoyed Video I'm always interested in this subject and other collectors thoughts.Love your channel.
Hi Heath, I really enjoyed this video. I collect movies for three reasons only: 1) who's in the movie 2) the story and 3) nostalgia factor. When I say nostalgia I mean I will purposely buy a movie on VHS because I can't get the movie on dvd or bluray. That is my reason for collecting in a nutshell. I have streaming services, but I would rather watch a movie from my collection than watch on AmazonPrime, Netflix or other streaming sites. My kids use those streaming services, and they tend to give me grief over my collection. I have a good example for you: Last weekend my son was over visiting and he came to me and said, "Mom, I now understand WHY you collect movies", and I replied with "really?! when did that happen? He said, just now, his sister wanted to watch The Wolf of Wall Street and she couldn't find it on Netflix, so she ended up renting it on Amazon Prime. My response to that was, "huh, how much did that cost?" Apparently, she paid close to $5 for it. I informed him I had the dvd and she could have watched it for free. So, this is my other reason for collecting. Streaming services are useful, I can watch the Marvel movies I don't own yet, or Star Wars series that I don't own yet, or other movies that I don't own. But for the most part, I watch movies from my collection over streaming services. Those are my thoughts on the subject. Again, great video! Take care, - Maria
Good chat. I no longer get worked up about limited editions. In the 90s I spent a small fortune on laserdiscs. What a mistake. I had no idea what was coming. And so much now gets re-released. I can't even keep up with it all. I'm just enjoying what I have and what I can afford to get.
What type of movies do you mostly collect?
PREACH! Great conversation guys. I totally agree with the state of movies right now. Buy what you love, buy what interests you, and buy what you want to explore!
As soon as a company starts to not taking short term profits over catering to a community, they will eventually go out of business. Criterion still exists to this day, not because they did fancy laserdisc editions of Citizen Kane that barely sold to classic cinema lovers, but because they released deluxe editions of Armageddon and The Rock that were derided by every cinema lover who thought they were tarnishing the brand. I heard that straight from the Project Director of Criterion at a Q&A. He freely admitted those titles saved Criterion from bankruptcy. I’m all for the wide release of whatever, but sometimes a company needs to make unpopular decisions with a niche of collectors to make higher profits when possible.
I agree with everything you guys are saying.
I also collect because exploring and learning are fulfilling. I love exploring filmographies of directors, actors, genres, movements, etc. I’m constantly a student of cinema and I’ll never finish the subject and truly be an “authority” or “the expert” and I’m perfectly okay with that.
What are some of the recent titles you have explored?
@@megamikethemovieman I’ve been exploring the Universal Horror films that were outside of the “Monster” genre of the 1930’s and 1940’s recently. The Scream Factory Universal Horror collections have been intriguing. While not Universal, The Undying Monster is also a recent title that has been on my mind a lot since seeing it.
@@bradpaige6328 I need to dive more into classic horror movies myself, I enjoyed the 4K universal monster set I picked up. I have lots of collection and physical media topics videos on my channel, feel free to stop by to enjoy some videos and so we can talk movies my friend.
Excellent video. I really enjoyed this discussion and agree with the points that were made.
One of the oddest things are people trying to determine the long-term "value" of their collection. As anyone old enough to remember VHS tapes and DVDs will know, physical media is not an "investment." Over time, most titles will lose their monetary value. The true value is what the title means to you as a fan of the movie.
I don't care about the resell value. I collect movies to watch over and over again.
Great discussion guys! We've gotten to the point with some VHS sealed collectors where they collect solely for the physical aspect, with no intention of watching the movie or re-selling.
The amazing thing to me to watch is how emotional some of these collectors are about art they aren't enjoying. I saw a guy on IG who paid $400 to overnight a sealed VHS tape and get it graded and it was apparently stolen in the mail. He looked like he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown talking about it. This is for a movie he's never seen and has no intention of watching.
Yep, that's exactly the kind of thing I see that makes me so sad. The paperback horror novel scene has blown up too, because people are buying them for the cover art and not to read. Sometimes it still takes me by surprise.
Great topic. I don’t collect because I think I can make money with it but I do like to think that my collection has some monetary value. It’s valuable to me.
What’s the most valuable movie to you?
This is the perfect topic for me to say something. Right now I can't think of what movie it was but I couldn't get a movie at the time of release and it sold out completely. There were numerous people that did unboxings of the movie and they didn't even like the movie itself. They only wanted it for the artwork on the packaging. There's me, someone who loved the movie but couldn't get it.
Exactly or they’ll buy a whole load of copies of the movie that you want until it’s sold out and then they’ll flip it on eBay for more than they paid. It’s disgusting those aren’t true movie fans
Great discussion. I consider myself a curator. I have a large collection. But I collect what I love. Never collected for slips or limited editions or what I can get for it at a later date. I collect all formats as I just want to watch the film. I have gotten hate because of buying a DVD or a vhs or waiting for a better price after the hype died and I don't get a slip. I just love film and want to soak it all in. Thank you for another great video
Great to hear from you, Joe!
I like collecting physical media too because I want to have physical copies of my favorite movies and cartoons etc. My favorite company is without a doubt Shout Factory. I love the picture quality and style of packaging that Shout Factory does.
I agree Joe, but I have a few guilty pleasures I like to collect.
@@mariecordio1798 I collect physical media too.
I’m guilty of the silly entrepreneurial feelings sometimes. But I am always curating my collection to be: comfort content from my childhood, great family movies, truly great Christian films (Terrance Malik, Mel Gibson etc) and music from my teens to late 20’s (cassette & vinyl). My son and I keep stuff on eBay bc we are constantly removing things we don’t absolutely love.
Ain't nothin' wrong with pruning! I'm putting stuff on the Cereal At Midnight Ebay store all the time. It's when profit becomes a prime motivator that I think it can get ugly real quick.
I just bought the movie "*Batteries Not Included" on DVD from Goodwill. Most people probably don't know what it is but I was happy to find it.
Nice! I was the guest host of a live watch party for Batteries Not Included from the people behind In Search of Darkness and In Search of Tomorrow.
ruclips.net/video/2Q9-5D6VePM/видео.html
To me there's a difference between people with a collecting problem and people with a speculator problem. I can't speak to what drives the latter beyond money (I'm no speculator), but as someone who buys nearly every Vinegar Syndrome and VS partner label release, I know why I'm struggling to escape the collector loop. There's something in the human mind where, if there's X number of a thing to own and you own more than half of X, your brain is going to be strongly inclined towards owning all of X. And, for me at least, that inclination is buoyed by the fact that I've never seen a lot of the movies that come out through these boutique labels. So the FOMO kicks in, too. How one controls the urge to buy more movies because every release might be a new favorite? That's something I still struggle with. But I think the trick is to set a boundary for a little while. Limit how many releases you buy for a few months or how much money you'll spend. And I think once you see how much you aren't missing out, it becomes much easier to buy just for the love of owning movies. That's a conceit, but it's a healthy one, I think.
I got to the point where I ran out of room and I had to take a few steps back and ask myself am I going to watch all these movies and The answer that keeps coming back to in my head is no . So about two or three years ago I started going through my collection and taking out all the movies that I really I’m not gonna watch or I have no interest in. When I look at the movies when I’m pulling them off the shelf I usually say to myself why the hell did I buy this? So now I only collect movies that are pretty much my favorite movies from the time I started watching movies as a kid till now also my collection reflects me more as a Movie fan than anything else.
What I like about criterion is that their titles stay in print for years so you can pick the titles you want up in your own time
Heck yeah! Aaron is the man! Looking forward to this!
Absolutely LOVE slipcovers. They all look gorgeous together on the shelf.
This one definitely hit with me, great conversation. As someone new to collecting horror movies over the past year, it does suck when limited editions come out and I always feel the need to buy things as soon as I can, even if I don't have the money, in fear of them running out of print.
What’s your favorite horror movie of all time?
Many of my movies are connected to memories, others are nostalgic. Others I fear will be canceled, banned, or edited.
That's exactly it! 85% of my collection is rare material!
The reason that I collect physical media is for nostalgia purposes because there are so many cartoons from the 80's and 90's that I like. I even like Hanna-Barbera cartoons as well.
nice to see guys who have been collecting as long as I have, feel the same way about collecting. Been hunting for movies and comics for years and years and the thrill of the hunt and watching the film and reading the comic is why I'm into collecting. You'll never see a slabbed comic or movie in my collection, unless I win one in a contest, and those I'll trade for something I really want. Slip covers and steel books and 1 clicks are the holofoil comics of the 90's.... just a gimmick to drag the speculators in, cause they're the quick and easy cash. I enjoy your videos and hope you do this for quite a while.
Right on! I mean, I have Steelbooks and I like cool slipcovers, so this wasn't an attack on those, but there's a new audience that's being exploited and they're going right along with it. As for longevity, I plan to do this FOREVER!
I love collecting films and totally agree that your collection should reflect you. I personally do like to collect limited editions but it has to be from a movie or series that I really like I don't care about the value it's just cool to have.
Right on, Chase! I'm a big fan of limited editions too, but I'll never sell them!
Another piece to the "treating movies like trading cards" conversation is that fact that thrift stores and corporations that own thrift stores are catching onto this scanning practice. Too often, I've gone into little mom and pop thrift stores and small pawn shops as well as some of the big guys like Savers and seen scratched up copies of a movie for 10-20 dollars (in some cases 30 dollars) simply because it's "out of print" or rare; way over the usual 1-2 dollars they should be asking (especially for donated items in the case of thrift stores.) All resellers, corporate or individual, and others like them are doing is just creating a bubble for all of us cinephiles, and at some point, the bubble is going to burst.
In my opinion, we are already at a point where DVD/Blu-Ray/VHS values are overinflated, and it's just going to become impossible to collect affordably for the things that we love, and to preserve these films. It shocks me that some RUclipsrs who resell at high dollars are the "Physical Media Forever!" types, while at the same time monetizing and inflating the market for the thing they claim to love. A balance has to be struck somewhere, and I think that if we don't acknowledge this soon, movie preservation will become an impossible task for those of us, regardless of income, who appreciate the medium, and want it to thrive.
Thanks for this discussion, fellas. It's a subject I think about time to time. I blind buy a lot of movies only for the sake of buying something because it looks or sounds neat, or it could be up my alley. As well as the fear of missing out on a limited slipcover or box ala Vinegar Syndrome/Arrow/Severin, etc. I'm sure if I go through my movies, about a 1/4 I don't really care about and have no real passion towards them. Just bought it because I felt I was going to miss out on something. I keep saying to myself I need to just buy the movies that I really want and enjoy watching. As well as asking myself why would I want this certain movie? We can't take any of this stuff with us when we die so it just seems more and more silly as I get older to be still doing this. Why take the time and money to use that energy on stressing out on purchasing a movie or record or whatever is collectible, to end up checking it out and then not enjoying it? It's a vicious cycle that never seems to end unless I tell myself, NO!
I'm more of a music fan then film, and also an avid record collector as well... and after all this time I honestly could of bought some OG pressings on certain albums I love and will never get tired of, but instead I spent my money on a movie that I don't really know or care about. Ughhhh
You mentioned records, and I think what we're talking about is HUGE in the record community. Record Store Day is just a few days away and thousands of fans will be hitting their local shops to purchase limited edition colored pressings of rarities that have been under-printed and will be guaranteed to be sold out by 11 am. I used to LOVE Record Store Day but now it's like a speculator holiday. If you care about the music, it's a frustrating event.
I collect for the sake of having a library that i own and maintain. I haven't streamed or payed for cable tv in over 20 years. I have been my own programmer. I alone control what i watch-not algorithms or studio executives.
For me, collecting video media was the natural extension of my first love - collecting music. I had loved music as far back as I can remember. As I think about it, the more disenchanted I got with with mainstream radio, the more I got into collecting. I got tired of hearing the same songs all of the time.
It makes sense that after developing a taste for horror via Elm Street and the HBO Tales From The Crypt series, that horror would be what I primarily collect. Even with all the boutique labels, I tend to think horror is still far removed from mainstream.
I tend to be more selective when it comes to what call "normal" media, buying only what I really love and want to watch whenever I choose.
Oh how I remember collecting in the 90s-having to go to a speciality section in order to buy VHS tapes in Widescreen or Letterbox.
Honestly, I collect for the love of cinema; I’ll blind buy if the cost is low enough and the story seems interesting, but never because it might increase in value or because it’s LE. One of my little joys is during the Kino Sale, going through the entire list of films, adding them to the cart, and then narrowing down my choices by binging old trailers and reading disc reviews.
My biggest gripe has got to be with Steelbooks; that particularly reminds me of the days of chromium covers, and prisms, and holograms, and all the other gimmicks that got us kids running back to get every cover, back in the day.
Steelbooks used to be a cool incentive to get to the store early, because they were rare, and didn’t cost anything-it was just first come, first served, and that was it. Now the market is flooded with them, because studios realized how people were reacting; now you can’t get them unless you throw down the money for 4K (which is fine, because I do buy 4K discs, but it’s somewhat of a strong arming tactic). Honestly, I’ve quit buying Steelbooks unless I find them randomly at secondhand stores for cheap; there’re just too many factors-bad delivery methods, scratches and dents that you can’t see until you open them-for my wallet and my OCD mentality to deal with. In the end, the discs are what matter most. Strange to think that a company like Titans of Cult could essentially just sell the packaging and forgo the discs, and people would still pay top dollar, while the company saves money. Strange. But to each their own.
Great discussion, really enjoyed it!!
Hi Heath. I recently discovered your channel within the last two months. I appreciate hearing your authentic opinions on film and love hearing your infectious enthusiasm for the medium. You, and many other people in this space have encouraged me to start my own collection of the movies that I love. Just like you and your guest said: this hobby is about watching and owning the things we love! Keep up the great videos!
For me I collect because I love movies as always have. When the pandemic happened I started collecting even more thanks to the KL sales and posting on IG my finds. Of course I see a lot of collectors on IG that buy multiple copies because of slipcovers, store exclusives, etc and I’m like “Why?” If I buy a store exclusive, I buy it for the content and not cause of some flimsy slipcover.
I’m more about the movie myself
too. What types of genres do you mostly collect for?
Pre streaming I started collecting but I was a broke kid so my collection was pretty small. When streaming became a thing like many others I stopped for awhile. I thought streaming was the way to go until I noticed a huge issue. I was watching a show from my childhood on Paramount plus. The first season was just fine but by the second season half the episodes were missing. I looked it up and apparently those episodes featured music the show had lost the rights to. It was at that point I re-learned the value of owning my movies and shows, they can't take away episodes if I own the physical copy. As a bonus I found buying physical media on the secondary market has become super cheap since so many sold off their collections.
Great discussion. Great to see you both on the same vid again.
Your collection is you in a nutshell, things that you enjoy or are/ were curious about, I've bought lots of movies that I hadn't seen before before I bought them and some I love some I hated but I still end up keeping most of the time tbh
I agree with you guys. So many people are trying to make a living on buying and reselling movies. That's crazy. Now I get the collecting a special slip cover or steelbook for yourself because you like that movie exceptional well and you want the artwork to be top notch. But bottom line is the movie itself should be the main focus.
The worst is when the resellers and scalpers say "I'm just trying to help the community!" I'm like "By forcing scarcity and driving demand directly to your bank account?" There's no way they can really believe that.
@@CerealAtMidnight Exactly
@@CerealAtMidnight What gets me about these resellers is that they are the first ones to crow "physical media for life!" while going to thrift stores and bragging about getting to a particular "rare" movie before another collector just to resell it at a premium. I've run into scalpers twice in my life, and it really upsets me when they are pushy and give you the sob story of "I'm just trying to make a living." No, you are making the scarcity bubble bigger and being a douchebag about it just because you can. I try to avoid those people as much as I can, and just keep hunting for and watching the movies I love. The day I look at a physical copy of a movie that I love and see dollar signs and value just because it is "rare" is the day I stop collecting.
I was super lucky to work in a comic book/collectables shop in the late 80's and early 90's got to meet some of the coolest people doing something I really loved. Still have some of those friends.
I could say I began collecting VHS in the 80s mostly horror. At the beginning I could only afford recordings but later on I began buying originals. I managed to have over 1,000 horror VHS. When DVD came around I sold 100s of VHS because everything was coming out on DVD. My first DVD movie was Dawn Of The Mummy and after that there was no looking back. Later I have been sorry of selling the VHS that I sold including about 100 from Venezuela I feel now that my videocassettes collection is incomplete. Now I buy Blu-Rays and a few 4Ks. I collect because I want to have these movies or tv shows to be readily available when I want to see them over and over again. I am not into streaming but I do see it's place in entertainment but I prefer physical media because you own it forever. I have 100s of VHS, 3,000+ DVDs, 200 Blu-Rays and like 20 4Ks and I enjoy them so much. Very interesting topics you guys cool video Heath.👉😀👈
I started collecting video nasties in the early 1980s. That was how I started being a collector. Moved onto DVD in 2001 importing The Beyond as my first disc. 👍
@@paulconway384 great! The Beyond is an awesome first movie to begin collecting with. My first Blu-Ray was Lucio Fulci's Zombie.👉😀👈
@@hectormontalvo5565 My first Blu-Ray was Arrow's City of The Living Dead 👍
@@paulconway384 very good everything begins with Fulci. In America City was formerly known as Gates Of Hell on VHS.
great video! You both are reading my thoughts. Love the movie, not the slip cover.
I understand if you double dip on movies you love and you buy a steelbook and digibook and standard Blu Ray. But if it ends up with you buying steelbook and limited editions of movies you don't care about that's when it doesn't make sense anymore.
I have a lot of movies that I am happy to own on a standard release DVD that I found used at a thrift shop. I don't need the criterion release for things all the time. I'm just happy to have the movie and be able to watch it when I want.
Loved the discussion!! Thank you for sharing your opinions
Great video guys , I agree with everything you guys said. I collect for myself, everything in my collection is what I want to watch and rewatch. I collect movie and TV shows mostly TV now , where I grew in the 70s and 80s TV was my thing in those days now that I'm older it's coming back around more. I have picked up the odd show or movie that I have never seen and some I like and some I haven't. Dark Shadows, for example, I remember it back then but never thought about it on dvd, it's a soap opera they have never been released on dvd. Then I seen someone selling this coffin set of Dark Shadows, for $100. Did some research, seen the pricing and thought, wow, he's selling it for a good price. So thought I'd check with Aaron, and get his thoughts, I knew nothing on this set, he told me what to look for, so did. All that said , it's a set that I'm keeping and started watching and at the pace I'm watching it will probably take me 2 - 3 years. And after that I'll probably start all over again. Keep Curating.
Totally in it for the media itself. I want it in the best quality possible so I can get the maximum enjoyment out of it. It's a hobby that I am passionate about and will continue to support as long as I can.
Does that mean you collect a lot of 4ks?
@@megamikethemovieman No I don't own any 4ks.
@@EntertainmentKorner more Blu-ray’s then? I collect a variety, Blu-ray’s & 4ks. I have lots of collections and physical media topic videos on my channel too, feel free to stop by to enjoy some videos and so we can talk more movies my friend.
@@megamikethemovieman Yeah! I guess I should have clarified. Best quality means I'm totally cool with 1080p. Although I'm really into animated tv shows and not a lot of them have even complete series DVDs so I pick up whatever I can.
@@EntertainmentKorner I will show off some DVDs in my videos too, but mostly Blu-ray’s and 4ks for me.
Very good show. I agree with and do collect what I am passionate about because I enjoy what’s on the screen and how it’s made.
I don’t really care about the package and just keep it on a bookshelf.
I only get what I want and what I like to watch and own. I see no point in buying something u dont like just for the sake of cataloging or "having it". Its not a hobby to me, I truely love the films I collect..
Ooh. This was a great conversation 👏. I am closest to those who buy because of the FOMO.
I would love to buy because of my passion for stories, but I don't like a lot of them. I grew up on John Hughes, Clash of the Titans, and The Incredible Shrinking Woman. Marvel and modern genre-melting stories are harder for me to appreciate.
Thanks.
I couldn't have said it better!
Agreed 100%, I have been through the Speculator market for comics and have recognized the invasion of home video for quite a while!
I collect because of autism and obsessive tendencies. I often lose interest in one area of collecting and move on to something else. For example I was into collecting Blu Rays recently and now they don't excite me as much, I now am into collecting autographed photos. In a few months my interest in Blu Rays will probably return. What a fulfilling life I live.
Im going to sate the obvious here...There's actually 2 different kinds of collectors of anything. A) The fake collectible market for the average everyday person who is a non-collector. Those folks collect mainstream stuff that doesn't have genuine value because everybody buys them, keeps the package sealed and none of them get used or appreciated. So if there are 1500 made, all (or most of) 1500 survive in brand new state. B) The real enthusiasts who collect stuff because they actually enjoy it. Those collectibles are for items that are made in small numbers because there is only a small market in the first place. Those buyers don't care if the item in question has any collector market resale value. A is the Marvel movie collector, and B is the Way Down East collector. Both have limited issues but for dramatically different reasons.
Feel the same on slip covers. Just need the love of film and the music and yes even score.
Very well put. I find this video ironic, in that I have been thinking the same thoughts about what I have been seeking out. For example, I was looking for a copy of Raising Arizona. I have the dvd, but was thinking about getting the Blu-ray. On eBay, there are plenty of copies, but very few with limited OOP slip cover. I am tempted because it is cool artwork, but why pay up just for the slip? It doesn’t change what’s inside the case? I guess I get pulled in by those buzz words. I have decided that my dvd copy is fine. Really enjoyed this video, as it proved that I am not alone in these feelings. I will keep this conversation in mind for future purchases and look for movies that I really enjoy, rather than just what others view as popular. Thanks again for sharing.
Awesome! I have and love LOTS of limited editions and I'm fortunate that I get to talk about so many of them! For me, I enjoy the booklets full of essays (which I do read!) and the extra bonus features. But when those limited edition start to stress us out or we resent them, or are seeking to pay huge sums of money for paper goodies, that's when it may be time to say "do I really need this, or do I just fear missing out?"
Nice conversation and talking points. Recently I did the stream first and then buy the Blu-ray for Lady Snowblood set from criterion. I have and watched it first on the Criterion Channel and a few RUclips reviews then I decided to get the set from criterion because I really enjoyed the films. My pride if my collection is the Akira Kurosawa 100 anniversary box set.
If you ever want to collaborate more, I’m down my friend. Stop by my channel to see if we can work something out.
I always stand by a code of honor that says I will not buy a physical form of a movie until I have seen it first. And if for whatever reason I can’t find the movie on any streaming service then I must find another way.
This helps keep me from buying movies I don’t like or don’t need and avoids clutter.
I will mostly start buying only 4k movies from here on out. I don't want to double dip and mostly all 4k UHD movies are the best they will ever get and keep most of their value
Good video Aaron, I like owning my favourite films in the best possible quality. Streaming services are good & convenient but physical media is worth owning.
Especially your favorite films. Can’t rely on a streaming service to watch a classic film
Thank You Heath
I buy Movies that I really love like a good story and i wanna watch my Favorits over and over and not how much money i get form my Collection 🤦♂️
All i can say is collect what you really love 🥰
I've never seen myself as a collector, even though I've been collecting films since the 1970's. Back then I was buying movies in Super 8 film format. Later I collected VHS, DVD, Blu ray, 4K and even nowadays Digital Downloads.
However, I bought all these films because I love movies, I am a cinephile. I buy DVD'S/Blu Ray's because I want to watch the movies and more importantly learn about the films through the included extras ! When I upgrade my movies to DVD or Blu ray, I give my previous copies to friends or charity shops. I have no interest in profiteering from the films I have enjoyed, but that's just me. For me it's all about the film, not limited edition slip cases or artwork. If a time comes, when I can stream all the films I want to and have access to all extras available . I would be very happy to give my film collection away, the next day.
Diggin' this channel! I love to collect and own a wide variety of cool films, but not for packaging, spin numbers, resale, or status. My collection is to represent my tastes through ages. I am particular in my presentation due my my pride of owner ship ( I like a Chrono/Alpha order) and do have to weed out some bind buys from time to time.
I collect a large variety of movies too. Feel free to stop by my channel to enjoy some videos and so we can talk more movies my friend.
Yeah the idea of collecting stuff you don't even like is... insane. I have way too much stuff I do care about as is. And the only time I have multiple copies is if it's something obscure and I worry about losing it if something happened to that one copy. Endless versions just for the sake of different covers etc... nah.
Very true
I find myself grabbing Fox blu-rays at pawn shops of titles that I like but don’t own ever since Disney bought Fox especially R-rated titles. My latest quest is to acquire a copy of “Never Let Me Go” on blu-Ray. I snagged a DVD copy, but I still want a blu-ray copy. I saw it when it came out in theaters and really liked it. It was a box-office flop and sure the movie has its flaws, but I love the questions it brings up. Another Fox title that was not hugely popular in theaters was Danny Boyle’s “Sunshine”. Sure, it’s not perfect but it’s a film I come back to now and then and I’m glad I grabbed the blu-ray. Also, super happy I grabbed that Star Wars blu-Ray boxed set of the first six films before Disney acquired Fox. I got it on sale from Best Buy for $50. After Disney acquired Fox and before the 4K releases they reissued the same exact set with different packaging at a new (more expensive) Disney price which at the time was $99.99. Sometimes they’d put it on sale for $79.99.
I collect just what I truly want, and have no problem calling myself a proud "Collector".
Great!
I have the Criterion Godzilla and Arrow Gamera sets. Will I ever sell them on the 'collector's market'? Heck no! I love them and they are part of me. I'm seeing more and more titles in the 'LE OOP' category. . . and yes often before I'm even aware of their existence. The companies that do this are cutting off their nose to spite their face IMO - customers are getting more and more fatigued with what can only be seen as artificial demand inflation, and sooner or later will end their support.
I liked to stream Star Trek(Original) on Amazon. A few months ago Amzn removed them. Now you have to pay to stream them. So i bought the box set on Blu Ray a few weeks ago. The picture quality is better , no clocking and some extra features too.
Those are great Blus. Do you watch the original versions or the new effects? (I like the new effects)
@@CerealAtMidnight I go back and forth. I probably watch the enhanced versions slightly more. But i really like having the originals too. I thought Amzn would have them up forever. I was shocked when they were taken down.
I'm more of a movie lover! I am not a fan of collecting movies just to have them on my shelf! I've been watching Heath on Cereal at Midnight for a couple of years now & enjoy his take on collecting! I laugh to myself when people talk about slip covers! They are fine, but the movie is the thing in my book!
For years I was trying to build a publicly accessible private library. I tried to get everything under the philosophy that someone somewhere will want it someday. I still do that sometimes. I can't help myself. So my collection is 75% what I like and 25% B-grade and C-grade material that I own just in case somebody wants it. And they can have it. If I sell it, I'd likely charge no more than what I paid for it and an extra dollar or two. I'm not in it for money. I'm in it to make people happy, myself included.
Because if the internet / cable goes down, you can still watch / listen to your stuff.
I totally agree and have been buying DVDs and Blu-ray (and now 4K), for 14 years or so, as a way to own all my favorite movies as a major film buff. However, the inverse is that I want to own the highest quality print, most beautiful or aesthetically pleasing packaging, with special features, booklets, etc. included. So I have a hard time settling for a “standard edition” of my favorites because I feel like I’m getting let down. That’s why I love Criterion, Indicator, Arrow, KL, Severin, etc. However, I was really disappointed when I found out later pressings of Arrow Video releases don’t include booklets, same with Indicator SE releases. At least Criterion doesn’t put out “standard” versions of their releases. I kinda feel like that’s a tactic that favors scalpers, greedy collectors, etc.
Great video guys! You hit on a lot of the topics I think about being in this movie fan/collector community. I have been thinking about covering this kind of topic on my channel but I think this one says it all. Thanks!
Thanks, Huck! That's high praise, sir!
I'm not really a collector, but over 15 years I have hundreds of movies/concerts. I didn't know slipcovers were a thing people wanted, I've always thrown them away. 😀 I thought it was wasteful packaging.
It means more when you make a physical connection. I've browsed HBO Max for hours trying to decide what to watch. Convenience kills interest.
It’s bad to have so many movies in the comfort of our own home. It makes me not rewatch as many of my favorite movies bc I know there are so many other movies that I haven’t seen that I can watch now.
Then when you are wanting to watch a certain movie or just something not in your collection or not at the theater, it was always nice and a thrill to go to a rental store like blockbuster, family video, Hollywood video etc.
Things were more special back then :(.
I collect things I enjoy and so I guess in a way like he said I’m a curator. I am a big collector of classic and some current animation on dvd 📀 and bluray.
I'll never understand the people who buy steelbooks or expensive premium copies of movies and then just never open them. I have a few premiums, but I got them because I wanted nice copies of movies I love and want to rewatch. At that point you aren't collecting the movie or even the packing (because you can't see most of it underneath shrinkwrap) just the front cover. They just become super thick posters
“Fear is not a reason to collect” you need to register this phrase or at least design a T-shirt with it. 100% real. Keep the good work!
I'm legit thinking about making a shirt that says "Fandom, Not Fear." Because there is SO MUCH FEAR in fandom right now.
I'm sure glad I never started collecting before Blu Ray
i agree with the both of you
generally a movie is more likely to viewed either as a newly purchased item in the store or online
or movies that are older that can be found second hand at used stores or even on ebay
for example, despite the fact that apple dictates the market when it comes to the peanuts specials
and their hard to deal with them
ppl should be able to underhand them and go for the dvds, blurays and heck even used vhs's of the peanuts specials
whereas pramountt, allows the peanuts movies from the 70s and 80s on to bluray with digitals
why we collect movies is that we love genres
and for me, one of the genres i enjoy is animation
I don't consider myself as a collector as I don't buy things to collect, I only buy things to watch, and if I have something that's rare but I don't really enjoy the movie or TV show and know I wont watch it again, I'll just sell it, whereas I guess a collector would still enjoy having it in their collection because of it being rare or whatever.
It sure is great though having a large collection of movies and TV shows that I love. And I enjoy looking at the collection.
I feel the same about my large collections of video games and Rubik's cube type puzzles and other puzzles too.
Hey guys, great chat. I also prefer to stay away from the term collector. I am a movie fan. I agree with many of your thoughts discussed in the video. If the prices of these tittles get to a point where it is out of reach financially for those of us who actually love film. People will turn to streaming or pirating stuff. I really don't appreciate it when a company tries to cause a hype around a release through fear mongering. I still buy stuff on DVD because it's way cheaper in most circumstances. I personally couldn't care less about a slipcover. I want to own the movie, to watch it. If I want the specific poster art, I'll invest in a poster and actually hang it on my wall. Bluray, DVDs, VHS, all these things take up so much real estate in our homes. I only buy what I really enjoy and will re-watch. I don't understand amassing movies just to say you have them, if they have no real meaning to you. One of the movies I missed out on from Vinegar Syndrome was Champagne And Bullets. A copy of that goes for way too much in my opinion. I would take that without the slip on Bluray or on DVD or VHS if I can find it for the right price. Hopefully one day I'll get my hands on it:) Sorry for the long response but the topic is so relevant to so many of us fans.
I'm always in the store scanning blu-rays and looking them up and I feel like most people think that I'm trying to flip them but really I'm just trying to look up prices online in case I can find cheaper or just a compare prices or some ratings if I've never heard of the movie. I buy movies that I think I will enjoy and even the ones I don't I still hold on to I could care less about selling them or flipping any movies for money I just love having physical movies video games magazines.
Hi retired r/vhs mod here. Vhs grading is a joke. I have been starting to refer to my "Collection" as a Film Library and culling out all the titles we dont want to rewatch or are very common titles.
I completely relate to the out of control slip cover collecting, however I'm reluctant to disparage collecting for the sole sake of collecting because anything that keeps people buying physical media is okay with me.
But if they're buying for the wrong reasons, are they really helping the format, or are they artificially inflating a market that will then lead to an inevitable crash? The last time Aaron and I saw something like this, it ended very, very badly.
I collect because I know I'll want to re-watch a title or if I have no way of seeing it beforehand. Sometimes I do lose interest in titles, but that's usually the ones that I've owned for 5-10 years. It all started with my whole family collecting VHS, then we made the jump to DVD, then I on my own began collecting Blu-Ray and almost 2 years ago I began collecting 4K. My collection is almost at 2000 titles now, but there are titles I haven't seen for years now so who knows how many I'll end up with when I re-watch some of those. I have been seeing a new annoying trend lately and that is that the tv shows Warner releases are going out of print, or more accurately, the individual seasons. I own seasons 1-2 of The Originals, for instance, now I most likely can't get a hold of seasons 3-4 on Blu-Ray with Norwegian subtitles because the last season was only released on DVD and since the complete sets are the only thing that is still in print from them and no one is selling those seasons used or anything here I'm most likely gonna have to get the US Warned Archive releases of those seasons. My mom is also experiencing issues with finding a couple of seasons of Person of Interest on Blu-Ray individually with Norwegian subtitles. I've talked to them about this and they're saying that complete sets are what is going to be manufactured going forward. I honestly don't get why they are suddenly doing this now. Whatever, rant over.
Could not agree more with you both, Thank you Heath! The Disney model is ridiculous. I finally got a copy of Hawaii 1966 on Blu ray because it was recently re-released by a label, Sandpiper, I hadn’t heard of. Are they a legit label Heath?
Got it on sale at Deep Discount! I missed out on the “Limited edition” Twilight Time release and don’t want to pay $75-$100 for a used disc. When I joined your site wasn’t happy that I had missed out on The Egyptian, an early Twilight time release. It’s been over 10 years and no re-release, it’s really absurd.
Sandpiper is legit, but I've never owned or seen any of their stuff first hand. They've only put out about 14 titles to date, as far as I can tell. But they seem to be the real deal!
I see collecting physical media as a means of preservation. Logic dictates as time goes on media of yesteryear will be grossly offensive to the "in-group" of the present and will be censored off the internet. Physical media gives us a chance at preserving good media for the next generation.
I collect both physical movies and games, and like you it is a passion for me too. But I do agree with you that its sad to see people only "collect" for value and not from their hearts. Im a member of a physical game collector group on facebook and the posts there has become more about selling and value than actual collecting. Its a shame.
YES. I see the same thing. Too much focus on "what's it worth" and not on watching, sharing, and discussing the movies.
Limited editions are annoying. I wanted Vinegar Syndromes Savage Harbor and Vice Academy. And now the scalpers want obscene prices on E-Bay. 😭
What Amazon did with Comixology instilled my belief in collecting. Comixology was a great way to read comics cheap, pricing had gotten out of control and digital was a viable alternative. Well Amazon comes along and destroyed the website and moved everything to it's own reader. Problem with the reader is...it's hard to read. The tipping point is coming I like have physical copies of films and TV shows that I can watch often times things that are never put on those digital platforms.
I'm still really enjoying my Comixology membership, even though I don't appreciate what Amazon did when they shut down that website. I read the books on my iPad and they still look great there, but I hear the computer version is not good at all.
Great discussion. I was also a comics collector back in the 90s and remember all those gimmick covers (that were often wrapped around comics with pretty poor story-lines despite the amazing art). You have to wonder how many of those titles from the early to mid-90s should have ever gotten the greenlight for publishing given that they were mostly just churned out for quick money.
I've actually noticed the same thing with some of the current movie releases -- it seems to be common to see really neat, nice artwork or slipcovers wrapped around a movie that doesn't quite live up to the packaging. I do wonder, though, if that's not a necessary evil to some degree. I don't want to pick on a specific film, but there have been a lot of recent releases of older, low budget films, and you have to wonder if some of those would have ever gotten a blu-ray release without that gimmicked packaging. As you all state, the companies putting these titles out are businesses that have to make money -- so the gimmicked covers bring in the speculators who basically help create the market to make the release a viable option to allow the actual fans of the film to get a copy of the physical release. I recall from a previous discussion you've had on your channel that putting out a pressed blu-ray seems to require a licensing fee to Sony as well as a minimum quantity of the pressing.
Regarding the Shout/Scream exclusive releases of the Corman titles -- I do see the annoyance with that, and certainly it seems like a FOMO tactic. It's not just Corman titles though -- Communion is a recent Shout exclusive that's also limited to 1500 copies as is Bluebeard. Regarding the limitations though, how do you feel that compares to Twilight Time's approach of limiting their releases to 3000 copies? Obviously, a difference there is TT was licensing those titles whereas Shout owns (at least) the Corman library; but I'm not sure that approach made a lot of those films subject to speculation -- many of them are still available for sale at Screen Archives when they took over the inventory. I do wonder to what extent limiting a release to 1500 actually results in people who actively want the movie physically (for the sake of the movie itself, not collectors who are just collecting something rare) being left out?
Twilight Time is an interesting example. I'm far from an expert on that company...I have maybe 30 of their releases and most of them were purchased during and after their going out of business sale. My understanding is that they were a very small company and among the very first boutique labels who were bringing deep catalog titles (read: really old movies) to an audience. At the time, I think all the market would sustain was 3,000 copies and that may have even been a part of their agreement to license them in the first place. But I can tell you that those high prices and the fact that so many titles went out of print absolutely did keep me away. But I also think they were much, much smaller than Shout Factory and their 3,000 units limit was double what Shout offers. Some of those releases stuck around for years before selling out, so maybe they knew what their margins were.
@@CerealAtMidnight You're absolutely right -- Twilight Time was tiny compared to Shout. I guess my question relates to your last point -- the 3,000 units may have been them knowing their margins, which makes me wonder if that's part of Shout's approach to some of their releases being limited to 1500 units. If I recall correctly (and I think this was from a discussion you had with someone from ClassicFlix perhaps), when printing a bluray you have to do a minimum of 1000 copies, and then re-pressings have to be at least 500 copies at a time (and may require additional license costs with Sony). Note, I could be totally misremembering those details or that discussion. Some of these limited pressings that Shout is doing are pretty niche titles that may not have a wide audience or fan base, so perhaps that's part of their rationale? If so, I would assume that part of their approach to making them site-exclusive purchases relates to the information you heard from folks like David Sterling, JR Bookwalter, and Fred Olen Ray -- that being Amazon can be difficult to work with (which I'm sure is compounded for small quantities).
I'm not necessarily trying to defend Shout on that specific choice with some of their pressings, just trying to say that perhaps there's more of a business purpose behind it rather than trying to create FOMO-based speculative buying. As I recall, they were originally doing those limited releases at just 1000 copies, and then moved up to 1500 perhaps because the market factors justified it since some of those 1000 copies only releases sold out so quickly.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are other releases (from other companies) out there that are fairly limited (and folks simply aren't aware of those limitations as they are with Shout, who are more forthcoming with the data around the print runs).
For example, I have to wonder about the print runs of some of these Echo Bridge releases that are only sold through Walmart (and then Dollar Tree when they are returned/liquidated). Many of those are extremely obscure films, and one has to wonder how many copies actually get sold. Given that so many end up at Dollar Tree, I wouldn't be surprised if the print runs on those are equally small given that they are only expecting to sell a few hundred copies and are basically just printing the minimum needed for the licensing requirements.
So, I think there's maybe two ways to look at the limited aspect of those releases -- the notion that Shout publicizes the fact that they are limited quantities could be seen as a FOMO approach to generate sales OR that perhaps they are just trying to be fully transparent with the print runs on a title that they don't expect to sell that well but that they still want to put out in the marketplace. Or maybe it's both?
Ah, I see! I'm sure Shout has decided that 1500 is a good limit for those releases. I suppose part of what bothers me so much is that they're the only retailer I'm aware of who seems to not want most people to know about those releases. They're site exclusives. They'll never pop up on Amazon, at Best Buy, Target, or the online spaces where most people buy their movies. I can't think of a single other company that does that: not Vinegar Syndrome, Severin, ClassicFlix, 88 Films, Synapse, Kino Lorber, Arrow, heck, even a lot of the stuff that J.R. Bookwalter sells at Makeflix gets listed on Amazon, too. How do you sell a release if people don't know about it? If a company's goal is to make money, and if they own those films, I can't figure out why they don't want to sell them and why they want to encourage a small group to buy up to 5 copies each of a very small supply. I'd love to talk to them about it, but they don't return my emails.
@@CerealAtMidnight Certainly a lot of the smaller labels have their stuff for sale through Amazon, but I'm not sure that all of them have everything available through Amazon. For example, some of those Vinegar Syndrome releases with the rare slipcovers seem to be available only on ttheir site (and also quite limited in quantity). But I get what you're saying -- why sell it if you're not going to publicize it. The flip side of looking at it, though, is to consider that many customers of the Shout releases are primarily movie collectors who know about Shout Factory (and may even be on their mailing lists or routinely peruse the press announcements that hit blu-ray.com, which is how I often know about their upcoming stuff). And to go back to the VS comparison -- I'm not sure I've ever seen any of their releases on the shelves of Best Buy, Walmart, or Target (which barely carries anything beyond Disney these days), and it seems like you may have to be a subscriber to get access to some of their releases (or at least to have a good chance of getting some of the limited release stuff). And these releases aren't Shout's only site-exclusive offerings -- for example, if you wanted the Halloween 4Ks with the vinyl recordings from John Carpenter, those were site-only purchases; any of the new releases that come with the limited edition posters have to be purchased on their site; and the same with some of the NECA exclusive figures.
So, again, I'm not trying to defend Shout because, we don't know what their rationale is (it would be awesome if you could interview someone from there sometime). I'm sure selling through Amazon (particularly for a limited release) cuts significantly into the profit margin, which can be a problem for titles like The Brain Eaters which may struggle to result in 1500 total sales. I just think the flip-side of the situation is that at least they are putting some of these titles out (which larger studios wouldn't do); they are making them available to (at least some) customers that want them; and at least they are being up front about the print runs so that, if people really want them, they know not to wait to get them.
It'd be great if nothing ever went out of print, but given the economics of the physical media business model (blu-ray licensing costs to Sony, repressing costs, inventory/storage, etc.), I think the only way that maybe happens for some titles is through a MOD approach (such as what Warner Archive does with some of their DVDs which are burned DVD-Rs) or even what MakeFlix is doing. The "5 copies per customer" limitation from Shout for these releases doesn't bother me that much because at least there's some limitation in place to prevent things from totally being speculative buying (so, I'm not sure that limitation actively encourages people to buy up to 5 copies, but rather discourages the potential of a reseller trying to scoop up dozens at a time).
No, you're right, not all labels list every release on Amazon. Also, this is more timely than ever because just yesterday Shout Factory listed 3 new limited editions as website exclusives, limited to 1500 copies each. They are Cockfighter with Warren Oates (possibly a site exclusive because of animal cruelty), Watchers II, and the 1970s TV movie version of Dr. Strange, made in cooperation with Marvel Comics and Stan Lee. I'm seeing lots of people who are shocked that Doctor Strange is limited to 1500 copies and didn't get a wide release, especially since it's a great tie-in marketing opportunity to the upcoming Multiverse of Madness movie.
For the record, I'm completely in favor of a MOD model. If disc pressing costs become to high, I'm even okay with burned on demand discs, as long as the price point is right. That's my biggest complaint about these Shout Factory titles: make them in as small of batches as necessary, but please don't vault movies and keep them from being seen, especially if you own the film's rights, as they do with the Corman catalog. Movies are made to be enjoyed! Movie distributors have a responsibility to make sure that films are available. It's arguably their sole function: to distribute.
I collect movies for the love of horror old and new but what I've seen on the increase in over the last few years is when scalpers,resellers and eBay/Amazon sellers realise there is a market for a certain product and artificially inflate prices for products that they buy in bulk and genuine buyers miss out on or have to an extra 30%+ on. These markets have become the new concert ticket revenue since lockdown. Some of the titles you couldn't give away. Sad really that the love of watching older movies is now down to how much you are willing to spend to get the disc or sell out for by becoming an influencer.
I do consider myself a collector and I don't associate that with speculating per se, but it's funny because although I'm quick to say that with comics and toys (which I may or may not protect, upgrade, and finish series by habit), I usually say with books, music, and movies that I don't so much collect as I just own a lot of what I like.I don't care at all about steelbooks, slipcases, etc. In fact if the slipcase is the same as the cover, I just recycle it. The few steelbooks I have are because it's the edition I found or it has special features I want. I am, however, enough of a completionist that I will buy a movie I don't particularly like if I have all the others in the series (e.g., with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser, etc).
I collect physical copies of things because I enjoy it , and never will you ever catch me Criticizing someone over it. :)
I collect movies to watch, and as such haven't been exposed to the "speculator" market. It's so weird to me.
Unlike other collectible markets, the rereleases and the remastering would lead to devaluation of titles. Personally I just don't see "first editions" having much value in films, like I said I just don't get it.
The basic assessment
We are Hunter Gather species
Our whole Civilization was built by collecting from Knowledge to Tools to everything in the modern world built by Technology .
I still collect DVDs the new quality of players and TVs have enhanced the DVDs
So DVDS collecting has given New life.2010 most movies from this point in time .The DVDS made at this time had new transfers because of the manufacturer needed to upgrade equipment and blank disks Good Video 😎
I collect physical Media for the love of movies games and music to preserve it in their purest art form that cannot be tampered with
I'm definitely a collector. Years ago, I used to watch 2 or 3 movies, every day. Now, it's like one movie per week. I still buy about 100 movies per year. Anything I'm slightly interested in, anything I liked a a kid, and most things by my favorite directors. I have lots of doubles (and some triple and quadruples) in my collection. But, if I ever plan on getting rid of a movie, I'll offer it to friends. If nobody wants it, I'll trade it in for store credit at the movie shop. I hate bootleggers.
Now, when I get home from work, I watch people on RUclips reacting to movies I've seen a bunch of times. Or, movie reviews. Or, THIS video, where you talk about physical media. Instead of watching all the stuff that I buy.
Good conversation though.
Now I need to find The Second Sight version of Return of the Living Dead. Just to see what I'm missing.
Sad to hear this. What happened to your passion for movies, and do you think it might be reignited if you stopped buying them and reconnected to what you loved in the first place?
@@CerealAtMidnight I have about 5 hours, from when I get home from work, to when I go to bed. Some of the reviews I watch are over an hour long. Plus, all the history, science, cooking, and movies reaction videos. Lots of rabbit holes to fall down.
I keep buying movies. Because I do plan on watching them all, eventually.
I'm on vacation from work next week. So, I'll have plenty of time to watch a bunch of blu-rays. I also try to watch 1 horror-related movie, every day in October.
I think more time to myself will make me able watch more movies.
As someone who likes circuit bending, loves movies, books, comics and toys the flipper market has just made the hunt just not worth it anymore. Hell Goodwill here in the Nay Area puts all the interesting stuff up on their auction site now leaving nothing much for me to find anymore. It just makes me sad, as I really don’t want to pay scalper or auction prices for these things at all so what do I do now? I mean I have Green Apple Books and Half Price Books but honestly I would love to find a good deal on some trades or cool old 80s keyboard and not have to worry about if I am going to be able to eat this week because of it.
Also, as someone who has had very large collections of movies comics and music (cds vinyl and cassettes) stolen - it is so hard to justify continuing a collection. But this is me feeling the loss of all the cool films and stuff that I had over the years.
I've never understood the whole slip cover fanaticism. I personally couldn't care less about them. I'll probably start selling mine to help pay for more discs
The Vinegar Syndrome ones are outstanding though.
In my head I'd like to think my end goal would be to have the biggest blu ray collection in the world. Now my baseline for collecting is buy what you've previously seen before and want to own, if I blind buy it comes highly recommended or is a cultural phenomenon, and if it is something unique that would make my collection different from anyone elses.
I am OCD about alot of things so I don't use my slip covers and I'm not a fan of bundle sets (I feel it looks nicer to have each movie in its own case.)
I've also built a home theater room with a projector and theater seats, it's 99% like a genuine theater experience without all the hassle of cost and audiences or staff ruining the ambiance. My theater room gives me an excuse to rewatch alot of my collection.
It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode where Burgess Meredith gets unlimited access to books and then breaks his glasses. If we had the biggest collection in the world, we'd never be able to watch any of it because there'd be too much to get to! Unless we're immortals in Highlander. Which would be cool. Time enough at last!