Re: nooo I just ruined nearly 20 DVDs!!!
I'm very picky about my stuff too - to the extent that the wife doesn't really like to touch anything, because I can always tell! Anyway, my story of DVD terror involved a tall bookcase from IKEA, called the "Billy." Its about six feet or so tall, and I bought a couple of extra shelves to maximize its DVD holding power!
I had two of these side by side in the bedroom. As I had recently become a dad, I decided to put all cardboard packaging, digipaks, etc on the top shelves. That way when my little one was crawling around she would just get her hands on easily replaceable keepcases.
One day I was in the upstairs study when I heard an almighty CRASH! from the bedroom. I rushed in to find one of my Billys, the one with all the cardboard packages, had fallen forwards. It ended up on top of a rocking chair, at a 40 degree angle to the floor. The chair had stopped the bookcase, but all my cardboard packages had continued their journey, slingshot style - straight into the floor.
Regular DVDs, being on the bottom shelves, just fell a short distance.
Aghast with horror, I dropped to the floor and started inspecting the damage, expecting the worst. Amazingly enough, the only two items that sustained enough damage to get me were the Alien Quadrilogy, and my Antoine Doinel Criterion set. Both boxes took it on the chin.
I emailed both Criterion and our old pal, Peter Staddon. Both generously supplied me with replacement boxes! A happy ending.
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Less happy, in our basement I stored my LaserDisc collection and loads of vinyl 12" platters. About two years ago, our dehumidifier malfunctioned, and kept sucking water out of the air, even after the tray was full. This water started to spread over the floor. I checked it each night, and the green light that said everything was okay was on.
Eventually I twigged that the thing hadn't been emptied. It was then that I discovered the brutal havoc the water had wreaked. It has spread across a part of the floor, and slowly seeped into tons of LP & LD sleeves, the water soaking the bottoms and working upwards.
Numerous treasures were screwed - I had picked up the LD box of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because it was a fine example of the kind of packaging that would disappear with LaserDisc - a 12" square hardcover book, with the front cover molded like a prison door, a plastic window inset with printed wire over it, and Jack Nicholson behind it. A full illustrated screenplay book was part of the package, and the water really hit the book.
Loads of my 12" singles ended up sticking together, my precious X-Files LD collection got hit, and on, and on. It was the big one. To this day, I haven't the heart to look at some of those items!
(sorry, sorry, I couldn't help myself)
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