Blind Buys - how have you done? (1 Viewer)

[CherylJ]

Battlestar Galactica S1 was my first blind-buy ever and I don't regret it at all. I normally don't do blind-buys, but I took a chance. I'm not a sci-fi fan at all, but I'm surprised by how much I like it.

I also bought Wonderfalls as a blind-buy but I haven't watched it yet, so I don't know if I am going to like it, but considering how many people recommended it, I imagine I will.


VM S1 is definitely worth taking a chance on. No summary can do the show justice because every attempt to describe the premise sounds lame. It has a style and flair all its all own, and the beauty is in the execution.

 

[Alan Lee UK]

Very good:
Freaks and Geeks
The Dick Van Dyke Show

Good enough to have bought three seasons of:
Sanford & Son
Three's Company

Disappointing:
The Bob Newhart Show (I've sat through two seasons and still don't really care about any of the characters)

 

[buffycritter97]

The 4400 - Being a big sci-fi this one seemed right up my alley, and Im so glad I bought it... me and my mother bressed through the entire set in one night.
Alias - My friend kept raving about it, so I purchased the first two seasons while watching season three and couldn't stop watching...
Carnivale
Charmed
Friends - I paid $50 for season 1 way back when it originaly came out, and while I don't believe it was worth $50, when teh seasons went down to $30 I bought them all on release day
Laguna Beach
My so Called Life
nip/tuck
Party of Five
Roswell - One of my favorite shows, and I only ever saw it on DVD
x-files

 

[Mark Talmadge]

I have to admit that I recently sold my Gilmore Girls Season 1-5 for a profit and plan on picking up all five seasons for $18.88 each at Target. Veronica Mars Season 1 at $18.88 is on my list for things to buy as well for $18.88. It's only when these shows are dropped down as a promotional sale that I tend to make out good on these sets.

 

[Joe Reinwald]

I think the definition of "blind buy" needs to be defined. Not picking on anyone, but to not have seen some of those listed already...

I define it as "never watched a single episode". My list of blind buys, therefore, would include:
1) Revelations (technically a mini-series, I guess)
2) Dream On (I remember this when I was a kid, but I wasn't "allowed" to watch it due to my age at the time)
3) Lone Gunmen (watched X-Files pretty regularly, but never caught this series)
4) Roswell (I thought I had seen a few episodes, so I bought S1. By S3's conclusion, I realized I had never seen what I thought I did)
5) The Office (American version--I was a late bloomer on this one, as my work schedule did not allow me to catch this one in S1. I bought it, loved it, and now watch it each week)

Ones I am contemplating--
1) Wonderfalls (heard a lotta good things about this one)
2) Carnivale (see above)
3) Twin Peaks (sorry, I've NEVER seen a single episode of this)

 

[Pete Battista]

I think the same way as you do... a blind buy is a show that I have never seen a single episode of. I blind buy TV Series all the time.... as there is many shows I missed/don't watch on regular TV.

of the ones you are contemplating... just my opinion mind you... but...
Wonderfalls - Loved the show!
Carnivale - I seen a few episodes... I personally just couldn't get into it.
Twin Peaks - I never seen a single episode either.

 

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Well, if "blind buy" means buying something one has never seen before, I can safely say that most of my 400+ DVDs were blind buys. But I do some "research" before I buy. It's a "policy" that has worked very well for me.

 

[kathy_badkarma]

Let's see: House (I taped from the beginning, but never had the chance to watch), Lost (ditto), Medium (ditto), Boston Legal (ditto), Wildfire (ditto), Grey's Anatomy (ditto), Smallville (ditto), Rescue Me (ditto), Buffy, Angel, Battlestar Galactica (I never taped or watched a single ep of these), L&O SVU (I'd seen maybe one episode before buying this last).

House I'm thoroughly hooked on, but I'm still trying to find time to watch the rest. I'll probably do them the same way I watched House -- in marathons.

 

[MichelleB]

I went with my gut and a few recommendations for here and went ahead and bought House Seasons One and Two. So far i've watched about 8 or 9 episodes and totally love. No regrets here!

 

[Dean C]

I usually Blind buy series that no longer will ever come on tv. And if seen on sale
Mine are Buck Rodgers Entire series $19 Canadian
Scooby doo Where Are You $29 Canadian
Scooby Doo & Dynomutt
Different Strokes S1
Doogie S1
Charlies Angels S2
Mork & Mindy s1

 

[Firebee]

The best blind buys of mine were ``The 4400,'' ``The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.,'' ``Jack of All Trades'' and ``Invasion,'' and I thoroughly enjoyed all of these shows on DVD.

 

[Jay_B!]

when people cite Buffy as one of their favorite series, season 1 is NOT the season they generally refer to. As a matter of fact, while I enjoy season 1, it frankly sucks compared to what was to follow.

 

[Jay_B!]

not all of them are ones I was in the dark with, but ones I checked out on DVD and loved:

Buffy. I actually couldn't truly say I bought it blind but season 1 came out right around the time I started watching it on UPN and FX reruns and after seeing two episodes, I already knew that I wanted to own the show. That's right guys, for all of you who are so worried to know about any detail on the show because you think it'd hinder it for you, I got into the show KNOWING about ::spoiler:: and ::spoiler:: and ::spoiler:: and ::spoiler:: and ::spoiler:: and ::spoiler:: and several more spoilers, and you know what, did not hinder my appreciation of the show one bit and still became my favorite series. I knew what characters would die, who would go off to Angel, etc... and it didn't hurt the show one bit to me.

Veronica Mars. Just recently got into this one, mostly due to the 18.99 special. I saw one episode on CBS last year and thought it was okay but nothing amazing, but I kept hearing so much good word of mouth about it even though I didn't think I would really get into it... but now I'm officially a Veronica Mars-aholic and hope to have season 2 finished in time for season three on DVD.

Popular. Never saw even saw as much of a clip of the show but two of my friends swore by it and I heard about it for years between it's cancellation and the DVD release, so I checked it out when the DVD came out and worshipped it. Such a shame it didn't run longer than two seasons.

Seinfeld. This one is controversial because it wasn't really blind, but revisiting it and realizing how much more I like it than I thought I did. I DID see plenty of episodes on NBC back in the day, but I guess I never really "got" it at the time, as I was more into watching Friends. I never watched the syndicated reruns, but after a lot of thought and consideration I decided to check out seasons 1-3 on sale cheap to see what the hoopla was truly about and suddenly really discovered what I've been missing and it became one of my favorite sitcoms ever, and since then, I've bought the other sets the day they come out and can't wait for the rest.

Moonlighting. I saw an episode once when I was a kid when it was on ABC, but don't remember a thing about it. Decided to check it out over the great word of mouth and totally loved it, but I stopped after season 3 because I've heard that the last two seasons totally disgrace the series and aren't worth being given to as a free present.

there's been others, those ones spring to mind as my most satisfying.

 

[Jay_B!]

while the sets are incredibly overpriced (which is what's held me back from getting the rest, tho I might get 2-4 next DDD sale), the first season is completely unrepresentative of the show. The show gets better when Joely Fisher enters the cast in season 2, and then really hits its stride when Jeremy Piven and Clea Lewis become regulars in season 3. The first season is cute fun, but definately not representative of Ellen at it's peak.

 

[jamalana]

My best blind buy ever was the X-Files Seasons 1-9! It was a risk, having never really watched the show, so I bought one of those cheap Asian editions. I loved it so much, I replaced it with the official US editions.

I followed that up with The Lone Gunmen. Didn't like it much at all, so I ebayed it.

I blindbought the Ally McBeal collection while it was on sale at Walmart for $14. Thank goodness I did that before blindbuying the entire series (which I was tempted to do.) Calista Flockheart got on my nerves big time!

Most recently, I just bought Party of Five Season 1. I'm only on the second disc, buy I'm enjoying the show alot so far. I might pick up Season 2 as a blind buy next.

Other successful blindbuys:
Alias
Smallville (I'm only up to season 3)
Freaks an Geeks
The Office (Ricky Gervais)
Firefly
Family Guy

 

[Firebee]

Oh, and my other two notable blind buys were ``Buffy'' and ``Charmed,'' and I love both...have been pretty much watching two eps per day of each when I've time. Darn it all, tho I ran into a big scratch on Disc 6 of Season No. 3 of Buffy that wrecked ``Graduation Day Part II'' Ugh! :frowning:

 

[Blair G]

I bought The 4400 blind.

Good choice

 

[Bill>Moore]

I've done pretty well with blind buys I think. I picked up Mr. Show as a blind buy and didn't care for that very much. I was able to trade it for South Park and end up with something I liked after all (South Park wasn't blind). Successful blind buys include:

Family Guy
Freaks and Geeks
Farscape
Curb Your Enthusiasm

So four successes and only one not. The one negative was traded for something good, so there's no real drawbacks to my blind buys at this point.

 

[Kris_AB]

Nowadays I do the same as Chris Lockwood above--rent most of my DVDs (though I use Zip.ca, which is the Netflix of Canada). It's the most affordable and risk-free way to consume TV-on-DVD (and films too, really).

The one TV-on-DVD blind buy that I did go for was Six Feet Under's first season, the day of its release. It's the best TV purchase I've ever made. Still one of my favorite sets (though I'm thinking of how to pawn it off in order to justify getting the Complete Series set this November) and possibly my favorite drama of all time. All I knew about the series was that Alan Ball (writer of American Beauty) was the creator and that I wanted to check out more of HBO (before SFU I'd only seen some of Sex & The City and bought their Spawn cartoon series).

The only other stuff I'll probably blind buy are the classic cartoons that BCI has been putting out. Some of them are only two discs, so I'm willing to spend $15 or so on owning them instead of sampling through renting.

I may blind-buy Battlestar Galactica as well...but probably wait for the HD sets and hopefully by then I'll have an HD TV maybe? Nah, probably not.

 

[david_hu]

Best Blind Buys:
X-Files
Farscape
E.R.(The Early years)
I'd seen the occasional show of each but only discovered them on DVD.
Worst Blind Buys:
Sopranos. It just bored me.I guess it must be the genre that doesn't appeal.
Quantum Leap. Found it dated and rather cheesy. Too much family values stuff that may only appeal to Americans audiences.