Who Still Has Their Original 1997 Release DVDs? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tannehill]

The prices I mention are in US dollars. The retailers I frequented (Best Buy, Incredible Univese--now Fry's) generally sold at 20 percent off.

No premium prices down here in Texas.

- Steve

 

[Ernest Rister]

"Does anyone have any pictures of what they look like to show us?"



Old DVDs in 1997 used to be the size of computer monitors, as seen in this picture. It was quite a chore making these large DVDs fit inside a conventional DVD player, hence, the industry shrunk them down to the size we know today.

 

[TonyDale]

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

The best part of purchasing DVD's in the early years, although it may have not started in 1997, was when the online stores like the old "DVD Express"& "Reel.com" started selling all their popular new titles below cost. Everyone seemed to get in on the bargain band wagon. They always seemed to have every DVD title that was released available and kept you up to date and in the know, while locally you wouldn't have a chance, but inevitably, it led to bankruptcy for most of them. Many of us here built bigger collections than would have ever been possible, with the money we saved from not buying MSRP and IMO, this started the popular trend of owning your own movies, rather then renting them - (The story of DIVX anyone?). It's a little sad those days are now long gone, but I'm glad it helped me on the way to the great movie library I now have and it keeps growing.

Paul

Edit: Corrected above sentence by adding the word not. The discs were sold below MSRP.

 

[Steve Blair]

I started buying in the beginning too in March 97'. They were $25.00 each no matter which one I bought. I've since sold them all when new versions came out. Titles like The Usual Suspects and Fargo in the "guillatine cases" , Eraser, Se7en, etc. The ONLY one from back then that I have now is the orginal Devil's Advocate which is EXTREMELY rare now as they pulled it from the shelves after releasing it. It included scenes which too closely resembled an artists' work and I believe he sued to have those scenes removed/redone so that's one I'll never sell...

 

[nolesrule]

I didn't start till February 1998 (so at least I was within the first 12-month period )

Blade Runner
Lethal Weapon
A Time to Kill
Rain Man
Reservoir Dogs
Jerry Maguire
Letal Weapon 2
Maverick
Risky Business
Austin Powers
Addicted to Love
The Fifth Element
Lethal Weapon 3

I used to have

Contact
Batman
Wizard of Oz

 

[RyanAn]

Thanks a lot for the pics! Does anyone know if anyone is still selling them? I want to have a few different titles on ever medium... Thanks again.

Ryan

 

[Erwin]

I started in 98 and I remember those high prices. I thought $24.99 was a great deal at that time. I do remember that the first DVD that was very reasonably priced was "U.S. Marshals" for only $14.99 at Circuit City. Back then, Circuit City had about 35-40 DVDs on display. This was also just weeks before the failed DIVX format became a priority in all Circuit City stores.

 

[Chris Rein]

Well, in the stores around me it was! Actually, it was the one that really showed off DVD at the time. My guess was that pre-release copies were sent to pump up the format before release. That's what I meant by the comment. Seemed like every store I went to had Eraser playing. It was a damn good demo at the time!