The (in)sanity of collecting DVDs (1 Viewer)

Just picked up The Simpsons Season 1 package and for the first time thought "what the hell I am doing?". Do I really want to invest $520 on The Simpsons, on something I will probably be able to watch in syndication for free for the rest of my life?

Let me say that I have 104 DVDs (by DVD Profiler count - counting The Godfather set as one and such) and another 40 in the wishlist the I am confident I will buy at some point. I have collected these over almost three years (I think) which is probably on the slow side for this forum. My purchase philosophy is to buy anything that I think I would enjoy watching from time to time. Although I have purchased things like JP2 and 3 because I had to have the whole set, not because I liked the movie. However, this is the first time I have ever thought about the money invested in it all and it is not really an issue of money as much as it is sanity. At first I attributed this to purchasing a TV show, but I already have Buffy S1.

Has anyone else gone though this? I know there have been several threads of this kind, but I feel the need to talk about this. I think maybe my problem is for the first time I am collecting things. I have not collected things in the past nor I am pack rattish by nature.

So here I sit....Simpsons Season One in hand and already thinking of buying Seasons Two through....wherever they end up and I have no logical explanation for it.

Other wierd things that have happened lately:

Dreaming of the directors cut of Fellowship of the Ring and being giddy over the purchase of Say Anything at $12.99. 13 bucks WOW!

That's it, I have lost it.....

You're suffering from the same affliction as the rest of us, Chad. There is no help for this problem, I might add. You're addicted. We're your support group.

I purchase about 30-35 DVDs per month. Last night my wife had the gall to suggest that I cut down on my DVD purchases.
Her: "We should stop buying so many DVDs. I think we should cut down to 5 DVDs per month. After all, we've got about 100 that we haven't even watched yet."
Me: "What are you talking about? There's no possible way that we can cut down to just 5 DVDs per week, they are coming out faster than that and we'll fall behind!"
Her: "I said 5 per MONTH not WEEK, you freak!"
Me: "OMG, for a second I thought you said that we should cut down to 5 DVDs per MONTH.
Her: "I DID say MONTH. Never mind, you've completely lost it."
Me: "OK, I'll give you that. Now about that projector I've had my eye on for a while..." [ducks]
Like Jack said, there is no cure. Just try and make sure your s/o is as cool as mine is you'll be ok.

John, that sound like the exchange my wife and I have every couple of weeks, one day she may really mean it

Chad, I agree with you about the idea of buying TV series. As much as I love Star Trek, there is no way I am going to plan to buy all 7 series of each Voyager, DS9 etc....etc... There are already too many movies I want to buy, already at 322 on Profiler. Trying hard to cut down in general, I don't think there is a cure..just living one day at a time...

While I do understand about it being addicting (especially with the recent price drops thanks to Warner's competitive strategy), I am more in line with Chad on this.

After owning a player for almost 2 years, I own 30-35 DVDs, along with 4 seasons of the X-Files and the two "best of" Friends collections.

While part of me thinks it would be cool to own far more DVDs, I am simply too practical. For me, the rule of thumb is trying to determine whether I will watch the movie at least 2-3 times a year. If so, I will seriously consider buying it. Between work and family and maintaining a realistic budget, I just don't have the resources and time to build a huge movie library.

However, it should be noted that I am also something of a "collection" killjoy -- I really have a hard time enjoying collecting/owning things simply to own them -- if I am not going to use it, I don't want it taking up space or spend money on it. Whether it's baseball cards, porcelain figurines or buttons (and yes, there are button collectors out there), I just don't get the obssession with getting more stuff simply to look at it now and then.

I own a couple hundred CDs and more books, but at least twice a year I go through my collections and weed out stuff I'll never read/listen to again.

I collect the movies, not the DVD's.
Out of the the DVD's I have, 70% are titles I, myself, chose because I wanted to own the movie on video.
For example...it's nice that Planet of the Apes (2001) got a top-notch DVD...but I didn't really enjoy the movie as much as...let's say, Lawrence of Arabia.
The only title I bought because of collectibility reasons was Disneyland USA. I thought at least I could ebay it for a good bit of money...but I really enjoy it.

Try living with it when there's two of you in a house. Just last week my girlfriend went a little chick flick crazy and bought 4 dvds including Dirty Dancing and The Cutting Edge. She doesn't even like these movies anymore she just had to have them for nostalgia and because they were all $10 or less. We've sort of curbed our buying down a little, mostly because we have nearly everything we want, but it's still impossible for us to pass by a video store without looking to see if they have any good deals. 570 dvds and counting, that's near $10,000 worth! Sometimes I think it's crazy, but then I just go take in all the glory that is our collection and everything seems ok. I'm not crazy... really.

Good, I am glad some people understand about the buying TV shows thing. I will definitely stop after Buffy and The Simpsons.

Oh yeah and maybe South Park if they ever get released in a proper manner. Then I will stop....

Oh yeah and maybe Gilligan's Island. Then I will stop...

And maybe Happy Days. Then I will stop....

Oh can't forget Alias. Then I will...

Who I am kidding?

Why was Say Anything only $12.99? When I went into Best Buy and saw that price, I almost did a little dance...almost. Will there be more catalog titles at this price from studios? I must say I like it!

As far as collecting goes, I'd never collected anything to this degree before either, and now I just can't stop. I dream of the day when I will have purchased all the already released DVDs that I desire, so all I have to worry about is what is coming out next Tuesday. I got into this thing late enough that such a point in time may be a long way off.

I NEVER EVER purchased a VHS tape. In 3 months I have 30 DVD's HELP. However, I do have a seperate pile that are going back to ebay (80% of my DVD's are from ebay - I save 25% most of the time) because I know I will not watch them again.

The FIRST rule of DVD CLUB is you DO NOT do the MATH!

I used to work in the collectibles industry (collector's plates... you know, those tacky ones you see in the Sunday paper coupon section...). DVD collecting has the same kind of effects (sometimes negative), especially when it comes to completist mentality (which is where TV show sets are going to kill a lot of folks). You have to be careful.

But I think there also has to be a practicallity aspect... my life is more than a couple DVD's... money can be better spent elsewhere... and it's all a matter of stewardship.

RobLutter,

That is a damn good rule!

I've self imposed a limit of one dvd per week this year. Actually, I do it by months, so no more than four DVDs this month (I go by tuesdays). I'm doing this more for quality control than cost control. It also builds up a wishlist, so my relatives don't hate me come Christmas or Birthday time.

99 posts!!! Holy Cow! Time to run over to After Hours for the Chad Mayhew 100th "I love Ashley Judd and 2001 is the best film of all time" Post Roast.

I have 80 or so DVDs and I thought I had a problem! Anyway, I am with the previous poster who said that he collects "films" not DVDs. I don't buy anything I've never seen and I don't buy anything I don't absolutely LOVE.
My wife and I had the same discussions as well. My defense is that some people spend $500 on a GUN and call it collecting GUNS. Would you like me to be a GUN collector? (Her family are avid sportsmen )

"For example...it's nice that Planet of the Apes (2001) got a top-notch DVD...but I didn't really enjoy the movie as much as...let's say, Lawrence of Arabia."
LOL, I don't think I've ever read a post of yours where you don't bring up 'Lawrence of Arabia.'
As for this topic, yeah, it's an addicting thing, but you should enjoy your hobby. Everyone has (or should have) a guilt-free hobby.. Why is it that this one makes so many people feel bad though? I've never seen a stamp collector or baseball card collecter upset about their hobby. Unlike cards and stamps, you can actually use DVDs for entertainment purposes.

I only buy DVDs for the films that I REALLY like. I don't understand why a person would buy a DVD for a film that they have never even seen.