Holy Grails of LD/DVD (1 Viewer)

[Steven K]

"Koyanisqqatsi" on LD, or whatever the hell it's called.

 

[Mark_Wilson]

For me it was the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles but I finally got it.

The Criterion CAV Bonds are always on ebay, I bought all three last month for about $70 each.

 

[Christian Dolan]

I happened to find the Indiana Jones trilogy widescreen laserdiscs for $15, as well as the self-titled Duran Duran music video laser (with the "night version" of Girls on Film) for $2.

-Christian

 

[Rachael B]

Me thinks that most of the rarest LDs aren't the least bit sought over, relatively. In the 80's and early 90's. Many, many titles were in print for just one production run. Stuff like UHF, The Style Council's FAR EAST & FAR OUT, WOODSTOCK THE LOST PERFORMANCES, GERONIMO (1962), Tears For Fears' GOING TO CALIFORNIA, THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON, GUNGA DIN (remix), ARIZONA BUSHWACKERS, DANCE IN CYBERSCAPE with Dr. Devios, ALLEGRO NON TROPPO, THE LOVED ONE, SUNSET BOULEVARD, VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, SINK THE BISMARCK, I AM THE LAW, WINGS OF DESIRE, COMPULSION, THE DETECTIVE...ect, ect, ect.
I think it's the little or brief releases that truely are rare. I think most of the music LDs were pressed in the lowest quantities. Lower than films, for non mega superstars, anyway... I think the last few DTS LD's are pretty rare, I'm quessing, 20,000 or less, maybe?
I think many of the releases in the 80's that were only printed once are limited to 30,000 to maybe 50,000 total copies? Maybe less? Does anybody have any concrete knowledge about "mintages"? I know back in the 80's I learned if you really, really wanted a minor type title, to jump on it quick. Mintages, I believe, started to rise in the 90's as LD finally struggled towards it's peak as a U.S. format, anyway.
Come to think of it, some of te DiscoVision discs from '78 to '80 are really rare. Some have mintages under 100. These are the hardest discs to watch actually! Only a few players notably the HLD-X9 and LD-S2 and a very few others can play most of these dscs, that all have some degree of rot. These are the rarest of the rare. That Hong Kong SONG OF THE SOUTH disc is more or less in the same category, me thinks. It's mintage must be 1000 or less? I've heard 500 bandied about....
That's my thinking, anyway....!

 

[JasenP]

Alan,

I would LOVE to take FRWL off your hands, however I am in a self-imposed purchasing blackout. In November of last year I spent $330 in two days on discs and I realized I needed to control my spending habit. :b

 

[Patrick Larkin]

Therre aren't many hard to find DVDs yet because the medium is so new.
The Decalogue springs to mind as a title that is currently out of print and hard to find.

 

[Larry Geller]

On LD: Let It Be (last pressed in 1982)
Elton John Live In Edinburgh (The very 1st music LD ever released by Discovision in 1978--2-sided CAV---Just Elton & his piano)
Best Of Roger Rabbit (only out for 1 day before it was withdrawn)
On DVD: The Golden Age Of Rock & Roll--This 5-disc boxed set (each in its own snapper & then in a cardboard box) was heavily advertised in full page ads back in 1999 when it was supposed to come out, but it was pulled on day of release, apparently due to music rights issues. I got mine thru Amazon (which accidentally let a few copies escape), but I have never seen this collection reviewed anywhere, or ever mentioned again since then. It is a 10-part clip compilation (2 parts per DVD) hosted by John Sebastian (who introduces each clip on camera, that I remember seeing on cable a few years previously. Most clips are live, some lip-synched, & most seem to be taken from Beat Club, Monterrey Pop (possibly why it was withdrawn), & American TV appearances. If you're a classic rock or oldies fan this set is absolutely mind-blowing! I'm curious if anyone out there has, or has even SEEN, a copy of this?

 

[JerryW]

Some music LDs are getting scarce or even rare.

Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime (JP or US)

Queensryche: Empire (JP or US version)

Police: Every Breath You Take (JP import)

Sting: Soul Cages

Sting: Nothing Like the Sun

the list goes on and on... some I haven't seen on eBay in almost 6 months. I'd pay some decent coin for Sting's "Nothing Like the Sun" and "Soul Cages".

 

[JerryW]

George: There is a Hong Kong version of Song of the South that doesn't have Japanese subtitles, or any subtitles for that matter. It has a different jacket and there's something different about the beginning but I don't recall what. This was only available as a rental. The only two I've ever seen auctioned both went for just over $1,000!

Yeah, it was crazy! I remember the last one up on the block on ebay. I was in on the bidding until it got to $400 (which happened very quickly). One of the rental chains in Hong Kong still has 5 copies of it that they've pulled and put back... they'll probably surface this year once the SotS fervor reaches it's peak. I expect that an excellent condition copy will probably go for $1500-2000.

 

[Colin Jacobson]

I'd pay some decent coin for Sting's "Nothing Like the Sun" and "Soul Cages".

Is the "Soul Cages" LD to which you refer the live concert? And what's the "...NLTS" LD - I have the set of Sting's videos with clips from "Blue Turtles" and "Sun" (NOT the "Fields of Gold" release - can't even recall it that one ever hit LD). Is there some other "...NLTS" LD I missed?

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I have that "Golden Age of Rock N Roll" set; a few Best Buys in the area had them and when I read this was being pulled I ran out the next morning and got one! I got the first "Little Shop of Horrors" disc when it mysteriously resurfaced at Borders a week before the reissued disc came out.

 

[JerryW]

Colin, the Soul Cages LD has about 60min of concert video and then includes all the videos from that album. It's quite rare and I've heard it was distributed in the US in very limited quantities. The Nothing Like the Sun LD is all concert with an interview with Sting at the end, it also had about the same release quantity. Both of these were sold in higher volume overseas, but I can't find any imports either.
I have the Fields of Gold JP import on LD. Very stunning PCM track on it, some of the best I've ever heard. It's far better than the import DVD. In fact, I sold the DVD on ebay in favor of the LD. Hah! Damn, I'm crazy!

 

[James D S]

The Moroder version of Metropolis LD. This one is usually not found for auction at any given time. Don't know about recently, but I went months without it coming up on eBay.

Also, though I don't think such is the case anymore, the LD version of Bakshi's Lord of the Rings was VERY hard to come across. Last time I saw it, it fetched ~$1200 on eBay.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

The Frighteners: Signature Edition. Out for a week, but pressed in such a limited number that when they were gone, they were gone for good. Can't even find it as a rental in L.A. anymore (Laser Blazer used to have it-- I have a VHS dub of the "director's cut" and the 4-hour documentary).

With all of the publicity surrounding Peter Jackson due to the massive success of "Lord of the Rings," I can't believe that neither Miramax nor Universal have capitalized on this by releasing "Heavenly Creatures" (Miramax) or "The Frighteners: SE" (Universal). But yet we get "Patch Adams: Ultimate Edition." Go figure.

 

[alan halvorson]

I thought their was recent talk of The Frighteners SE disc coming out with some, and maybe all, of the LDs supplements and commentary. Let's hope so.

For some reason, The Yellow Rolls-Royce always gets good money but comes up only very rarely. I've seen the film but never thought that much of it.

 

[Dave B Ferris]

I'm still searching for thirty or forty LD's, such as Criterion's 'Darling', Cinemadisc's 'Contempt', any number of classic Cary Grant titles, and so forth.

I actually make my search tougher with a self-imposed rule: I almost always pass on open/used copies, preferring instead to bid on copies listed as 'factory sealed'/'never opened'.

Still, in the case of 'Darling', over the last two or three years, I have only seen a handful of open copies on EBay; and I have yet to see a sealed copy.