Stolen collection: advice sought (1 Viewer)

[Brandon Conway]

A co-worker recently had his entire DVD collection stolen from his apartment, a collection of approximately 250 titles, including box sets, etc., as well as the Limited Edition Green Halo Xbox, PS2, and 50+ games.

He's already gone through the procedure of talking to the police, as well as contacting local used DVD/CD stores, but was hoping that some of the members of this forum may have some additional advice regarding further efforts towards possibly regaining the stolen merchandise, or at best know of possible bargains for rebuying the more expensive titles/sets in the collection. (He did not have any insurance, so that option is not possible).

Here's a link to the missing collection; any advice on re-obtaining specific titles is most welcome.

His collection: http://webhead37.tripod.com/

 

[GrantM]

I can't speak from experience, but it would seem the best thing (if he wants to do this as cheaply as possible) would be to be patient. Replace as any as possible through Columbia House. Then wait for titles to go on sale, or for DeepDiscountDVDs next 20% off sale. For the rarer titles try getting them used from ebay, half.com or amazon.
And get insurance.

 

[Kyle McKnight]

Renters insurance is cheap...sucks he didn't have it. I don't know of any "unknown" methods to get expensive/rare titles cheap, or I'd be taking advantage of them. Just keep an eye out for sales.

 

[Frank Anderson]

I'll second what Kyle said. Renters insurance would have helped.

Anyone who rents should get renters insurance.

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[Sam Favate]

I've often thought of placing an identifying sticker, hidden somewhere on the disc package, that says "This title stolen from the collection of..." That way, it is possible to prove (with the aid of the police) to used disc stores that they are selling stolen merchandise. Not sure if it would help, just a hunch.

 

[MikeEckman]

Thats not a bad idea. It would be pretty easy for the Amarays, just put them behind the labels. The Warner Snappers can be disassembled, so you could put them behind the tray. And boxed sets could go in a number of places. Hmmm...I'm gonna need a whole lotta stickers though!

 

[Mark Hammon]

I work in a used CD/DVD store.

We have a form that allows victims to buy back their collections at the cost at which we purchase them. There is no way of being able to tell a customer who is selling "stolen" items to: "hand them over or we're calling the cops" with out possibly having a bigger problem. A victim brings in a police report and then fills out the form. Then if the stolen DVDs come in, we just purchase them (if we can identify the collection) at a cheap price and then call the customer.

Another store near ours purchased a stolen collection (unknown to them at the time). The victim came into their store to ask about their purchasing policies and saw his DVDs on the shelf and called the police. The owner of the store was not about to just hand over the DVDs (to someone claiming they were his) so when the police arrived he handed over the discs to the officer. The way the guy identified the DVDs was a white sticker which had a number on it. These numbers coordinated with a database he had created.

 

[Jarrod Hines]

It seems that i have a new project to complete over the holidays...even though I do have renter's insurance.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

The stickers aren't a bad idea. I mark CDs and DVDs on the inside ring with my initials in Sharpie, but the stickers seem to be more identifiable.

 

[DeanWG]

I actually have a system that I use.

On about 100 or so of the disks, I do one of two things.

I either write my initials on the back of the insert in the spine area, or I mark, with a silver sharpie, a single dot on the plastic inner hub of the disk.

I then cross reference these titles in the Notes section of DVD Profiler.

 

[TonyD]

http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...len+collection

theres an interesting and long thread from someone else who had a collection stolen.