The Disc Collection of Mike Frezon (1 Viewer)

[Josh Steinberg]

There are various strategies I've taken to do this, but am curious how others have approached the weeding process?

In the past two-ish years I’ve both set up a Plex server and ripped most of my discs to it, and moved. That presented a natural opportunity to do some weeding. If I went to rip the disc and realized I was unlikely to ever watch it again, I didn’t bother and got rid of it. And when I was packing to move, if I couldn’t imagine taking it out of the box to watch it, I left it behind.

Prior to that move I had been in my last place six years so that’s a good amount of time to say “if I didn’t watch it once during that period, if I didn’t even think of watching it once, maybe it can go”.

At a certain point I also had to kinda learn to say to myself, “yes, that’s a great movie, but it’s not one I ever watch, so maybe the movie being great isn’t enough of a reason to hold onto it”.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I haven't read through all the posts here yet, but I am thinking it's time to do another weeding. There are various strategies I've taken to do this, but am curious how others have approached the weeding process? an obvious one is keeping only what "sparks joy" (to beat that dead horse). For example, 22 Jump Street is probably not going to do that for me, whereas the 3 editions of My Fair Lady will.

Quite awhile back I went through my collection and removed any title I felt I would never watch again. Since then, it's just been maintenance. When I upgrade a title, the old version goes into a "sell" pile and my wife then sells it online (she likes doing this). Same with any blind buys that I end up not liking. Most of the time a title will only net a few dollars, but occasionally she gets a good haul -- she just sold my DVD set of The Thin Man films for $65. I was shocked she got that much.

 

[Citizen87645]

My last big weeding I was pretty thorough I think, so my trying the same approach isn't really working this time (after a few aborted attempts to simply remove titles that I simply wasn't interested in).

My thinking now is to really refine the collection. So I think I need to start with pulling Criterion and Twilight Time titles, and similar higher end releases. Then see what's left.

The other things are TV series. Those are in some ways less likely for me to watch again compared to movies, although the reverse tends to be true when it comes to series or movies I haven't seen before (ie it's easier for me to find the time to start a new TV series vs start a movie that I'd prefer not to watch in fits and starts). Not coincidentally, TV shows also take up the most room in my storage.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My thinking now is to really refine the collection. So I think I need to start with pulling Criterion and Twilight Time titles, and similar higher end releases.

That was the hardest part of my last weeding, to begin doing the high end stuff. I’d tell myself that Criterions were valuable, that TT was out of print, and justify not even thinking about those by doing that. But once I cleared that mental hurdle I found a lot of those titles were easy choices to weed, probably in part because being on that label meant they didn’t get any scrutiny the last time around.

 

[Citizen87645]

That may be me in 10 to 15 years. I've been pretty selective with both those labels because of the higher cost, so by my count I only have about 75 or so titles from CC and TT combined.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I may do that w/ some of the TT titles I picked up -- and I guess they might actually sell well on eBay since most of them are OOP.

I've also mostly been selective enough w/ Criterion titles that I probably won't need to weed any out...

_Man_

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I have given my wife a few Criterion titles to sell, and prices are all over the place. Some are worth just a few dollars, while others are worth about what I originally paid. I have only given her one or two Twilight Time titles, but seem to recall that being similar.

 

[Sam Posten]

This thread hit me right at the right time. With my flood I now have my entire collection half in cardboard boxes and half in plastic storage containers that they shipped in from my first house. Nothing has ever been more organized than 'a single shelf with stuff I aim to get to sometime soon' versus 'yep I watched that at least once already'.

I aim to get rid of all my dupes that have upgrades of higher quality and probably most of even the UHDs that I never expect to watch again.

I have a feeling that I won't get diddly for most of them. Other than offering them to local friends and showing a picture of the available stack on a thread here saying 'come n get it, central md', are there any other viable options? Giving to a library? How about Second and Charles, would they be worth bringing crates to?

NEWARK

2nd & Charles | 2nd & Charles

www.2ndandcharles.com

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My experience is that almost no place wants them. Libraries generally aren’t that interested - it’s just stuff to them (many libraries now even have access to a joint streaming service for when patrons want to take out a movie). Same for most resellers.

There’s an app called Decluttr where you can use your phone to scan barcodes and they’ll send you a mailing label and take everything, but they’re often paying just a penny per disc so it may not be worth the effort for you.

I think we probably should have a swap section on HTF - there used to be a trading thread years ago. I think the potential issue with starting one is that people can sometimes let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and I think even if everyone went in with the idea of “let’s just find homes for stuff we don’t want” that it’ll turn into “if I’m giving up a Criterion disc then I want a criterion back” instead of “here’s what you have that I’d like to see, this is what I have that you’re interested in, it doesn’t matter if the retail value of the things are anywhere close, let’s just get things into homes.”

That would be ideal for me though. I’m not concerned with theoretical value. If I can trade a stack of discs I’ll never watch again for some that I will, that’s a good trade.

 

[Sam Posten]

Gotcha, thanks @Josh Steinberg

 

[mark brown]

When we built the house 25 years ago my wife was overjoyed with the under stairs closet and pantry fully shelved. Unfortunately those shelves almost immediately became the home to DVDs and Blu Rays (and 4K) and now occupy over 80% of the pantry.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

This thread hit me right at the right time. With my flood I now have my entire collection half in cardboard boxes and half in plastic storage containers that they shipped in from my first house. Nothing has ever been more organized than 'a single shelf with stuff I aim to get to sometime soon' versus 'yep I watched that at least once already'.

I aim to get rid of all my dupes that have upgrades of higher quality and probably most of even the UHDs that I never expect to watch again.

I have a feeling that I won't get diddly for most of them. Other than offering them to local friends and showing a picture of the available stack on a thread here saying 'come n get it, central md', are there any other viable options? Giving to a library? How about Second and Charles, would they be worth bringing crates to?

NEWARK

2nd & Charles | 2nd & Charles

www.2ndandcharles.com

My wife sells most of my stuff either through Facebook Marketplace or Next Door, and uses eBay as a last resort. I wouldn't have the patience to spend the time doing this, but she enjoys it -- she's also selling other unused stuff of ours as we attempt to de-clutter our home after having to clear out both our parents' homes the past few years. Some things we have just given away via Next Door -- mostly furniture that we were replacing. We also donate stuff to Vietnam Veterans and the Salvation Army.

 

[Mike Frezon]

I have a feeling that I won't get diddly for most of them. Other than offering them to local friends and showing a picture of the available stack on a thread here saying 'come n get it, central md', are there any other viable options? Giving to a library?

My experience is that almost no place wants them. Libraries generally aren’t that interested - it’s just stuff to them (many libraries now even have access to a joint streaming service for when patrons want to take out a movie). Same for most resellers.

I ran into ALL these issues when I started this thread and weeded out boxes of titles from my collection. It was HARD to find anyone who wanted them.

But here's what I found. There are churches with small thrift shops that were THRILLED to get boxes of discs to sell to earn some money to fund church projects. It was rewarding to find places that were grateful to get them. And that they were going to end up serving a good purpose--rather than just getting tossed in a dumpster.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Honestly. I was SO HAPPY that someone wanted them. And I gotta figure that people starving for good entertainment and who like DVDs will be made very happy with their purchases. Win-win-win.

 

[TravisR]

Honestly. I was SO HAPPY that someone wanted them. And I gotta figure that people starving for good entertainment and who like DVDs will be made very happy with their purchases. Win-win-win.

You're making me feel guilty for thinking about how I can squeeze a few bucks out of the pile of old DVDs and Blu-rays I've got sitting here rather than giving them away.

Then again, I'm not 100% sure a church is really the place for me to unload a number of the movies that I have.

 

[Mike Frezon]

You're making me feel guilty for thinking about how I can squeeze a few bucks out of the pile of old DVDs and Blu-rays I've got sitting here rather than giving them away.

Then again, I'm not 100% sure a church is really the place for me to unload a number of the movies that I have.

Yes. You DO have to be careful about THAT!

 

[Clinton McClure]

That’s what I miss most about Hastings Entertainment going out of business a few years ago. I was always selling them my used DVDs and Blu-rays when I upgraded or decluttered and they paid fair market value most titles. Now there are no shops here that will buy used discs.

 

[greenscreened]

My experience is that almost no place wants them. Libraries generally aren’t that interested

Yup.

I was very disappointed when I found that out.
A decade or so ago I thought I'll completely backup backup my CD & DVD collection (every track, episode and movie, then donate them to various libraries.

I drove past a small one east of Sacramento that had none of the above media and thought the parents may come for the videos and music with their kids tagging along, who may then see some books and spark some interest in reading, but they weren't interested in taking them.

My thought were give them to the libraries so that many might enjoy them, as opposed to Goodwill etc. where one person buys them, watches them once, then they become dust collectors.
At least the libraries will take them and sell them, and delegate the money for things they need, which is better than someone working at charity shops, who might possibly cop them for themselves w/o even paying.

So its off the the libraries they start going, hopefully sooner than later.

 

[Patrick Sun]

Since I mainly just buy media during Black Friday/November/December sales, I did some weeding of older media when I upgraded to the UHD versions, and just gave them to a local friend of mine, and left it up to him to dispose of the older unwanted titles he didn't want. It's been nice to reclaim some shelf space with the weed-out project last month. I did come across a few older DVD titles that go for more than a few bucks, so I kept those for now until I get bored enough to list them on Ebay later on.

Weed on!

 

[John Dirk]

I think we probably should have a swap section on HTF

I floated a similar idea some years back. The consensus at the time was the logistics simply made it impractical. If we ever do agree to give it a try, however, count me in to assist.