Thrifting Is Important

Folks who are new to collecting any piece of entertainment on physical media might want to act fast. There’s a near endless wealth of opportunities out there, from yard sales to thrift stores selling variable physical goods that people don’t want anymore, thinking they’re overstocked and/or no longer convenient for the modern age. If you’re lucky, you might find a music CD laying face flat on the parking lot of a grocery store, but I wouldn’t keep my hopes up on playing the damaged silver platter that took in so much heat from the asphalt below.

For music lovers, you have the old reliable vinyl records, the 8-track tapes and audio cassettes for music. And movie fans make up the majority with various formats starting with the VHS / Beta VCRs and the LaserDisc, later phasing into smaller movie discs we knew and loved as the permanent media format: DVDs are the most common you’d find at Goodwill or similar.

Years and years of decluttering homes have had Americans helping to stuff up the inventories of thrift and consignment shops, and physical media has been no exception due to the proliferation of digital downloads and streaming services. As they’d say in real life, their loss is your gain — buying movies at dirt cheap prices is an absolute no-brainer.

With 4K discs being the premium standard, we should not leave out the more common ‘legacy’ formats. A used secondhand movie disc that you buy at a much lower price can still provide great entertainment value like you’d catch on a 500-channel universe à la cable. Even better is that your Blu-ray devices can upconvert a standard DVD signal into a higher resolution, although not on par with what HD or 4K devices provide in terms of picture quality.

Thrift stores are an excellent way to save money and build a library faster. Depending on the quantity, there are plentiful choices in many genres. Being a detective is key, so choose titles that might not seem obvious to you. Sometimes, you might come across a DVD of public domain ‘Popeye’ and still get your money’s worth — cartoon animation is great for the soul anyway! I know for a fact that thrift stores sell a lot of rom-coms and faith-based dramas, and those might not be everyone’s cup of tea. You can also find some late-night style action or indie movies whatever your investigation leads to. Be aware that you may not find a whole lot of horror and science fiction, the types of genres that breed legions of cult fandoms as a place of their own, and these demand far higher markups that you’d realize.

Remember, I previously mentioned the words “act fast”, and why? Number one, and this is very important though not highly evident right now, is that ‘tape mold’ and ‘disc rot’ are manifesting the longer the source ages. We’re talking roughly 25-30 years since the disc left the factory from day one. These natural occurrences where a disc goes into oxidation result in poor playback including stops and skips. So far, I haven’t had serious issues with scratched-up dinged-up 2000s-era movies, but the higher you go up to Blu-ray, well, it might be a problem due to the delicacy of the laser built within any gadget that’s more advanced.

The second reason you should act fast is that prices could inflate to an unreasonable level on secondhand items at any moment, and physical media won’t be exempt from this practice. I once took advantage of a special ‘clearance’ sale at my local Goodwill — those yellow stickers they plastered on the DVD cases that sat on the shelf for probably over a year meant 50% off. I have a hunch this means that any ‘fresh’ donations they receive from this point will be stocked anew and increase the price from $1.50 to possibly $4, and I’m talking per disc in no matter what condition. That alone might not be the actual reason why, but thrift store operations including Goodwill could be keeping their eyes peeled for the ‘return of physical media’ trend as a result of consumer backlash of streaming technology. Companies like Sony angered its fanbase of discontinuing disc media and purging purchased movies on digital, leaving consumers with a valid new option: a return to the old days where you can touch and feel everything, and a return to form as well. Soon enough, the thrift stores respond and prices go up on DVDs and CDs due to ever increasing demand — that’s the way free enterprise works, folks.

Oh, and buyer beware… occasionally, you might not get a disc inside the case despite the clearest prescence of a cover insert. When I found this film called SOUL PLANE at my local Goodwill store, it was sitting there empty. No disc = no movie. Some people will do anything to toss out the garbage. I wouldn’t have mind buying the disc-less thing with movie art anyway, but I know that the cashier person will likely discard it. If you want proof, this should explain everything…

In closing, those who are rounding up a collection of used movie discs understand the current situation very well: we have a lot of economic turmoil going on and consumers aren’t happy with streaming subscriptions and digital ownership rights. Perhaps going back in time to when we pressed the menu button on the remote will bring calmer days ahead if we can let it happen.