Collecting movies has been an obsession of mine since I was about 14. My dad had this awesome 8mm film collection of movies that I inherited. Before the days of the VCR I would watch flicks in the kitchen projected on the wall. Those films included Frankenstein, Dracula, Laural and Hardy, and Buster Keaton movies. Then our friend the VCR came along and boom things got crazy! The laser disc followed and I've been broke ever since. But some people ask me where I get all these movies from. The strange, the obscure, and whatnot. I am going to layout how you can build your own unique movie library in a cheap cost effective way.
Tuesday is the day you should know if you are going to be a true movie collector. That is the day new release movies are released to stores and on-line retailers. Back in the days before the Internet, there was not a good way to be prepared before you walked into the store unless you worked in a store. There were in-store papers that may have told you the big releases coming out, but now you can get all sorts of info on-line and have a battle plan before entering the store and limit your spending by knowing the score ahead of time.
I'm going to break this down into 3 sections:
1. Knowledge
2. Shopping
3. Hunting
I. KNOWLEDGE
If you want to save money before you step into the store you need Knowledge. Here is how to get it...
DVD Empire
dvdempire.com is a great online store that pretty much catalogs EVERYTHING that is coming out. If you go to the main page and look over to the left under quick links and choose Future Releases. On that page under the bar you will see a bunch of dates. Those are weekly release dates. Click on each week to see what's coming out. There are usually about 60-100 dvd's released each week. It's nuts. Here you can sort through each upcoming week and see if there is anything interesting you might want. What I like to do is do this once a month, then each film i like I open up my Netflix queue and add each title I want. I don't always get them from Netflix but by adding them to your queue you can create a good list with dates so that you know when stuff YOU want is coming out. Then if you decide to buy it just take it off your queue after you buy it. Now if you don't use Netflix to rent movies, then just write em down or you can create a Wish List within DVD Empire to keep up with all the titles you are interested in.
High-Def Digest/Blu-ray.com
If you are into the newest collecting sensation of High Def DVD, you can head over to High-Def Digest and Blu-Ray.com. Both of these sites are excellent. And both update numerous times daily on new releases. Both sites have an upcoming release section, so you can see by date what HD releases are coming out that you want to pick up. you can also use their price guides as to what the retail is and what its going for on say amazon.com. They also provide links to amazon, if you just have to have it right there. Not recommended...
Aint It Cool News
Every Monday or Tuesday Harry Knowles of Austin's own movie site Aint it cool News writes his column of upcoming releases or things people have sent him that he may recommend. His column titled, Harry's DVD Picks and Peeks is usually the first story on the left side of the site where he writes his columns. I find it to be very helpful in finding new and things I didn't even know were coming out in the next few weeks.
The Sunday Paper
That's right spend a buck fity and grab a Sunday paper to get all the sales ads. Check out Best Buy, Frys, Circuit City, Target, and see what new releases on your list may have the best deal on them on Tuesday.
The Don and Murph Show
This is a fat dude, maybe in his 20's who watches more movies than anyone I know. Every week or so he goes through everyone he picked up whether online or in the store. It's hysterical and I am a steady viewer of this guy. I find little titles that may have been lost that he finds, that are great.
II. SHOPPING
Now that you are armed with knowledge, it's to time to get your game on. I'll tell you how I do it. First thing first is about saving money. You NEVER EVER pay retail for a DVD. If you do then you're not a good shopper, you're a sucker. Let's take a look at the damage you can do on foot:
1. Movie Trading Company
I always look at ways to refresh my current titles at home. A lot of times a new edition of a movie might come out of a movie I love. It could be a new transfer, a Blu-ray version or whatever. Now that I have my list of stuff coming out in the next few weeks or months, I can go through my existing collection and say well, I don't two copies of these or that. The new cut of this is coming out in a month so I don't need this 1998 dvd that's not even in widescreen. So what I do is pull everything I no longer need and put them in a bag and take them to MOVIE TRADING COMPANY. MTC as I like to call it, will give you cash for money, OR store credit. The prices on their new releases are not as cheap as Best Buy but if you opt for Store credit, you get more credit to use towards say a new release. For example, the other day Iron Man came out. Best Buy had the blu-ray for 26 or 27 bux. Movie trading was 30. I traded in about 5 VHS tapes, and 6 old dvds collecting dust on the shelf and wallah,I had it for 4 bux. Now you may say, well I don't have any movies to sell. Got any CD's? Any video games? They buy those too. And if you have no problem with buying used movies, this is the best place to do that.
Now there are times where i have nothing to spare on any given week, so I have to hit the stores.
2. Best Buy
This is pretty much the best place near where I live and normally have the cheapest deals on new release dvds. Keep in mind, after week one of a new release they go back to regular retail costs. So you have to keep up with what's new that you want or you will lose some cash in the long run. Again check your local paper for the sales fliers, or go online to see the same thing. Also if yo have spare time check and see what the on-line store price is compared to the store price. A few weeks back they had The Mist on blu in the store for 30 plus bucks, but online it was 22. I bought it online, then picked it up on the way home in store for no additional charge.
3. Walmart, Circuit City, and Target. The same principles above apply to these stores as well.
4. Frys
Frys is an odd place. There is no logical explanation for how they do stuff, you just roll with it. Usually the best way to check Frys is in the Friday paper. That's when they usually have their deals of the week that are decent. I check it online by using this dallas morning news LINK.
They have a bunch of good deals on regular and High-Def titles. Particularly if you are stuck with an HD-DVD player, you can get some of those titles in the front of the store now for about 3 to 10 bux.
5. On-Line
I get a lot of stuff on-line, and let me tell you this is dangerous. There is so much more greatness out there in cyber space than in the stores, that its mind boggling, and can get you broke real quick. Here are some ways to lessen the blow if you will...
Amazon.com
This is still the best place to get a huge discount on new stuff and even old stuff. The database of titles they stock is crazy. Just signup for the mail list there and they will tell you all the deals on a daily basis. You can also purchase from Amazon.uk and other countries if you are looking for some foreign titles. They usually have great deals on High Def titles weekly that Best Buy and others can't come close to matching.
DeepDiscount.com
I like this place a lot, and have ordered several things from them. They like amazon heavily discount dvd's. Shipping is usually a free deal, so thats something to consider.
HKFLIX.com
Let's say you want to go beyond the typical every day dvd buying crap and start collecting films from other places in the world. First you will need a region free DVD player. There are all sorts of places to get those, and if anyone needs that info just email me. I would recommend getting an Oppo player! Google it. I buy a ton of stuff from HKFlix.com HKFLIX is mostly for Asian films, but once you search their store you can find a ton of stuff from Europe, and other countries. They have out of print stuff and rareities. You can also create a wish list on the site too. I have a rather large one there, that sadly will never ever be fully fulfilled!
XPLOTED CINEMA
This is where you get the real crazy ass shit. I'm talking stuff you're parents warned yo not to look at. No, it's not porn, but it's the stuff in the back of the Fangoria magazine that you were like where in the hell did that come out? But its more than that, I have found quite a bit of rare things from over seas that I didn't know was even out. Movies on HD that are not out here for example, or in SD for that matter. Lots of good stuff here, things you may have seen as a kid but totally forgot about it. However the one down side to this site, is its very expensive. I don't know why, but I guess since the stuff is hard to get and keep in stock they make you pay for it. This site is for serious cinefiles only.
III. HUNTING
Borders
Borders is expensive as shit. Let's be honest here. I don't go here much because of that, but if you want to find a store that has obscure and arty farty movies that you can face to face look through this is a good place to maybe find something and go home and order it from some other place. There is a way to get a good deal here, that I discovered thanks to my wife. She is in the Borders card club thing, and every week they send her a 40 or 50 % off coupon. I have used these before on some blu-rays. After they throw the tax back on its maybe slightly cheaper than Best Buy prices.
Half Price Books
Yesterday, I was in the mood for some obscure shopping and stopped in to see what was up. I found a movie that I have been looking for for a long time called The Exterminator from 1980 on VHS for 3 bux. I also picked up Peter Jackson's King Kong on HD-DVD for 7 bux. Not bad. You can also sell your old stuff here as well. Although they don't pay as much anymore. So if you are looking for things that are out of print, Half Price is a cheap place to start before you go online and blow a wad at Xploitation Cinema. And I love digging around at these stores. The other day I found the original Star Wars soundtrack on LP with a mini poster still in it for 5 bux. Another great score for nothing.
One other thing I want to recommend before I post out of this bitch. And that is organizing your collection. Don't be sloppy. get a good bookshelf, and make your library shine. Also there is some awesome software out there to catalog your stuff. I'm a Mac guy and I use some software called DVDPedia. It logs in everything you get and even reads bar codes of the dvds you buy with the camera on my laptop. Its amazing. You can search any actor, title, or whatever with this thing. It's too good. It does cost 15 bux I think, but its very much worth it. It even creates a website for your titles so you can share it with your buds on-line. You can get it HERE.
So that pretty much sums up how I created my dvd collection. Hopefully someday in the near future, we can get rid of physical media all together and have a digital collection, but for now the quality and hard drive space just has not got there yet, but like music it will. And then I won't have to buy bookcases anymore!!!
If you use sites like BitTorrent to download movies, remember it's cool that you can rip off the system and all but watching a Divx encoded flick recorded with a handicam at the theater is no way to experience a movie. You're cheating yourself and the makers of the movie. Wait 3 months and get the damn thing on DVD!
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