I would agree that the players are definitely a risk at this point. Out of my collection of players, only one of them still plays LDs and it could use an alignment or general "tune-up." They are much heavier than dvd and blu players, which can be a chore to move them around and costly to ship. There are also very few people around who repair and modify them and of those who do it's probably on a part-time basis with a decent wait period. Parts are becoming more scarce. For example, I have a CLD-97 that has an inoperable tray and to ship it and have it repaired would be fairly costly. Plus, I wouldn't necessarily say laser rot is understated. I've had a decent number of discs go bad that are not listed in databases as likely rotters. You also have to make sure the people you're buying them from ship them correctly as I've had a number of them that arrived cracked. The same goes for players in that they need to be adequately shipped or they may arrive quite damaged. At this point, an above average player will likely be needed to achieve decent results, such as a CLD-D703/704 or better. The better players have also taken on quite an inflation in price as well and so you may have to shell out several hundred dollars or more for one. Additionally, while common titles may be very cheap, cult and horror titles may cost as much as more than the original msrp of LDs since they're a reasonably collectible and competitive niche.
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