How do you determine which titles in your collection have a high resale value??

[Jar Jar Stinks]

By accident, I recently discovered some Francis Ford Coppola titles (Lionsgate) I own are selling on ebay for a lot more than I paid for then. That had me wondering if there was a way to easily identify the valuable titles in one's collection without checking each one individually. What are your strategies?

[bigshot]

I don't really care I guess.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by bigshot

I don't really care I guess.

You should post that same response in every thread you don't care about.

[jtu128]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

By accident, I recently discovered some Francis Ford Coppola titles (Lionsgate) I own are selling on ebay for a lot more than I paid for then. That had me wondering if there was a way to easily identify the valuable titles in one's collection without checking each one individually. What are your strategies?

Search every title you own to see if they’re out of print I suppose
. Personally I’d never sell something just because it’s valuable. I buy movies to own in my collection, not to turn a profit.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by jtu128

Search every title you own to see if they’re out of print I suppose
. Personally I’d never sell something just because it’s valuable. I buy movies to own in my collection, not to turn a profit.

It isn't unreasonable to reconvert some of your collection to cash when necessary.

After accruing sizable collections over the years, many people discover they have more movies than they can reasonably watch again... so why not sell them?

[bigshot]

I don't believe a lot of these crazy prices on out of print discs. Asking price isn't the same as selling price, and a lot of the big price tags at ebay are attached to listings that get listed over and over because no one is buying them. Personally, I don't think it's worth selling discs. I have to take time to list, pack and ship, and pay fees and postage costs... by the end of all that, I can think of a million better ways to make money.

[Sugar Bear]

Scanning barcodes with the eBay mobile app is how I determine value.

[mikey horror]

Slipcovers.

[D00mM4r1n3]

Goto Ebay and view sold Blu-ray listings sorted by highest price, and US Only (if in the US.) There are generally price points you can jump around and look for like $200, $100, $50, etc...

Occasionally a Youtuber will post a video about the highest priced items in their collection, or in general.

If you have any Vinegar Syndrome titles with slipcovers they often go for more than double their original price once they go OOP.

Lastly, there is just awareness of what movies you own that are OOP (especially titles with copious amounts of nudity.)

Oh, don't forget to check the price of any anime you have.

[Jar Jar Stinks]

Originally Posted by D00mM4r1n3

Oh, don't forget to check the price of any anime you have.

I hear you regarding anime. Several years back, I sold this version of Gatchaman for about 10 times the original purchase price.

[jtu128]

Originally Posted by Jar Jar Stinks

It isn't unreasonable to reconvert some of your collection to cash when necessary.

After accruing sizable collections over the years, many people discover they have more movies than they can reasonably watch again... so why not sell them?

Because they're basically worthless. Maybe a $1 or $2 each.

[bigshot]

The studios can’t sell physical media like they used to. I imagine that lack of interest carries over to the secondary market. Fewer and fewer potential customers every year.

Investing in blu-rays with a hope of getting your money back out of them isn’t a good idea.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by jtu128

Because they're basically worthless. Maybe a $1 or $2 each.

there will be the inevitable emails giving unique examples... but for 95% of the time.. you're dead on! It's for this reason that I prefer to give away my unwanted titles and give someone some enjoyment instead of letting a company give me pennies on the dollars I spent....

[Bruhingtonbruh]

Honestly I don't typically look for rare films when I'm out in the wild thrifting usually just whatever peaks my interest or if it's a boutique release I surely get it. However I've picken up a few titles before I didn't know were rare until I later looked them up, my best luck typically is with steelbooks or boutique releases when I'm out thrifting and what I pick up happens to be rare. For example like a while ago I got a steelbook for the cat returns for only $10, like 1 year after getting it I found out by accident it was a $200 steelbook and sold it immediately lmao. A lot of more obscure/oop horror films typically do good for rarity as well with one of my most recent purchases (a two pack of house of wax and thir13en ghosts) being like a $30 blu ray on ebay. Though if I were you I don't think you should be viewing blu rays as an "investment" just get the stuff you like and pay what you want to, for example I know dawn of the dead might be repressed soon so I'm not gonna pay $50 to some reseller on ebay, like unless you know it's not going back into production (due to legal issues or general obscurity) you will have to be quick if you're looking to turn up a profit on blu rays. I just simply acquire the films I want or look interesting to me and I only really consider reselling if I don't like a blind buy blu ray and it happens to go for cash or if there's a way cheaper version of a movie I can get instead (i.e. calling back on earlier the cat returns in regular case is only like $20 compared to it's $200 steelbook so that was a no brainer)

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by bigshot

The studios can’t sell physical media like they used to. I imagine that lack of interest carries over to the secondary market. Fewer and fewer potential customers every year.

Investing in blu-rays with a hope of getting your money back out of them isn’t a good idea.

For the most part. But certain genres like anime & horror movies will go up, sometimes by a lot, when they go OOP.

[mjjckc]

Is it an out of print Kino Lorber? Wild Palms and The Day After are both approaching the $100 mark.

Some Lionsgate titles might be a little pricey if they're not only out of print but were manufactured between 2009 and 2011 and have a risk of bronzing. The other day I was at a NorCal used record and movie shop, and another guy and I were both looking for Near Dark (which falls under this category). I decided that was a sign and just ended up ordering the German version.

But all it takes is a Paramount with Miramax or Mill Creek with Disney and Fox putting titles back into print and your used film can destined for the $2 used bin and not $50+ on eBay.

[Kenneth M]

These will reach investment status eventually.

Videogames were forced to by investment groups and international money launderers and it has changed the market entirely. Movies will move at an organic pace unless the same happens to them. But it will happen either way. It's inevitable.

For those looking for it to happen sooner, contacting pricecharting.com and asking them to include movies would speed it up. Also, blu-ray.com needs to transition to this as well, as eventually they do need to become privately (member) funded. So implementing sections for each movies for specifying seal information (Factory Y-Fold vs Factory Vacuum sealed) as well as graphs for charting the prices being sold for second hand. Also factory case information as well for each release. That way blu-ray.com can be an ultimate guide source and charge admission, only allowing publically viewed teaser pages.

With a couple hundred million playstation blu-ray players in the wild, the blu-ray will take an extremely long time to become obsolete. And I suspect that they will likely peak in value around gen-x retirement age.

[bigshot]

I remember when The Third Man was very expensive. How much does it go for now? People still try to get a high price, but if you can get the movie for $15 elsewhere, how many people are going to pay that much? It’s only expensive during the window when it isn’t available. All it takes is another release for the price to plunge. Discs don’t have intrinsic value. They can become valueless in an instant.

Remember when people paid a lot of money for DVDs? A change in format popularity can cause prices to drop too.

[TripleHBK]

I long ago gave up on the idea of making any money back on my collection, be it video games or movies, and stopped selling/trading off titles back around 2008 or so. That all said, sales like this always give me reason to reconsider my decision...

Hellraiser Deader: Sold for $300 + Shipping.

[Member-839946]

Piracy might put an upper bound on media prices. Unless you're just That Guy that must own a physical copy, out of print titles are usually available from various sources. Sometimes not, but in my experience, I've yet to be forced into a "pay $$$ or do without" situation. I prefer to buy physical when I can, but if studios allow a title to go out of print, there are options.

It's supply and demand. How many $500 copies of something can be sold if a "good enough" version is available for far less? And if something is that much, chances are high that someone will start counterfeiting copies to sell for $250. Look at the spanish bootlegs of The Abyss and True Lies (for example). I bought a copy of True Lies two years ago. It's fine. I'm in no real hurry to upgrade to the 4k. Cameron finally blessed us with it but at the time it was unobtanium and I wanted it.

I use piracy as an example because I think only Collectors will pay high prices for discs. The rest of us just want to watch a movie, and might be willing to settle for a less than legit source if the price is too high. You might be able to sell your media at a stupid high price but how long will you wait to find the next Collector? You're not getting ordinary viewers at Collector prices.