Most Difficult U.S. Steelbooks To Acquire

[GasmaskAvenger]

Both GOTGs were pretty foul experiences in their own right.

The first for me screwing up by not securing a pre-order and the second for the absurdly bad shipping order pattern.

[darkness2918]

I didn't know Furious 7 was hard to get, at the time of release my nearest BB had some for a while after. Rogue One was also plentiful at my store, at around 4:30pm on release date there was still plenty to go around on 2 different floors. Mad Max: Fury Road is the one I regret missing out on. Got to the store at opening, was the 6th person online & they only got in 4 copies.

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by The Crimson King

If by most difficult you mean most expensive, I'd add:

Justice League War
Son of Batman
War of the Worlds
The Ring
The Godfather
The Godfather II
Jack Reacher (original)
Cloverfield
Life

Plus several other of the DCAU Target steelbooks.

I'd gladly give up Justice League War for Mad Max: Fury Road. War wasn't hard for me to get but Fury Road I tried going for & didn't get one.

[DarkEco910]

Originally Posted by kryptonite1970

Why does this need a separate thread?

It’s still a problem, krypto. We need to talk about this so some can get over their PTSD. #FirstWorldSteelbookCollectorProblems #ThinkOfTheCollectors

[DarkEco910]

Originally Posted by aldo37

As someone who doesn't know about any of these it'd be good if you provide a little backstory of whatever happened with each to make them so difficult to get. Unless the general idea is that "they didn't make enough of them."

I concur. Maybe edit the OP and describe each situation. Or let people tell their stories.

The only ones I own in this list are Zero Dark Thirty and Blade Runner 2049. I had zero issue with the latter save night-before anxiety of placing a store pickup order. But ZDT was released just as I was starting collecting. I went in late that day to get one and found out my store received two. Naturally, they were gone. I would learn that night on here that almost all Best Buy stores got 2 or zero. It was a very odd limited print run. And that shelf spot remained empty for weeks. I resorted to eBay and spent $45 to get it. No regrets as it’s still one of my favorites.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by aldo37

Unless the general idea is that "they didn't make enough of them."

That pretty much would be the idea for nearly all of them unless I'm missing something.

[DarkEco910]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

That pretty much would be the idea for nearly all of them unless I'm missing something.

Mad Max: Fury Road was the biggest blunder of all. They sold preorder cards for it and WAY oversold them. Not only that, stores didn’t even grab copies to set them aside for preorders. That thread is a FUN read.

[Aidenag]

I own all of these but Moana, and had no issue getting any of them. Guess i got lucky.

[Shaggy1978]

Doesn’t pre-ordering early solve these issues? I’ve never had trouble purchasing a new release as long as I plan ahead and pre-order accordingly. I have a very useful spreadsheet I created that keeps track of release date, vendor,?price, payment method etc that has been helpful to others. I can think of many foreign releases with specific slipcovers or unique SBbdesigns that I’ve had trouble getting my hands on at a decent price. I simply assume I’ll never acquire a 3D title in any brick and mortar store and order 1 - 3 months in advance.of course, Best Buy makes this very difficult for people with very limited budgets like me.

Rogue One seems to be the only one I can think of. I bought the Target release but many people complained that they missed out.

[RogueKnite]

Thanks for the suggestions, folks! I had completely forgotten about the Hateful Eight steelbook. I will be trying to write small passages to go with each steelbook here, yet it's going to take time to go through each steels respective thread, discern what the issue was & then write a small info blurb on why it's here.
I'm rather ignorant on the DC animated steels, so if anyone knows which were difficult to come by, please share!

[The Sentry]

Unfortunately, the last James Bond steelbooks were incredibly easy to get.

I came late to the party, GOTG is my white whale. Mad Max: Fury Road was the first I had trouble getting, no pre-order, low stock and a late arrival plus this particular BB's "status" as a smaller store equals nada.

Rogue One was no problem unless you count the spine slash, my first and hopefully last.

Blade Runner 2049 almost was the worst for me because I pre-ordered it early and still didn't get it, got charged though, it took some wrangling with BB CSR's and other stores to finally obtain a copy.

[Red's got the Blu's]

Difficult to acquire is entirely subjective.

1 copy of Zero Dark Thirty was available at my Best Buy for months before I finally bought it. I personally didn't like the movie enough to want to own the steelbook and I felt the price was a bit high on it. When a upgrade and save sale happened I bought it and held onto it for awhile before selling it on ebay. As rare and desirable as people say it is it does not command a high price.

Thor : The Dark World sold out at my BB the first day or so but a month later while on a visit to my inlaws 800 miles away from home I stopped into a BB and found 4 of them sitting on the shelf. I already had my copy but I still bought two and later sold them.

2 copies of Moana 3D available when I got out of work at 5 pm. My preorder was in mint so I left them there.

Kong Skull Island - 1 copy available the Friday after release. I had debated if I really wanted it, the cost was a bit higher then I like and it was a blind buy that I wasn't sure I'd like.

I don't know maybe I'm just lucky.

[hbarnes]

Originally Posted by Red's got the Blu's

Difficult to acquire is entirely subjective.

1 copy of Zero Dark Thirty was available at my Best Buy for months before I finally bought it. I personally didn't like the movie enough to want to own the steelbook and I felt the price was a bit high on it. When a upgrade and save sale happened I bought it and held onto it for awhile before selling it on ebay. As rare and desirable as people say it is it does not command a high price.

Thor : The Dark World sold out at my BB the first day or so but a month later while on a visit to my inlaws 800 miles away from home I stopped into a BB and found 4 of them sitting on the shelf. I already had my copy but I still bought two and later sold them.

2 copies of Moana 3D available when I got out of work at 5 pm. My preorder was in mint so I left them there.

Kong Skull Island - 1 copy available the Friday after release. I had debated if I really wanted it, the cost was a bit higher then I like and it was a blind buy that I wasn't sure I'd like.

I don't know maybe I'm just lucky.

I think you're definitely one of the luckier collectors. My three closest stores are in some pretty heavily populated areas, and all run out of most releases pretty quickly.

[Gogeta149]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

Both GOTGs were pretty foul experiences in their own right.

The first for me screwing up by not securing a pre-order and the second for the absurdly bad shipping order pattern.

Had the same issue with GOTG 2

The only had I had big time problem to find was Ghost in the Shell 4K, had to go to like 6 or 7 locations to find one

[darkness2918]

Originally Posted by GasmaskAvenger

Both GOTGs were pretty foul experiences in their own right.

The first for me screwing up by not securing a pre-order and the second for the absurdly bad shipping order pattern.

With GotG 1 I saw it release day but didn't like the design so opted to go with the standard release. For GotG 2 there were plenty when the store opened, grabbed it, still quite a few left when I left. By that evening when I went back for something else they were all out.

[Mister B Gone]

Damn I saw that Justice League War Steelbook at a Half Price Books for $6 shoulda grabbed it.

Is there really a demand for The Thing Steel since the Scream Factory and Arrow editions were released? I have one I need to get rid of

[hbarnes]

Originally Posted by Mister B Gone

Damn I saw that Justice League War Steelbook at a Half Price Books for $6 shoulda grabbed it.

Is there really a demand for The Thing Steel since the Scream Factory and Arrow editions were released? I have one I need to get rid of

Which Thing? Mondo?

[Mister B Gone]

Originally Posted by hbarnes

Which Thing? Mondo?

Yea.. I see it listed in the OP.

[Django Spider]

Of the ones listed (that I own) the only one was REALLY difficult to find was KONG, because it was one of the few I didn't preorder. It was also the most expensive, like $39, so I debated until the last second and couldn't find it. Luckily for me, I mentioned this to a friend in another state and they (and another friend) pitched in and bought it for me for my birthday So that was awesome

I had a couple have damage (Hateful 8 has a dent on the top; Thing's slip cover was bent) but otherwise nothing terrible. I've been lucky, I suppose.

[Gogeta149]

Did any of you had problems getting the 10 Cloverfield Lane steel?
Went on release date and couldn't find any of them