Physical movies & collections

Hi Ichi!
Yes there are still old geezers like me who buy quite a lot of physical copies. Alas, I don’t know much about good suppliers in the US, since I live in France. However, I don’t know if it applies there but for a few years I’ve been buying loads of Blu-ray’s and dvds in garage sales and charity shops for virtually nothing. Of course the quality is sometimes poor (discs being scratched), the offer is most of the time blockbusters but on the whole I always have good surprises, including some rarities. Hope it can help you.

hi Lezard!

not many of us, but we're strong!

I know some good suppliers in the US (both stores and distributors like Criterion or Arrow). I'd rather like to find something within the EU (to avoid paying the import duties).

Also thought about buying second hands, thanks for the good advice. Unfortunately living in Croatia means that at best I'll find a selection of Marvel & DC movies, and similar. So I have to focus on ordering abroad.

I think the time of physical media will return, similar as how it happened with the vinyl. Until then, I won't be saving on the duties ;)

cheers!

Hi Ich!
Criterion and Arrow are fantastic as to quality, but quite expensive. Besides my all-zones dvd player is out and I can’t find a cheap one. Good luck to you then. But when you see a garage sale just cast an eye. You can really be surprised sometimes.
Have a nice day.

yes, Criterion is really pricey. But Arrow has some good discounts every now and then (i.e. just last month they had up to 70% on everything).

Cheers Lezard, and thanks I'll check the garage sales if I stumble on one.

#IchiTheMiller.
Hi again! Since the time of sales is coming, you could check out with French sites which provide quite good things: Carlotta, Wild Side, Potemkine, the Jokers, Le chat qui fume ( for odd bmovieS rarities). Hope you’ll find some good bargains soon.

@lezard
Any tips on good French sites, that ships outside of France? Or other good EU-sellers, I don't care about the language on the cover?

@IchiTheMiller
Given the amount of shots from newer movies on here, it seems that we are not the only ones with a fondness for the physical media.
I still buy (too) many :)

Somehow I posted twice - Sorry.

@Rigborg
Hi! I am not much of a specialist to buy online. Nevertheless you can try the sites I give above. I'm sure they can ship dvds but I really don't know if it's cheap or not. There's always Momox, a German site you probably know. I'm sorry not to be of much help. Best wishes anyway!
If anything comes back to mind I'll let you konow.

From France you can add to your list :

• ESC distributions
• BQHL
• L'Atelier d'Images

@Lezard
Thanks for the tip, I'll give it a look. Even though I splashed some serious cash on the Black Friday and Christmas sales. Too many sales I guess :)

I checked the Le chat qui fume and the first movie I saw was the Police Story 3, so I was immediately in love, checked other titles, great selection! The downside is that it has French titles, but I'm willing to compromise if I can't find the English version anywhere else. :)

@Rigborg

Regarding the sites selling the physical media, I'm kinda a picky to be honest, meaning I'm only trying to buy the media with english titles.

And I've found that the offer within the EU is a bit problematic ever since UK Brexited, because major markets (i.e. France, Germany, Italy...) are selling localized movies/covers.

Having that said, I'm using the following sites to order the movies:

• WOWHD.co.uk they are shipping from the US (even though the site is .co.uk as the company was initially founded in the UK). I think they have a great selection (i.e. just recently bought a DVD of 1995 The Blade, from Tsui Hark), offering most of bigger distributors (Criterion, Arrow, etc.) and many more. Downside are the import fees/taxes. Great prices but unfortunately the taxes... Also, for Blu Ray and DVD's it's a B region, in case this makes any difference. I'm watching it region free (and anyhow trying to buy 4k versions) so I'm OK with it. Free shipping for all the orders.
• goldendiscs.ie is actually (and unfortunately) the only seller within the EU that I found to satisfy me. They have a good selection, lagging some older/niche movies, but otherwise really good. Pricing is competitive and they have a free shipping for orders of 100€ above.
• arrowfilms.com major distributor, great selection and some nice niche movies selection (i.e. their Third Window lable). I'm buying from them on sales as they have 50% of sometimes.
• criterion.com simmilar to arrowfilms above.
• lately, I've taken a great advice from @Lezard and started buying the second hand movies. Because of poor selection of second hands in my country I'm mainly using ebay for that.

Hope it helps! :)

Hi Ichi,

Have you ever considered creating your own digital collection? You could digitize your physical media and store it on your own server, like a Synology NAS or something similar. It might be worth looking into Plex Media Server—there are plenty of great YouTube videos that can walk you through the platform.

Alternatively, you can download a ton of movies and TV shows, categorizing them however you like, essentially building your own personal Netflix.

While it’s not the cheapest option, it’s still much more affordable than continuing to buy physical media. Plus, let’s be honest—what’s the point of holding onto a physical collection these days? Save yourself the space and the money. Your kid will love it!

Hi Yippie,

appreciate the suggestion!

I thought about something like that, actually as an avid music collector I already own the audio network streamer - so, yes, NAS would fit in my digital setup at home.

Nevertheless I still opt for physical collection, eventually comes down to two things:

1. Nostalgia. No better argument here then simply admitting it's rather subjective :) I recall the joy I've had while picking through VHS in the movie rentals while I was a kid, selecting which one to devour today. Kinda hope my son picks it up as well, I guess. Whether it will happen or not is not under my control completely, but if not - I have a plan b in place (which takes me to second point).
2. I think physical assets will always have value. When I look at my vinyl collection, some pieces have doubled or tripled in price within the last 5 years. So, worst case scenario - my son can rip his own Netflix, have fun selling the physical copies and make some money :)

Alternatively, the third option is a Farenheit like scenario where they burn all the physical media, shut down the torrents and remote wipe the storages to get rid of the "dangerous material", and my collection will remain standing! :) joking ofc!

How about you, you don't own any physical medias anymore?

Cheers!

Hey Ichi,

You’re very welcome!

The nostalgia argument really resonates with me. I also have fond memories of going to the video store to pick out movies. Strangely enough, having access to so much content now doesn’t necessarily make it easier to decide what to watch!

I used to own somewhere between 1,000 and 1,500 physical movies, if I remember correctly—a massive investment at the time. I genuinely enjoyed the whole process of growing my collection, finding new cabinets to store them, and curating the perfect setup. But when streaming became popular, and my wife and kids moved with me to a bigger house, my DVDs started collecting dust over the years. It took me some time to accept that physical media had lost its emotional value for me, and when I finally put the collection online for sale, I quickly realized its financial value had evaporated as well.

In the end, I sold the collection for a fraction of its original worth to someone who was still passionate about collecting. It felt good to know the DVDs found a new home where they would be appreciated and enjoyed, instead of sitting forgotten in boxes in my attic. I think there might still be a couple of boxes stored at my parents’ house, though.

For me, Plex Media Server became a fantastic alternative. It allows me to keep enjoying the collecting aspect while also sharing my library with friends and family. Surprisingly, this turned out to be even more rewarding than lending out physical discs. That said, I completely understand the romance of hunting online for new (or old) gems and eventually holding the actual cover in your hands.

As for the "Fahrenheit" scenario, it’s comforting to know there will still be people like you to visit for a good movie! ;)

I’m afraid I’m not much help regarding your initial question, but if you decide to explore the digital path, feel free to reach out for tips and tricks.

Cheers!

Hi Yippie,

I'm planning to respond for a few days now, but the damn schedule.

Indeed, it is much more difficult to decide on your next watch nowadays. I have this, maybe irrational, aversion towards the last decade in commercial movies and rise of streaming platforms. Part of reason for that is the hyper-production that led to decrease in the quality of scripts, the imagination degraded and the focus shifted on mindless action and heavy reliance on CGI.
So now you have exponentially more to choose from than you did just a decade ago, often with questionable quality, and this together doesn't becomes counterproductive.

1000-1500 is really a reputable number, my physical collection counts short of 500 titles but it's still an infant. :) And the whole collection process is so interesting, you're right. It probably stimulates similar receptors as betting and such.

Will give it a think at one point for sure, and will revert. I used to play with makemkv back in the day so ripping shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks and cheers!