The Day I Bought 576 DVD's
And why you should too
When I was in secondary school I was easily distracted. A teenager more interested in friends than in physics.
During one of my history lessons, instead of discussing Lewis Lewis, Dic Penderyn, and the Merthyr Tydfil riots of 1831 in small groups, my friend Dafydd and I sat laughing, giggling our way through plans for the upcoming summer. We came up with the ingenious idea of a jelly welly. We would go out and buy a brand new welly and use it as a mould. Once the liquid set, we would cut the welly off and ta-da, a perfect wobbling jelly welly.
(I do realise that for Americans, this would equate to a jello rain boot. That does not have the same ring to it)
I don’t know why I was taking this plan seriously, but I took the idea to my Mum with the plan of securing funding for the project…
Needless to say I put the idea on the shelf with haste as a result of said conversation. At least I could use it as an anecdote to demonstrate my frivolous nature in later life.
Fast-forward to April 2024 and I sit on my sofa browsing Facebook Marketplace.
I have a bad feeling about this…
“Loads of people are selling off their dvd’s and blu-ray’s”, I comment to my wife. “So cheap as well!”
I streamed a dream of time gone by
We’ve all been sold the idea that streaming has made our physical collections redundant. Like sound was ‘better’ than silents, colour ‘better’ than black & white, so streaming is ‘better’ than keeping our films at home. Too much space taken up in our house when we can spend £10 a month for Bezos and the gang to keep some of it on their servers, if they want.
If we’re honest with ourselves, some of the tripe that Netflix churns out would be straight in the bargain bin if you saw it Woolworths 20 years ago1. The streamers do show classics periodically, and some of their original stuff is great, but we all know that this a one-way contract. It’s not up to us what they keep in their libraries and they can whip those titles out as quick as you can say “tax write-off”.
I too have been in the streaming camp for years now. Recently though, I dusted off the blu-ray player and started going through my collection. Taking ten minutes to decide which film to watch has been immensely more enjoyable in real life than it is scrolling through one true-crime documentary after another, even if it can be just as impossible to choose.
Filmmakers agree this is still the best way to go as well, with Chris Nolan enticing us with the Oppenheimer blu-ray by packing it with extras so that we can watch the actual film in the way he intended. Just like vinyls, the artwork has become front and centre recently too. Look at the Jaws steel book I have above..corrr..who doesn’t want that on the shelf!?
But what about those 576 DVD’s Gareth!?
Oh yes, sorry.
So a few weeks ago I was browsing Facebook marketplace for nothing significant when I saw a pile of DVD’s for sale, and then another, and then another. Within a ten mile radius I could get my hands on collection after collection, their owners looking to save space.
The jelly welly flashed through my memory…
Teenage Me: After all, why not!? Why shouldn’t I?
2024 Me: Don’t do it Ga…
Teenage Me: I’ll only spend a little bit!
2024 Me: Remember the jelly welly…
In that moment the distracted teenager of my past got the better of me and I text my mate
with a challenge:Buy the best stash of DVD/BluRay on Facebook for no more than £35. Best stash wins.
He was in. I took to the internet and widened the radius on my marketplace. Searching for mere minutes I began homing in on what looked like a quality stash, at least 100 dvds, all good titles too. I could only bid in dollars..so I went for it…$30 all in.
Seller: “Did you mean £30? If so, yes.
I didn’t argue the fact that she’d clearly set the payment to dollars. They were mine.
Just a short, 40 minute drive to Nottingham to collect the goods. The seller opened the door and I honestly thought she was in the process of moving out. Bags lined the hallway, with more boxes being filled in the background.
“Are you sure you want all these?”
Bloody hell.
“I’ll be glad to be rid of them. People keep putting an offer in and then not showing up”
I’m the guy that shows up when he’s asked to. Always have been.
The boxes kept coming. Her house must have been an empty shell once I’d taken them all. A disc-less void, but they were mine now. Here’s a picture of me that I sent to Ellis once I’d returned to the car.
I took them back to the house and boxed them up again while having the opportunity to take a closer look. I was flabbergasted at what I’d taken in.
These pictures are the tip of the iceberg. Over 550 dvd’s and blu-ray’s, albeit with about 5 copies of the Rocky series. These were actually, properly good movies.
I’m not sure if the lady I bought these from realised what she was giving away. These boxes represent years of collecting. Prized possessions, special editions and whole series. They may have belonged to someone who’s now moved on, one way or another. Going by the volume, these clearly meant something, to someone once.
My plan is to donate at least a third of these where I can, and build the shelf of all shelves with the rest. Streaming be damned, I will NOT go without the option to watch the entire Rambo collection ever again!
You may be wondering if I won the challenge against Ellis….
Take a look…
*Spoiler alert, I absolutely trounced him*
Ellis managed to buy 200 dvd’s for £35 which included little in the way of classic films and even one copy of top shelf erotica.
Who’s the real winner here?
Save a Space on the Shelf
It’s easy to forget the money we’ve spent, not on filling a welly with jelly, but on that one film. It could have been taking a punt on a comedy on the shelf at Tesco on a Friday night, or saving up for the Lord of the Rings box set that you’d pre-ordered at Woolworth’s. 2
It was its own special. We all know it. We all talk about how great Blockbusters used to be.
Although 600 DVD’s would be excessive for most, there’s definitely a place on the shelf for your firm favourites, and some guilty pleasures too. Blu-Ray’s are always better quality than streaming as well.
Do you have any discs at home? Have you gotten rid of them?
If you haven’t..then don’t. Keep the special ones. Plus a few more. You’ll thank me one day.
Gareth
RIP Woolworths. Never forget.
RIP Woolworths. Never forget.
Your article brought back so many memories of collecting DVDs and browsing through stores like Woolworths. I loved how you captured the excitement of owning physical media and the connection we have to these collections. Great memories.
Our thing was Lovefilm, dvd rental by post and we could have up to two titles at any one time. Taught our boys that you have to wait for the good things in life. Having said that I think Mubi is a great streaming platform with a fantastic catalogue… and ReidsonFilm are open to offers of sponsorship.