I have 1,700+ titles now, and one of the most entertaining (and time consuming!) things I've done is try to build that list relatively quickly and at the lowest possible cost.

This has meant not one, but many separate strategies at different points.  The first 150 to 200 titles I bought new, on sale at retail outlets, before I realized I was going to get serious at collecting.  Then I realized that I could do even better than the $5 bin at Walmart or $7-$10 at Circuit City.

I then scrounged thru yard sales for popular titles often for just $1 a disc.  (Lowest was 25 cents for a movie that a dog had chewed on the keep case ...)

Then I bought entire collections.  One guy dumped 363 titles because he was switching over to Blu-Ray, and I got the lot for $1.17 each. And they were pristine!

I finally realized that I could even sell some on Amazon, and by selling just a few titles from his collection ("Exit to Eden for $40) the eventual cost was under a buck per title. (That includes things like "Rome" Season 1 ...)

I then discovered Swaptree, a fast growing trading web site, and traded the $1 DVDs I didn't want for the ones I did. I added over 850 DVDs thru this site, at an average cost of $3.25 - $3.50 per title acquired.

That includes the cost of the movie I traded, along with the postage and packing materials. That also often includes new keep cases at about 35 cents because it's a cheap way to make people happy by sending out something that really looks sharp.

Along the way I also learned to check on Amazon for titles where I could come out ahead by just buying it.  I'm often amazed to learn that I can get something brand new for a buck plus $2.98 shipping!

I'd love to hear the collection building strategies of others.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

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And I never buy titles just because they are cheap.

No argument there! I often buy movies that I've already seen and would like to see again. Many of these have been out for a good while and therefore are less expensive to acquire.

When I have an urge to see a new release I'll do that with Netflix, and then wait for the initial marketing hype to die down a bit.  DVDs can fall rapidly in price within a few months, and I can usually exercise a bit of restraint in favor of a significant savings.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

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IMHO a collection is defined by quality, not quantity, and, as always, "quality" is very subjective to taste.

We are in agreement again!

One objective I have in collecting is to gather titles which have significant critical acclaim and / or various awards. Looking thru my collection I think some here would quickly pick out titles which are either good or rare or even good AND rare.

We all have different means to live within, and for me that means trying to do the most I can with limited resources for collecting movies!

Meh. I own a lot of crap, but I buy them blind used at prices far less than a rental. If I don't like them so be it, I can't bothered to go through the hassle of making back £0.20 after postage on a disc that octs me £0.50 to £1.00. I have a very varied taste and will go through stages of genres, actors, directors etc etc. At the end of the day, the only advice I can give, is be honest to yourself and buy what you like personally, not what some people in forums say you should like.

Mainly double-dipping buying blu-rays of movies I already had on DVD as of late, not too many double-dips in DVD alone - fortunately. When it does happen, it's either because a DVD I bought separately is also part of a box set I buy later on, or because I prefer a better edition over the one I bought initially.

And yes, I have bought from all over the world. Very happy to have multi-region equipment that can play just about anything. That I'm not too heavy on Region 1 would be obvious in view of my nationality, which puts me in R2 land.

Quoting SpaceFreakMicha:

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I buy movies and series I like or I really want to watch. Sure, I want to get something for my money, but paying ~50€ for a season on BluRay just on release date is for me more satisfying than waiting 2 years to get it used for 20€.
And I never buy titles just because they are cheap.

IMHO a collection is defined by quality, not quantity, and, as always, "quality" is very subjective to taste.
I do not want to have a high collection count, I want to get the discs I like to see.

I totally agree with you

Quoting lasitter:

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I'd love to hear sometime about the equipment you have that allows for converting freely from NTSC, PAL, SECAM, etc.

Luckily a "non-issue" for us europeans, any TV younger than 10 years should handle NTSC out of the box, and with HDTV it would need some deliberate stonewalling so a set could not support all the old legacies.

And if you buy/own a upscaling DVD-Player hooked up via HDMI the problem is gone anyway.


cya, Mithi

PS And SECAM was, as far as I know, never an issue for DVD.

PSS SECAM - System Essentially Contrary to the American Method ... 

Quoting lasitter:

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I didn't know until today that you guys get to see movies four percent faster because of the technique employed to avoid judder ...

And another very good reason to go Blu ... finally no more PAL-Speedup.
The 4% faster was never a big problem for me, but for musical people the change in pitch was quite annoying I'm told. And yes, this could be pitched down, and it was an certain movies, but in most of the case the studios simply didn't care enough.

cya, Mithi

While good for collection purposes, it's unfortunate for the space issues in my house that I work in a shop that deals in used DVDs.  I acquire a lot of DVDs for the price of time (my boss will give me movies to come in early or stay later) or for extremely cheap prices.

It has gotten to the point where if it hits our cheapest section and sounds remotely interesting, I'll pick it up.  I get those for $1, so if something I picked up there turns out to be crap, meh. 

I am haphazardly working on building my Criterion collection (basically whatever we get in, or sometimes I order one new when I get a little extra money), and slowly working toward having all of AFI's & Time's top 100 list and all the Oscar best picture & best foreign film winners and nominees.

I won't even try to say that's it's not as much about quantity as quality.  I ditched my cable (lots of $$ for 300 channels of nothing) and I live in a rural area, so I don't get any channels over the air (and I guess I wouldn't now anyway).  So all I watch is DVDs.  Plus, despite appearances to the contrary, I don't intend to remain at this job forever, so best to get 'em cheap while I can!