On the one hand, DVDs arent meant to last forever as a media. On the other hand, there are some cool items included with some sets. I would love to get the original fight club gift catalog or items ordered from it, and i regret using my spiderman2 ticket that came with some Spider-Man 1 DVDs.
Im thinking the disks won’t become collectors items, but the inserts will.
Eventually, everything becomes collectible, but it may take a while. Rarity is the most important factor in collectibles and their value. There’s a shitload of DVDs and CDs out there, so most aren’t rare.
Think of the collectibility of 78s right now. Sure, some are (like “race records,” that had a limited distribution and a stigma), but you can get boxes of 78s at garage sales for the price of the box. And I doubt that 78s were are as widespread as CDs are now (but I haven’t looked at the actual figures), and CDs/DVDs (commercial ones) may be more durable than 78s in the long run.
With digital media formats, you are going to have a more limited collector base as exact bit-wise copies of the content are readily available. That is not true for records. The only way to hear an unadulterated Harvest label version of Dark Side of the Moon is to possess a copy.
As someone said the key reason is rarity, and there are literally billions of DVD discs in existence. My father has some old Edison cylinder recordings in near mint condition complete with there cardboard tube cases. I did a bit of research and found that, again because so many were produced, they’re not worth much unless they’re a *very *rare or famous recording. Even then, they’re still only worth what some collector is willing to pay. On average, most regular cylinders only fetch between $5-$15 (and they’re over 100 years old)…
At the same time as increasing rarity boosts the value, the increasing worthlessness drives the value in the opposite direction. Right now, 33 LPs are quite playable and usable, so have intrinsic value independent of rarity, but Edison cylinders are not played for any reason except novelty or history.
When we moved recently I realized that it had been a couple years since I last watched any of the many hundreds of DVDs I owned. So rather than haul them to the new place I sold any of them I could to an online place (forget the name). While most that they had any interest in they only offered a dollar or two for, there were a handful that they offered more than $20 for (such as the documentary Hands on the Hard Body).
“DVD” is just too broad a term. Compare it “Do you think spoons will become collector items one day?”
Almost every spoon you will come across is just a spoon. Maybe a sterling silver one is worth a bit of change. But there are people out there who pay thousands for special spoons.
So “spoons” overall are not collector items. But a specialized subset of them are.
I don’t think DVDs will fall into the same category as golden or silver age comics where quite a few of them in mint condition are worth a bit more than the cover price times inflation. They just didn’t print that many, there were cheaply made and treated correspondingly, etc.
Saving every spoon you can get in the hope that someday they might be worth something is a waste. But if you start reading about what makes a rare spoon worth something, start cruising estate sales, etc. Then you have an expensive hobby, which is so much better. Right? Right???
Much like 8 track audio tapes and VHS tapes, I think DVD’s will be the new landfill in a few years.
People will have access to almost everything ever put on DVD to watch for free or for a paltry sum on such networks like NetFlix and other such media mega-sources to come.
I suppose there will always be some collectors out there, but even today you will find people probably have more books on their Nook or Kindle than they actually have on bookshelves at home.
Granted, there will probably never be a “rare” eBook, and it is a tad difficult to find a first edition, or signed, eBook - but it does start to show the transition from hard copies of books as well as hard copies of other media.
It is just as easy to store digital media in so many other, more efficient and practical and cheaper methods than DVD/CD that do not require huge financial investments and physical storage space.
Not that I am looking forward to those days, but I think the writing is on the wall.
True Collectors are less concerned about the content of something than the actual item itself.
Think of Batman action figures. If you have an original, mint condition, in original box, unopened, you have a valuable collectible. If it was just the play-ability, you could pick up a new version at any toy store for just a few bucks and probably a beat-up version at any garage sale. Kids would probably enjoy the beat-up version just as much; not so with a collector.
I have some of the original Jonathan & Darlene Edwards LPs. I’m sure the music is available lots of places, but it’s the album cover and LP inside that is the true collectible. And while the music has become widely distributed, the number of albums is limited and bound to decline over time, making it more valuable (unless that kind of music takes over from rap, of course).
Regarding rare content, what about DVD editions with special features that aren’t available anywhere else? On my copy of Grudge 2 there is Takashi Shimizu’s student film which is credited as where he invented the cutaway scare. On my South Park TV dvd, there’s the “Goin’ Down to South Park” special that was aired only once on TV and is not available online, kind of like the Star Wars Christmas Special. I believe the alternate ending to I am Legend is only available on one of like 5 different dvd releases.
Even though those are relatively rare compared to other editions, they probably still printed tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of copies of them.
Some movies got instantly put onto DVD back in the 90s and have not been re-released since, so those are possibly rare and sought after finds. But it wouldn’t take much effort to re-release them some day, and then they’ll be worthless.
I believe anyone can find most everything you’ve listed online if they know where to look - I don’t think such “exclusive” content would necessarily be a major factor with regards to how collectible the physical media may eventually become.
Looking at it another way - how many used DVDs have YOU actually spent big bucks on?
The DVD would have to have something that I could not possess in some other fashion.
For instance, I can download a copy of Star Wars, but I believe the only way to see the truly original version of Star Wars is on VHS at this point. If Star Wars was important to me, that’s something I might pay for.
Of course, I find it unlikely that the truly only way of seeing the original is on VHS. Surely someone has put it in digital form somewhere.