Your DVD collection: What are your standards?

[EinBebop]

I only want 'great' 5-star movies(*) in my collection. Occasionally, someone will give me a substandard movie for Christmas or my birthday or something. It irritates me to no end, because it hurts the integrity of my collection. I guess you could say movie collection is a self-defining thing.

I do make a few 4-star and 3-star exceptions
1) Nostalgia movies
2) Part of a series (Matrix sequels, maybe the Star Wars prequels)
3) Fantasy genre- since the 5-stars are so few and far-between

1 & 3 again go back to being self-defining, in a sense. 2 is just me being anal.

I think I'm far pickier than most. I base this on the fact that some of you reading this, when asked to pick your favorite movie out of a group or genre, cannot narrow your lists down to less than twenty.

How far do y'all go? Would you own ever movie ever made if you could? Or every movie you ever liked in the slightest? Would your ultimate collection be in the thousands, or the hundreds, or just the dozens?

(*)By my own standards. Mind you, my collection includes Undercover Brother and Benny and Joon.

[Adam Tyner]

The majority of my DVDs are blind purchases, and although I "hit" more than I "miss", the quality is pretty uneven. A hobby of reviewing whatever DVDs come my way and an addiction to schlocky horror/sci-fi doesn't exactly help the quality quotient, at least from the perspective of most people. I like most of what I have, even if they aren't movies that would widely be considered great.

[FredNash]

I used to be picky about my collection, but now that I have a great core to build around, all or most of the essentials are there and I'm not so picky anymore. Now I'm more likely to spend $5 on a used dvd then go see it in the theater for the same price or more. Dickie Roberts is a perfect example. I got a perfect (no scratches) copy used for $5. The movie sucked donkey balls, but hey, for $5 my whole family watched a fairly new movie that would have cost like $40 not including candy and popcorn to see in the theater...

I think my general rule is the same though, that I will never buy anything but a "5 star" movie brand spanking new. I hate hate HATE paying more than $15 for a dvd and won't do it unless it's in-the-plastic brand new and a movie I A) really like and want to own and B) am almost positive I will never see a decent copy of used.

Buying used (sometimes for only one or two dollars more than renting) has given me the opportunity to see tons of movies that I never would have been able to either see in the theater or would have spent $15 or $20 to buy new...

[Mynd Hed]

My formula is like this:

10 X = # of times I expect to watch the movie
20 Y = cost of renting movie
30 Z = cost of buying movie
40 IF X * Y > Z
50 THEN I buy it.

(Yay for nerdy BASIC references!)

That translates to buying most movies that I like even slightly, because I work at a place (Hastings) that does a booming business in used DVDs, and being the video guy, I get first pick plus a hefty employee discount. If I wait two weeks (usually less) after the release date, I can nearly always manage to pick up a used copy of a brand new movie, in perfect or near-perfect condition, for around seven bucks, meaning it's "worth it" according to my formula after only two viewings.

This also means that I don't have time to watch everything I buy, so I've got a pretty large pile of bought-but-unwatched DVDs sitting on top of my player at all times. But I figure, hey, this way when I no longer work at my current job and have to suffer the horror of paying full price, at least I'll have a large backlog so that I don't run out of stuff to watch TOO quickly. (-:

[MrBananagrabber]

Buying DVDs relies solely on how often I think I'm going to rewatch it. If I want to check out nifty special features or just watch the movie once, I'll rent it. I'd rather pay 5 bucks thatn 30, you know?

[Lord Dalek]

I choose entrants into my collection the following way: I buy what I want, and skip what I don't. Pretty simple huh?

[PRdude]

I buy DVDs of movies that are my all-time favorites.

I strongly prefer season sets over "best of" sets, but I make exceptions for shows that don't seem to have much hope of getting complete season sets. Say, Power Rangers. I also own "best of" DVDs with Beavis and Butt-head.

I'll own two different DVDs of the same movie as long as each has some features that the other lacks.

[Speedy Boris]

-I generally try to get the newest version of a DVD that's out. I got the 1-disc Cuckoo's Nest instead of the 2-disc for my birthday and I was a tad disappointed, especially since I told my mom the difference. About the only movie I'm hesitant to upgrade is Terminator 2 Extreme Ed., and that's because of the limited special features compared to Ultimate. Hey, gotta keep those Japanese T2 trailers! ;)
-I avoid movies/shows that I couldn't conceivably watch with other people. So that excludes any porn DVDs (including ecchi/hentai), Sports Illustrated Swimsuit DVDs, movies with graphic sex scenes, and the like. Of course, I have picked up titles before and have sold them/trashed them because I felt they fell into this category, i.e. Puni Puni Poemy, Cutey Honey, Fritz the Cat, Original Sin Unrated, but generally that doesn't often happen.
-I generally try to buy anime at Best Buy as opposed to Suncoast because it's $10 cheaper (or more) in most cases.
-If there's a movie that I'm sure will get a Special Edition/re-release treatment one day, I hold off on it. In many cases, I'm glad I did. Look at Predator, for example. But something like National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1... I highly doubt there'll be a brand new edition of that anytime soon. ;)
-I will not buy ANY DVD with a clear sticker on the top of the DVD itself. I made that mistake this summer by buying four DVDs from Movie Gallery (a rental chain) and it cost me the use of my computer for most of July. :mad:
-If I accidentally bought a fullscreen DVD in the past and want to replace it with a widescreen duplicate, I will only do so if it's an action movie. Stuff like Johnny English or Office Space isn't as crucial because it's a comedy film. But for example, I bought back Jurassic Park 1 & 3 in Widescreen.

[Michael24]

Basically, I just buy what I've seen and liked. A friend of mine hardly ever goes to the theaters and never rents, and he just buys DVDs when they come out. Me, I rarely buy a movie without having seen it first, because when I have I get stuck with a crappy movie (TEARS OF THE SUN, HIDALGO). The only time I'm picky about what I buy is if money is an issue. If my money was limitless, I would probably have twice as many DVDs, but sometimes I have to pass on movies I like so I can get a movie that I really like.

[Fone Bone]

I only buy new DVDs from stores with decent return policies in case it's busted. I keep a DVD list of everything I want to own and try not to stray from it. (If a new show or movie that I like comes out I add it to it.) I don't buy R or X rated DVDs.

[PRdude]

I only buy new DVDs from stores with decent return policies in case it's busted. I keep a DVD list of everything I want to own and try not to stray from it. (If a new show or movie that I like comes out I add it to it.) I don't buy R or X rated DVDs.
I don't buy X-rated DVDs myself (or anything else X-rated for that matter).

[Lord Dalek]

-I generally try to get the newest version of a DVD that's out. I got the 1-disc Cuckoo's Nest instead of the 2-disc for my birthday and I was a tad disappointed, especially since I told my mom the difference. About the only movie I'm hesitant to upgrade is Terminator 2 Extreme Ed., and that's because of the limited special features compared to Ultimate. Hey, gotta keep those Japanese T2 trailers! ;)And yet you bought the crappy ID4 dvd.

[Speedy Boris]

I couldn't find the special edition in any of the stores I checked. I'm not on trail here! ;)

EDIT: These are not hard and fast rules. A lot of it depends on the amount of money I have at the time and whether the film justifies spending an extra $10+ on the Special Edition or not. In the case of ID4, I don't care enough about the special features to want a 2-Disc set.

[Matt-a-Tastic]

THere is an incready big amount of DVD's I want to get, so yes I am fussy

[Duke]

I get pretty much any DVD that suits my fancy. I love getting those one-shot anime DVDs (such as Grrl Power, Magical Play, Otaku no Video, etc.), and I have been interested in a lot of ADV's "Essential Anime Collection" line.

Some series I discovered on DVD (Excel Saga, Love Hina, and Azumanga Daioh come to mind), while others I loved on TV (Invader Zim, Futurama, Pokémon, and anything Gundam).

[FredNash]

-I will not buy ANY DVD with a clear sticker on the top of the DVD itself. I made that mistake this summer by buying four DVDs from Movie Gallery (a rental chain) and it cost me the use of my computer for most of July. :mad:
Tips About Cleaning DVDs (http://forums.toonzone.net/showthread.php?t=105188)

GooGone (http://www.organize-everything.com/stickerlifter.html) is your friend

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v77/FredNash/googone.gif

[Mr. Pedro]

Whatever's in imdb.com's top 250 (provided the actual disc has a healthy amount of extras). Multiple-disc sets always help.

Anything else is strictly an impulse buy.

[Juu-kuchi]

A lot of my anime DVDs were blind purchases when I knew that bargains could be found. Although I somewhat do not regret buying Cowboy Bebop. Most anime nowadays I have already seen and enjoyed (AzuDai, Excel Saga) so I buy it. Non-anime movies I've rented before, enjoyed a lot and all that junk. If I really enjoy one movie a lot, then I purchase it.

Although lately I haven't been buying much DVDs as of late. =/

[Knight]

The only standards I have for buying DVD's are that they be either cheap or on sale (I typically wont pay over 17 dollars for any DVD). They can be used as long as it doesn't look too worn. And the most important thing is that I have to like the movie. Though a lot of time I take a gamble and end up with a dud (Monster's Ball sticks out as one I bought that has no re-watchable qualities to it).