Charity (thrift) shop DVD hunting

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Dave Gilmour's Cat, Dec 8, 2019.

  1. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Inspired by this brilliant thread:
    UK Charity (Thrift) Shop CD Hunting
    ...here’s a DVD equivalent. (If one exists already, please merge!)

    Found any good DVDs in charity shops or boot sales lately?

    I ended up buying 13(!) today, for a total of £7.50:

    • The Godfather (never actually seen this)
    • Road to Perdition
    • Some Like It Hot (last saw it about 30 years ago)
    • Ed Wood (never seen it)
    • Stand By Me (recall liking this at the time)
    • She’s Having a Baby
    • Mystic Pizza
    • Lost Highway
    • Fellini’s 8 1/2
    • La Dolce Vita
    • Paris, Texas
    • Breathless
    • Le Mepris

    Any thoughts? Any recent pick-ups of your own?
     
    Dave112, L.P., Greenalishi and 15 others like this.
  2. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    That's a nice eclectic haul! Do you keep or just watch and then redonate?
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat likes this.
  3. uncarvedbloke

    uncarvedbloke Forum Resident

    Location:
    UK - SOT
    Cool idea for a thread :) I suspect I will be a regular.
    This week -

    Black Panther 99p
    Christian F. 20p
    The Gambler 30p
    Dark tales Of Japan . 25p
    ZEN tv DVD Ninjatune 30p

    I regularly watch sell/donate.
     
    MC Rag and Dave Gilmour's Cat like this.
  4. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

    I started a similar, now well-established, thread over at Blu-ray.com, with BDs being the main focus, rather than DVDs.

    I presume BD finds are welcome here?

    Some of my recent finds:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    The Fugitive, factory-sealed, £1.99
    On the Road, factory-sealed, with slip, 50p
    The Anderson Tapes, 99p
    To Kill a Mockingbird, 75p
    The Ladykillers, factory-sealed, 75p
    Darkest Hour, factory-sealed, with slip, 75p
    Inglourious Basterds, 75p
    American Gangster, 75p
    An American Werewolf in London, 75p (this one will be gifted to my father-in-law, as I already have the Arrow LE)
    Animal Factory, £1.00
    In the Shadow of the Moon, factory-sealed, £1.99
    The Great Gatsby, factory-sealed, £1.99
    Scent of a Woman, factory-sealed, £1.99
     
    Manutius, Scowl, rikki nadir and 6 others like this.
  5. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes, but I keep the ones I really love. So that pile is growing. Especially since you can now buy them for ridiculous prices. Five for £1 in one shop.
    Nice haul. For these prices, you can’t really go wrong, can you?
    Yes, of course. Post away.
    Some great stuff you found there. I have been looking for American Werewolf in London but never see that one. To Kill a Mockingbird is wonderful.
     
  6. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

    Cheers :)

    The real find in that lot is The Anderson Tapes. Anything from the high end boutique labels (Criterion, MoC, BFI, Arrow, Indicator) is extremely rare to find in a chaz.

    Also really happy with The Lady Killers, sealed, for 75p.

    Did a few chazzas today. Didn’t find anything for myself, but I did find a beautiful (and large) mother of pearl and sterling silver pendant, with silver chain, for £2.99. It’s easily worth £50. My girlfriend is a very happy bunny this evening.
     
  7. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    That’s nice for your girlfriend. Agree that it’s rare to find high-end stuff. I was surprised to be finding Jean-Luc Godard films today. The man at the till said that someone was clearing out their collection and had dropped in some great films yesterday. Most of them had already gone....

    The same shop had three(!) copies of This Is Spinal Tap.
     
  8. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    Agreed, I've never seen any Indicators in charity shops. I don't spend so much time looking for DVDs Blu-Rays as I do CDs, but I'll always have a quick scan for interesting looking discs: Artificial Eyes, Eurekas, Tartan Asia, BFIs etc. I can usually pick them out of the dross by their spines in a few seconds.

    I'll have a browse through my collection and post some things later this week.
     
    Eric_Generic, Dubmart, Dave S and 3 others like this.
  9. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Great thread idea :)
    My last couple of finds, all on DVD:

    The Fountain (2-disc special edition w/lenticular outer sleeve, still sealed) - 1€
    L.A. Confidential - 1€
    Pasolini's Medea - 1€
    Boys Town/Men of Boys Town - 1€
    The Osterman Weekend - 1€
    Victor/Victoria - 1€
    Heimat: A Chronicle of Germany (6 DVDs, incl. booklet) - 5€
    Barton Fink - 1€
    Children of Paradise (still sealed) - 1€
    The Wizard of Oz - 2€
     
  10. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    Do you watch the English language ones with subtitles?
     
    LeBon Bush likes this.
  11. LeBon Bush

    LeBon Bush Hound of Love

    Location:
    Austria
    Yup. Most were german releases anyway, but the Boys Town movies were watched with english subtitles :)
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat likes this.
  12. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    Not a huge DVD buyer, but did pick up "The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency", (not the complete series), for 50p at last week's boot sale, I remember enjoying it when it was broadcast so thought I'd give it a go, other than that a friend gave me three James Bond Blu Rays as he'd bought himself the box set. I don't always bother looking at DVDs as they are even more samey selection wise than CDs, but I would hit a good collection if I saw one.
     
  13. Dave S

    Dave S Forum Resident

    My same technique with CDs.
     
  14. jlocke08

    jlocke08 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington
    HBO only had one season of #1 Ladies Detective Agency so if you got a set with more than one episode, that's probably all there is. not sure on UK releases. Damn shame. really enjoyed the season, wish there was more.
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat likes this.
  15. Dubmart

    Dubmart Senior Member

    Location:
    Bristol, England
    I think it's the feature length pilot, will check tomorrow, but my brother who collects DVDs in a very serious way told me it wasn't the complete series when I showed him it, for 50p I'm happy either way, I also wish the series had continued, it really stood out from the crowd, I think I'll watch it this week.
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat likes this.
  16. gabacabriel

    gabacabriel Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bristol, UK
    Great thread idea!

    Truth told, I don't buy as many movies as I would like in thrift stores - round my way (Bristol) it iends to be mainly DVDs, and I prefer BD (or 4K) if available for a particular title.

    Still, managed to pick up a couple of 3D blu-rays recently for 99p a pop - the kids like sitting down with the glasses and popcorn! :-

    • Avatar 3D
    • Avengers Assemble 3D

    ...there was a third title, but the name escapes me for the moment!
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat likes this.
  17. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    I wish they were priced like that here in the USA... At the thrift stores I frequent, they charge a $1.00 or $2.00 each, I've never seen them priced less than that.

    Yard sales/garage sales (I suppose in the UK they'd be called "boot sales" or something like that) are the only place I've found them priced at less than a dollar, I think .50c was the cheapest I've found, but even most of them charge in the $1.00-$2.00 range... My sister and nephew lucked out when they found a garage sale selling them for .25c.

    All that said, between thrifts and occasional yard/garage sales, I've collected over 250 DVDs since the spring of this year.
     
    Dave Gilmour's Cat and MC Rag like this.
  18. Dave Gilmour's Cat

    Dave Gilmour's Cat Forum Resident Thread Starter

    250?! Wow! Do you have a list?

    Today I picked up two more for 75p each:

    Star Trek Beyond (2016) – enjoyed the first two, so thought I’d try the third

    The Lonely Guy (1984) – Steve Martin comedy I haven’t seen for a very, very long time
     
  19. Holerbot6000

    Holerbot6000 Forum Resident

    Location:
    California
    Check out EBay - a lot of thrift stores are starting to make their dvd inventories available online. Super cheap and amazing the bargains you can find. I recently found some beautiful Criterion Blu's that I picked up for next to nothing. You have to slog through a fair amount of dross, but I have always found it worth it when you find a gem or, better yet, something you didn't even know existed.
     
  20. Grand_Ennui

    Grand_Ennui Forum Resident

    Location:
    WI

    No, no list, sorry...

    But, there are a lot of Westerns, The "Die Hard" (Bruce Willis) films, some comedy concerts, the "Death Wish" (Charles Bronson) films, some misc. war titles, a few different seasons of "South Park", "Seinfeld" seasons 1-5, just a lot of various films, most are in the action/adventure genre, a few Western TV series seasons/half seasons too.

    Most all of them are films I have *not* seen, but I had heard of and thought they could be good... Some others just sounded good from the description, so I picked those up too... I still check the DVDs out whenever I'm in the thrift stores even though I haven't even put a dent into watching these.

    I would say a good 75% of them came from the same thrift store, so I do okay at that one. It's at the point where if I go in there and don't buy a DVD (or CD), one of the regular workers will say something like "No DVDs today?!?" in a kidding manner... But, I don't mind having someone like that at that store, because once or twice when I was in there, she called to the back (where they receive their donations) and asked if they were going to be bringing any DVDs out while I was there.
     
  21. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    Some of the more interesting ones from the past year or two (including the only 2 Criterions I've ever seen in charity shops - Armageddon and the Ruling Class with Peter O'Toole).

    [​IMG]

    and

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2019
    Manutius, Eric_Generic and stepeanut like this.
  22. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

    I have bought a couple of Criterion DVDs in chazzas (The Silence of the Lambs original, plus The Beastie Boys Anthology) and left another (Bergman’s The Magic Flute). Never seen a Criterion BD in a chaz, but I know one or two people who have. It is all about being in the right place at the right time.

    That MoC BD of Spione is a sweet find.
     
    MC Rag likes this.
  23. Floyd Crazy

    Floyd Crazy Senior Member

    Queen Greatest Video Hits 2
    for 20p
    at a Charity Shop in the UK.
    Great DVD DTS sound what a bargain.
     
    LivingForever likes this.
  24. I used to purchase the DVD's and CD's from thrift shops fairly regular.
    It has been quite a while since I last pirchased though...two this year is all.

    Of the two thrift shops I frequent the CD/DVD collections have too many damaged discs for me to both mush anymore.
    I am amazed how damaged some ot the discs have gotten. I have discs from 1985 or so that are still in perfect condition.
    Many discs that I see at the thrift stores look like they were used as the puck in a pick up game of street hockey...How do they get so damaged in regualr use?

    Anyway, there is one film I search for and that is "Willow"

    Otherwise I just purchase what I want when it goes to the $5 or $9 bin at the store. Brand new, no issues, a warranty if you have the receipt and no sifting through the jumbled mess of discs just to find the title you want but realize the disc is quite damaged....Dang it!
     
    AlmostHeavenWV and Grand_Ennui like this.
  25. MC Rag

    MC Rag Forum Resident

    Yes I was shocked at the Spione, it was sealed so they charged me £3 :)
     
    stepeanut likes this.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine