Laser Discs

triumph · 07-08-2006, 02:42 PM

Anyone have an inventory of old laser discs? I remember we used to have one of these players, where you had to turn the discs over halfway through the movies.

lyricb · 07-08-2006, 04:49 PM

Wow, I hadn't though about those in a while. Were those ever truly popular, or more of an oddity?

capitalist_junkie · 07-08-2006, 05:51 PM

My college library has a collection of them, and I actually had to use them a few times last semester. I quickly remembered why they never caught on. They were clunky, inefficient, difficult to navigate, and damaged much more easily than VHS or DVD.

lyricb · 07-09-2006, 06:17 AM

Well there's a shining endorsement, junkie. No wonder they never caught on.

capitalist_junkie · 07-10-2006, 03:55 PM

I think what made them most ineffective is that, despite their large physical size, they couldn't store a lot of data. Much of the time, the film I'd be watching would stop halfway through and I'd have to flip it over to finish the recording. That's only happened to me with on DVD: "Goodfellas."

triumph · 07-13-2006, 05:40 AM

They never really caught on at all. I still remember having to flip over Bambi half way through to see the rest of the movie. They were like hub-cap sized cds.

capitalist_junkie · 07-13-2006, 04:41 PM

Sometimes I wonder what they came out for in the first place. I've used them probably three whole times in my life. For the longest time, I thought they were something used for educational purposes only, because I only used them in school. In fact, I don't know anyone who had them for private use. It was either VHS or DVD.

vicki2 · 10-04-2006, 02:51 PM

Old thread, but new to me! LOL.

I had a huge (500 or so) collection of laser discs that I decided to unload last year. I had almost every Criterion Collection edition and alot of specific director collections. It took some work, but I did really really well on Ebay selling them. I was stunned.

philoSCIFI · 02-15-2007, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capitalist_junkie

For the longest time, I thought they were something used for educational purposes only, because I only used them in school. In fact, I don't know anyone who had them for private use. It was either VHS or DVD.

I seem to be a very rare oddity. I had and still have them for private use. My collection isn't as large as vicki2's, but I did have several... maybe a dozen or so.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vicki2

It took some work, but I did really really well on Ebay selling them. I was stunned.

I'm curious. How much did people actually end up bidding? If you don't mind me asking, ballpark figures what was the least and what was the most? I currently have about 2 dozen-ish discs. The discs and player still work, but if/when the player dies... will there even be that small few to sell to?

vicki2 · 02-15-2007, 08:58 PM

I bundled them by director or genre, and the amounts varied. For instance, I had all of Kubrick's early films on Criterion labelled discs and I got about $175 for those. The bundling really worked ...like all Paul Newman films, war films, foreign films. Of course, I didn't make back what I had in them, but I was surprised. I also sold two laser disc players for $75 each!