Return to Movie Collecting

Collecting is an obsession and an addiction. Kept in check, it can be rewarding and bring great joy to our lives. Unchecked, collecting can bring on financial ruin, depression, and hoarding syndrome.

I have always suffered from it. From early days of comic collecting, paperbacks, records, and on to movies, magazines, and deluxe edition hardcovers. I wish I had the money I pissed away on stuff that is now gone from my life.

I can't stop. Nor do I want to stop. I love the hunt. I love owning physical things. And of course I love books, movies, and music.

I gave up movie collecting for a long time. Reasons for this are various, but for one I was not watching a lot of movies for the last few years. I'm starting to watch more, even if I am not going to return to my nightly movie ritual.

I may watch two or three a week these days. Retirement is in sight, and I hope to double that figure.

My main way of collecting is buying used movies. I do a little online shopping, but you can't beat the deals at thrift stores and library sales. I find some really cool items in between the mainstream pap that permeates the shelves.

Horror is becoming increasingly rare. Especially classic horror. I don't want Saw or Rob Zombie DVDs. I want old slasher movies, black and white horror and SF, biker flicks and raunchy comedy.

I'm not discounting Ebay. I recently obtained mint copies of the Herschell Gordon Lewis Collection from Something Weird Video. I won it for five dollars, and there was a four dollar shipping fee. I got an almost exact deal on a Mario Bava box set from Anchor Bay. This is better than thrift store prices.

Then there are the new releases. It's hard, almost impossible, to say no to some of the movies coming from places like Synapse and Shout! Factory. I recently could not resist a Blu-ray of my favorite Charles Bronson movie, The Evil That Men Do, from Shout!. I got The Kindred and Massacre at Central High from Synapse.

I'm trying to be good, but how can an old slasher fan pass up the Silent Night, Deadly Night 3-Film collection from the newly-revived Vestron Video label? For a pittance of a price, $17.32, it sits on my preorder page at Amazon.

I take deep breaths and tell myself to stay calm. To think of my future. It works for a while, then I am back at it. On the road, burning gas and spending money, and scrolling through pages at Ebay and Amazon.

I buy some to keep and others I sell at conventions. When I see classic movies that only cost a dollar or two, I almost never pass them up.

Collecting is my downfall and it is my saving grace. You can have your streaming and your Kindles. I'm here at home, happy as a clamshell case, with my physical specimens.

Written by Mark Sieber