Are you a blind buyer?

[DerLanghaarige]

I got a real problem and I already had it when movies came out on VHS: Instead of renting movies that I haven't watched yet, I just buy them. Of course not for the full price, but when they sell them used in the video store or I find them at the bargain shelf of my local multimedia store, it's very difficult for me to not buy them
This happens for two reasons (Three, if you count "I'm an idiot" as one of them)
1.) I'm a collector
2.) I know that it's difficult for me to find the time to watch them. So if I would rent them, it's possible that I have to give them back without watching them. Or I have to force myself to watch them NOW and therefore am not in the right mood and might not like that movie, even if it's good. So I buy them and watch them when I find the time and/or am in the right mood.

This causes one more problem: From the more than 750 DVDs that I bought over the last 10 years, I haven't watched something over 300 yet. Because I don't HAVE the time!

So what about you? Same problem? Similar problem? No problem, but the same bad habit? Or am I alone? (I think Quint has the same bad habit, which is one of the reason he made AMAD.)

[TonyWilson]

I used to do this a lot, Derlang, I've given it up because I was ending up with too many shitty movies and not enough gold nuggets. But boy is it easy to do, especially with HMV selling DVDs for about £3-5 nowadays.

[Hermanator X]

I used to be the same, up until about 4 years ago (age 27), I would buy so much, and so much of it remains unwatched, or watched once, with no urge to revisit it. I just got out of the habit, and am now more prone to rent things, unless I know its really for me.
I wasnt the worst, most rabid collector, but when I look back at the money I have spent on some things, I just cant get myself into the frame of mind at the time of purchase, and justify why I bought the crap.

Most of the stuff I have bought since, I do seem to revisit, but its down to what I class as essential purchases, rather than the old way of MUST HAVE EVERYTHING!!

[DerLanghaarige]

I gotta say from the movies I have watched I got a definitely good run. The only movie that made me seriously regret that I haven't checked it out before I bought it was 'Taking Lives'. Everything else was at least okay enough to not get mad about the few bucks that I spent on them.

[TonyWilson]

I had an awesome run of Stander, A Scanner Darkly, Harry He's Here To Help and some other one about James Spader and painting a fence or something, I can't find the disc now. But I found there was always more rubbish.

[Al Shut]

For some odd reason I can't be assed to rent anything


back in the days I blindly bought VHSs of The Big Lebowski and The Usual Suspects without having heard a single word about them. That's enough gold for a lifetrmie suply of shit.

[TheBaxter]

I only buy movies i know i will watch over and over again. so no, i don't buy anything sight unseen.

[Spandau Belly]

If there's something I'm interested in seeing but can't find it anywhere to rent and I can get a used copy for less than $10, sure, I'll buy it, and if I don't like it, I sell it and in the end it comes out to about the cost of a rental.

I blindbuy stuff all the time and end up selling off most of it.

The key is knowing what to sell and what to keep.

[minstrel]

I just buy stuff. I haven't rented anything for ten years or more. Usually I'm alright with what I get - it's rare that a real clunker enters the house, and part of the reason for that is that I read Ain't It Cool News and I get a heads-up if something is really shitty. Sometimes I just have a jones for something and I buy it even if I've heard that it's lousy, and then I watch it once, agree that it's lousy, and it goes into the closet on the "Lousy" shelf, rather than into our main DVD collection. Movies like Poseidon and Jackson's King Kong wind up there.

I'm also guilty of Derlang's and Quint's syndrome: I buy more movies than I watch. I have a lot of DVDs I've had for years but have never seen. I like having them, though. Likewise, I have a lot of books I've never read ...

[Fried Gold]

I would break my DVDs down into three groups:

- Those which I wanted to buy and watched repeatedly.
- Those which I've bought for group viewing (i.e. when friends/family come over, I have something to put on which everyone can watch)
- Those "blind buys" that you've talked about (i.e. They were cheap/recommended, and I will watch them at some point).

This last group is probably the smallest group though. I'm not as compulsive a buyer as some. My collection isn't quite as massive as yours. I do know people with stockpiles that go into the thousands.

[John-Locke]

used in the video store or I find them at the bargain shelf of my local multimedia store

This explains why 99% of the films you review here are absolute shit

some other one about James Spader and painting a fence or something

The Music of Chance, he has to build a wall with Mandy Patinkin after losing all he's got in a game of poker to some Millionaires who keep them both as prisoners on their property. Only ever caught the second half on TV but I remember I liked it a lot.

I used to blind buy all the time as well as just buying films I'd already seen and enjoyed, I wen through a perod of buying films with actors in I liked, I ended up with some real stinkers with Steve Buscemi in them, I've also got a load of crap Kung-Fu films but generally I bought films I knew I'd like and watch lots.

These days I pretty much only buy films I haven't seen and have no real option of watching any other way, these invariably tend to be Foreign films, films like The Lives of Others, Tell No One, Election, Das Experiment etc.. I've never seen the last two films I've bought either and those are in English, The Mosquito Coast & The Man Who Fell to Earth, I'm pretty certain I'm going to like them though, going to watch them in my Mums place in france in a weeks time, projected onto the wall at about 6ft x 6ft

[DerLanghaarige]

This explains why 99% of the films you review here are absolute shit

I don't review every movie I watch, but there seem to be a special kind of movies that I just love to review here. Mostly these movies that nobody else seem to care about.

[Chris a.k.a StuntMike]

Yeah, whenever I go to Wal-Mart I end up buying something in the $5 bin. Yesterday's purchase? Sam Peckinpah's Convoy.

[theunforgettablefire]

I bought In Bruges blind...couldn't have possibly been any happier with my purchase.

[DennisMM]

I'll occasionally buy a $5 DVD blind, and I've bought a few more expensive discs blind when I've heard about them from friends, or if they are cult movies I've read about. I've never paid anywhere close to a normal MSRP for a title I hadn't seen.

[MadCapsule]

I used to be a blind buyer. My reasoning was that I would often end up paying so much in late fees at Blockbuster and Hollywood Video that I was better off just buying the movies I was interested in, but I dropped that habit cold turkey. I was spending way too much money on movies that I would have had a good time renting, but didn't need to own. That and the fact that it was starting to take up way too much room, not unlike my comic book habit, which I also dropped.

Netflix satisfies my home viewing urges now. I was very skeptical of it at first, because I used to have a subscription to Gamefly and I had so many games get lost in the mail (i.e. stolen) that I canceled my membership. So far I haven't had any such problems with Netflix and their instant movies pretty much negate the need for me to upgrade my membership to get multiple movies at once. The only problem I have is that a lot of the instant movies shown on Netflix are shown in "standard" screen size instead of 16:9 ratio.

[theunforgettablefire]

I bought In Bruges blind, though I'd heard about it. Regardless, I was quite pleased with my selection.

[spock of the walk]

every once in a while i will buy blind. all stuff i could not rent. interstate 84 and a couple of hellraiser movies come immediately to mind. i am about to order i woke up early the day i died from cinefear.

[Jabbadonut]

Sadly, I've bought quite a few DVD's for movies I didn't see in the theater. Most of the time it was a mistake. However, sometimes I'm pleasantly surprised.

I bought both "Unbreakable" and "Signs" without seeing them first, and I liked both of them.