My blu-ray/DVD collection journey: a 3-year retrospective. It has been nearly 3 years since I started my Blu-ray and DVD collection. Since then, I can not believe how much my collection has grown. When I first started collecting, I thought it would only last a couple of months before I moved on to another project. Yet, here I am now with over 400 boxes divided between my clothes shelf and my closet. I even own works that I never thought I would have. However, the anniversary of this collection is not only special because of the collection itself. It is also because of how the collection has influenced my life.
Not only have I travelled around my area more to seek out films, but it has also inspired me to start this site. All the blogs you see on Blu-ray bros was as a result of the collection. I was expanding it and wanted to watch more movies so that I could buy more discs. So I created this website to express my knowledge and to justify growing my collection. To say that the collection did not lead to anything is disingenuous, to say the least. So, without further ado, let’s see how this collection started in the first place.
A Brief History of My Blu-ray/DVD Collection
The collection started out of fear. Fear that movies would disappear in a digital world. A world where a film’s availability was based on the whims of mega corporations. Fear that films would be edited in unsavoury ways and that original cuts of the film would be removed. That’s the philosophy I had when justifying collecting movies and growing my collection.
What triggered this revelation was Best Buy announcing they were going to stop selling DVDs and Blu-rays. I had been collecting various things before this, such as video games and graphic novels. However, with this announcement, my focus began to shift to DVDs as well. Initially, the collection started slow. Most of my early purchases came from a nearby city. Specifically, Value Village and Suncoast Video. Suncoast Video still sold new DVDs, but I was not a fan of their prices, so I looked for cheaper options. I started moving towards Value Village and a local video game store.
I have always had a love/hate relationship with Value Village. Their prices are too high, with DVDs going for 4 dollars. This is ridiculous since the quality of the disc could be anywhere from pristine to scratched and rotted right out. At the same time, though, they always seem to get the coolest stuff. I found graphic novels such as Maus, a Nintendo Entertainment System, and a copy of the Japanese anime magazine Newtype from the 90s. Despite my objection to the prices, I still frequent the store and manage to find cool stuff.
Other than Value Village and the big city stores, there was one place in town that I would frequent often. It was a thrift store located below a local church, and a lot of my early finds were in that place. However, as my collection grew, I spent less and less time there, as they were slow to replace and put in new stock.
Outside of that, and the occasional visit to other stores, most of my finds were in the big city. As well, since I had no vehicle to rely on, I had to piggyback with my parents whenever they went into the city. Due to this, my collecting was rather slow in the first year, and it would remain such for a time after. However, things changed in the spring of 2025. I ended up getting a car, and I would go on a trip with my family to Edmonton a couple of weeks later. In the Edmonton area, I ended up getting over a dozen movies (and a laserdisc of Bad Boys).
Things would not chill after that. With the car I had, not only could I go to the city whenever I wanted, but also to stores that might have been unreachable before. As well, I could go to a lot more garage sales. With all these new options, my collection would expand greatly. It would double and triple in size within a matter of months. It would slow down some in the fall. However, due to a work program, I ended up going to the city more regularly. As a result, my collection kept at a steady pace. That was until winter showed up, and it was intense. It snowed heavily almost every day, and I could not leave my town for the next month or so.
Things did not improve much in the new year as work became super busy, and I was stuck in town again for a while longer. Eventually, though, it subsided, and my collection grew at a semi-regular pace. That was until the end of March. Due to my program, I ended up in the city for a couple of months, and the finds were about to go crazy. Not only were there many thrift stores in the city, but garage sale season was also about to begin.
Such a combo triggered my collection to expand quickly. It even got to the point where finding space for films was getting difficult. Not only was the number of titles increasing, but so was the obscurity. Hidden gems, obscure films, and anime finds were much more common. As of today, it has quieted down a little, but the summer still lingers. So, despite the limited space, I’m still looking for movies, and there seems to be little that can quell such desire.
A Look into the Spoils of My Collection
When purchasing movies, I usually go to a variety of thrift stores to find them. Value Village and Goodwill remain popular choices. Although several small-town thrift stores have also been targets of my hunts. One such thrift store is located in a hamlet of around 100 people on a less busy stretch of a highway. It is quite out of the way, and for some reason, a mishap seems to always happen when I try to go there. Many times my tires have lost pressure on the way, and I had to get them refilled. Other times the store has closed, or the owner is out. It’s obnoxious, but it’s worth the hassle. Their selection is quite big, and I have gotten quite a bit from them. Hard Target, Knightriders, Afro Samurai, Paranorman, and a Godzilla film are only some of what I got from the store.
There’s also another store in a town bigger and farther north than mine. It is more consistent with its hours, and bad luck has not seemed to strike me when going there. Although I have not been able to get as much. Falling Down and a Charlie Brown Christmas are some of the stuff that I got, but it has not been as frequent as I had hoped. Honestly, the craziest finds the store has provided are a couple of early comics from Invader Zim creator Jhonen Varquez. Besides that, other than those small-town stores, I frequent a church-run thrift store in the city. I managed to get the original (non-special edition) version of the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, alongside comics like Super Mario Adventures.
Garage sales have been a contributor to my collection, but not as much as I have hoped. They are a mixed bag when it comes to film collection. There have even been many times when I’ve gone to sales only to find nothing of interest. In fact, it seems I have been more successful in obtaining everything else but films. I got a GameCube with a power adapter, controller, and Mario Kart: Double Dash at one sale, and an original fat PS2 with all the cables and some games at another. Both were extremely cheap, by the way, with the GameCube finds amounting to 10 dollars. I have also gotten plenty of graphic novels and comics from sales. While these finds are great, it would be better if I could get more movies out of garage sales too.
Finally, we have to talk about Value Village, as it has always been a frequent source of films for me. However, the past couple of months things have gotten even crazier there for finds. I managed to get Guyver 2 on DVD, and Big Trouble in Little China on Blu-ray in February. However, things went crazy in April, when I got Dick Tracy, Run Lola Run, Outlaw Star (the complete series), Bastard!, and even Ratatouille. It got even crazier at the end of May when a whole bunch of Anime got on the shelf. From that, I found Blood: The Last Vampire, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, Metropolis 2001, Millennium Actress, Shamanic Princess, and Ghost in the Shell 2. Comic finds have also been insane.
Conclusion
Now, even with as much luck as I have had over the past little bit, you can’t count on such forever. Things can change week by week, and there have been plenty of times where I have left places empty-handed. However, to be persistent is, for me, the key to creating a giant collection. As well, having a vast knowledge of media is desirable. Lastly, don’t be a collector who simply buys everything on site, or buys stuff to resell it online. Collecting will be much more of a headache that way. Instead, buy what you’re interested in, or what you find interesting. Have an actual passion for it, and your collection will grow to great sizes. All the while having great content to boot. Always be vigilant, and always be passionate.
Some Other Sources you should Check Out:
Some blogs to check out on Bluray Bros.:
Is Hollywood on the Verge of a New Creative Golden Age? – Bluraybr
The Fall of Warner Bros: A Hollywood Tragedy – Blu-ray Bros.
The Bluray Bros. Youtube channel: