Laserdisc movies lot?

[josekortez]

Over the weekend, I happened to find the following Laserdisc movies complete with their sleeves:

Goldeneye: 007
Patriot Games
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars
The Empire Strikes Back
The Professional
The Santa Clause
The Wizard of Oz
Top Gun

Since I don’t have a lot of space to keep them and don't have a Laserdisc player, I'm wondering what the entire lot is worth. Thanks.

[Baloo]

Very, very cheap. It's tough to give away Laserdiscs now with the advent of Blu-Rays.

Honestly I've always been interested in the format but I can't find a player :|

[Tokimemofan]

Very, very cheap. It's tough to give away Laserdiscs now with the advent of Blu-Rays.

Honestly I've always been interested in the format but I can't find a player :|

If you live in or near a major city go to the thrift stores, In the Los Angeles area I can usually source a working one within a few hours that way, most of them are 2 sided players as well.

[Gameguy]

The Star Wars ones might be worth a decent amount as people want the original versions of the films. The rest might be worth around $2-$3 each if they're in excellent condition. Anything that's been released on DVD in excellent quality would have little demand on LaserDisc, unless the DVDs are rare or expensive so people would opt for the cheaper LaserDiscs.

[Tokimemofan]

The Star Wars ones might be worth a decent amount as people want the original versions of the films. The rest might be worth around $2-$3 each if they're in excellent condition. Anything that's been released on DVD in excellent quality would have little demand on LaserDisc, unless the DVDs are rare or expensive so people would opt for the cheaper LaserDiscs.

Not always true, some LaserDiscs have extras that were never in the later releases. ET for example has a scene that was omitted, quote from Wikipedia:

"Also, the laser disc release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, is the only format to include the cut scene of a young Harrison Ford playing the part of the school headmaster telling off Elliott for letting the frogs free in the biology class."

[Gameguy]

Not always true, some LaserDiscs have extras that were never in the later releases. ET for example has a scene that was omitted, quote from Wikipedia:

"Also, the laser disc release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, is the only format to include the cut scene of a young Harrison Ford playing the part of the school headmaster telling off Elliott for letting the frogs free in the biology class."
Is it the same as this ET LaserDisc which didn't sell for $4.00?
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/271094307006

There were actually a couple different releases on LaserDisc for ET so I'm not sure if that's included on all of them or just a specific release, the other that I know of is a limited edition 4-disc box set with only 8000 copies made. This set is worth about $15.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/120973830421


I know there are some releases on LaserDisc that are altered or different compared to the DVD versions, but usually they're still not valuable. I know of one Pixar short that was edited for the DVD release, but was released unaltered on two LaserDisc releases and I think one VHS release, but none of these are really valuable. I'm actually hoping to find one of these versions just to have an unedited version of this short, though I'm still not desperate for it.

I also forgot to mention releases that are currently LaserDisc exclusives, like the Family Dog box set. Even this varies in price, I see completed auctions finished at less than $5 to about $50 with prices anywhere between that range. There's also the movie Deathtrap starring Christopher Reeve, for some reason the North American DVD release is only in Full Screen while the LaserDisc is in the original Widescreen. Still, I usually won't bother with LaserDiscs if they're available on DVD without missing anything noticable compared to the LaserDisc versions. I passed on tons of these at thrift stores, usually they're crap movies like Carpool with Tom Arnold or Karaoke discs. I would pick up Anime on LaserDiscs but I'm a sucker for that stuff, even if they have little value.

[Tokimemofan]

Is it the same as this ET LaserDisc which didn't sell for $4.00?
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/271094307006

There were actually a couple different releases on LaserDisc for ET so I'm not sure if that's included on all of them or just a specific release, the other that I know of is a limited edition 4-disc box set with only 8000 copies made. This set is worth about $15.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/120973830421


I know there are some releases on LaserDisc that are altered or different compared to the DVD versions, but usually they're still not valuable. I know of one Pixar short that was edited for the DVD release, but was released unaltered on two LaserDisc releases and I think one VHS release, but none of these are really valuable. I'm actually hoping to find one of these versions just to have an unedited version of this short, though I'm still not desperate for it.

I also forgot to mention releases that are currently LaserDisc exclusives, like the Family Dog box set. Even this varies in price, I see completed auctions finished at less than $5 to about $50 with prices anywhere between that range. There's also the movie Deathtrap starring Christopher Reeve, for some reason the North American DVD release is only in Full Screen while the LaserDisc is in the original Widescreen. Still, I usually won't bother with LaserDiscs if they're available on DVD without missing anything noticable compared to the LaserDisc versions. I passed on tons of these at thrift stores, usually they're crap movies like Carpool with Tom Arnold or Karaoke discs. I would pick up Anime on LaserDiscs but I'm a sucker for that stuff, even if they have little value.

I don't remember saying anything about their value (most are worth $1-3 a platter) just that you made a rather cause and effect argument involving DVD rereleases. Most people when asked about LaserDisc give a blank stare though after explaining what it is you'll find 1 or 2 who remember. The format was not well known or marketed after it fell into the perception trap of being a high end, non recordable format. Neither was true. The format was intended to be cheap until they actually had to make discs and found out the hard way that cleanrooms were needed. There were recordable laserdiscs too. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/LaserRecorder.jpg

[jb143]

You can check www.lddb.com for price estimates. Don't just go off the title, search by the number on the spine of the disc sleeve. There is still a collectors market for these, but in general, yeah...don't expect much more than $3 or so. I find them very rarely at thrift stores but still only pick them up if they're cheap and something that I am really interested in.

[josekortez]

Thanks a lot, guys. I will probably post them on the DP Buy, Sell and Trade thread very soon. I didn't expect that they would make a great investment, but the guy wanted them gone. And, I have a tendency to rescue a lot of orphans.

[SPAZ-12]

The value of the Star Wars movies depends on which release you have. The "Faces" widescreen releases are generally the most desireable (maybe $10-15 a movie), but sell for less than the definitive collector's edition. The earlier widescreen release has issues, so it isn't worth as much, and the older fullscreen releases are of course worth less as well. I'd imagine the Special Edition releases would be worth less as well, since the main reason people get Star Wars on Laserdisc is to see the "original" version.

[Parodius Duh!]

If its the original Star Wars films first releases before any CGI tampering then they are worth about $20 each film, shit I paid $10 each for bootlegs of those LDs transferred to dvd-r. Everything else maybe $1-5....only LDs worth a lot of money are foreign ones of films not released even on DVD in the US (William Friedkin's "Rampage" only exists in its uncut form on Japanese LD, last copy sold for $170 on ebay) or Rare television shows....

[Niku-Sama]

huh the Most valuable laserdisc movie i have seems to be tron archive collection.

seems to get about $50 depending on condition of course, watched it a few months ago back to back with the blu ray release with legacy and the laserdisc looked alot better in my opinion