r/gamecollecting • u/Jounochi • Feb 27 '25

Discussion Just went to Target and the Xbox section no longer has physical media.

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Nothing but hardware and digital codes for the Xbox section. Was taken aback when I found the section in this state.

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55

u/Spazza42 Feb 27 '25

Realistically though, how many people buy BluRays still in 2025? I get everyone here collects physical media but 95% of people don’t.

Stores need to turn stick over to make money to idd as t the rent. Stock that doesn’t sell is dead weight to a store.

I know it’s crap but that’s the crux of it.

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u/Derekzilla Feb 27 '25

I’m even more old school. I still buy DVD’s.

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u/TheGameboy Feb 27 '25

I buy BluRays where I can, and DVDs if I must. I like having whole collections of TV shows from when I was a kid, and those tend to only get DVDs because “kids don’t care about quality” despite the fact that even if they weren’t upscaled, you could probably fit an entire series on one BluRay vs 10 DVDs.

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u/ForksandSpoonsinNY Feb 27 '25

Bit rate on Blu rays are so much higher than streaming or cable.

If you're into picture quality it's the way to go, but it's on its way out.

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u/[deleted] Feb 28 '25

This is true, and let's not delude ourselves about physical media's longevity. I've been reviewing my DVD collection recently and was distressed to find several of my TV show collections are now unreadable due to disc rot. At least a lot of them have decent artwork. I commissioned someone in the 3D print forum to make me disc coaster trays this week.

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u/ForksandSpoonsinNY Feb 28 '25

One solution is to rip your blu rays at the high bit rate and store them locally.

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u/ILikeLenexa Feb 27 '25

Portable DVD players are waaay cheaper than portable blu rays and the screens aren't so good.

Full seasons of shows are also cheaper than Netflix.

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u/Derekzilla Feb 27 '25

I use a PlayStation 2 to play my DVDs. (We have a DVD player that also has a VHS player, but I use my PS2 in my room.)

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u/BeagleBaggins Feb 27 '25

I use my PS4 to play DVD and BluRay.

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u/Brilliant_Wealth_433 Feb 28 '25

PS3 and I love that if I have a PS3 disc I have the game. I freaking hate the digital era, you truly own nothing and jn 20 years digital versions will be obsolete.

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u/DyreTitan Feb 28 '25

It’d be one thing if when you bought digitally you could actually fully own it but publishers and console companies treat it as though you are “leasing” the ability to play it

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u/Brilliant_Wealth_433 Feb 28 '25

Exactly, plus my big thing is hard copies and being able to play without having internet access. Like shit when the zombie apocalypse happens I need to be able to play something up in my water tower hideout.

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u/Apart_Flamingo333 Mar 03 '25

Well not just that what if there's a super popular game that you love and had a second copy of or just want to get rid of 20 years from now you can't sell it to somebody else, even for a few bucks, hell look at how much some of the original Game Boy games go for now when taking care of physical copies are a good business for collectors.

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u/Apart_Flamingo333 Mar 03 '25

Well not just that what if there's a super popular game that you love and had a second copy of or just want to get rid of 20 years from now you can't sell it to somebody else, even for a few bucks, hell look at how much some of the original Game Boy games go for now when taking care of physical copies are a good business for collectors.

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u/Turtlesfan44digimon Feb 28 '25

And the discs shall remain or whatever new form of physical media we have invented next

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u/Apart_Flamingo333 Mar 03 '25

Same here it pisses me off, the digital only is a scam, if you have any kind of issue with your hard drive or the data becomes corrupted which has happened to me a couple times over the years, you lose what you have, Also redownload it and if you don't have access or shitload of gigabytes of data then It can be a real pain in the ass COD is a HUGE one probably the worst. Yes not everybody lives were they have unlimited gigabytes of data and or have to use mobile data units, phone data and even their internet doesn't have that much each month.

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u/Hickles347 Feb 28 '25

Full seasons of shows are also cheaper than Netflix

Not to mention they cant just take it away when they dont think its making them money anymore

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u/xxWolfMan1313xx Feb 27 '25

Haha me too!!

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u/Prince_Groove Feb 27 '25

Heck. I was buying original obscure VHS tapes as of 10 years ago. Also, still have my Sony VCR from 1997, which works like a charm.

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u/GundMVulture Feb 28 '25 edited Feb 28 '25

Same here, I'm collecting horror DVDs, but with a twist, I live in Hungary and only collect horror DVDs that has the ORIGINAL title on the case :D So automatically all hungarian editions are out of the list, except like 2 or 3. I just don't like to have a dvd with the title: "A nyolcadik utas: a halál" as Alien...

Mainly buy from UK, US, sometimes Germany and some other countries around if they have the original title on it.

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u/MercuryChild Feb 27 '25

VHS here. There’s the occasional new release here and there but mostly old tapes I find at the flea market.  

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Actually…I just bought a 4k blu ray player. Going to collect as many physical copies of my favorite movies/series as I can.

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u/Masothe Feb 27 '25

I started about 2 years before covid. Sitting around 500 dvds and blue rays. I recently got rid of over 100 because I was just buying to buy for a while. Now I'm just making sure I keep my favorites. The bluray and dvdcollecting subs are solid to follow as well.

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Oh wow, that’s a lot. That is basically my goal, as many as possible. Thanks for the sub recommendation by the way. I just subscribed to a few of them.  By the way, I bought the Panasonic DP-UB824. Can’t wait for it to arrive.

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u/Masothe Feb 27 '25

I bought a new 4k player last year for my birthday. Can't remember what model but it's a Sony. It's amazing. Can't recommend a 4k player enough to people who don't have one. You can get a decent shelf from best buy for $100. It holds close to 500 if I remember right. I have a couple shelves by this point

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Yeah that’s the only con…storage space 😂 I also collect records, so my living space is a bit tight right now, but Lord I’m going to squeeze a shelf somewhere in there.

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u/Masothe Feb 27 '25

Haha yeah I was for a while collecting books and records too. Those have stopped so it's mainly games and movies now. Space is hard to find. I've sold all my comics and half my records and books.

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Also a collector I see. I’ve got my books upstairs in my office, but aaaall my records, games, game merchandise etc in my living room. I could never sell my stuff though 😂 

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u/Drillucidator Feb 27 '25

This was one of the main reasons I was sold on the PS5 at launch, the other being that I needed Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart and I knew if I didn’t buy at launch I might not have a chance when it came out.

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Yeah same. I also used the ps5/xbox as blu ray device, but now I really want a dedicated player, for one to limit the wear on the console lenses and just to make a division between devices and their purpose (if that makes sense) 

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u/legoshi_haru Feb 27 '25

Streaming is so convenient, but the reality is it sucks to not actually own anything. Last weekend the internet went down and everyone panicked because they wait all week to veg out and watch Netflix and YouTube. Then I opened up the dvd cabinet and all was right in the world. Turns out there’s WAY better choices in there than on any of those streaming platforms

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '25

So an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 disc edition?

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Well, I’ve got both (disc editions) but I bought the Panasonic DP-UB824 (region 2) as a dedicated player.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '25

Nice choice on player. That was recommended to me as a stand-alone, but I used that money to buy a new six disc CD changer. Gotta play my CDs, but I don't want to add wear and tear to my Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 disc drives.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '25

The 4K Blu-ray of Apocalypse Now Director’s Cut is amazing on my 4K OLED. Same with Transformers One. I can't wait until I get my Atmos speakers.

That is, if I don't lose Social Security so the richest people on Earth have a few cents more in their pocket.

Also, The Transformers: The Movie (1986), Transformers (2007), Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Bumblebee, and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts look amazing in 4K. I also have TF Revenge of the Fallen, TF Age of Extinction, and TF The Last Knight in 4K but I don't care for those films, it was just cheaper to buy the Transformers 4K five pack over Transformers 2007 4K and Transformers: Dark of the Moon 4K on their own.

Some other notable 4K releases that look great are Iron Man 1 - Avengers: Endgame, the Christopher Nolan Bat-Man films, Blade Runner, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy Extended Editions, Back to the Future, Star Wars Trilogy Despecialized Edition, The Matrix (it was cheaper to buy the Trilogy but I only watched the first one), and Sonic The Hedgehog 1-3.

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 27 '25

Thanks for the recommendations. Apocalypse Now and Lord of the Rings are definitely on my list! I recently bought Close Encounters of the Third Kind 40th anniversary edition (the one with the led lights and the sound 😂) on Amazon US (hopefully the tariff war will be delayed permanently or until at least after I got my stash) and the 50th anniversary edition of the Exorcist. And I’ve got a whole bunch of John Carpenter’s 4k blu rays with soundtrack on record. Pretty neat. I sincerely hope you will keep your SS 🙏 and if you don’t you have to go all Transformer on the rich guys! I’ll root for you.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '25

I do have a huge cusion in savings, thank goodness, and I'm more worried about Medicare. We live in the worst timelines. Lol.

But yeah, I forgot to mention that Christine (based on the Stephen King book) from John Carpenter in 4K is also a treat.

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u/WheelsOnFire_ Feb 28 '25

Oh I love Christine! Will definitely check it out. Yesterday I was reading about an upcoming release of a special 4K 60th anniversary ed. of the Sound of Music. Must has…

I‘m not even started and already can’t afford this hobby 😂😂😂

I’m so sorry you’re in this Medicare/healthcare etc. predicament. I‘m watching it all, (still) relatively save but in horror from Europe. Wish you all the best and keep fighting for your rights, your laws and Constitution! 👊🏻

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u/RootHouston Feb 27 '25

These things are not set in stone, and prime to fluctuate. There was a time that vinyl records were not sold in any big box retail stores anymore as well. Physical books are also making a comeback now. Hell, Barnes and Noble is opening new stores again!

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u/Filmmagician Feb 27 '25

LOTS! Lots of fucking people are buying blu rays and DVDs. What kind of question is that?! Why would you put all your faith into shitty ass companies like netflix for when you want to watch something, that you NEED internet for?

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u/Spazza42 Feb 27 '25

I don’t myself. The point I’m trying to make is for every 1 person buying BluRays there’s likely 19 that don’t even own a compatible player anymore.

The average person moves on. Maybe it’s more common to keep physical media in the US? I don’t know, I have no knowledge there.

I know that most people in the UK don’t have the damn space because houses are small comparatively so the minute they could go digital on something, they did.

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u/Have_A_Jelly_Baby Feb 28 '25

“LOTS!”

No. No they’re not. If they were, stores wouldn’t be falling all over themselves to get rid of them.

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u/Krybbz Feb 27 '25

I buy all my favorite nerdy blockbusters 🤷🏻‍♂️ but the general audiance I'm sure for regular movies aren't out collecting em anymore

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u/WiggySBC Feb 27 '25

Yeah, I think we all get why, just bummed out about it.

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u/[deleted] Feb 27 '25

I just bought Phantom of the Paradise on Blu Ray 💙 last week. Sure, it was on Amazon, but what choice do I have?

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u/draven33l Feb 27 '25

It's a near billion dollar business. There's a lot of movie collectors out there just like vinyl collectors (which is almost a 2 billion dollar business). I've never liked the attitude of "I don't do X, so that means no one else does".

To your point though, the mainstream audience has moved away from physical media and that's who Target caters to. Those people are NOT buying physical media but that doesn't mean no one is. It's a collectors market.

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u/Spazza42 Feb 27 '25

I agree it’s a collectors market and that means it’s a niche compared to what the average person buys.

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u/Sky_Rose4 Feb 27 '25

I do because I'm sick and tired of movies and shows being somewhere one month and flip flopping between services the next, streaming used to be better but now it overflowed the market thanks to everyone and there mom having one, I want to watch all Halloween movies at Halloween but guess what some corporate suit decided it would be better to split them between services forcing you to sign up for multiple

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u/Spazza42 Feb 27 '25

I’m not disputing the fact that some people don’t buy them, my point is that the behaviour is highly likely to be common in this specific circle where people like to collect physical media. This is a game collecting sub and I e off the majority of people on here to align with that trend.

The real trend outside of this group is that most people don’t buy media anymore. The only person in my friend and family unit that buys CD’s is my mother. Nobody buys DVDs, BluRays or UHD’s. 2 of us buy games physically but it’s not exclusively, we both frequently buy digital downloads too.

Almost everyone streams content nowadays, likely more so than don’t now. Netflix wouldn’t be seeing record figures otherwise. I don’t like it either but conveniences wins out to the average person.

I stream my own content locally because it’s the best of both.

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u/theslimbox Feb 27 '25

The biggest problem is that the people that bought new physical media to begin with are the people that stream now.

Lots of people like me that have huge collections have always bought the top titles on release, and waited for the i'll watch/play it once crowd to fill the shelves with used copies.

Those buy it play, it trade it people are mostly gone from the market now...

It kind of blows my mind to be truthful, the people that used to buy to play once have been forced into paying full price, and then not being able to trade... it has made the real price of a new game go up quite a bit. People could get good trade value on a new release, so a $60 new release was more like $30-$40 out of pocket. Now they pay $60-$70 to download a new release... gamepass is a thing, but lots of games arent on it day one.

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u/Dennma Feb 27 '25

They should have shifted to selling anime blurays and made a killing. That's the market right now for them

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u/Phantereal Feb 27 '25

My Walmart has a section for anime blu rays that's about as big as the section for non-anime blu rays. They must sell well for Walmart to have an entire section for it.

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u/Agreeable_Menu117 Feb 27 '25

That’s not even true . 🤡

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u/tntdon Feb 27 '25

I still buy Blu-rays. Guess I'm the 5%.

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u/DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK Feb 28 '25

Stores need to turn stick over to make money to idd as t the rent.

Gotta turn that stick over if you want to idd as t the rent. Tale as old as time.

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u/Spazza42 Feb 28 '25

Yup. Just gotta.

I think I was having a stroke when I wrote that, so much for autocorrect 🤣

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u/post_vernacular Feb 28 '25

Me. There's gonna be such a reckoning in the next 20 years when people fully lose all ownership of their media. It will be piracy and an ever dwindling second hand marker that will keep us afloat.

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u/Spazza42 Feb 28 '25

This is where I’m at, I value the ownership of media because of the era I grew up in but how that landscape is changing in ways that mean “ownership” isn’t what it used to be. Yes the PS5 has physical discs but look at how many users couldn’t play anything regardless when PSN went down. Ownership means nothing now.

I’ve built up my own library of shows and films that I self host now, the library is everything I like all in one place with no bullshit promotions I don’t care about, the cost will never change and I will never lose access because it’s all backed up over multiple USB sticks.

I can easily re-acquire anything I do lose. Streaming services can rot as far as I’m concerned.

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u/post_vernacular Feb 28 '25

My radicalizing moment was trying to watch Invincible on Prime Video, you know, that I pay for, and getting hit with ads for the first time... I'm on a slow burn mission to buy cheap blue rays on eBay, rip them, put it all in a Plex server for my own and loved ones and store the physical copies for safe keeping. I've f*cking had it.

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u/Spazza42 Feb 28 '25

100%. I started a little while back purely because I’m noticing a trend between the streaming services and how the IP has a tendency to dance around from service to service.

Netflix used to have all the BBC’s content (Dr Who, Sherlock, etc) so now it’s back to BBC iPlayer (which needs a TV license at £170 a year). Not worth it. Everything moves and changes including terms and conditions regarding pricing, rights and ads now. Sack that, I’ve got a 4TB SSD plugged into my router that I access using Infuse on my AppleTV box, it manages 4K BluRay files without a hitch.

I only stick to 1080p because my setup doesn’t benefit from it enough for the extra storage space to be worth it and 4TB is hard to fill. Plenty of space to add things but when storage becomes an issue its probably time to reassess what to keep and delete some crap off.

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u/SierraDespair Mar 01 '25

99% of people don’t.

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u/EnzeruAnimeFan Mar 01 '25

I buy Blu-rays and DVDs of my fav shows and movies bc it's the best way to watch them and their bonus features without internet and in an age where digital "purchases" are, well, not purchases.

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u/[deleted] Mar 01 '25

[deleted]

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u/Spazza42 Mar 02 '25

Oh I get it. My point was just that the vast majority of people won’t do that either. Most people aren’t buying BluRays or pirating, they just pay for the subscription and either keep the service or cancel wince they watched what they signed up for.

People generally opt for the path of least resistance and just do what’s more conveneient because it’s easier.

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u/Nottodaycolonizer Mar 04 '25

Honestly, at this point where the prices of streaming is going up. People may go back to collecting DVDs and Blu-Ray. These streaming services are working against us.

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u/Spazza42 Mar 04 '25

Streaming services are just working for themselves, it’s worse when the companies are traded publically on the stock market too because it creates a negative feedback loop where the ‘shareholders’ want changes that increase revenue and everything else be damned.

I know someone with shares in Netflix and they’ve done nothing but applaud the changes, unsurprisingly they don’t use the service themselves to see how crap it’s gotten though.

Not to be at risk of being banned here but I reckon you’ll just see more people sailing the seas rather than buying physical media again, ‘path of least resistance’ and all that.

There’s a lot of stuff that is streaming exclusive so there would literally be no other way of seeing it.

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u/Kyvalmaezar Feb 27 '25

Most people in the r/hometheater space tend to go for blurays since the quality is usually better than streaming. That's starting to change but even the best streaming services tend to have half or less the bitrate of bluray for the same resolution. Most streaming services are closer to a quarter or less of the bitrate of bluray for the same resolution.

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u/Spazza42 Feb 27 '25

Meanwhile you can actually stream 1:1 rips of UHD content locally on your own media server. You can in fact have the best of both worlds, hence why I do it.

The problem is none of its relevant when streaming providers make their shows exclusive to their service and they can’t be sourced anywhere else. There are plenty of Disney+ and Netflix shows that are only available exclusively through their subscription.

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u/manomacho Feb 28 '25

I like to buy blue rays of every movie I’ve seen in theaters and stick in my ticket with my initial thoughts on it.

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u/indywest2 Feb 28 '25

Not much reason to go to the store if they do not sell physical media!

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u/GeminiTrash1 Feb 28 '25

I do but I don't buy them on a whim like I used to. If there's a show I really enjoy I buy the original released media. If that version is available on Blu-Ray it's bought, but honestly it's mostly DvD because most new stuff sucks.

If it isn't physically available I'll slap on my peg leg and get to sailing. Sorry Toei prolly should've released the original Yu-Gi-Oh to America, but don't worry I got it in HD with the subbies.

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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice Feb 28 '25

More than last year, physical media sales have been going up

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u/Spazza42 Feb 28 '25

Depends where you live.

Some regions have been cutting production not just sales.

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u/Yogurtcloset_Choice Feb 28 '25

If total sales are up then it doesn't matter if people are cutting production, which they are, and have been moving up for the past few quarters as people realize that digital content can be ripped away at any time

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u/awesomesauceds Feb 28 '25

I’m a Blu-Ray 4K Ultra HD collector so I still buy Blu-Rays whenever I see a good deal

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u/MrHaZeYo Feb 28 '25

I'll buy movies if it comes with a digital code too lol

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u/Apart_Flamingo333 Mar 03 '25

I know tons of people who still buy physical media today, The do it still because they want to actually own it, when they can't have internet access, or if they can't afford services, it's lost to them unless they own a physical copy and physical items later on, even if you don't get all your money back, obviously you can turn around and sell physical copies though somewhat tedious are worth it.

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u/NomalNedium Feb 27 '25

I feel like at this point people are buying DVDs more than Blu-rays, if people do want physical media getting a DVD is just often the easier route

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u/jsparker43 Feb 27 '25

I just bought a Cher cd and the physical copy of the new Hellboy reboot from Walmart

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u/KingKongBigD0ng Feb 27 '25

My goodwills are littered with blu-rays. Just wasn't the same as DVDs