Open Forum Friday: Are Limited Edition Collectibles Unfair to Fans?

Posted by on April 19th, 2013   Filed under: Open Forum Friday

openforumtwilighttime

On last week’s podcast we addressed a junk mail question about the recent Blu-ray releases from a company called Twilight Time, all of which are limited to just 3000 copies. While the company has been giving plenty of underappreciated genre films a much deserving high-def update, a handful of their releases have sold out during pre-orders, leaving many fans with no choice but to pay exorbitant prices on eBay if they want to get their hands on a copy. When a Twilight Time release sells out, they have no plans to re-release it again in the future, making these Blu-rays extremely valuable. While this is a collector’s dream, it is extremely frustrating for fans who just want to be able to watch their favourite movies on Blu-ray.

On a similar note, Mondo has been creating a stir among movie fans with their limited edition posters, which tend to sell out within minutes, if not seconds. It is to the point where these items are essentially out of reach of the average fan… but is there anything wrong with that? In an age where almost everything is available on the internet for next to nothing, these kinds of collectibles harken back to a time when supply couldn’t always meet demand. What do you think, are limited edition collectibles cool or simply unfair? Should Twilight Time and Mondo consider bigger print runs for more popular items? Do we all have a skewed sense of entitlement in the digital age? Give us your thoughts here on Open Forum Friday.



  • piggystardust

    The rarity aspect really holds no appeal for me because I’d be hard pressed to find anyone in my life that would give a care.

  • T. Heilman

    The only thing worse than the dickhead who sells a $30 disc for 3-6 times it’s retail value is the desperate person who panics and pays it. I say stick it these greedheads by not paying them. As for companies like Twilight Time, they need to be held accountable for their business practice of not having a one title per customer limit. It’s all about screwing the fans. Look at the people who pay a hundred dollars for an out of print dvd to find out it is being re-released and the copy they bought is now virtually worthless. Just be patient and wait. These titles will be available again in time.

  • Sam

    As a big collector of BDs and DVDs (own over 4,000), this gimmick of releasing does nothing for me. It might be a few years before they get re-released, but I know eventually the ones that catch my eye the most will see a normal standard release sometime in the future and I more than willing to just hold off for that.

    Going through the annoyance of waiting to order one of these releases ultimately leaves me disinterested in their releases and rather give my money to other companies that don’t limit their releases and release quality stuff like Criterion, Scream Factory, Masters of Cinema, etc…

  • Nathan

    This whole idea seems like such an antiquated concept it’s almost laughable. I used to have a fairly decent DVD and Blu-Ray collection (300+ DVD, 100+ Blu-Ray), but I’ve sold almost all of them due to the prevalence of Netflix, Amazon On-Demand, and Hulu. Now I know Sean, Frank, and Jay are much more hardcore about movie collecting and they are in Canada where these on-demand services are less robust, but this is the way everything’s going. The “limited edition” physical content that could easily be released digitally sounds like shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic.

  • Indianamcclain

    Yes it is. I’m a casual fan of Christine and I’d like to own the blu-ray, but I’m not going to go through the circus that’s Twilight Time.

  • Stinker

    I all for this kind of moneymaker, as long as they are a) region code free, b) have “the best” possible Picture c) nice Packing and d) nice collection of extras, incl. Audiocommentary.

    Bur for Movies like Buckaroo Banzai, Water and other non major Productions, whose distrubution is always “wandering” this is something, that could give a Label the chance to made money out of movies, whose following is small but very eager to get the object of desire.

  • patrik

    Mondo should definitely sell more posters. There are many that I’d like to buy but I didn’t find out about them until after the fact. In a better world, one would be able to simply order a print of whatever poster you’d want. It’s not like they wouldn’t be rare anymore, I doubt most people know what the fuck Mondo is to begin with.

  • Henrik

    This is the death-rattle of the physical copy inudstry and it ain’t pretty!

  • Sam

    Physical copies > Digital copes. If I’m paying for something, I’d like to have something to show for it.

    It makes it sound like I’m basically paying for plastic and a cover, but so be it I suppose. I would hate to pay hundreds/thousands for stuff and all have to show for it is files on my computer or in a cloud that I could have just as easily, in fact even easier, acquired through other methods and still have my money.

  • Bas

    I checked out the linked page for the Twilight Time discs and I see a lot of (old) movies I’ve never heard of (and I guess most casual film fans). For those types of movies I think a run of 3k is justified. But they also release a few movies that have a much bigger audience, most notably Philadelphia, As Good as it Gets and Night of the Living Dead. Titles like should be available in normal stores and through Amazon, but the studios that made them apparently don’t agree.

  • Sam

    It’s just a weird game plan for them. The acquire random films, as a lot of these don’t seem to have any real correlation with each other and put a 3,000 limit on them.

    Movies like Leave Her to Heaven, The Fury, Experiment in Terror, and Enemy Mine, while movies I would probably buy (though I own each on DVD), don’t strike me as films that people would be rushing to pre-order, but this limit they set has created artificial demand that wouldn’t be there otherwise.

    I still believe they would sell more than 3,000 copies of those films if they didn’t limit them, just not as quickly.

    A better, more customer friendly game plan would probably to have them available for order for a limited time, say about 1-3 months or however long seems reasonable. That still wouldn’t be ideal but at least would give people legitimately interested in the release more time to order the BD.

  • Owozifa

    This is the trouble with the world of physical copies in general, really. Stuff goes out of print and then the only profits to be made are in the after market where they don’t even get a cut. This is kind of what the Warner Archive was intended to address.

    I don’t blame resellers, they’re just taking advantage of an exploitable system and demand that should be addressed by the studio in some way (for their own benefit). Twilight Time doesn’t really have an incentive to limit sales because that might slow their intake of money.

    I also think for the films that aren’t selling out a $20 price point would be more palatable. Especially for a line where by the nature of the films some are going to be little seen blind buys. And then some are even more expensive yet. I kinda want to see The Egyptian, but it’s like $40 for a very ordinary release.

    The one thing I do hope for our digital future is that out of print no longer is a thing.

  • ProCynic

    More fuel for piracy. Christine is all over the place and available in its full Blu-ray version too. I love Carpenter, but this is and was not a good film, but as I’m a fan I have to have it to complete the canon.

  • The limited run thing drives me fucking crazy. This is the same problem with Record Store Day, which happens to be today. It encourages the kind of people that will buy ten copies and flip them all on ebay.

    I think Criterion does it best. They release a film, keep it print for awhile, and announce when it’s going out of print so you have a chance to buy it before it does. You’re then rewarded for having the foresight of buying an extra copy of The Third Man, without fucking over everybody else.

    And Mondo is the worst. I have their Drive poster, which I got for $20 by downloading a hi-res image and having it printed at Kinkos. Fuck those guys.

  • Sam

    Yeah, I like the Criterion will give a fair warning when something is about to go out of print. And for them, it’s simply about losing the rights rather than trying to make stuff artificially hard to get.

    Recently, they announced Last Year at Marienbad, Army Of Shadows, Le Cercle Rouge, and Leon Morin Priest going out of print. I already owned the DVDs, but decided to quickly order the Blu-Rays now to have them as they were movies I planned to upgrade eventually. Thankfully they were courteous enough to let everyone know and allow time for people to pick them up.

    Good way to do it.

  • Owozifa

    Well fuck I never heard about that.

    I have Army of Shadows, but that’s it. Boned now.

    For the most part with Criterion going out of print it’s the license though, and lately it’s always been Studio Canal pulling the plug.

  • Sam

    You can still find Leon Morin on Blu on Amazon, the other three might be a little tougher.

    Also worth noting that Melville’s Le Doulos and also Mafiosa went OOP as well on DVD, no BD release for those. Luckily I had those too.

  • Curtis Talls

    The lamest thing about Twilight Time/SAE is they encourage these ebay scalpers by allowing them to pick up 10 copies at once. If SAE would just limit purchases to 2 copies more fans could actually pick up these titles when the pre orders go up. I was really bummed out that Christine sold out day one. I mean I didn’t even get to check the pre order email they sent out until the following day and then…. nope… all gone.

  • You should follow Criterion on Twitter, Scotty. That’s usually how they let people know about upcoming OOP’s. I bought Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge a few months before they went out of print during a flash sale. Chungking Express is also out of print I believe.

  • Sam

    Yeah, the others that have been OOP for a while as far as BD are Chungking Express, Pierrot le fou, The Man Who Fell to Earth, Playtime and The Third Man.

    I unfortunately only own the DVDs of those and missed the boat on the Blu-rays.

  • An interesting concept that is likely behind the business model, is that they are inducing a higher demand for their products. The limited availability is their point of difference and they can demand the fee for 3000 at the beginning, rather than watch sales meander (dependent on the film of course). This lowers the risk for their investment and provides some cost savings.

    The flipside is that without this scheme some (not all) films may not be given the Bluray treatment at all.

    I would have thought that downloading would play against this, but it appears people still love physical copies.

  • Owozifa

    Studio Canal seems to pull the licenses pretty fast, as a lot of the Criterion releases only lasted a couple years.

  • Jack

    Another problem with this is international buyers. I’m in the UK and TwilightTime automatically adds $10 p&p to my order, their prices are already ridiculous but that takes the cake. I don’t think there are places in the UK that offer anything like TwilightTime and I’m sort of glad, just release the BD normally.

  • swarez

    It is weird that a company would limit themselves to a profit but it has allot to do with the rights holders. They only allow the item to have certain amounts of copies and only one release.
    The collectors love this and flippers more so but as a friend of mine proved with his Change In To A Truck print, people are willing to buy a great product if its available. Flippers and collectors gave him shit for doing more editions of the print, saying that the first edition would fall in price and nobody would buy the newer ones but my friend just sold out his seventh edition of this piece and the first edition still sells for silly money on Ebay.
    I guarantee that Fright Night and Christine and most of the best selling Twilight Time films will get regular releases from the studio down the line, if not in the states then over seas.

  • PhilH

    pure shit, stinks

  • Wintle

    The only thing I take issue with is that they should really limit it to one purchase per household. Otherwise, I’m all for limited edition products.