Should I sell my DVD collection?(long post)

[The Line]

So, yeah, haven't really been watching wrestling at all in the past few months(DVDs, TV, Internet, nothing. Unless you count the 'Racket Girls' episode of MST3K), and I really don't miss it. Don't know if this is just standard burn-out or what.

But that's not really the issue. I, like many, have found myself in a slight financial pinch(I'll know exactly how bad tomorrow morning/afternoon, but its looking to be to the tune of anywhere from $350-$700, which, considering that I barely am making $300 a month w/o any holidays[My November paycheck will be smaller thanks to Veteran's Day and Thanksgiving, and my pay in December and January combined will probably be around the equiv. of one month's pay, so yeah, perfect timing on that one, Andy ]). Considering my bank account is also drying up on top of that(now this is just due to me living in my own place for the first time and bad budgeting), it basically comes down to I need money.

Now, I could go the easy way out and try and ask my mother and other family for the money, but for one, I am 20 years old and feel I should start becoming more responsible, and secondly, the reason why I will owe the aforementioned sum is for reasons I'd rather not divulge to my family(read: small legal troubles), at least not until after the debt is paid.

Now, to tie the two points together, scattered across my home back North and my apartment here, I have probably over $1000 worth of wrestling DVDs. I really do not want to sell them, but selling stuff is really the best, most immediate plan of action right now(blood bank got shut down. Too scared to try and gamble for it. Not attractive enough to be a prostitute), and the only things that I own that are of high value are my PS3(which was my HS graduation present, so not only do I like it because its a PS3, it has sentimental value, and my mom would probably be more pissed that I sold my PS3 than the fact that I got in trouble), my $600 guitar that I just bought a month or two back(I really, really do not want to sell this, just because its so nice and new. But my mom would appreciate it, probably), my new TV(which I saved up for months for), and my DVDs. Everything else I own is worthless.

So, on the the particulars, I have around 70 ROH DVDs(all official, not illegal copies or anything, which applies for all my DVDs) many of which are hard to find/out of print, the complete Wrestlemania, Royal Rumble, and Summerslam anthologies(I didn't even get to finish this), and a good array of compilation discs(McMahon, both Flair sets, the Horsemen set, the two ECW match sets, Rise+Fall of ECW, Forever Hardcore, Heroes of World Class, Beyond the Mat, and probably a few others that I am forgetting about. I think the most that any one DVD has been watched is probably between 5-10 times, but most are around 2-3. Some(especially the WM/RR/SS anthologies, some earlier ROH) have only been watched once, or in the case of the last 10-15 Summer Slams in the box, never.

If I were to sell them, most I'd sell individually, but I'd package a few together(ie: the ECW match discs, Rise and Fall of ECW & Forever Hardcore, The ROH Milestone Series, The ROH Fifth Year Festival), just because, honestly, I think I'd get more cash that way.

I can probably pay for my legal fees and whatnot at least somewhat easily this way, but I know its something I'll probably feel like shit for doing(but, at the end of the day, its my own fault). Should I keep them, and wait and use my student loans in January to pay off my debts(would would be a bad use of that money, and would anger my family), try and make money in another way, or should I just MAN UP and sell my stuff?

[theryno665]

I'd probably take a good hard look at your DVD collection and see if you can sell any that you can live without or don't even watch all that much. You wouldn't get as much money as you would selling them all but you'd still get some money for them and you'd probably get rid of some clutter in the process.

[derrtaysouth95]

I would say find a new job if you're only pulling in $300 a month. That's honestly hardly anything.....you certainly can't live off of that.

I wouldn't sell the dvds. I'd ask for the money before I'd do that.

[KaijuFan]

Since I'm a huuuuuge wrestling collector and fan, I wouldn't sell them. I'd rather sell my consoles or rare Godzilla figures than my dvds, but again that's just me.

If you're interested, I'll fork some cash over for whatever ROH your wiling to sell.

[The Line]

Nov 16, 2009 19:46:38 GMT -5 @derrtaysouth95 said:

I would say find a new job if you're only pulling in $300 a month. That's honestly hardly anything.....you certainly can't live off of that.

I wouldn't sell the dvds. I'd ask for the money before I'd do that.

the thing is, my job is work study(the state government paying me to work for my school), and the reason why I am able to get such a job is because of the low-income of my mom. If I start making more cash, they'll take away my work study, so I'll probably end up making less money than I do now(and, with another job, I can lose more financial aid, which if I lost it, I'd have to drop out).

Kinda ironic.

[derrtaysouth95]

Nov 16, 2009 22:45:38 GMT -5 The Line said:

Nov 16, 2009 19:46:38 GMT -5 @derrtaysouth95 said:

I would say find a new job if you're only pulling in $300 a month. That's honestly hardly anything.....you certainly can't live off of that.

I wouldn't sell the dvds. I'd ask for the money before I'd do that.

the thing is, my job is work study(the state government paying me to work for my school), and the reason why I am able to get such a job is because of the low-income of my mom. If I start making more cash, they'll take away my work study, so I'll probably end up making less money than I do now(and, with another job, I can lose more financial aid, which if I lost it, I'd have to drop out).

Kinda ironic.

start doing odd jobs for family members and neighbors to make some extra cash?

I understand what you're saying about the financial aid and all. It's real specific.

[indymadman]

You will regret it. I consider myself a OCD collector of dvds and vhs... having more than I'd like to admit (you can find my collections on youtube)... but when I first started, I sold a lot of my stuff off... regretted if every since because you can never get back what you had. You will pull through the $$ problems sooner than you think.... but you can't get back the collection.

Now, with all that said... family comes first and I would sell my stuff... which I can't even put a price on... if it meant the well being of my family.

[The Line]

Nov 16, 2009 23:44:03 GMT -5 @derrtaysouth95 said:

Nov 16, 2009 22:45:38 GMT -5 The Line said:

the thing is, my job is work study(the state government paying me to work for my school), and the reason why I am able to get such a job is because of the low-income of my mom. If I start making more cash, they'll take away my work study, so I'll probably end up making less money than I do now(and, with another job, I can lose more financial aid, which if I lost it, I'd have to drop out).

Kinda ironic.

start doing odd jobs for family members and neighbors to make some extra cash?

I understand what you're saying about the financial aid and all. It's real specific.

I live in the college area of the town I'm living in at the moment, so I doubt too many folk in the area have much money to be hiring outside help(and there really isn't much help to do, considering the vast majority of the living space here in Pullman are apartments or the such).

And family is out of the question, because the whole reason why I need to make the money myself is so that I won't have to bring them into it, at least after its all over. If they want to get mad at me afterwords, it won't really bother me, because honestly, are they going to stay mad at me for showing signs of true adult responsibility?

[Bubble Lead]

I would just sell the DVDs.

If you really care about them for entertainment value you can easily just copy them onto writables or a hard drive for viewing later. Then you can sell the originals and make some cutter.

Theres really no reason for keeping the originals beyond flexing your collection but lets be honest here, how many people would actually care how many wrestling DVDs you own?

[Nickybojelais]

I first fell out of love with wrestling around the new generation era, I had a massive amount of classic action on video tape which I would later record over thinking Id never watch them again. Needless to say I got back into Wrestling again in the late 90s and seriously regret purging my archive collection.

Basically id reccomend exploring every other avenue before you finally rid yourself of your collection.

[BitterAF]

Here's my two cents
1. Sell the DVD's that you can live without. As someone else said, make a copy and sell the original so you can still watch it.
2. Ask around and see if you can get a job under the table. My friend is a barback one night a week (at a strip club) and brings home $150 or so cash. It's at night on a Friday, so it would most likely not interfere with what you're doing now.
3. I play guitar too so I know how hard it would be to give one up. If you have an extra guitar, maybe try to sell that first. If it doesn't have a scratch on it, could you still return it? I've never returned one so I don't know how it works plus some places may think you bought it for a show/recording/etc...
4. Sell some PS3 games. These would be easier to replace later on as the game(s) get older.
5. Since winter is coming up, offer your services to people that live around you. I live in a small college town and have plenty of families and older couples that live around me. Shoveling their driveway when they need it would help.
6. Probably not idea, but taking out a bank loan. If you're going to school next semester too, you could say you need a loan for whatever school related reason.
7. Ask your parents for half and pay them back.

I'm sure there would be enough crappers here to take a few DVD's off your hands. Good luck.

[Snake "The Jake" Roberts]

Well, first of all, why don't you tell us what kind of trouble you're in, then we'd be in a better position to help you out. We're like family around here, so we're like the next in line to give you advice on such matters.

I would sell the PS3, since that is what your parents would want and would be more responsible than asking them for money. Not sure if you pay rent, but I would try not buying so much stuff for the time being, since things are so tight and you barely make anything to begin with.

Things will straiten themselves out and try to consider what I said about the PS3.

[H-Fist]

You need to look at three different numbers in terms of selling your stuff:
1. How much you paid for it.
2. How much they retail for currently.
3. How much will you get for it.

And really, number four would be what monetary figure equates to the sentimental value.

You paid between $10 and $20 for each of your ROH DVDs, or $700-$1400 total. The WWE anthologies are what, $150-200 each retail? And individual DVDs and sets run between $10 and $30 most of the time. So get yourself a good estimate of what you paid retail.

Are any of the things you have out of print (old ROH shows, for instance)? Then they might retain a bit more value. Have any of your DVDs dropped from full price to the mark-down/bargain bin? Then they might not be worth much at all. Unlike the first number, this estimate might be best put together in a list. In fact, a spreadsheet comparing the numbers might be worth the hour or two of effort/checking the net for availability.

Then try to figure out what people pay for pre-owned DVDs in your area. Check out a used book/music store or a pawn shop. Also, check here: pullman.craigslist.org/emd/ (and list there, if necessary: you'll always do better selling to a person than a business).

Once you know what the market is, if you have one locally, then you'll know if you can really get a good price for your DVDs. Also, consider that you will need to invest the time in multiple transactions unless a hoarder crosses your path.

It will also be much more difficult for you in the future to recreate this collection if you want it, and it also might cost you even more money if certain items remain or go out of print.

On the other hand, you have one (maybe two) almost-new item that is approximately worth the estimated cost of your legal bills. The guitar and the TV. Look at the list prices of them. Find the "driven off the lot" prices of them [ie, "out of box" item price]. If you have a $500 legal bill and can make that go away for the price of one easily replaced guitar, don't you have to do it that way? You can get on with your life and start saving up for a new guitar. It sucks, but it is the simplest way.

There is no guarantee you could get $500 ($6.50/each) for all of your ROH DVDs, for example. But if the guitar costs $600 locally ($650 with taxes), you should be able to find a buyer close to full price for the one (more popular) item than the 100 (less popular) items.

Good luck.