Have you ever "Quit" collecting Steelbooks?

Wreck

Is Here To Serve
Staff Member
Jan 26, 2009
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USA
I thought this might be a slightly different and interesting topic.

Ever so often I see people quit, and some come back etc.

So have you ever "Quit" collecting steelbooks only to start later on?

For those who are reading who have quit entirely, what made it easier for you? Just stopping, selling some, all etc?



Me personally, I started like gangbusters but then toned it down to great degree to where I'm able to collect moderately :)

So yeah, I have no plans of quitting ... this is just a unique (me thinks) topic for our community. :p
 
Collecting Blu-ray since 2006/2007 but only started collecting Steelbook pretty late circa 2014/2015 so I had a lot of catching up especially since the mission was to collect EVERY Steelbooks released past, present and future except for the following

- Pop Art
- Drawing / Illustrated cover
- Foreign language title only
- B Grade movie never heard of
- Mondo

Of course there's some exception here and there. Now 2000+ steelbooks and 5 years later, the passion is still there but occasionally felt like giving up especially when

1) Missed a release due to whatever reason
2) Item arrived damage or not at all
3) Bad ugly Steelbook art being released especially for 4K
4) Retailer exclusive release which is damn hard to get without burning a hole in the pocket
5) Prices creeping up on both item and shipping

Below are things that keep me going

1) Manage to snag a copy of a limited release and arrived minty mint
2) Seeing and touching the embossing
3) Not buying Premium WWA Steelbook, general 4K UHD slipcover and reducing on Digipacks / other packaging hence allocating the money saved for Steelbook
4) Reduced OCD to accept mint used copy
5) Watching my collection grow and on display

I think i will continue for the foreseeable future for mainly Steelbook, Digibook, Korean Slipcase, Lenticular Slipcover and cheap Blu-ray releases not available on Steelbooks (In that order)

Reading the forum I can see that it was more lively in the past. Not sure is it because more people quitting or decided to be silent reader as generally physical copy purchase and collecting are on the decline

Can see the Admin are doing all they can to encourage more participants and discussion so thumbs up to them

To new collectors out there, happy collecting and I guess don't go big bang too fast & furious as it's easier to burn out fast that way
 
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I am running out of space currently. I just buy steelbooks that I really want. Mostly only BluFans and some NovaMedia. Selling most of my FACs. As for my regular blu-rays, I am trying to downsize and trying to sell and donate some of them.

I have shifted my collecting to Comic Books now.
 
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No, and I may never. I started with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Best Buy 4k/3d/2d last year. As long as there's something I find is worth hunting for I'll go for it. I only collect Star Wars and Marvel right now, but I'm branching out to other sci-fi. I might be done with the MCU after WeET's Endgame but I'll pick up WWA and WEA of the new films coming out post-pandemic. If WeET or FilmArena release new lenticular fullslips of the Phase 1 and 2 movies in 4k I'd spring for those (hopefully WEA, embossed, glossy, the whole kit). I think I'll be done with Star Wars after the 2015-2019 Disney movies get 3-disc 4K steelbooks from Zavvi. I like my Blufans premiums of the Disney Star Wars movies in 3D, but there isn't one for The Rise of Skywalker yet so I'll keep that WWA until there is.
 
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I wouldn’t say I quit collecting but I defo went on a long pause and that’s due to a number of reasons. First and foremost I had to sell most of my collection about a year ago due to personal reasons. It floored me as I had quite a tidy collection and had a few gems but they had to go and that was a sad day, but more important things had to take priority.

Second reason was because of the sheer lack of quality over the last couple of years. I got into the game as I loved the artworks and especially the finishes of these things. But over the last couple of years near enough every release has been sub par and poor quality. The only way to get a good release was through a premium retailer and even then with particularly the Asian releases, there was always some issue with quality control. Scuffed Lentis, scratched steels etc. Part of that issue came down to my OCD for minty mint quality, which after big bucks for, I expected mint products, which I believe is perfectly reasonable considering the cost, but there was always something not quite right. I truly believe that there really is no such thing as OCD Mint, I would find some flaw somewhere no matter how minuscule. So in turn i would avoid Asian releases for some time because i didn’t want the disappointment.

Thirdly, the price. Premium releases are practically the only thing I will collect now, but the prices are through the roof on a lot of these releases and I’m talking about the dressed up WWAs! Plus not to mention the rubbish that HDZeta done with the dark knight trilogy with the only option of getting a copy was through an overly expensive one click and priced a lot of people out of it, when they could of easily sold the single editions standalone. Combine that with the horrid attitude to HDN and their customers, that was the final nail in coffin. HDZ have not and will not get a penny from me since.

All of the combined, contributed to me taking a break with steelbooks. Thankfully I’m in a better position now, my OCD has been reigned in somewhat and more excepting of the minor things & i no longer impulse buy. I won’t support these cheap sub standard WWA anymore unless its had some effort put in like the recent Zavvi Avengers Lenti Endgame ( can’t believe I’ve said that ). I also only buy movies I’m really into now.

So in closing, I’m still collecting, but very particular now. Although my collection is nothing like it was, I’m happy with what I do have as it’s now more refined and no longer overtaking common sense. It’s a personal collection now, not a impulse/ocd completionist thing.
 
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I hardly buy anything now mostly because of Best Buy Canada. One reason being that the quality of their SteelBooks is quite awful now. They are horribly mishandled at various stages before ever reaching the buyer. The second reason is that they are hardly carrying anything anymore. They seem to have stopped getting Warner Brothers releases. I think the last WB title was Shazam! which is still in stock. We don't get any of the cheap re-releases that Best Buy U.S. get in.

I would like to sell all of my SteelBooks and quit but I have too many common titles that people would never buy and I don't like the idea of only the best titles being sold probably at cost or less and still have a bunch left over.

Like the Mondo X line for example. People would buy the early titles but nobody is going to buy the later titles like the Disney and Warner titles. Some of the Marvel 4K's would sell but not all of them. I still see titles on eBay in Canada listed for a loss.

So that means I keep buying certain titles from Zavvi mainly.
 
i nearly gave up collecting but when it came to it i decided i don't need multiple copies of the same movie ,so basically keep my favourite edition and move on the rest .also decided it is pointless keeping editions of movies i don't really like and only bought because artwork was good .
lets face it collecting steelbooks is not a cheap hobby so i think unless you have a lot a spare money most of us become more choosy on what we collect over time .
 
After Endgame I pretty much quit. The quality of most steelbooks these days is awful compared to what is was a few years ago, Zavvi introducing red carpet also didn’t help. With my daughter around, most my steelbooks are out of sight in the garage now boxed up. I will probably end up selling a lot of the them and all the duplicates from my obsessive past collecting habit
 
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well i started collecting steelbooks since 2012 ... i never planned to quit ... orders are on decline for same reason as the post above ^^ we all know what's coming up for us collectors and it wont be enjoyable anymore ... until i still enjoy collecting collectors i think i will never quit ... cheers
 
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Certainly we all change as years pass by and I’m not exemption, I been collecting Steelbooks for more than 10 years and I’m not ashamed of saying I was a Steelbook junkie, I was so addicted I Used to stressed coz I didn’t had enough money to get all Steelbooks I wanted to the point of me getting a second job just for my hobby....it’s kind of funny but now that I have the means to get everything I don’t anymore...I think at one point I just got burned up, tired of getting Steelbooks damaged and also a Steelbook for every single movie helped for me to get selective and the thing that also collect music and kotobukiya.....I will never stop collecting that’s for sure and the fact my nephew loves my collection gives me peace who’s most likely to keep it in the end lol
 
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I have never quit collecting but i only buy steelbooks for the big movies i love or the animated DC steelbooks now as I used to buy everything in steelbook.
 
With more than one mouth to feed, I only buy films I really really want and thats still artwork dependent. If the arts bad I'll just get the standard version. I still buy Marvel/DC premium editions from Asia and the odd other slipped versions they do but I'm lucky if I buy one every 2 months or so now

The first few years were a lot of fun, but the same joy in receiving one isn't there anymore. the market is saturated with poor steels and now they want everyone to buy a 4K version too, when I can just buy a 4K for the better art I have. With 8K just around the corner they'll do the same again with more poor art and finishes
 
I counted all my 4k discs last night. 78 in all. 45 of them have steelbooks Only 19 of them could I be bothered to get the steelbooks as the rest were awful. The biggest sinner The Rambo series.....
And I can't figure out who buys those dire designs. From Rambo to Gremlins dire steelbooks.
 
Wow can't believe this thread started in 2011. I'm a huge movie buff.. discovered steelbooks in 2018 and thought the idea of neat steel cases with unique artwork and designs were cool to have. Didn't initially thought it was a hobby collecting them. Got one here.. one there.. another one.. then once I acquired a few, I thought they looked nice on the shelf. But what really got me hooked was when I discovered the ones that were only available overseas, and I started searching for out of print titles. Then I discovered the premiums.. Blufans, KimchiDVD..etc. It became something fun and rewarding being able to add to my collection earlier and rare steelbooks. Only issue now is collection is getting huge and I'm running out of space lol. I only buy titles I will rewatch, and the design must be nice. And yes I open them up to watch :) And as Conner4Real said.. "Never stop never stopping!"