Steelbook Investment

[Bluprint]

Seeing many members selling off their entire collection's got me to thinking.

"Are Steelbooks a great long term investment or a good short term investment?"

I myself buy Steelbooks (and many other editions of media) for the artwork and design alone. With that said, I do admire many editions that are now OOP that I would love to own. In my mind, in order to justify buying one of the Grail or higher level Steelbooks it not only has to be aesthetically appealing to me but also a great long term investment. Researching the DVD format G1 Steelbook's has lead me to have mixed feelings.

One of the "Grail" DVD Steelbooks "X-Men The Last Stand Future Shop Exclusive" is selling for $3.00-$39.99 at the most.

With the rise of 4K Ultra would you say that Blu-ray Steelbooks are destined for the same fall from grace? I just want to here some educated opinion about the matter of Steelbook Investment. If its all about aesthetics should you wait for the possible value decline or do you go for what you want regardless of the facts. So what are the facts on these beautiful media artifacts?

Thanks in advance for your comments, thoughts and guidance!

 

[Sigill]

Moved to steelbook chat/support section.

 

[apsmith21]

Any steelbook has the potential to fall from grace if the right product buyer doesn't come along.

Some studios don't care about reusing the same artwork and if there is no one to step for collectors, I believe it very likely that we could see a reprint of any title at any time.

Don't pay a lot for any steelbook period...until they have something that would actually tell us what a first print vs a second print could be.

Like they do with books, open up the front cover, you know what edition / printing you have...

Don't think of it as an investment tho. Unless you're in for the short term - buy cheap and sell high.

Then you might do OK.

 

[snooloui]

No they are not a good investment simply because prices fluctuate to much. It's also nearly impossible to predict which releases are going to start going for crazy prices. Take for example Play.com exclusives, for every Iron Man you have a Battle Royale or Oldboy. Too many people are in this game for the money now, so anything with a sniff of interest is hoarded and then sold down the line.

You're idea of buying for the artwork and design is a good one and really the only reason you should. I wouldn't bother going for any of the grails unless you're a really serious collector. Re-releases are becoming common place, so there's always a new version of that grail just around the corner.

 

[Kuzco]

Personaly I really don't considerate steelbooks as an investment, I only buy/collect the items that I love.
I often pay an excessive price but it's not because of the rarity, It's because I'm looking after perfect mint copies...

 

[bigrob]

Back in the days of DVD collecting, me and my mates bought all the best limited editions as well as Japanese ultimate editions and rare dts titles (remember i was a mod at the import forums)

Not worth a pittance now and have given up trying to sell them for about 2% of the price that i paid

Burned once. Never again

Films are my hobby at the end of the day. It should never be a investment

 

[Bobthesub]

Back in the days of DVD collecting, me and my mates bought all the best limited editions as well as Japanese ultimate editions and rare dts titles (remember i was a mod at the import forums)

Not worth a pittance now and have given up trying to sell them for about 2% of the price that i paid

Burned once. Never again

Exactly, there are things that were about when I first got into buying different/limited editions that were way out of my price range - some still are, but a lot of the dvd boxsets and limited editions I coveted are now on ebay for under £30, I can see collections that some folks spent hundreds, maybe thousands of pounds on are now almost worthless...BUT thats if your selling it, If your happy with what you paid, and are happy with your collection, thats what matters, 'value' only matters if your selling something, prices are artificially high..like £300 concert tickets from an ebay seller, is it worth £300? no its worth £40 or whatever it was, but as long as people are willing to pay £300 for a £40 ticket there will always be scalpers buying 50 tickets and shoving them on ebay for profit, steelbooks - well anything for that matter - are no different


Vintage mint in box toys from years ago are worth a lot, why? because back in the day who bought a toy and then stored it in its box minty fresh? hardly anyone, hence the value of these items, take vintage Star Wars figures and ships, they sell for a lot....But fast forward a few years and when Star Wars was back in vogue with the release of the prequels many people went mad snapping up Star Wars figures and hoarding them in the loft, they are now worth less than they cost originally, why? because there are probably more mint on card post 1999 Star Wars figures than unboxed ones!...Does this mean a mint/sealed steelbook will be worth a premium in the future? that remains to be seen....but using the prices of sealed/mint formally in demand dvd boxsets and collectables from a few years ago Id say no.

Steelbooks are probably a great short term investment, and as much as it pains me to say, the ebay scalpers are probably doing it right, buy on release/preorder and sell while its 'hot' and in demand, there are a few that rise slowly over time but a lot of steels seem to peak within a couple of months of release then level out or drop in price. The trick to getting the best price for anything, weather its a steelbook blu ray, a car or a house is knowing when to sell, you might be better off selling quickly while something is in demand or you might have to hold onto it for years, but as Ive said before, if your looking for a way to invest money for the future there are way better and more profitable ways than steelbook Blu rays!

 

[stevo]

Hahaha, it would seem like these ultra rare limited Japanese editions have been screwing over people since the beginning of time. Pairing the word steelbook and investment just sounds weird. If you're gonna invest in anything, invest in stocks and bonds lol. With any collectibles hobby, only 1-2% are ever worth anything. Thats the problem, people expect every single title that gets hyped to hit a grand slam, it doesn't happen. I do have alot of these "grails", but the vast majority of them were bought years ago, at a small fraction of what they're selling for now. I suppose I can checkout now, for a nice big profit, but I generally like my steels. I use them as decoration, sort of like how some people use shelf full of books as decoration.

If you're looking at it as an investment, you gotta have something with mass appeal. The majority of my collection are Disney titles. Even if this hobby of ours crashes and burns, these should still hold their value. The Disney IP's and MB's are truly rare (The FS ones anyways). They are banned by law to ever be produced again, so there will never be a flood of them (unless your talking U.S empty cases). How many countless million of Disney fans are out there? The guy that collects Disney animation cells, stuff dolls, toys etc will also want the steelbook, it crosses genres.

If steel will go the way of the dodo, it won't be because of a new format. I just don't get this logic. It comes up every single time. If this was true, how is it that the old comic books are the valuable ones? Why didn't the new ones, with artwork that is 1000X better kill off the older crappy comics, printed on cheap news print? Why is it that the Xbox 360 & PS3 with graphics 1000X better graphics kill off the collectibillity of Atari and NES games?

 

[Slim]

Aren't 4k movies still called 4k blu-rays? I wouldn't be too worried. If they changed the name from blu-ray to something else than I might be a little worried.

 

[Cizzar]

When there will be a new physical media (Holocube or something), BD steels will become less and less valuable and you might find an IM FS sealed for 15$ on ebay.
Then again, nobody knows when this will happen, it could happen in 5 years or it could happen in 20 years. VHS has been the standard for about 20 years, DVD sales have passed their peak and are now slightly decreasing in favor of Blu-ray.

So the best "strategy" if you see steelbooks as an investment would be to get all the grails while they're cheap, then wait until a new format is announced and then sell everything before it's value disappears.
But seriously, if you want to invest your money just buy gold

 

[Bluprint]

"Never again." - (Bigrob)

I read each reply and am gaining more and more clarity over my original decision to buy strictly for the love of artwork and design at prices that I feel comfortable with. As much as I love how the John Rambo 1st Print Steelbook looks, I will be more than happy with the German Digibook until the price is 'righted'. Thank you everyone, outstanding replies and please keep them coming!

 

[Jinny]

I read each reply and am gaining more and more clarity over my original decision to buy strictly for the love of artwork and design at prices that I feel comfortable with.

I feel you have made the right decision. Only buy what you are comfortable with spending.

I would be surprised if three years from now we look back and say we did not pass the pricing peak for the most highly sought after steelbooks.

 

[stinkofdefeat]

Buy low sell high.

You can make a profit selling steelbooks you just have to be smart about it and know when to "get out". This is the tricky part but it can be done.

One way to always be "winning" is simply by ALWAYS buying low, when the item is cheap, on release day or wait for discount/clearance sales, buy them up and then the waiting game begins. And if you are just buying for your collection then all the better because in the back of your mind you know you didn't pay rediculous prices for your steels.

If you are after "grails" that are high ticket items I suggest using the tips I stated above to "stock up" on titles and then wait for the right trade to come along. With time/patience a grail or two will come your way.

 

[Jnavotheman]

The best way that I look at Steelbook investing is simply investing in the movies or games that you like. Doing this will create a scenario in your head that is a win win opportunity. On one hand if the market drops and the steels become worthless they are still worth something to you because they are your favorite movies. On the other hand if the market remains hot and you can turn a profit then so be it but always buy what you love because that way it is never a losing situation.

 

[blumaster]

spot on advice from stinkofdefeat.

As a long term investment, a steelbook is a terrible investment, imo. But if you buy low and than sell at the right time, it's a great way to increase cash flow. It's just like the stock market or bitcoin, for that matter. I bought a few copies of Dark Knight JP for retail price and sold them at peak value. Some people speculated it would only increase in value, but in reality it has lost about 25% since it's peak.

 

[SlimJim24]

The best way that I look at Steelbook investing is simply investing in the movies or games that you like. Doing this will create a scenario in your head that is a win win opportunity. On one hand if the market drops and the steels become worthless they are still worth something to you because they are your favorite movies. On the other hand if the market remains hot and you can turn a profit then so be it but always buy what you love because that way it is never a losing situation.

O.H.!!...

 

[chanfm]

spot on advice from stinkofdefeat.

As a long term investment, a steelbook is a terrible investment, imo. But if you buy low and than sell at the right time, it's a great way to increase cash flow. It's just like the stock market or bitcoin, for that matter. I bought a few copies of Dark Knight JP for retail price and sold them at peak value. Some people speculated it would only increase in value, but in reality it has lost about 25% since it's peak.

But as long as you can sell TDK JP above the retail price you paid, why does it matter that it has fallen 25% since its peak? I think that we must try not to be over ambitious in our expectations. As long as I make a profit (however little), I am happy. That accumulated profit is then used to buy the really expensive grails which I love. If, at the end of the day, the values all turn to ashes, I have not lost financially. All one can say is that I missed the opportunity to make a bundle - but really, making a bundle is not the reason why I came into this hobby.

 

[karl01]

I buy all mine at retail cost now and if they start reaching high prices i sell them us you just dont know if it is going to be released again. I have been lucky in the way that i bought most of the grails for very cheap or retail and sold high.

 

[Jango]

very bad investment, you can make profit but the time you have to invest for it simply not worth it if you don't have fun on the hobby itself.

 

[Wreck]

just buy them for your own personal enjoyment .... dont invest in any ... unless you are doing a quick sale to fund more etc. But ultimately, buy what you like for your collection without thinking about selling.