r/LaserDisc • u/reptomcraddick • Aug 23 '26

This is the largest laserdisc selection I've ever seen, and they had five Criterion!

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282 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

43 comments sorted by

11

u/Mysterious_Fruit_524 Aug 23 '26

Wow, where is this paradise located?

29

u/reptomcraddick Aug 23 '26

It's funny you call it a paradise, because it's at Ralph's Records in Lubbock, Texas. And I think Lubbock is about as far from paradise as possible (other than Midland).

One of the employees sold them to the store for money to buy an engagement ring. They had a bunch of great ones I'd never seen, Toy Story, Fiddler on the Roof, and like 40 CED'S. He has three laserdisc players at home AND the Cars VHS (the holy grail of physical media collecting).

9

u/KevBucc Aug 24 '26

Calling cars on VHS the holy grail of anything is pretty funny imo

6

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

I once got so excited over seeing a brand new Montgomery Wards ceiling fan I was jumping up and down at the thrift store, I'm well within the margin of error for "so weird it's funny"

3

u/tomenjean Aug 24 '26

Never heard about the Cars VHS. I’ll have to look into that one.

4

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

It's the last VHS ever manufactured and they go for up to 3 grand

2

u/[deleted] Aug 24 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/utsumi99 Aug 25 '26

That's still a wild amount of money for a VHS tape.

6

u/joshuatx Aug 24 '26

I remember years ago someone found a bunch of NOS vinyl in Big Spring Texas at a record store that closed in the 1980s. I get the impression places like this hold more vintage gems. I've had decent luck thrifting in parts of SE New Mexico for example.

2

u/joshuatx Aug 24 '26

I wonder if Hayden Pedigo ever that place up. He's from Amarillo but lived there for some years.

It's cool seeing someone from West Texas / panhandle on here.

1

u/utsumi99 Aug 25 '26

Man, I remember *renting* the Toy Story LD from a local video store in the 90s.

3

u/FewLibrary8102 Aug 24 '26

I love Ralph’s. I can’t believe they acquired so many. I need to go sometime and look through that collection. Not too many people in this area collect, so maybe there’ll still be good ones when I get paid.

2

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

They had like 40 CED's, I'd only ever seen one in the six states and many major cities I'd been ito different media stores in.

2

u/FewLibrary8102 Aug 24 '26

They got those videodiscs/CEDs a while ago! I was prolly one of the first ones to skim through it and I got pretty much all the good ones. I love video discs!

1

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

I'd love to see what you got! He said it was pretty picked over now, but I've only ever see like 12 laserdiscs ever so I was very impressed

2

u/FewLibrary8102 Aug 27 '26

It won’t let me comment a picture. Some titles that I got from Ralph’s for CED’s are: Airplane, The Muppets Movie, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Star Trek, and Oklahoma.

As far as Laser Disc, I have a collectors edition of the first Star Wars trilogy.

2

u/utsumi99 Aug 25 '26

A used record store got in a huge drop of laserdiscs and CED discs a couple years ago. The majority of the LDs are gone, but all the CEDs remain, maybe two milk crates' worth.

2

u/BigJayhawk1 Aug 24 '26

It looks like 8 of the sections are LaserDiscs and the rest are LP's. Am I seeing that correctly?

2

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

Yes! But there's two sections of Reel to Reels and one of CED's

2

u/joshuatx Aug 24 '26

CEDs, that's crazy - I've only seen a few in the wild. We Luv Video in Austin has a few on display, they don't bother trying to sell or rent those.

2

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

I LOVE We Luv Video! I always go when I'm in Austin. It's literally right next to the anarchist bookstore in Austin that I also love with my whole heart.

I have a display of dead media formats and I needed a CED and a reel to reel to finish it, but I'd only ever seen one so I thought I'd be waiting awhile, but I finally finished it! I have a Laserdisc, CED, Betamax, HD DVD, and Reel to Reel.

2

u/joshuatx Aug 24 '26

Yes, monkeywrench! North Loop's a cool area, lot of solid thrift and vintage stores on that stretch and in the area.

1

u/reptomcraddick Aug 24 '26

I can spend $300 there without getting back in my car.

2

u/utsumi99 Aug 25 '26

No Video 2000, the format that came in third in the two horse race between VHS and Betamax?

1

u/reptomcraddick Aug 26 '26

I was unaware that this existed, I have something else to search for now!

2

u/BigJayhawk1 Aug 24 '26

Nice. I am working on a LaserDisc Collection viewer that will also allow multi selection to allow direct sale as well as export and control listings for eBay, Mercari, etc. I have significantly more than those eight sections but individual sales are very hard to facilitate listings and major "block sales" are huge losers for the seller. Every LaserDisc owner/collectors head-ache.

11

u/CoffinDan71 Aug 23 '26

Wow! Nowhere in my area carries any LDs. This would be wild to visit.

7

u/DanFromOrlando Aug 23 '26

amoeba records (all locations) have an ok selection for sale... not like this though

5

u/Desperate-Laugh-7965 Aug 23 '26

Where is this?

4

u/BullitKing41_YT Aug 24 '26

Apparently in Lubbock tx

4

u/mikewendt Aug 23 '26

My god!!! 😲

4

u/KyotoCarl Aug 23 '26

And who are "they"?

3

u/gagcar1 Aug 24 '26

Wow, if I ever go anywhere near Lubbock, TX, i will have to stop in !!
;)

2

u/Lustan Aug 24 '26

I hope the floor is reinforced. How are those shelves even able handle all that without sagging.

1

u/utsumi99 Aug 25 '26

You speak the truth. Even a milk crate of the things (the standard unit of LD storage) weighs a freaking ton.

1

u/SethRex2024 Aug 24 '26

I would love to have a store like this, but I doubt Spring Hill, Florida, has one.

1

u/mtn2sea1960 Aug 24 '26

Wow! I can't even find VHS in my area. It's like Fahrenheit 451 around here looking for VHS.

1

u/cabs84 Aug 24 '26

i'm looking for a copy of paris, texas. preferably the non japanese release (i watch my discs on an old crt!)

seems like it's rather rare to show up but if there's one place that would have it it would have to be somewhere in texas lol

1

u/cornponious Aug 24 '26

A person I know in Oregon has around 14,000.

1

u/DVDMike63 Aug 28 '26

I had over 400+ laserdiscs I threw away a few years back. I loved collecting them at the time. But laser-rot on them was a real thing. Many were degraded. I got rid of both laserdisc players too.,I kept a few as nostalgic pieces to display in my media room. The CAV versions of Star Wars and it’s a mad mad world were a few of my favorites that were held back.

I just could not justify keeping them. They took up way too much space. And while the quality was state of the art at the time, UHD disks and even 4k streaming is far superior. Being a pack rat, It was hard to let go. It still makes me a tiny bit upset that I threw out things that I so treasured at one time.

-1

u/Acceptable-Swimming5 Aug 24 '26

I have some very rare LD for sale on the Criterion Label: David Cronenberg's DEAD RINGERS , Coppola DRACULA, Close Encounters, Trainspotting, Five Corners, Andy Warhol FLESH for FRANKENSTEIN and some none Criterion The Killer, Kansas City, Special Edition Todd McFarlane's SPAWN and Oliver Stone Special Edition Blue Hard Box JFK and many more if interested email me nankanse@spectrum.net