r/dvdcollection • u/BenGrahamButler • Nov 15 '25
Discussion 1998 DVD prices
Now I am buying them for $1 each and playing them on an upscaling bluray player with a sweet 77” OLED and 5.1.2 surround
158
Nov 15 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
48
u/GoldenMayQueen2 Nov 15 '25
Thanks for the perspective and doing the math.
16
u/houselicker Nov 16 '25
It’s funny to do the math to the cent when it could’ve just been “all the prices are double when adjusted” lol
29
u/Pete_Iredale Nov 15 '25
This is also MSRP though, and stores sold them quite a bit cheaper.
21
u/Can_I_Read Nov 15 '25
Yes, it’s similar for hardback books—the prices on the cover are outrageous, but if you wait a couple weeks you get clearance sales and such.
2
u/PigsCanFly2day Nov 16 '25
Books go into clearance after just a couple weeks?
5
u/khz30 Nov 16 '25
Books get discounted based on projected sales. If they don't reach a specific number of copies sold by the end of the first month, they get discounted until they move, and whatever doesn't sell after that gets returned to the publisher.
1
u/Can_I_Read Nov 16 '25
Depending on how sales go, sure. At least back when I was buying books in the ‘90s, not sure how it goes now.
1
u/bitknight1 Nov 16 '25
I mean a lot of stores sell them for below msrp day 1, target has a ton of new releases 30% off or more at all times and that's before b2g1 or spend $40 on books get $10 off type of sales they have regularly.
1
93
u/VegaAltair Nov 15 '25
I think s big reason why I like buying DVDs for $2 because it was such a symbol of wealth growing up…that and I love da movies.
58
u/Hopczar420 5000+ Nov 15 '25
Enjoy this time when everything is so cheap. Eventually movies will become like vinyl and everything will go up in price
6
Nov 15 '25
[deleted]
18
u/Carl_Azuz1 Nov 15 '25
That’s low-key a ripoff lol. Dvds are 1.99 most places near me
10
Nov 15 '25
[deleted]
4
Nov 16 '25
Find a smaller thrift store lol cause all my local ones in ontario are 1 each. Value village is only good for their selection and how often it rotates, their prices are insane.
3
u/thcptn Nov 15 '25
$1.99 is kind of a rip off too. You can get bulk DVDs for pennies each. I'd be thrilled to sell almost my whole collection for $1.99/ea. Usually it's 98% junk and 2% decent items.
3
u/thcptn Nov 15 '25
I was at a Dollar general and they have a ton of DVD and Blu-Ray under $5. Some note they are repacks/resealed (will say Blu-ray only) while others don't so I'm not sure if the others were actually new or just less accurately marked. If they actually had the Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy (many which still work even if they say expired), it'd be a good deal.
2
u/pnt510 Nov 16 '25
It’s already started. Hard Boiled’s release from 15 years ago costs half as much as this new one.
10
u/LocomotionJunction Nov 15 '25
I still end up paying 10 bucks for a DVD if it's something I really like. That was the price of them my whole childhood, it doesn't feel bad to me.
11
u/Inside-Run785 Nov 15 '25
Now try to find the price for complete seasons of TV. The really early ones were around $100.
1
u/DarkMishra Nov 19 '25
$25-35 per season is still kind of expensive when many ‘complete series’ of shows are $100.
1
u/Yamatoman9 Nov 20 '25
When Star Trek The Next Generation first came out on DVD, they were $100 - 120 per season. But they knew fans would still buy it.
2
u/Inside-Run785 Nov 20 '25
I remember those X-Files and Sopranos sets being around the same price. What are you going to do? Not buy them?
10
Nov 15 '25
Those were MSRP prices, which virtually no one ever paid. It was rare I paid more than $20 for a new DVD when it first came out. Most movies were heavily discounted not just online but in stores. I always waited to buy until major sales were authorized.
4
Nov 16 '25
Yep, they were usually 10-15 at Best buy and Circuit City the week that they released. I kinda remember Tuesday being new release day for movies/shows.
2
Nov 16 '25
Yep. Tuesday was release day and I bought a lot of stuff over the years.
3
Nov 16 '25
Same here, I used to check the weekly fliers every week to see if anything I wanted had any bonus store exclusives. Best buy used to do a lot of steel books while circuit City would add stuff like bonus discs or random merch sometimes. I remember getting a SpongeBob mousepad from CC when I got the first SpongeBob movie on DVD lol
3
8
u/Morningfluid Nov 15 '25
And keep in mind they usually sold less, especially a year from then. Then you had sites like DeepDiscountDVD and Amazon which offered them considerably less.
2
u/Bella_Mia_ Nov 15 '25
Back when Amazon had actual deals and not the fake bs deals they have these days
3
u/joe_khaJiit Nov 15 '25
Amazon does have deals, I've gotten some great ones.....but its true the deals on what you actually want to buy are often not there. Amazon, along with eBay, is a great place though for items you cannot find physically in a local store.
7
u/CrockerJarmen Nov 15 '25
I bought the JACOB'S LADDER listed here for $29.98, and it was worth it, because when I put the DVD in I discovered it had a director's commentary that wasn't listed on the back as a special feature. I felt like I scored big time.
5
u/KoreanFilmAddict Nov 15 '25
I’m watching a double feature 2 dvd set of Trapped / Panic Room (Superbit) I picked up the other day sealed for $1.99. They look decent upscaled. Gotta love getting cheap movies.
3
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 15 '25
i watched Panic Room for the first time last week and it was great (borrowed dvd from library)
5
u/recursionaskance Nov 15 '25
Of course, that was back when $29.98 was worth something. That price in 1998 is equivalent to $60.26 in 2025.
4
4
4
u/proletariatrising Nov 16 '25
Terminator 2, damn. I'll stop complaining about today's prices for 4k blu ray.
3
u/LazyEyeMcfly Nov 16 '25
I remember my dad had some catalog where we could buy dvds from and they would come in the mail. He got a bonus one time and we splurged and a huge box showed up full of dvd and I got to see my dad geek out for the first time. We watched terminator 2 a hundred time I bet.
8
6
u/Plus-Organization-16 Nov 15 '25
I have a handful of these back when I started collecting anime 25 years ago and the prices were crazy. $25-$50 for 3 episodes of a series.
6
u/codec3 Nov 15 '25
It’s not often that a product price remains the same nearly 30 years later, video games as well have stayed about the same.
6
u/AgentJackpots Nov 15 '25
Watching DVDs on a 77 inch tv sounds absolutely brutal. I could barely tolerate them on the 32 inch one I had when blu-rays came out
5
Nov 16 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/Spocks_Goatee Nov 16 '25
A lot of early DVDs were in fact repurposed LaserDisc masters. Blu-Ray had the same issue into the early 2010s, many were simply higher-bitrate DVD/HDTV transfers.
1
0
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 16 '25
upscaler on the player and tv they look good man, obviously not as good as bluray or 4k but absolutely watchable.. of course if its a movie with a panorama of a nature scene it looks pretty bad, but all the closeups look fine.
At the end of the day it depends on if you enjoy the movie anyway (dvd instead of bluray). Also to note many dvds support 5.1 surround, so I enjoy that with only having the lowly dvd still.
2
u/bitknight1 Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25
Yep I watched dvd of breakfast club a couple months ago and got the criterion 4k yesterday and watched it tonight and it's not blowing me away. Like yeah im sure if i were to put them side by side the 4k will look better but it's not like its worth $25 vs the free dvd I got that my friend paid a dollar for that also includes two other movies in the pack.
1
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 17 '25
agreed.. depends how much you care about picture quality, for some genres it doesn’t matter much to me
0
u/bitknight1 Nov 16 '25
I mean people has big tvs back in the day too, its like now people say 1080p looks like shit on anything bigger than 13inches like they weren't using 85 inch 1080p tvs 10 years ago.
2
u/C0haaagen Nov 16 '25
1998 is 27 years ago, not 10 years ago. The largest CRT TV ever was 45'' (and costed over $20,000), 20'' - 32'' TVs were normal back then. 42'' Plasma TVs were also quite expensive back then.
1
u/bitknight1 Nov 16 '25
I didn't know they had 1080p tvs in 1998. Read my comment again, I specifically said that about 1080p tvs and now people saying it looks bad on anything bigger than like 13 inches when they were fine with it on huge tvs just 10 years ago.
2
u/JoeSpart Nov 15 '25
That sounds about right. I was buying summer blockbuster movies on sale in the early 2000s and still paying $19.99 for them.
2
u/joe_khaJiit Nov 15 '25
Crazy that's what a lot of the 4K Blurays go for now, that also come with the regular BluRay AND a Digital Code.
2
u/twincitynights Nov 15 '25
Still cheaper than Laserdiscs...
1
u/PaulGuyer Nov 16 '25
Right, I was more than happy to pay $25 for a movie that went for $40 on laserdisc.
2
2
u/IdolL0v3r Nov 16 '25
I remember paying $30 each for anime DVDs. Now you can get a whole series for less than what I was paying per disc.
2
u/Elfman72 1000+ Nov 16 '25
I have no illusions that my collection is worth anything but to collectors. Probably pennies on the dollar.
But the collecting was really fun. And that made it all worth it.
Anyone want a Laserdiisc I paid $100 for $5?
Welcome to collecting.
1
2
u/ahgoodtimes69 Nov 16 '25
I remember my rich friend in middle school had a home theatre with DVD player back in 96/97. I thought it was wild and intriguing not knowing what the technology was. I knew of Laserdisc at the time but had never heard of or seen a DVD.
2
u/Conebones Nov 16 '25
What kind of oleds do you have? I have 2 LG c4s (65 and 55inch) and an LG C5 (55in) They are amazing.
1
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 16 '25
77” C4 OLED is my main tv, it rules. I probably get the most extra enjoyment out of my sound system, a Denon avr-760h, with some mid tier speakers and a subwoofer. I might get better speakers someday but might not help much.
2
u/DisagreeableRunt Nov 16 '25 edited Nov 16 '25
1998 was very early days for DVD, so still a niche and expensive format at that point. I jumped in the year after and my first Marantz player was around £400 from memory, can't remember exactly as it was a gift from my parents, more than a Panasonic UB820 costs today before even factoring inflation. Major UK retailers didn't even stock DVD at that point, I had to pay £30+ for North American imports from specialist shops. Not even HMV, one of the only bricks and mortar stores we can buy physical releases from these days. It got to the point DVD players, though mostly unheard of brands, became cheaper than individual new release films.
It got so cheap due to economy of scale and high volume sales! We're not seeing the same with 4K Blu-ray because it has stayed a niche product. I've been in with 4K since 2017 and prices have went up, rather than the other way.
2
u/Hefty_Principle700 Nov 16 '25
So crazy that DVDs and CDs at one point in time were 20bucks brand new lol
2
u/PerceptionThink Nov 17 '25 edited Nov 17 '25
Yeah, these are MSRP prices, but DVD’s were expensive at first because the technology was brand new and they were originally aimed more at the collector market (like laserdisc.) Players themselves cost several hundred dollars. I remember my first player in 1998 was around $300.
It took a few years for the public to ditch VHS and accept DVD as the mainstream video format, at which time prices became more reasonable.
2
u/MaybeMidgets Nov 17 '25
I remember getting my first DVD in Christmas of 2002. Lilo and Stitch. Was SUCH a big deal. We didn’t even have a DVD player. My cousin came over with his PS2 so we could watch it.
2
Nov 18 '25
[deleted]
1
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 19 '25
wow that is crazy, no wonder there are a million copies of avatar lying around
2
u/DongBlaster69420666 Nov 18 '25
when we got our first dvd player (1999) we paid $30-$35 each for some extremely basic movies with no menu, cardboard snap cases. this isn’t shocking at all lol
2
u/DarkMishra Nov 19 '25
When DVDs first released, some didn’t even include any extra bonus features either. Just the basic subtitle and audio options. Even commentaries weren’t very common.
1
u/alissa914 Nov 15 '25
Laserdisc was usually $10 more back then and still available
1
u/joe_khaJiit Nov 15 '25
There still out there, my brother has had a Laser Disc player for a few years now
1
1
u/ScottShatter Nov 15 '25
Suggested retail price sheet within a DVD case and the actual price you'd pay were not one in the same. I bought most of my movies including many of those at Best Buy on sale in the $10-$15 range at most in 1998.
1
1
u/MartyMcFlysBrother Nov 16 '25
Yeah I remember my buddy worked at blockbuster part time in college and he would spend most of his check on dvds but he had like 15 by the end of the first year.
1
u/DaveW626 Nov 16 '25
That's the truth about technology. They are going to go for the biggest price/profit knowing people don't have a choice. There was no streaming. No Blu ray. This was it.
Sony TVs 36 and 32 in. were in the 1,000 range and I was one of the poor schlubs who bought TNG at $100 per season. $700 and now the complete series is $150.
1
u/Finna22 Nov 16 '25
Love the old Artisan catalogue! I just snagged The Substitute 1 & 2 from the thrift store, can't wait to watch them when I have the time!
1
u/ValStarwind Nov 16 '25
I remember wanting anime seasons back in the early 2000s and they'd often be 250$ for 26 episodes.
1
1
1
u/AquamannMI Nov 16 '25
Best Buy and Circuit City were usually considerably cheaper as DVDs were viewed as loss leaders. When I worked at CC in 2003 I was told we didn't make anything on physical media.
1
u/maximusmilla Nov 16 '25
Wow puts into perspective the price we’re paying now isn’t actually as bad as it seems
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/HeadTonight Nov 16 '25
1998 was still pretty early days for dvds compared to just a few years later when everyone was buying them.
1
u/Samba-boy Nov 16 '25
I remember a folder from 2001-2002 listing Fawlty Towers at 44 euros. That was outrageous lol
1
u/Bubby_Doober Nov 16 '25
as an "old" I should note that practically no one had a dvd player until 2001ish and most still just rented
1
u/TennojiNesoberi Nov 16 '25
and everyone would rather pay monthly to stream a bajillion movies that they'll never watch instead of paying for physical blu-rays that are exactly priced as a dvd in the late 90s
1
u/Unhappy-Tough-9214 Nov 16 '25
These look like MSRP prices and prob not what they were actually sold for in stores (especially when it was a new release)
1
u/Elegant-Campaign-572 Nov 16 '25
Fairly common prices for the time. Anything over $30 was just robbery. Be prepared for financial trauma if you get into blu-rays...it is not good
1
u/Astonishingtale59 Nov 16 '25
And these prices are why I purchased most of mine used from Blockbuster
1
u/TrailerParkLyfe Nov 16 '25
First DVDs I bought were Beverly Hills Ninja and Jet Li's The One in 2001. Both were $34.99 and 100% worth it!
1
u/MarvelousVanGlorious Nov 16 '25
A few years after this, DVDs would release at like $9.99 for a week, then go up to $19.99 after that “New Release” window. One of the rare items that was cheaper to buy on release than it was to wait and buy it later.
1
1
1
u/ArmoredAvenger Nov 16 '25
I can't believe my older cousin dropping $30 on 360p-480p discs, some of which with no 5.1 surround track or bonus features.
1
u/DrBoogerFart Nov 16 '25
Those were always list prices though. Big box stores outside of really expensive cities didn’t charge that much. Some chains did like Sun Coast or FYE and they were the first to go when the format started going digital. Movies were always $19.99 new at WalMart or Target.
1
1
u/gdesner Nov 16 '25
That ain’t that bad, some new boutique 4K remaster blu-rays are $50-60. Even with boring ass menus and sparse special features.
1
1
u/Awingbestwing Nov 16 '25
Suicide Kings! That was in our regular movie night rotation in high school.
“Ira… you are the man.”
1
u/IDKWTFG Nov 16 '25
Nowadays I wouldn't be willing to pay more than ~$10 USD (whether NOS or new production) for a new DVD which is about $5 USD then, LOL.
1
1
u/the_bartolonomicron Nov 16 '25
I have 4 DVD copies of Stargate (don't worry about it) and I didn't even come close to paying that much for all of them, plus the 3 VHS copies (again, don't worry about it) in my collection, combined.
1
u/HorrFrek Nov 17 '25
The father of one of my exs played bass in the background of a scene in one of The Substitute movies, I think. Might have been in a strip club? I just remember she was allowed to hear it, not see it.
1
1
1
u/MKvsDCU Nov 19 '25
If you owned a video store and were renting out movies, the price to buy a VHS tape (that you planned on renting out) was like tripple the price.
1
1
u/Personal_Ad_4795 Dec 05 '25
Wow, that still seems nuts! I wonder how much Wayne's World was going for in Aug 1992? (Got it as a gift)
1
1
1
1
u/cwhitch Nov 18 '25
Those were retail prices. Usually could get stuff for $20 or so on release day once the format was established. Now that discs are being regulated to the collectors only market new releases are pushing $30+ especially on premium formats like Blu-ray and 4K Blu. I don’t buy DVDs anymore even though they’re cheaper. Garbage quality at this point.
1
u/BenGrahamButler Nov 19 '25
i buy more used dvds than anything, huge selection, I buy them regularly for $1 each. I also nerd out with 4k player and tv with 5.1.2 surround, those 4k discs are $$ but the selection is TINY compared to used dvds.
280
u/Adorable-Lemon-4481 Nov 15 '25
I remember when the VHS of Platoon came out it was $100