Auf Wiedersehen, The Wall: The DVD purge of 2018

I can’t remember the last time I watched a DVD, which is one reason why I have been downsizing my collection—big time.

Thanks to SecondSpin.com—one of many online merchants where one can buy and sell used music, movies, and games—I have unloaded many unwanted DVDs. Though it may not be profitable because of shipping, selling titles from my small movie collection is therapeutic and has solved a conundrum that has vexed me for years: What do I do with these things?

I was never obsessed about buying DVDs or Blu-Rays, as many seemed to be during the binge in the naughties, but I built a small selection over the years. I picked and chose what movies I bought, usually buying only favorites (like Real Genius, WarGames, and Dazed and Confused) and films that blew my mind or I thought I should have just to have (like Blade Runner, Mulholland Drive, and 2001: A Space Odyssey). My mom also contributed many titles (usually unwanted) as stocking stuffers over the years. (My mom buys stocking stuffers and Christmas presents just so people have gifts, and DVDs were a favorite item to give for a long time. My sister and I have since convinced her to stop giving them; we don’t want them. She means well, but just because I like a movie does not mean I want the DVD.)

DVDs were cool for a while, but then I became uninterested. I did not care anymore; the thought of owning a movie did not appeal to me, regardless of format or whatever special features it included. I stopped watching the movies I had and felt no desire to buy more, which is why I now consider my DVD collection a waste of space.

(Speaking of appeal and neglecting the DVDs I have, I feel that owning a movie diminishes my desire to watch it. Even though I love Super Troopers and have owned it on DVD for years, I bet I have watched it only once in the last decade. It has been about 10 years since I smoked weed so perhaps that has something to do with it. I watched Super Troopers a lot during the Apartment 12 days [daze], if you catch my drift.)

Okay, so maybe my entire collection is not a waste of space; there are DVDs I want to keep and plan to watch in the future (maybe). But there are many others that are a waste of space, like the copy of The Wall a friend gave me, which is why I was stuck wondering what to do with them. (I like Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, but everything from The Wall has become nauseating. The movie is depressing, and I have no clue why my friend gave me a copy.) I don’t want them and don’t want to see them on my bookshelf anymore.

But I don’t want to throw them away. Trashing something is the last resort for me; I try to recycle, reuse, repurpose, or sell something before I put it in the garbage and doom it to eternity in the landfill. (Everything you throw away is taken somewhere else and stays there . . . forever. It does not go away; it is just in a different place, conveniently out of sight and mind.) Needless to say, I was very excited when I learned there are places that will buy my unwanted DVDs. It’s pathetic that it took me so long to realize it. To be honest, I’m surprised people are still buying DVDs. (Are they?)

So goodbye, 2001: A Space Odyssey. See ya, two-disc collector’s edition of Seven (which I have no clue why I bought and thought I would be stuck with forever; I bet I watched the movie only once and am not sure if I ever checked out the special features on the second disc). Auf Wiedersehen, The Wall!

I have sold 11 DVDs so far and also unloaded a few CDs and a video game, and I’m not done yet.

(Unlike DVDs, I like having CDs, like having hard copies of music. Though there are CDs in my music collection that I have not listen to in years, especially everything by The Beatles, I want to keep them. I miss buying CDs and the joy of listening to them for the first time. It is something I should do more of.)