So I decided to post after reading another post about all the lurkers. One of those would be me.

I suppose I qualify as an "Old Veteran." My first exposure to the laserdisc format was in a class on Hitchcock films in college, meaning the late 80s. "North by Northwest" was one of the films we studied, and the professor went on and on about how great it was that you could look at every frame of the film (he had the Criterion CAV edition of the movie). At that time, I told myself I'd have to get one of those.

Well, it took me about six years, but I finally did. I bought a Denon, which I still have as a backup player. I think I paid around $1200 for it new, which seems insane to me now. The first laserdisc I bought was the CAV version of Fantasia. I gradually built up a collection of about 200 or so, paying those ridiculous prices. I bought some used, but even those were triple what I typically pay for a Blu-ray disc now. Of course, one of the first titles I got was the Criterion "North by Northwest."

When DVDs came along, I jumped on that bandwagon, and pretty much quit buying laserdiscs. I think the last one I bought new back then was the Criterion release of "Trainspotting." But I never got rid of my laserdiscs - I'd paid so much for them I couldn't part with them, and they still looked fine on my analog TV, a 46 inch Toshiba rear screen projection model.

So skip ahead to around 2007, when there was now this thing called Craigslist. I discovered that people were selling 200-300 LDs for around $100. So I started buying them, keeping maybe half of each collection, and selling the remainder for slightly more than what I paid in the first place. By doing this, I ended up with the collection I have now, which is probably about 1200 (although the last collection I bought was in 2010). At some point in that period, I picked up a CLD 97 for $250, plus a couple hundred LDs.

So that's my story. I still have the CLD 97 and it's working fine, although I should definitely get it serviced while I can. For the most part, I only buy blu-rays now, but I have no plans to give up my laserdiscs (although I will cull my collection at some point). An example of why I'll never give up my laserdiscs: I have the blu-ray rerelease of "North by Northwest." It looks amazing. HOWEVER, it is not in the original aspect ratio, like the Criterion LD. Pathetic. They lopped off the sides so people wouldn't have the black bars on the top and bottom of their screens. So I'll be keeping the option open of watching my favorite Hitchcock film in its correct aspect ratio!

Welcome to the fold ......
Great story, thanks for sharing !