My name is AJ. I'm currently 31. I had a tech-geek step-dad growing up who was a big LD enthusiast. I always remember hearing the debates between him and my mom about why he needed to drop $60 on a movie. An appreciation for LaserDiscs was probably the best thing I got out of having him as a temporary step-dad.

I bought one or two LaserDiscs of my own back during that time period (early/mid 90s) but obviously I had to save quite a few weeks' worth of allowance to pick up a disc at the time. Probably about 10 years ago I started picking up discs again for nostalgia after I came across a player (with a broken side-flip function) at the used record store I still frequent. The nostalgia obviously quickly turned into a hobby/collection and I'm currently sitting on a few thousand discs. I've went on road trips specifically to buy proper lots of them and I always make it a point to research out potential holdstrongs of discs in stores when I go on trips for anything else (including our honeymoon).

I stumbled upon this site several years ago and would use it for reference here and there but only within the past year did I fully engulf myself in it and all of the information it has to offer. I recently opened up my store on here (http://www.lddb.com/shops/ajp.worrell/) and I'm a pretty determined seller who always makes sure to have the lowest price (also lower than what you'll find on eBay). The money all inevitably goes back into LaserDiscs but it at least keeps the shelves new and exciting.

What I enjoy most about LaserDiscs is the seriousness and dedication that most collectors have both for film and the format. I suppose it makes sense considering LDs have always been a serious investment which would ward off any fairweather collector but it seemingly goes beyond that and has a true diehard community based around it. I put together a "documentary" which I'm currently uploading that is really just something I put together for a video editing class I was doing and is comprised solely from footage already existing on YouTube but I'm thinking about going back through and making a more official one with new interviews and hopefully more vintage footage.

Thanks and hope to stay in touch with the community!

welcome.

while i seriously got into LD myself about a decade ago, around 2007ish,
in actuality, it really began about five years prior, -around 2000/2001ish- when my grandma bought me a non-working CLD-1080 for $15.00.
i never was able to fix it, and, around the same time, i was perusing the internet and EBAY for the very first time,
finding out about older A/V gear, -older, sexier PIONEER gear especially- about older/obsolescent home video formats, -LD foremost among them-
and the first LD player i knew i had to own someday, upon first sight, the 1988 CLD-3030.

i went through some years of sporadic opportunities to build up an LD collection, went through a couple locally-acquired players,
-first a functional CLD-1080 and then an LD-838D- before finally obtaining my own CLD-3030,
and, eventually, both original service manuals as well as several additional CLD-3030/1030's worth of spare parts,
and today, while i have but a modest disc library of perhaps 200 titles,
i also have what is likely the most lovingly maintained CLD-3030 in all of PAC-NORWEST.

while i'm always looking to add choice titles to my collection for cheap, odds are that my library won't be growing much more,
since i'm running out of storage space, and a majority of my most-sought-after titles
are often rather uncommon to find, and at least somewhat expensive to obtain.

even so, though i may hardly among the most dedicated of Laserphiles around LDDB,
there will always be a place near and dear to me for the CLD-3030 and the format in general,
there simply is nothing else out there quite like it.

Home Video, on the whole, despite it's current high-definition state of the art and all,
just doesn't seem half as sexy or exciting to me as it seemed to be
during those innovative, Pioneering (Excuse the Pun) halcyon days of the 1980's, YMMV as always, of course...