when it comes to stones, deep purple, led zeppelin and old those classic bands. The obi on the original vinyls can increase the value with 1000 usd. with obi, 1500 usd, without 200 usd. Then its more tricky to decide if you need the obi

Depends on if I can get the same item with OBI strip in another place, but I feel this OBI has become an OCD.
I feel the need to have it, though I don't understand japanese, but it is essential as it was originally a part of the item.
But too much money for a simple strip which is easy to tear apart and will easily break off if not gently.

You don't need to know Japanese to see that it contains more or less the same information you can find on the cover it self. Sometimes they can contain extra technical details, though. Most often the extra information is just advertisement for other releases.

i'm in japan so it's really cheap for me to get japanese LDs, but i don't care about the obi.

at first, i maintained them, then it became difficult to put the obi and the disc back in the plastic sleeve , then when i set up a display stand, i noticed the obi just got in the way of the cover art. besides, they're ugly to me and bear no interesting info.

i took off all obi and put them rubber-banded in my closet, thinking if i ever sell it would be better to keep them, but i think by the time i ever give up the LD bug, they'll be worth nothing anyway, so the next step might be throwing them out...

In the Bluray/DVD community they have slip cases. Some BD/DVD comes in a thick paper slipcase. Most people throw these away, some are avid collectors(like myself). Buying (even brand new) BD copies online is a hit or miss. Sometimes they come with the slipcase, sometimes don't, no way to know until you receive it. Some sellers on eBay knows this and advertise if their copy include the slipcase. (And of course ask more money).

The reason I explained this is there is a big market for slipcases. You will see a lot of people list their slipcases for sale in classified adds in DVD and BD forums. Typically $3 to $6 but some up to $20.

If you have a good number of obi stickers you don't care about, you can make a thread in laserdiscs sales section and sell them. List each obi with its corresponding price.

Yup, I'd probably buy obi's that I am missing.
And I'm sure I am not the only one.

I own OBI's for most of my collection but I would still buy Japanese LDs without them if the titles were very rare.
If you own at least one complete copy, depending on the type of OBI a perfect copy can be made quite easily that is indistinguishable from the original. I use £100,000 copy equipment from a professional bureau not a cheap inkjet and scanner at home.

I'd love to get copies for the few I am missing. I contacted a few people offering to pay for copies and also provide any they needed but most never even replied.

I guess most people would think it sounds really fishy, unfortunately.

Do you also include a watermark or something on the copied obis to indicate they're reproductions? I know in the video game community, this type of stuff is a really sensitive subject. It seems it has become a "rule" that any form of reproduction must have some kind of change applied to it. Just the word reproduction is enough to tick some people off.

This wasn't being offered for profit or commercial gain. I made the offer simply because I own most of the original OBIs (at least 99%) and only require a handful to complete my collection, perhaps 5-10 titles at most in a collection of 9000+ laserdiscs. I'd actually prefer to buy the originals but no one ever sells OBIs individually. I think in reality most people I contacted have neither the skill nor the patience to produce them to the quality that I would expect. It isn't cheap producing good quality OBI's. A well produced copy can actually look better than the original as the initial high resolution scan can be touched up on screen to remove any little flaws (tears, scuffs etc) before it is printed and carefully trimmed. An original OBI with some fading on the spine can also be restored to its former glory.

I would gladly pay for the OBI's I actually miss.

Laserdisc_fan, if only you would know how difficult it is to know whether or not a mint copy of Mega Man X2, Earthbound or Chrono Trigger is real these days then you would probably understand what Samaron meant. The amount of repros (which is basically a finer word for bootleg) in the retro gaming market have increased over the past years since it's a good way to make big buck on collectors. I know a Norwegian guy who paid nearly $5,000 for an A4 manual for one of his Nes games. It's basically a white paper with text on it, that could easily be copied. Don't you think he would be worried?

From what I've seen in your shop you've never sold an LD with a reproduced obi without making it clear in the description, and that's a great thing so I admire your honesty. It's just that there's a big problem with repros in the video game market that are identical to the originals and I would not like to see the same thing going on with Laserdiscs.

No I've never sold a laserdisc with a copied OBI but if I did you likely couldn't tell the difference, it would be that good. I keep my copies for myself because I put a lot of time and effort into them which I don't think other people would ever appreciate. I've been studying them in great detail for some time and noted many very subtle differences and similarities in how OBIs are produced and what info is on them. I'm pretty sure I could spot a fake done by someone else a mile away.

And don't you see the problem? When people can make copies that are identical to the original, what would keep them from making a profit on those other than common sense? You can just google "Fake Snes games" or "Fake Mega Drive games" and you'll see why no collectors would ever borrow you something out of their collection if you tell them what the purpose is.

I'm not into games at all. Also I don't borrow anything. If I want something I buy the original myself.
I'm not one of the current generation of kids who never bought any original music or DVDs and just downloaded it all for free. So no I don't really see where you coming from. If you looked through my 9000+ laserdiscs all of them are originals discs and sleeves and 99% are original OBIs. I might have 5-10 copied OBIs in my entire collection. If that has caused the entire laserdisc market to collapse then so be it - it must be a very fragile market though. I'll hold my hand up and confirm I'm guilty as charged if it makes you feel any better!

Seriously, are you trying to misunderstand me? Samaron asked if you're doing some kind of watermark because we do have massive problems on the retro game market regarding repros because neither of us want the same thing to happen with the home video market. I don't give two f**ks about how many LDs you own but if you're simply ignoring what we're writing because you don't want to admit being wrong in any case then that's your problem.

Compare these two cartridges for a minute. If it wasn't for the fact that someone wrote in the pic with the help of paint, would you be able to tell them apart if you saw them on eBay? If not, wouldn't that be a problem in your opinion?

Calm down, nissling. I just asked out of curiosity, not because I'm actually worried about counterfeit obi strips hitting the LD market. In fact, I support making a close copy. Any honest person who passes it on would inform that it is a replica. Highly doubt this would become a problem with LDs anyway.

laserdisc_fan, you're quite dedicated to go through the trouble to actually make them. Would be lovely to see those in person and I'm sure I'd appreciate the time and effort put into it. I'd like to help you supply any missing obi strips, but highly doubt I have any titles you're missing. Have had the thought my self to print obis, but lack the equipment needed and someone to borrow the missing obi from.

I got the idea from some photographic work my dad was doing on photos that were over a 100 years old and in a very bad state of repair. There were no negatives available so all he had to work from was the original faded photographs which had many scratches and damage. He set about restoring them using Photoshop. It was a painstaking process but the end result was really quite breathtaking. They were so clear and all the damage had been completely removed.

I thought perhaps some of the same techniques albeit on a much simpler level could be applied to a damaged laserdisc OBI such as one that is torn or has corner wear etc. So I experimented at home but I was never entirely happy with the final results due in combination of the paper I had available and the limitations of a conventional inkjet printer. So I thought about getting higher quality scans done elsewhere which I could take home, manipulate and then reprint on professional equipment. This got round the limitations of home equipment but also kept the price down because it would be uneconomic to pay a commercial shop to retouch an image - no mattter how small. It's a very time consuming process.

Through studying many different OBIs I noted that many parts are actually identical. It is possible for example to scan one part and combine it with another thereby building up an OBI from scratch quite literally which looks absolutely identical to the original. It is also possible to easily generate a barcode if that part is damaged. Around 75% of an OBI can be generated from scratch without even owning an original if you know what you are doing and have a good knowledge of the how the OBIs have evolved over time. The missing 25% is the only unique part which can also be generated even without a scan although a scan is preferrable for 100% accuracy.

The big downside is this is very time consuming process. Doing this for money would be a fool's game because a professional copy is not cheap to produce if you want it to look authentic and no one would ever pay you for the time spent. My advice is always buy a laserdisc with the original OBI if you can get it because obtaining an OBI at a later stage is rarely economic unless you can produce it yourself.

I really dont get the point with having a zerox obi. Can we just copy the sleeve and glue it to a sleeve ? It feels a bit like you trying to fool yourself with added whats missing to your collectors item.

And I have to agree with Nissling, you need to watermark them if you going to sell, but apperently youre not selling. Even if you are clear on that it is a photocopy, the one that buys it from you might sell it without mention it, and you dont want to be a part of that chain. making a perfect copy without watermark it is a problem in all aspects.

I know it looks better with the obi, but if its missing its missing. Dont fool yourself. But I know the obi itself isnt importen to all, thats ok. But if you copy it, it just means that you do think its a big deal that its missing.

LD obis are so much easier to repro then the old vinyl obis, that are wrap around and thin paper. Ld obis use much more common size and paper style. I mean you can go to the local Zerox centre and put it in the a3 machine and you will get a decent copy. You could tell them apart next to each other, but if you never seen the real obi and saw it in a used shop.... Its much harder, trust me.

Any market has fakes. This is what you have to deal with.
Anybody paying 5K for a white printed paper is just crazy, but then again I wish I had one for sale to take the money.