i remember seeing some people selling discs a few years ago saying that they only pressed a number of a certain title.

i think x-men was one and the HK song of the south, but how can you really tell?

do the mint marks give any hint of this? or are these people making this up?

Not that I'm aware of. Sometimes pressing information was announced when the discs were released. Some of this info could be found in laserdisc publications that were promoting a release.

In theory the stamper numbers from Pioneer on each disc side are the serial numbers,
to know the approximate quantity made you should compare a certain number of discs (it's all statistics =;^)

For example End Of Days, the biggest spread I have seen is ~400, does this give an accurate number, no as I compared only a few discs, you should take a significant number of samples.
However it could be done, if all owners of this title (on LDDB already 19) and the ones not registered on LDDB would publish their serial numbers, we can make a good estimation
(around 20 samples would give a good idea taken into account this title has been pressed in low quantities).
The accuracy can be calculated by the spread measured over the number of samples.

We could do a test here on the forum, by asking this info of certain titles, might be very interesting though, do not know if others agree?

If we want to do this we need the complete info, as multiple stampers are used, here B02 - however it might be B01 was never released (eg defects on stamper)

Ill kick-off with info I have on End Of Days, hoping others to follow

LD85240WS-A01-P 04503A22
LD85240WS-B02-P 05143A24
LD85240WS-C01-P 03323A22

LD85240WS-A01-P 00413A22
LD85240WS-B02-P 00463A24
LD85240WS-C01-P 05193A22

LD85240WS-A01-P 01113A22
LD85240WS-B02-P 01163A24
LD85240WS-C01-P 00923A22

Pioneer used a certain format, in this case you should compare the first 4 numbers
Hope others will contribute as well

yes i've seen that also, but i remeber seeing many about 4-6 years ago, before bluray came out.
sellers were trying to get more bids by listing that they knew how many were made.

but since all were not listed in publications i was wondering.
anyway i'll also check the pioneer mint mark and see compared to others.

as we all know the early discs had a limited pressing no matter how important the title and i just wanted to know if these sellers were telling the truth or what.

There are lot of limited edition LDs if I remember correctly..I have the Jaws: Limited Box Set and it says right on the box only 50,000 copies were made..But that's a pretty good amount...I also think that maybe lesser known low budget flicks probably didn't get as many printings due to the fact that the company pressing them probably didn't have a ton of cash to throw around..The thing is I really don't have a clue, since I am still fairly new in the game when it comes to LDs.

Some music DVDs are now produced in such small quantities that they are almost impossible to obtain within a few months of the release date as they are sold out so soon.
In fact even CD singles are now much tougher to locate than say those pressed in 80's/90's as they now produce them in tiny quantities.
Based on current trends I believe these could be worth a fortune in years to come.

By way of example Melanie C released a live at the Hard Rock Cafe DVD in aid of the Caron Keating Foundation in 2009.

http://www.melaniec.net/music/discograp ... k-cafe-dvd

Originally, only 1000 units were to be pressed, but after selling these out before the release date, this was extended to 1750 copies, which all sold out as well.
I missed buying this originally and spent the next 2.5 years trying to track one down on every music site on the internet I could find! I had all but given up when one turned up out of the blue last week and I snapped it up quickly as it could well be the last chance ever given the low quantity in circulation. Each was individually numbered and mine is number 1281. It also came with a poster. As the link mentions these were only available online originally so are now seriously hard to find at any price. I've loads of other items like this in my music collection that were deleted almost instantly. This might be my retirement fund in later years!

i know that they do make limited runs or special limited to 50K or whatever.

i just remember some sellers, possibly scammers trying to list that there were a number of regular production discs made.

i was just wondering if that was a number that they just made up or was it a real number, not regarding already stated as limted but non limited had small runs also.

i have some old and new japanese discs or american discs by small companies and know that they were limited, back in the day i only saw 1 at the store, no joke. and never saw any others.
even on the bay or this i may be the only one with a copy in a collection, or might only see 1 in the past 8 years on ebay.

i have a copy of the pied piper japanese disc that i bought about almost 10 years ago, i think i bought it from nicholas, and only ever saw one other copy on ebay about that same time.

i know that there were more that 2 copies pressed but how many??
even the street fight aka coonskin, i have a copy on US LD, never saw this title at major stores like Tower or J&R but found it at a closeout store that sold LDs and CDs, i think i have only seen 2 copies for sale in the past 20 years.

50k is not a small volume for LD, got a few discs that where made for a museum in the netherlands with active CAV features, these where made only a handfull. Philips offered this service with a leadtime of a few days to produce

Also my favorite LaserJuke discs where made in very low qty per title (far less than 100, and the 2001 - 2002 releases even far less),
And all copies where distoyed by Pioneer after return of lease period, only the once that where bought (£150 a piece) could survive, however vast majority where leased

O.K. so this is a great example.
are the laserjuke discs makred on the mint markings to say or was it published in some magazine??

how can you tell that they made less than 100??

i'm trying to figure out how many of other discs were made, is there anyway to find out other than pioneer or one company telling this to one reporter for some article??

Quite a lot of german releases from publishers like CMV, Astro and EC were released in limited batches of 500 or 1000 (some have running rumber printed or stamped in them), and US Image releases of Hammer triplet Twins of Evil, Vampire Circus and Countess Dracula had a pressing of 500 pieces each.

O.K. again i don't think i'm getting my real question answered.
i know if something is limited it will have a number stamped on the sleeve etc.

how do you know the US image relases of hammer were limited to 500??
was this just publication info??

what i want to know or really need to know is if i have a disc, lets say some import or domestic film, regular stuff but older. how can i tell the number of pressed discs of said title??

i guess since everybody is giving me no real answer to my question then there is no real way to find out unless 1- the disc was a limited run like the limited signed hellraiser box set or 2 it was in some type of news letter or other publication.

if it was none of those how do i find out how many discs were pressed, or is this impossible??