Why is it so hard to understand that something (anything) becomes valuable when 2 or more people are willing to fight (bid) over it. The scary thing about some of these prices is how long will there be 2 or more people (with necessary funds) willing to fight over a title to maintain it's value. Bottom line is pay what you must for something you really want, just don't look at it as an investment because as soon as 2 or more people are gone so is it's value.

There always seems to be at least another person for the things I want:) I rarely win auctions without a bid war lately:(

Also keep in mind some of these people list these titles in hopes that they will never sell. Or they will sell only if someone bites the outrageous asking price.

Posted this before but I remember when Greed (1924) [ML101360] sold on ebay for 800 bucks.
I believe I overpaid for my copy at around 20 bucks at the time.

The two person deal is very true and real, but stuff like 6th day has no second person other than who knows what.
Lets face it vinyl late pressings don't even fetch 4 figures.
Look at something like OK Computer, 1st edition is not even 800 bucks.

These late releases unless never released on DVD or another format at these prices are just a joke.

But I sure do wish I bought 6th day from that place in MA rather than X-men when they were blowing out all the late releases

Look at something like Gone with the Wind (1939) [ML107199]
There were only 600 copies made.

I have Araiguma Rascal: Memorial Box [PILA-1450] and I’m just finishing it for the second time.

This was a Pioneer reprint of an earlier box from another publisher but with totally different art, all new made for this release. The telecine is obviously the original 1977 crap because there is smear everywhere. It does have the little candy ad in the beginning though that’s probably cut from the DVD. The new art was re-used for the DVDs which were sold separate. This is a 13 disc box with four eps on every disc.

In late 1997 DVD was already hurting LD sales in Japan and not many big boxes were being announced anymore. It was nearly $700 and almost certainly preorder only. I don’t know how many copies exist but this is the only one I’ve ever seen for sale and mine is numbered 674. I don’t think it’s unrealistic to assume the print run was probably at 6th Day levels if not lower and original retail was 10x higher.

I got it five years ago maybe for $90. These days $90 for any anime LD box is actually a LOT (most are $5-20) so my guess is they don’t get traded in very often. The shop I got it from was practically giving away most of its stuff but they weren’t going to let Rascal go for peanuts.

I was looking through the Jan 1999 issue of Newtype to see what was in shops then. Amazingly there was a Big X set called the Big X Big Box. I’d love to see that.

I’ve been in touch with the Sterling North Society and visited his boyhood home in Egerton, Wi. Although perhaps at a low point in popularity I can verify that Rascal does in fact have many fans from all over the word, but most are fans of the book and not the anime that has for some stupid reason never been released in English. The home does get more Japanese visitors than you’d imagine. The show was a massive hit in Japan and Nippon Animation still introduces loads of new Rascal merch every year or even month probably.

EDIT: Why did I bring this up? I guess just to show that I'm fully aware of the concept of supply and demand and I would have been glad to pay double for this box or more if I had to. At this moment I can't find a single copy of this box for sale anywhere and neither version has ever sold here but there are three copies of 6th day on LDDB right now with each more ridonkulousy priced than the last.

These are my thoughts exactly. Not dissing the movie(s) or the people who buy them. I just personally don't spend more than what one might spend on a nice lunch on LDs in 2019. Like a pastrami sandwich, a drink and a tip....$20 is about my limit for a Laserdisc in 2019. If I see something in the wild I'll almost certainly buy it if; 1) It fits my budget or 2) I want it bad enough. I don't do eBay for LD. Prices and shipping are not attractive to me.

Someone mentioned 1st press of vinyl LP records which is a similar game. However the difference there is that you can now buy most "popular" records as re-issues and be marginally happy for way less money. The technology to make LPs still exists and there is a new generation to sell them to. It gets harder to sell a 1st press Beatles LP (to a newer generation of fans) when the new re-issues may sound the same or better, are readily available and priced to sell. Kind of the same goes for retro video games. Why buy a console and physical games when there are emulators and roms? At least why buy the games when there are ways to play the roms on the actual hardware now?

This does not apply to LD. There will never be another run of discs fresh off the line. Hence, the market is finite and that will always drive prices up. Not to mention the hype some titles have and the trophy aspect of attaining them (Song of the South, Goofy, 6th Day, The Cell, etc). Forums like this and FB have most likely contributed to those high prices to some degree since the demand and awareness increases. The closest thing we have is the Domesday emulator which has the potential to capture the contents of the disc 1:1 but again, requires a physical player and disc in the chain. We could all be trading RF images on high speed p2p networks in the future but would that really be the same?

Maybe just enjoy the hunt and enjoy what you have already. Keep a wish list and have fun with this hobby. Fun is the key word.

Apparently the opening track "Nightflight to Venus" on the similarly titled Boney M record is a significantly longer mix on the original German release than the later repressings (and including different formats) which makes it particularly sought after.

Speaking as someone who has different editions of the same records released sometimes 50 years apart...stuff made in period can never be replaced. They always mess up the paper or lose the original elements of something or they remix the whole thing in stereo or whatever. When something debuted on a format then that's always the "original". This really applies for stuff like Factory Records or anything on 12"s really. It totally applies to the OVA era of anime. A lot if people have come to think it applies to Star Wars and LD because they never saw it theatrically and I guess for them they are right but the problem with that is then when they see a HD version that's 400x more accurate than the SD one they first knew they think the problem is with the new format...

Star Wars is an interesting case because it's been scrutinized so much over the years that I don't think there's even one other film that comes close to receiving the amount of attention to the small details.

Unfortunately it's also one of those annoying cases where you can't even trust the original director of photograhy on how the movies are supposed to look since Lucas isn't the only tinker-happy person involved.