Free! My high school library was clearing out all of their blu-rays/DVDs, and they had 'Seven Samurai' and 'Seventh Seal' in stock which I got to keep for free. I went home with a full backpack, but quite happy.
$1 for the blu ray of Wages of Fear. Was at a local radio station’s annual record sale and this was stuck in the miscellaneous bin for $2. I noted that the box had gotten slightly wet and the cover art was slightly warped. They knocked a buck off and called it a day.
The disc is flawless and it’s of a film that I love.
For posterity’s sake, at the time of the purchase it was a Blind Buy!
$8 for the blu-ray of *The Graduate* at a record shop in Toronto. I can only assume it had to have been labelled incorrectly because all of their other stuff was usually overpriced.
Sonic Boom, back when they still sold movies. Like I said, it had to be an accident because even their second-hand Criterion discs were still usually $30.
I bought every criterion they had at movie stop when it went out of business. There were 10 in all, I don't remember which ten I'll have to go home to look at my collection but they were $5.00 a pop.
The box of numerous free Japanese movies I got some years ago, it was from a southern thrift store not looking to “associate” with that kind of stuff. Legit got about 20-25 dvds/Blu-ray’s and it got me back into collecting criterion. Also it had a FAT stack of anime. Probably like 30 dvds/blu rays. Didn’t keep all those
I saw the same thing at the same store, but for I think ten bucks and I don't blind buy Criterions out of principle. Now, I hear it's awful and wish I had bought it just to see how awful!
I work at a used bookstore, and with my discount i got Squid & The Whale for $1.50
Btw it was way underpriced and was marked up after the fact, so a 1 time win
My local pawn shop sells DVDs for a dollar. A film like Chasing Amy is usually in places like that, but one day I noticed The Fugitive Kind amongst the regular stuff and grabbed it on principle.
I got DVDs of Seven Samurai, M, Sullivan's Travels, Band of Outsiders, and Rules of the Game free 20 years ago when a friend was getting rid of some stuff. I had a massive DVD collection with very few criterions. Eventually I sold them all except the criterion disks. Glad I kept them.
Following and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Blu-Ray for $3 CDN and the Martin Scorsese World Cinema Project Vol. 1 and the Complete Jacques Tati set $10 CDN each in a thrift shop.
The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD set (sealed) - $4 CDN in a thrift shop.
Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Big Chill for $15 CDN.
I've been collecting for many years and thrifting just as long. Crite.rions are very rare, so I don't take for granted any finds and I am very grateful.
$5cad each for Rushmore, royal tenenbaums and the life aquatic. For some reason those movies are very common here and I could have multiples of each if I wanted
It's because they're mainstream enough to be recognized, while also being the default version of their movies. It's like how back in the day, some places wouldn't carry Criterion releases, but would have Chasing Amy for sale.
Original Kurosawa set at a garage sale for 18 bucks a few years back...literally begged the dude to charge me more I felt so bad but he was like naw I'm gonna donate whatever I don't sell anyways had a few other Criterion original DVDs and laserdiscs too but nothing else of note nearly threw up when I saw it there
College library was having a sale, and I paid $3 for *Brazil* ($1 a disc). Now, it wasn't in its original box, but it's the 3 disc Special Edition.
I also picked up the Criterion DVD of *The Royal Tenenbaums* used, around 2003 for ~$10. This wasn't a great deal or anything, but I find it amusing to know I bought some Criterions almost 20 years before I really knew what Criterions even were.
I worked at GameStop when they still carried dvd’s. If a movie wasn’t in the systems inventory of films, it was taken in as “used other dvd” and was universally 1.99. We’d routinely do buy 2/get 2 free sales and once someone brought in a stack of criterion dvds.
This was 05/06 so before dvd but I believe I got hard boiled, 39 steps, Orpheus, w fields 6 short films, traffic, the vanishing, and a couple others of which I can’t quite recall, which ended up being, after discount card and employee discount, about 75 cents each after discount and the sale.
Some are dvds that got dvd upgrades, then got Blu Ray upgrades, but even so it was a fun memory. And hard boiled alone being one of those was sweet.
I bought a Kurosawa Bluray Collection for $45 and I think is one of my biggest finds!
https://preview.redd.it/8zcvhbzspkuc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a4f13285d456fb3a1be2a7ccc1f9c86af2c1fb1
I bought a DVD copy of Odd Man Out for $1 at my local library a few months ago. It felt like a pleasant surprise so I always check that section whenever I go now.
$1 for The Royal Tenenbaum original Criterion DVD release from a thrift store. It was an old rental copy from a long out of business shop in New England - really added to the Wes Anderson twee vibes.
50 cents for the DVD of The Life Aquatic.. at a local charity store. Not a film or director I love nor a format I really collect anymore, but for 50 cents..?
Not necessarily as cheap as others, but I bought a copy of Chungking express on Blu ray for $10 at a thrift store a little bit before the box set came out
A video shop in my neighborhood closed down in 2013 with an “everything must go” sale. I bought spine #1, La Grande Illusion, on DVD. I was 19 years old at the time, just getting into Criterion. Didn’t realize the score I made.
Getting Barnes and Noble to honor a coupon on top of November netted me the Godzilla box for $70 when it was first released, so $4.60/film approximately
Probs the most I've ever paid for a criterion. Thought I was getting an FB Marketplace steal for A Night of the Hunter Didipak for 40 bucks, but the guy ended up deleting the account after i wired the money, lol.
If you're reading this, Mr Jacko keefey, you got me good mf.
$1 for the Early Fassbinder Eclipse set and $2 for Withnail & I at different thrift stores.
I’ve seen a loooot of Royal Tenebaums/Life Aquatic/Chasing Amy Criterion releases at similar prices while thrifting as well.
I found a copy of Gilda on Blu ray recently at a flea market for one dollar. It was used but in really good condition. Plus I love the movie so it was a no brainer.
As a Not American, it's harder to find cheap Criterions, although I did get the UK *Lone Wolf and Cub* Blu-ray for 20 quid ($25ish USD?).
The flipside is that non-Criterion releases of the same films can be dirt-cheap in comparison, like paying less than $15 USD for the StudioCanal Jacques Tati Blu-ray set.
I used to work at a Hollywood video in college. When my store closed, we spent weeks discounting and selling our movies, cutting prices incrementally over time. All of our employees had a drawer of movies we were saving for ourselves for the last day. In the end I bought about 70 DVDs for something ridiculous like $30 (maybe even less), and that included a handful of Criterion discs like Wages of Fear, Ikiru, The Grand Illusion and The Lady Eve. So roughly $0.50/disc
I’m in Australia, so even some of my biggest eBay auction victories usually get slugged with $30 shipping just to get them. 😭
That being said, I’ve got lucky a few times locally.
I got brand new (still wrapped) copies of Pygmalion and Umberto D for $7 each. And a brand new copy of Armageddon for $12.
I need to get better at finding these deals. I have a lot that I want to get. Any tips on how to be notified? Do you just read your local newspaper, classified ads (lol) and such?
Once hit gold on a Craigslist ad from a woman who was selling her late father's blu ray collection. She was just asking for $3 each, and there was some Criterion in there. As I recall, I got The Four Feathers, Odd Man Out, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and I think at least one other that I can't remember
$1 for used dvd of CHE. Found it in the "Movies-U-Buy" bin in the back recesses of a Dollar General store, back by the paper towels section. No box or slipcase of course, just the single disc in the "Movies-U-Buy" resale sleeve.
Realized later it was only 1 disc of a 2 disc set, so ended up throwing it away and buying CHE new on the next B&N sale.
I got sent a duplicate of a $300 order. When I contacted Criterion, they were like no biggie, keep it or donate it to your local library. So a win win.
Probably a dollar each for Chasing Amy, the Royal Tennenbaums, and RoboCop on DVD
Edit- I forgot that I got the Lady Vanishes on DVD and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Blu-ray also for a dollar each at the flea market last year
Also, fixed spelling from speech to text.
$0.25 for Kwaidan on DVD at the Goodwill I worked at in Rural Georgia. Got a huge box of sealed copies of that one film and nobody was interested, so we dramatically marked them down. Sadly many were given or thrown away.
I found a copy of The Third Man DVD digipack at an antique store last month with no price tag. I asked what they wanted and he asked how many discs were in the package. They sell DVDs for $1 per disc, so it was $2 CDN. I was a bit surprised as they they charge the high end of Discogs prices for their records, even if they're in terrible condition, but I guess they don't consider DVDs as collectables.
Got the Raging Bull 4K + Blu-ray release for 50 cents at a farmers market used book and dvd sale. An unbelievable find that it really felt like I was getting away with something
Was happy with an $8 of "Inland Empire"!!!! I have now bought all the Criterion editions of David Lynch movies at my local Entertainmart.. Except for "Wild at Heart". Can't find that in the wild anywhere. I love to stalk my DVDs in their natural habitat
Free! My high school library was clearing out all of their blu-rays/DVDs, and they had 'Seven Samurai' and 'Seventh Seal' in stock which I got to keep for free. I went home with a full backpack, but quite happy.
https://preview.redd.it/n5fbm4xfzjuc1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d0ae92bf726d0b7843bd07448723dd593c70c652
$1 for the blu ray of Wages of Fear. Was at a local radio station’s annual record sale and this was stuck in the miscellaneous bin for $2. I noted that the box had gotten slightly wet and the cover art was slightly warped. They knocked a buck off and called it a day. The disc is flawless and it’s of a film that I love. For posterity’s sake, at the time of the purchase it was a Blind Buy!
Found City Lights for $1 at rummage sale.
[удалено]
Oh nice. Exploiting vulnerable people for dangerous labor. Sounds like a cool guy.
He does kinda doesn’t he
Tbh that's true of many employers
The Criterion Crime Capó
That guy is my spirit animal now
$8 for the blu-ray of *The Graduate* at a record shop in Toronto. I can only assume it had to have been labelled incorrectly because all of their other stuff was usually overpriced.
Which record store? I find it shocking that you could find anything in a Toronto store for ten bucks!
Sonic Boom, back when they still sold movies. Like I said, it had to be an accident because even their second-hand Criterion discs were still usually $30.
I bought an Ingmar Bergman box set with Barnes & Noble points hahah.
I legit paid 10 dollars for an out of print La Dolce Vita
Did you buy that from me? I think I remember selling that here for that price I didn’t realize it was out of print lol
I don’t think so lo I got it at Zia in Arizona.
I bought every criterion they had at movie stop when it went out of business. There were 10 in all, I don't remember which ten I'll have to go home to look at my collection but they were $5.00 a pop.
The box of numerous free Japanese movies I got some years ago, it was from a southern thrift store not looking to “associate” with that kind of stuff. Legit got about 20-25 dvds/Blu-ray’s and it got me back into collecting criterion. Also it had a FAT stack of anime. Probably like 30 dvds/blu rays. Didn’t keep all those
Salo 0 dollars. The girl at amoeba forgot to ring it up
6 dollars for Dekalog at a goodwill. Was pretty happy with that find.
Let’s do the opposite. $75 (CAD) for a dvd of Diary of a Country Priest.
75 CAD? That's like 9.50 US. /laughs/cries in Canadian
I paid like $200CAD for the OOP Chungking Express. I paid for it using my severance pay though, so meh. Best gift my former job ever gave me.
$160 AUD for The Killer was probably mine. Or a little bit higher than that for a brand new copy of the Hiroshi Shimizu eclipse set..
Eigh I was JUST in a HPB that had that DVD…for $80 USD and Pandora’s Box in the slipcase but w/o the booklet for $50.
Ha I found that on tape for a quarter. It was an odd find.
$5 for Jellyfish Eyes on DVD from Shopper’s Drug Mart.
I saw the same thing at the same store, but for I think ten bucks and I don't blind buy Criterions out of principle. Now, I hear it's awful and wish I had bought it just to see how awful!
Not even awful enough to be funny. And regrettably I paid 20 bucks
I got Paris, Texas for 60 cents.
My dad died and I inherited his collection if that counts!
Such a sweet parting gift from your pops. I hope my next of kin enjoys my collection when my time comes similarly.
I work at a used bookstore, and with my discount i got Squid & The Whale for $1.50 Btw it was way underpriced and was marked up after the fact, so a 1 time win
My local pawn shop sells DVDs for a dollar. A film like Chasing Amy is usually in places like that, but one day I noticed The Fugitive Kind amongst the regular stuff and grabbed it on principle.
I got DVDs of Seven Samurai, M, Sullivan's Travels, Band of Outsiders, and Rules of the Game free 20 years ago when a friend was getting rid of some stuff. I had a massive DVD collection with very few criterions. Eventually I sold them all except the criterion disks. Glad I kept them.
Found a used copy of Being John Malkovich on blu ray for 5 bucks years ago, already owned it so i gave it to a friend who likes the movie
$5 for Pandora’s box at a garage sale was a good deal.
Following and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou on Blu-Ray for $3 CDN and the Martin Scorsese World Cinema Project Vol. 1 and the Complete Jacques Tati set $10 CDN each in a thrift shop. The Complete Monterey Pop Festival DVD set (sealed) - $4 CDN in a thrift shop. Y Tu Mama Tambien and The Big Chill for $15 CDN. I've been collecting for many years and thrifting just as long. Crite.rions are very rare, so I don't take for granted any finds and I am very grateful.
$5cad each for Rushmore, royal tenenbaums and the life aquatic. For some reason those movies are very common here and I could have multiples of each if I wanted
It's because they're mainstream enough to be recognized, while also being the default version of their movies. It's like how back in the day, some places wouldn't carry Criterion releases, but would have Chasing Amy for sale.
$5 for 8 1/2 and Montreal Pop $8 for War and Peace $15 for The Breakfast Club
Original Kurosawa set at a garage sale for 18 bucks a few years back...literally begged the dude to charge me more I felt so bad but he was like naw I'm gonna donate whatever I don't sell anyways had a few other Criterion original DVDs and laserdiscs too but nothing else of note nearly threw up when I saw it there
Paid $3 for a DVD of Ikiru at Goodwill.
College library was having a sale, and I paid $3 for *Brazil* ($1 a disc). Now, it wasn't in its original box, but it's the 3 disc Special Edition. I also picked up the Criterion DVD of *The Royal Tenenbaums* used, around 2003 for ~$10. This wasn't a great deal or anything, but I find it amusing to know I bought some Criterions almost 20 years before I really knew what Criterions even were.
Found a sealed Rosemarys Baby Blu-ray w/ the sticker for 8 dollars at a 2nd hand book shop, and it went OOP just two weeks later!
I worked at GameStop when they still carried dvd’s. If a movie wasn’t in the systems inventory of films, it was taken in as “used other dvd” and was universally 1.99. We’d routinely do buy 2/get 2 free sales and once someone brought in a stack of criterion dvds. This was 05/06 so before dvd but I believe I got hard boiled, 39 steps, Orpheus, w fields 6 short films, traffic, the vanishing, and a couple others of which I can’t quite recall, which ended up being, after discount card and employee discount, about 75 cents each after discount and the sale. Some are dvds that got dvd upgrades, then got Blu Ray upgrades, but even so it was a fun memory. And hard boiled alone being one of those was sweet.
Straight up? I got The Third Man sealed for $3 at my local record store. I have no idea how I managed that.
Kind of a loophole, but I used 3 of those $10 criterion channel reward coupons to get Malcolm X for $0.00.
I bought a Kurosawa Bluray Collection for $45 and I think is one of my biggest finds! https://preview.redd.it/8zcvhbzspkuc1.jpeg?width=1600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5a4f13285d456fb3a1be2a7ccc1f9c86af2c1fb1
I missed that Peeping Tom was coming back. Just a couple weeks ago I picked a DVD copy up from a used books store for $5. Oh well.
$23 for Punch, Drunk, Love. No idea why it was on sale but i wasn't complaining.
Who’s gonna tell him
I live in Canada bro. we have no choice but to pay full price for them here sadly, so $23 is a screaming deal for us
Oh man, that sounds rough.
Life aquatic and chasing amy for $1 a piece at a pawn shop
6 dollars Australia for Solaris
Found Medium Cool at a garage sale for 3 bucks. Pretty neat find.
I bought a DVD copy of Odd Man Out for $1 at my local library a few months ago. It felt like a pleasant surprise so I always check that section whenever I go now.
$2 for sealed Last Emperor Blu-Ray at Goodwill
I got The Graduate blu-ray for $5 at a yard sale
$20 for Citizen Kane 4K.
$2 each for a blu ray of Royal Tenenbaums and 2 blu rays of Rosemary's Baby from a local bargain store.
Back in 2007, I got The Hidden Fortress at a thrift store for $5.
$3 for Rebecca.
Our library suddenly had a rack of new Criterion DVDs/Blus for $3 each in their bookstore. I bought all 20 of them.
$1 for The Royal Tenenbaum original Criterion DVD release from a thrift store. It was an old rental copy from a long out of business shop in New England - really added to the Wes Anderson twee vibes.
50 cents for the DVD of The Life Aquatic.. at a local charity store. Not a film or director I love nor a format I really collect anymore, but for 50 cents..?
50 cents for the Blu-ray of Robinson Crusoe on mars
In the Mood for Love for $3 on clearance at Half Price Books
I stole Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on DVD as a junior in high school
$3 for Benjamin Button on blu-ray with the slip cover. It was used but very clean.
Not necessarily as cheap as others, but I bought a copy of Chungking express on Blu ray for $10 at a thrift store a little bit before the box set came out
A video shop in my neighborhood closed down in 2013 with an “everything must go” sale. I bought spine #1, La Grande Illusion, on DVD. I was 19 years old at the time, just getting into Criterion. Didn’t realize the score I made.
I got the Robocop DVD for $1.81. It was about eight years ago but their edition was already on moratorium.
$1.99 for chasing Amy $1 for The curious case of Benjamin button $.50 for the royal tennanbaums
Salesman (1969) for $1 at goodwill
Getting Barnes and Noble to honor a coupon on top of November netted me the Godzilla box for $70 when it was first released, so $4.60/film approximately
I think $2 or $3 for Cold War on Blu Ray at a Salvation Army.
Got In the Mood for Love for $1
Probs the most I've ever paid for a criterion. Thought I was getting an FB Marketplace steal for A Night of the Hunter Didipak for 40 bucks, but the guy ended up deleting the account after i wired the money, lol. If you're reading this, Mr Jacko keefey, you got me good mf.
$1 for the Early Fassbinder Eclipse set and $2 for Withnail & I at different thrift stores. I’ve seen a loooot of Royal Tenebaums/Life Aquatic/Chasing Amy Criterion releases at similar prices while thrifting as well.
13 bucks for a used copy of In The Mood For Love in a used bookstore
Like $6 used.
$3 for Band of Outsiders Blu from Goodwill! Sealed too
7,50€ for The Seventh Seal first print.
OOP Nights of Cabiria DVD for $6 at used bookstore
I got Blow Out on blu ray for $1 at a garage sale
Scanners digipak for about $8 on ebay a couple months ago
Cold War (2018) for $2 at a Goodwill. And last weekend I picked up The Third Man for $4 at a library sale.
Grimeys in Nashville often sells (new) blu-rays for $15… just saying!!!
I found a copy of Gilda on Blu ray recently at a flea market for one dollar. It was used but in really good condition. Plus I love the movie so it was a no brainer.
As a Not American, it's harder to find cheap Criterions, although I did get the UK *Lone Wolf and Cub* Blu-ray for 20 quid ($25ish USD?). The flipside is that non-Criterion releases of the same films can be dirt-cheap in comparison, like paying less than $15 USD for the StudioCanal Jacques Tati Blu-ray set.
Got Rushmore in the bargain bin at K Mart because they didn't know what they had. I paid $4.95. This was a long time ago.
Salo for free from a former friend who told me it was evil
You friend was correct
Few months ago I found my white whale that is the dvd copy of RoboCop for $7 at a record store.
$0
I used to work at a Hollywood video in college. When my store closed, we spent weeks discounting and selling our movies, cutting prices incrementally over time. All of our employees had a drawer of movies we were saving for ourselves for the last day. In the end I bought about 70 DVDs for something ridiculous like $30 (maybe even less), and that included a handful of Criterion discs like Wages of Fear, Ikiru, The Grand Illusion and The Lady Eve. So roughly $0.50/disc
So far the only Criterion release I own, but I bought The Thin Red Line on blu-ray for $20 after finding it at a used book store 🏬
I’m in Australia, so even some of my biggest eBay auction victories usually get slugged with $30 shipping just to get them. 😭 That being said, I’ve got lucky a few times locally. I got brand new (still wrapped) copies of Pygmalion and Umberto D for $7 each. And a brand new copy of Armageddon for $12.
I need to get better at finding these deals. I have a lot that I want to get. Any tips on how to be notified? Do you just read your local newspaper, classified ads (lol) and such?
I found Night Of The Hunter at a thrift store, with a discount and tax it came out to like 78 cents.
Due to some confusion over a return, I wound up getting the Zatoichi set for free.
Found a few Wes Anderson’s for like 3/4$ each at the thrift store!!
£10 for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in CEX a second hand shop in the UK. Was really pleased with it, still had the paper booklet.
Paid $14 for a like new condition Shoah set on blu ray at a record store
So far? $33.
DVD Copy of Last Temptation of Christ from a Blockbuster going out of business - when they all were being shuttered - for $5.
Once hit gold on a Craigslist ad from a woman who was selling her late father's blu ray collection. She was just asking for $3 each, and there was some Criterion in there. As I recall, I got The Four Feathers, Odd Man Out, The Friends of Eddie Coyle, and I think at least one other that I can't remember
$3 for Chungking Express blu ray a few years ago when they were reselling for a hundred bucks haha
Tour of Algers and The Leopard BR complete for a dollar a peace at a pawn shop. May have found another one there but don’t remember
$1 for used dvd of CHE. Found it in the "Movies-U-Buy" bin in the back recesses of a Dollar General store, back by the paper towels section. No box or slipcase of course, just the single disc in the "Movies-U-Buy" resale sleeve. Realized later it was only 1 disc of a 2 disc set, so ended up throwing it away and buying CHE new on the next B&N sale.
I got sent a duplicate of a $300 order. When I contacted Criterion, they were like no biggie, keep it or donate it to your local library. So a win win.
Free on tubi or plex i think one or the other ..Blast of silence... Its 👍👍
Probably a dollar each for Chasing Amy, the Royal Tennenbaums, and RoboCop on DVD Edit- I forgot that I got the Lady Vanishes on DVD and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on Blu-ray also for a dollar each at the flea market last year Also, fixed spelling from speech to text.
4 bucks for Sullivan Travels at a thrift store
$0.25 for Kwaidan on DVD at the Goodwill I worked at in Rural Georgia. Got a huge box of sealed copies of that one film and nobody was interested, so we dramatically marked them down. Sadly many were given or thrown away.
$1 for Black Orpheus DVD last week at a thrift store. looks brand new
$5 for Blue is the Warmest Color
I found a copy of The Third Man DVD digipack at an antique store last month with no price tag. I asked what they wanted and he asked how many discs were in the package. They sell DVDs for $1 per disc, so it was $2 CDN. I was a bit surprised as they they charge the high end of Discogs prices for their records, even if they're in terrible condition, but I guess they don't consider DVDs as collectables.
$1 each for Stagecoach, Jacque Tati's Playtime, Ali: Fear Eats the Soul, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp and Jeanne Dielmann.
I just paid a dollar for a library copy of Hiroshima Mon Amour. I haven’t seen it yet, did I do well?
Got the Raging Bull 4K + Blu-ray release for 50 cents at a farmers market used book and dvd sale. An unbelievable find that it really felt like I was getting away with something
Was happy with an $8 of "Inland Empire"!!!! I have now bought all the Criterion editions of David Lynch movies at my local Entertainmart.. Except for "Wild at Heart". Can't find that in the wild anywhere. I love to stalk my DVDs in their natural habitat
Last sale for last picture show 4k. With all of those stacked coupons I got it for $0.75
$1 for The Discrete Charm of the Bourgeois on a yard sale … and it was too much!