Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence?
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| High Concept Am I blogging...or am I pitching my existence? |
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Thursday, January 18, 2007 The Pitch: It's like An Illness meets A Sickness! It's supposed to be easy: gather a bunch of old DVDs that are cluttering up the joint; make sure they're a mix of okay movies, lousy movies and maybe a lost marvel or two; bring 'em in to a used a record store; wait ten minutes; walk out with some decent folding cash.So, check it. I walked into Streetlight Records with the following: Broken Arrow Buffalo Solidiers Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Freeway Gamera: the Ultimate Collection The Laughing Policeman Maria, Full of Grace Mission Kashmir Plan Reign of Fire Scarface: Two-Disc Anniversary Edition Tomb Raiders/Godfather's Daughter Torque We Don't Live Here Anymore And, after ten minutes of walking around and browsing (and finding three or four things I wanted to buy, and talking myself out of them), I walked back up to the counter, where the guy said, "Yeah, so there was one that was a little too scratched up for us (Mission Kashmir) and for the rest we can offer you twenty dollars in cash or twenty-five dollars in trade." "Twenty dollars in cash?" "Yeah, I know it doesn't seem like a lot for so many movies--" and here he showed me how he'd broken down the pricing, "these three are ninety cents, these are a dollar, two dollars, and the ones on top are three dollars. Those are pricing new at nine dollars these days." I wasn't upset, but it was a little disappointing. On the one hand, I'd priced all of them out on Amazon used and new before I went in, and I knew some weren't movers (Crouching Tiger, We Don't Live Here Anymore, and those two old Hong Kong flicks on one disc, Tomb Raiders and Godfather's Daughter, each go for a little more than a dollar on Amazon New & Used), and some were going at the rate he offered (one of the movies he'd offer me three bucks for, Freeway, was selling for exactly that on A N&U). But some were going for more, like Scarface for $6.25, or Broken Arrow for $4.00, or The Laughing Policeman for $5.56. In fact, if I didn't factor in Amazon's bite, all the movies I was offering him would fetch a hair over $40 on A N&U (assuming they all sold which wouldn't really be the case at all). I was expecting something a little closer to $28 cash, but obviously that was very wishful thinking. I should've taken the money, but instead I just thanked him, took the bag, and left. If I hustled my ass off, I might get two or three dollars more than what he was offering for trade. I've had a bit of luck in the last year flipping some of my purchases for more money, and like most pieces of luck, this has proven a dual-edge sword. I now act like I know what I'm doing with all my collectibles when, in the past, all I did was collect them. Now that it's time, again, to start moving some of them up and out, I find myself torn between just getting rid of them at any price, or "maximizing" my profits on them. (There were seven DVDs that I put on sale on Amazon before leaving for Streetlight because it looked like I could sell them at a genuine profit.) When I'm not looking at my DVD collection or my books, when they're not in my line of sight, I just think I could load all of it up and get rid of everything, all of it. But then when I actually stare at the space over my desk, or the books on each shelf, a passionate yearning moves through me--something that feels simultaneously desperately happy and desperately sad. Danger: Diabolik next to G.I. Samurai? Sex & Fury across from L.A. Confidential, and next to Fight Club which itself is next to the Battle of Algiers? All 28 volumes of Lone Wolf & Cub? Every Don Delillo novel in print? The Complete Encyclopedia of Pistols and Revolvers sitting besdie Vollman's You Bright and Risen Angels? The Egyptian Gods & Goddesses resting beside Sniper II? As I've written before, I could stop buying books or DVDs, renting movies, and not run out of material for perhaps a decade. So why don't I stop buying them? 2006 was a pip. Edi and I spent our first year of marriage happily traveling, happily working, happily watching everything falling into place. 2007, despite a wonderful trip to New York, already feels heavier. Are we buying? Renting? Having kids? Adopting? And what happens when we die? Is that it? It's much easier for me to hide from all this than her, but I can't hide nearly as easily as I used to--I finish watching Shogun Assassin and look over at my desk and shiver. Maybe it's the cold, sunless day. Maybe it's my post-chocolate blood sugar. And maybe it's just an awareness that I could emerge from this coccoon if I knew for sure what I would be without it. posted by Jeff Lester | 2:56 PM | |
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