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Another Update on What Your Old DVDs Will Get You at F.Y.E.

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Some of my long-time readers may remember that on three occasions I traded in some of my old, dusty DVDs at F.Y.E. for store credit. After I traded in the DVDs, I reported right here on the blog what they earned me in store credit and as I recall many of you appreciated that information. Well, I’ve done it again. Last week I traded in just a few, old DVD box sets to my local F.Y.E. and this is what I managed to earn in store credit:

Family Guy Box Set, Volume 1 – $1.88
Family Guy Box Set, Volume 2 – $1.25
Family Guy Box Set, Volume 3 – $1.88
Family Guy – The Stewie Griffin Story – $1.25
The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring Box Set Extended Edition, Standard Definition – $6.26
The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers Box Set Extended Edition, Standard Definition – $3.75
The Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King Box Set Extended Edition, Standard Definition – $3.75

In addition to the dollar amounts noted above, I also received $4.01 in bonus store credit for choosing store credit over cash. In total, those DVD box sets brought me $20.02 in store credit to use at F.Y.E. Overall, not so bad.

Round Three of Trading in Old, Dusty DVDs to F.Y.E. – How Much Did I Get This Time?

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For some reason, I get into a “winter cleaning” mindset right around the post-Christmas time of year. It must be something about a new year coming in and an old year going out, wanting a fresh start, beginning the new year with a clean slate… or something like that. Who knows? Anyway, I took this week off from work and while I was snowed in for the past few days I had that winter cleaning bug bite me again. In fact, as I was sitting in the home office area of my bedroom I decided that it was time to start cleaning up and, frankly, cleaning out some of the stuff that was laying around. Granted, I’ve been cleaning out a lot of clutter for the past few years, but something in my mind told me that now was as good a time as any to take some of the dusty DVDs sitting on the shelf and trade them in for store credit.

Thanks again, F.Y.E.!

Of course, I didn’t just get rid of 33 different DVDs when the winter cleaning bug bit. No. Actually, I wound up taking down a bunch of pictures from my wall and putting them away while rearranging some other pictures that I had hanging up. Also, about two weeks ago I took a bunch of old textbooks that I had laying around and gave them to one of the undergraduates that I advise in the fraternity to trade in during book buyback. Made a few bucks off of that whole scenario and managed to clean off a bunch of shelf space on my bookshelves. But this entry is about the DVD clean out, so allow me to get back on track!

And so we have Round Three of trading in my old, dusty DVDs to F.Y.E. for store credit!

Amid the happiness that I feel about turning old, dusty DVDs into a functional asset (store credit) I have to admit that there’s something unsettling about the process of trading in these DVDs. I’m not sure what it is – it could be the fact that I’m receiving back in store credit only a fraction of what these DVDs originally cost me (and a small fraction, by the way). I don’t know what it is, but that unsettling feeling is more than squelched by the dual fact that I have less unused/not-going-to-be-used stuff laying around my bedroom and that, in return for getting rid of this stuff, I have a new functional asset in F.Y.E. store credit.

So how much did I earn in store credit for trading in all of these DVDs? Take a look at the list below and find out for yourself!

Ducktales Season 1 – $6.25
Smallville Season 1 – $3.75
Smallville Season 4 – $2.50
Smallville Season 5 – $5.00
Smallville Season 6 – $2.50
Smallville Season 7 – $10.00
American History X – $1.88
Beetlejuice – $2.50
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (new one) – $1.25
Creep Show – $1.25
Dane Cook: Harmful if Swallowed – $2.50
Great Outdoors – $1.25
Killer Klowns from Outer Space – $1.88
Lewis Black: Black on Broadway – $2.50
Lewis Black: Unleashed – $1.25
Life – $1.25
Masters of the Universe – $3.75
Meet the Fockers – $1.25
Meet the Parents – $1.88
My Cousin Vinny – $2.50
Office Space – $2.50
Robots – $1.25
Rudy – $1.25
Shrek – $1.25
Shrek 2 – $0.63
The Addams Family 1 – $1.25
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad – $1.88
The Passion of the Christ – $2.50
The Simpsons: Gone Wild – $1.88
The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror – $1.25
True Lies – $1.25
Wedding Crashers – $1.25
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (old one) – $2.50

I think that part of the unsettling feeling is seeing an entire season of the Smallville television series bringing in $2.50. I mean… good grief! Two dollars and fifty cents?! I probably paid $25 for that box set when it was released for goodness’ sake! Geez…

Anyway, in total I generated $77.53 in store credit from Round Three of my DVD trade-ins this year. As you might recall from Round One and Round Two, I’ve been trading in my old, dusty DVDs throughout 2010. In total, this year I generated $244.22 in store credit at F.Y.E. by trading in some of these unused old DVDs that were doing nothing more than taking up space in my bedroom. Add in another $25.25 that I generated by trading in some old video games to GameStop and another $54 that I generated by returning an unopened video game controller to Walmart and I’ve done pretty well this year in generating usable assets from completely unused stuff laying around my bedroom.

What remains of my once huge DVD collection

And I don’t think I’m done yet.

Take a look at the picture to the right to see what remains of my DVD and video game collection. It’s getting pretty scarce, don’t you think? Let me walk you through this thing starting with the media tower on the left side of the picture. The top and second shelves are filled with different DVDs that I haven’t yet traded in or that I’ve decided I’m not trading in. The third shelf with the stack of DVDs on it are product that I bought at a discount to give away on one of the wrestling sites that I own. The fourth shelf contains a few t-shirts that I’ll also being giving away on that wrestling site and a three-pack of DVDs that I received for Christmas. So in this media tower I really only have two shelves worth of DVDs that you can actually count towards my collection.

As for the media tower on the right, the first shelf contains all of my Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS video games. The second shelf contains the wrestling DVDs that I’m holding on to as well as some PC and PlayStation 2 video games. The third shelf mostly contains my Christmas DVD collection and the first few Family Guy box sets.

And that’s it. That’s what left of my DVD and video game collection. Pretty amazing, I think – especially when you consider that I once had probably 400 or so DVDs and video games in my college/post-college collection. What about you? Are there any old DVDs or video games laying around your house that you can trade-in to a store for some credit or sell on eBay for a few bucks?

If so, then what are you waiting for?!

Trading in Dusty DVDs for Store Credit – Round Two

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About two and a half months ago I went to my local F.Y.E. and traded in a bunch of DVDs that were doing nothing but collecting dust on my DVD stands. Well, earlier today I was looking at the remaining DVDs and video games that are sitting on my shelf (collecting more dust) and I thought it would be a good time to engage in Round Two of trading in these unused movies and games.

Since F.Y.E. doesn’t take video games, I stopped at GameStop, too. Oh, and since I wound up with a few DVDs that F.Y.E. wouldn’t take, I dropped for movies off at the local SPCA as a donation for them to sell in their thrift shop. A final note – F.Y.E. had some deal where I was getting 20% more than I would have received if I opted to get cash back instead of store credit so I obviously went with that deal! Here’s what I wound up with at the end of the day:

Thanks, F.Y.E. and GameStop!

From F.Y.E.:
Star Wars (4 – 6) – $7.50
Viva la Bam Season 1 – $1.50
8 Mile – $2.25
Batman Begins – $2.25
Garfield as Himself (cartoon) – $1.50
Garfield the Movie – $2.25
Kids – $3.00
Kingdom of Heaven – $1.50
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – $3.00
Road to Perdition – $1.50
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves – $8.25
Seabiscuit – $1.50
So I Married an Axe Murder – $2.25
Super Troopers – $2.25
The Adventures of Ford Fairlane – $1.50
The Amityville Horror – $2.25
The Aviator – $1.50
The Exorcism of Emily Rose – $1.50
The Gate – $1.50
The Gospel of John – $2.25
The March of the Penguins – $1.50
The Shining – $3.00
Van Wilder – $1.50
Waiting – $1.50
War of the Worlds (new version) – $2.58
Total: $61.08

From GameStop:
Children of Mana (Nintendo DS) – $5.09
Sonic Rush (Nintendo DS) – $7.33
Super Mario Advance 2 (Nintendo Gameboy Advance) – $6.50
WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2008 (Nintendo Wii) – $6.33
Total: $25.25

Donated to SPCA:
Big Momma’s House – Special Edition
Little Shop of Horrors (Jack Nicholson Edition)
Barber Shop
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys (New, CGI-based Musical Version)
Total: Not applicable, but I feel good for having donated these otherwise unusable DVDs!

All told, at the end of the day I’ve got two gift cards worth $61.08 and $25.25 each. When I woke up this morning, I didn’t have that extra $86.33 worth of buying power so I feel good knowing that today I translated some unused, dusty “assets” into usable store credit. And while I had some very minor, almost nonexistent, conflicts about whether or not to trade in some of the titles listed above (which I definitely didn’t have when I traded in the titles two and a half months ago) I know that trading in these DVDs and video games was the right thing to do on so many levels.

As people, we all run the risk of getting too involved with our physical objects. For me, what it boils down to is that there’s no reason for a person to feel any type of connection or need for a DVD that they haven’t watched in years and that has contributed nothing to a person’s life or space other than acting as a dust catcher. Frankly, I don’t need any more dust catchers thank you very much.

All of that being said, I now look at my remaining DVD collection of about 150 titles – easily half of what I used to own – and I’m wondering what Round Three of this purge may look like one day. I have a bunch of Christmas movies that I know I’m not going to part with because I watch them all at least twice a year. Same thing with my Lord of the Rings Extended Edition DVDs – I enjoy watching them once or twice each year. However, I look at my Family Guy box sets and I know that I haven’t opened them up in over a year and a half, if not longer. Same thing goes for my Smallville box sets, though I think I’d like to watch the Smallville box sets again one more time before sending them off to F.Y.E. I also have a bunch of WWE DVDs that I certainly haven’t watched in a long time. Instead of bringing them to F.Y.E., though, I’ll probably wind up giving them to my younger brother and letting him do what he wants with them, I guess.

Then I have some movies that I really do like, but I’m not sure if I’ll ever watch them on a consistent enough basis to warrant allowing them to continue to collect dust. These titles include (among many others) Nothing But Trouble, Funny Farm, The Great Outdoors, Private Parts, Caddyshack II, Spaceballs, Office Space, Wedding Crashers, Shrek, and Shrek 2.

Stay tuned and see what I trade in or donate next! I’m thinking that it’ll be some of my used books to those good folks at EcoEncore.org. Oh, and on that topic – does anyone know where I can donate used cell phones for a good cause?

How Much Are Those Dusty DVDs On Your Shelf Really Worth? Try $105.61!

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Alright, I know I’m not alone on this one so here we go. A few years ago for some reason that I don’t fully understand, I started building a ridiculously large (and expensive) DVD collection. I was so stupidly proud of this ever-expanding DVD collection that I even kept a page here on JerseySmarts.com to keep track of all of my DVDs. At one point, I had over 300 DVDs! Go ahead, click over to the page and take a look at what’s left of the collection. I can wait.

Done? Good!

Thanks, F.Y.E.!

Back in the early 2000’s when I started building this collection I might have thought that owning all of those DVDs was some type of status symbol. You know, something along the lines of he who dies with the most toys wins. Who knows what I was thinking. The truth is that these days I look at that DVD collection as a monstrous ode to the way I used to spend money like a drunken sailor. Talk about wasteful spending – I don’t even want to speculate on how many hundreds thousands of dollars that my family (via gifts) and I spent on this collection. The thought is revolting.

What was all of that spending for? I don’t really know. What I do know, however, is that these days I literally have to blow the dust off of my DVDs before I pull out a case to watch a movie. I also know that the only movies that I watch on a regular basis are my Christmas movies and Lord of the Rings movies – and I only watch them once or twice per year!

My reason for going over all of this information before getting to the meat of this entry is to lay the groundwork for how good I felt the other day. You see, the other day a video game was released that I wanted to buy. I don’t buy many video games because, frankly, I don’t have the time to play them. However, whenever a game comes out that seems like it might be fun and worth the money, I’ll buy the game. Well, you all know that I have this incredible student loan debt that I’m paying off via a crazy intense repayment plan that I put myself on. Let’s do some quick math:

New Video Game + Student Loan Debt = You’re Not Buying The Game

It’s simple. As I alluded to in my last student loan entry, I wanted the game, but I didn’t need the game. Yet in the real world game of money (which we’re all playing whether you know it or not) there are often opportunities to rearrange one’s existing assets to allow for new assets to be acquired.

What does that mean? Easy. It means that I set my eyes on the dusty DVD collection sitting in my bedroom and thought to myself, “I want that game and I’m willing to unload these assets to get it.” And that’s just what I did at the end of last week. I rounded up some 50+ DVDs, threw them in a bag, and went to my local F.Y.E. to trade them in. F.Y.E. actually offers either cash or store credit for your used DVDs. When I arrived at the store, the kid behind the counter told me that I would get more for each DVD if I accepted store credit instead of cash, so I went with that option.

Below is a list with all of the DVDs that I traded in for store credit and how much I received for each one. It’s pretty interesting.

What's left of my DVD collection

Starsky and Hutch – $2.15
Saturday Night Live: The Best of Jon Lovitz – $0.31
Joe Dirt – $1.25
Analyze This – $1.25
Boiler Room – $1.25
Grumpy Old Men – $2.50
Grumpier Old Men – $0.31
Ghostbusters 1 & 2 – $2.50
Zoolander – $1.25
Farhenhype 9/11 – $1.25
Fraggle Rock – Where it All Began – $2.50
The Island – $2.50
The Dukes of Hazzard – $2.50
Anchorman – $2.50
Alice in Wonderland: Made for TV Movie – $2.50
Dude, Where’s My Car? – $1.25
Rocky Triple Pack (Rocky 1, 2, and 3) – $4.38
National Treasure – $1.25
Planet of the Apes – $1.25
Spider-Man Deluxe Edition – $2.69
Spider-Man 2 – $2.50
The Day After Tomorrow – $1.25
Fantastic 4 – $1.25
A Fish Called Wanda – $2.50
Edward Scissorhands – $1.88
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: Top 10 Episodes from Season 1 – $2.50
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen – $2.50
i, Robot – $2.50
Seven – $2.50
Men in Black II – $1.25
The Future is Wild – $3.75
Shark Tale – $1.25
Chicken Run – $2.50
Hulk – $1.25
The Green Mile – $1.88
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure – $5.63
TNA Genesis 2005 – $2.50
The Rock – The People’s Champion – $4.84
‘Cause Stone Cold Said So – $1.25
Austin 3:16: Uncensored – $1.25
SummerSlam 2001 – $5.91
Unforgiven 2001 – $5.63
X-Men 1.5 – $2.50
X-Men 2 – $1.25
X-Men 3 – $2.50
Forrest Gump – $1.25
Million Dollar Baby – $2.50

Who would have thunk that Pee Wee’s Big Adventure (one of the many DVDs that I purchased, but never actually watched) would be worth over $5 to F.Y.E.? Amazing.

How much did I get for all of these unused, dust-collecting DVDs? How does $105.61 in store credit sound?! Not bad! What’s better is that the video game and necessary peripheral that I purchased from F.Y.E. wound up costing $102.69 after shipping and taxes. Talk about hitting the nail right on the head!

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And at the end of the day, not only have I rearranged some of my assets to acquire two new assets, but I unloaded a big portion of my dusty DVD collection. I don’t think that I’m on track to get rid of all of my DVDs, but I’m definitely looking at the DVDs you see in that picture and asking myself, “Which ones are next?”

🙂

A Brief Review of Black Friday 2009

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Another Black Friday has come and gone and I’m reminded of my previous comments about this shopping holiday: 2008, 2006, and 2004. Frankly, I think that these retailers aren’t trying any more. Sure, you can find a flat screen, high definition TV for a few hundred bucks on Black Friday – but what about those of us who already have a flat screen, high definition TV? Are we supposed to care that we can get ANOTHER one for $200?

What I’ve noticed in the last few Black Fridays is that there is a disconnect between the major retailers (Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, etc) and the consumer-based desires of the middle class. Don’t get me wrong – these stores have the market cornered when it comes to mass producing somewhat inexpensive electronics and shoving them out the door to the masses. That’s great and I think that it is actually a service to many families in America. However, once you have that good or product, you’re not going to to go back and get another one – especially in the middle of a recession where each dollar is/should be scrutinized before it is spent.

I also think that the DVD and Blu-Ray DVD market is going to stay stagnant this Christmas season. Frankly, people don’t know whether or not they should start buying Blu-Ray discs in bulk or if this medium will be outdated in two or three years like the standard DVD. Plus, the cost of a Blu-Ray DVD is a bit out of range for the mass market. Not good for the electronics retailers.

I think that I’m going to become a Cyber Monday guy. There’s something about sitting in front of my computer to get the same exact sale price on an item that I could travel to the store to get (and that’s if there are enough items per that store and if I want to get to the store at the crack of dawn). Here’s hoping that your Black Friday adventures were more enjoyable and fruitful than mine were this year. If you have a good Black Friday 2009 story, I’d love to hear it in the comments section below!