“I’d buy that for a dollar!”

One frustrating element of being a physical media enthusiast and collector of boutique label blu-rays is the dreaded three letters: OOP. Often a blu-ray release will be limited to a certain number of copies and once they’re gone… eBay is your only hope. Though a friend of mine has grabbed a few choice out of print titles from places like Vinted or CeX too. I remember back in the early 2010s (what a weird sentence to type out…) the steelbook craze was reaching a peak. I think it was HMV who put out a steelbook release of The Wolverine (2013) and there was a picture floating around (that I probably have somewhere but can’t be bothered finding now) of someone lining up about 30 or 40 copies of them on a bed.

This may have possibly been part of a “group buy” where someone buys a bulk amount of copies, each for a specific person who might not be able to order or pick up a specific edition themselves. In this case, fair enough, each one is going to someone who wants it for the price it costs to buy. But scalpers run rampant too, and while I don’t think there’s a huge market for scalping in the blu-ray and 4K market these days, it definitely still happens.

I miss the days of a release coming out and being able to order it within a few months or go and buy it from HMV. The demand is so high for certain titles though, that you never know if that will even be possible, as I’ve found this week with the 88 Films release of Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky (1991), a brand new 4K limited edition. As 88 announced themselves, it was sold out from their own stock on release and a few copies were still available from other retailers. When I went to order one, it was gone everywhere I could look. I was able to place an order with HMV as it’s currently listed as “Back in stock soon” but I don’t know if I’ll secure one at this point. I do have the standard blu-ray that 88 put out a few years ago, but there’s a couple of new extras and of course, a 4K transfer of the film.