Junk Shop Sci Fi DVD Hunts

Amazon et al has taken a little of the fun I get out of looking for sci fi movies.

Sci Fi movies are difficult to find on DVD. They may be shown on TV a lot, but even major films like "The Forbidden Planet" are a swine to find in the UK.

But that's what makes the finding of them so exciting when you do.

To me Amazon and the Internet is cheating, and judging by the difficulty in finding the said "Forbidden Planet" on Region 2, not that much use for some of these films.

Instead, I plough through markets, charity shops, junk shops, and pawn shops. Sure, Cash Converters may be full of what the downtrodden and addicted have discarded during society's downward spiral and is thus full of mainstream action and JCVD and Seagal, but heck I picked up the admittedly non-classic Species 2 there for 75p the other day. And Zardoz, way back when, nestling amidst "Wayne Rooney's Golden Goals" and "Carp Tips".

My profit in the misfortune of others.

Market stalls are great too. There's a couple of great ones that visit my home town...one where the DVDs are a bit more expensive and loosely sorted by genre - hello "War of the Worlds" 1953 style - and another one that is a hodge podge of plastic boxes stuffed with movies so tightly you can't actually look at them without trapping your fingers.

Another trader offers electric guitars and DVDs, got 2010 here wild admiring a really nice classic red Stratocaster. Another has horror DVDs a plenty, but I only buy classics, not "Boy Meets Girl Who Then Nails Her To A Spiky Chair" type material.

I still haven't found what I'm looking for

You can get all sorts of great stuff at Charity Shops, but I often find the obscure ones have the best stuff, and even then you have to be quick - "Quatermass 2" disappeared from "Save the Children" in the time it took me to go 5 minutes to an ATM. Oxfam have great stuff sometimes, but folk know to hunt there, among the classic vinyl and Skorpions albums with horrific covers. Lesser known charities in out of the way places can often be the best.

Junk shops are great too. Most don't really have movies, but you can be lucky if someone has got fed up and emptied their house of media on a whim. I love these places anyway, the owner often ignorant of the wonder he has, the dust, the oddities, collections of random ephemera.

But, none of them ever has Forbidden Planet

Copyright BloodyMulberry 09/07/14