Caring for your DVDs – Some Cleaning Tips

I received a Criterion Collection DVD from SwapaDVD that had been a former rental copy. (Previous rentals are eligible for posting to the site though I would personally appreciate the ability to bypass them.) It had a sticker on the artwork insert that said “Silent Movie” that I wanted to remove as it was covering the Criterion series number on the spine. Rather than trying to use a solvent to remove it, which would have almost certainly further ruined the artwork, I instead pulled out my hairdryer. After removing the artwork from the DVD case I aimed the dryer at the sticker and allowed it to run on high for a few seconds. This loosened the sticker’s adhesive just enough to allow me to pull it off to find: yet another sticker underneath! Of course, I then had to repeat the process and the end result was a legible spine number with a bit of ghosting around where the labels had one been. It did leave a small bit of sticky residue behind that I did not feel comfortable about removing with a solvent as I was sure it would stain the paper. I had to leave it there and slip the paper into the case which has effectively “sealed” it in there as the paper is now stuck to the plastic of the case. As long as I can read the number on the spine though, this is acceptable to me. There was a secondary metallic label on the front of the artwork as well that I attempted to remove with the hairdryer. However, this one did not cooperate and as you can see in the photo below, I was forced to leave it in place.

As a collector of many things (including books) over the years I have used many different things to clean up my finds and make them more appealing. The hairdryer is my favorite method to remove almost any sticker (even from a page or uncoated paper) as it usually enables me (with a bit of patience and perhaps an overly-heated digit or four) to remove an offensive label without leaving behind any damage or residue.

For coated surfaces (like plastics or a shiny dust jacket from a book) I alternate between Goo Gone and Goof Off. Goo Gone is an oil based solvent that smells like oranges. I’ve found it at hardware departments and places like Target or K-mart. It’s less harsh than Goof Off but also not quite as strong. It is pretty safe to use to clean the plastic cases that DVDs come in as long as you don’t leave it on too long. Goof Off is a harsh chemical that smells like paint thinner or nail polish remover. Used carefully (one drop at a time or on a clean cloth) it will quickly clean up the residue from a sticker or label and even remove some ink marks and stains from non-porous surfaces. If left on the plastic of a DVD case for too long it could eat a hole in the plastic or cause clouding, creating more extensive damage. I usually test an area first using a clean rag with just a drop or two to see if it will fix my problem or not.

Managing your Wish List

When I first joined SwapaDVD I happily added hundreds of DVDs to my wish list without really thinking about any strategies. There was one DVD I really needed a copy of, and that was The Nightmare Before Christmas mentioned in another of my posts. Of course, there were others that I really wanted as well and some that I would like to have but wasn’t in a terrible hurry to find. Also, there were the requests coming from others in my family to consider.

The developers at SwapaDVD set up the wish list system so that the folks who joined the site first (especially those of us who joined during the Beta phase) wouldn’t dominate the wish lists in a first in, first out fashion. Some members seem unhappy with this decision, but with certain titles such as Nightmare having tons of people searching for a copy (over 75 right now), the new system eliminates the instance of unfair advantage. The way it works is that you rank the titles you want on your wish list by most desired to least. Each item on your list earns “points” for each day it spends at a particular position with the most points awarded for the first place spot. (Those who joined during the beta phase do still have a small advantage as the items they placed on their wish lists early on have been earning wish list “points” for a longer period of time.) So, if a new member places The Nightmare Before Christmas in the #1 position of their wish list, they will eventually overcome and “pass” another member who has it ranked in a lower position but may have had it on their wish list longer. The developers have even provided a graph to visually illustrate for the user their approximate place in line and the ranks others have placed on that particular title in their own wish lists (without disclosing the identities of other members).

The graph above is from my #1 wish list item (showing only those who have it ranked within the first 100 items on their list). My position is indicated by the red square. The image below shows the same graph but only the positions of those who have ranked the item in the top 10 of their lists. As you can see, only one other person, the person in the #1 spot, has it ranked as their #1 priority so over time I will move ahead of many of those other people “in line” because I have placed greater emphasis on my desire to have this title than they have. They have each chosen to place a greater emphasis on something else. If 2 copies were to be posted in the next week, the person who is in first position and has it ranked as their #1 would get a copy, as would the person in second position, who has it ranked as their #4. However, in a month’s time I may have overtaken all of those ahead of me except for the other person who has it ranked #1. If no copies are posted for a long time, that person and I will eventually end up in the first and second positions unless one of those other people between us who have it ranked higher decides to give it a lower rank!

What is the real cost of SwapaDVD?

Unlike other some other swap sites, SwapaDVD is free to use. The primary cost involved is the cost of postage to mail DVDs from your own collection when they are requested by other members. There is no cost to order DVDs from other members – as long as you have the credits on hand that you need to “pay” for all your orders. In cases where you may be new to the site or just don’t have enough credits on hand to get that 6 disk CSI box set (the site “charges” 1 credit per disk, so a 6 disk set “costs” 6 credits), you can always purchase credits in the kiosk at the cost of $4.95 each credit (or $29.70 for that 6 disk set I mentioned). I’ve found this to be an expensive way to acquire movies and we do have alternatives.I’ve mentioned before that there are sister sites that offer swap environments for books and music. These are: PaperBackSwap and SwapaCDThe site developers allow users to transfer credits from one site to the other. Credits transferred between the book and music sites transfer at a rate of 1 for 1. However, transfers from these sites to the DVD site only transfer at a rate of 3 for 2 (30 book or music credits equates to 20 DVD credits). Conversely this also means that 2 DVD credits are worth 3 book or music credits. If one has a plethora of DVDs that they no longer want but a large list of books or music titles that they would like, this is very good news, especially since the costs involved with earning those DVD credits are less than $2.00 for postage.

On the book site, PaperBackSwap, it costs $2.13 to mail a single (1 pound) book via media mail (or $2.31 if one used electronic Delivery Confirmation). This doesn’t include the cost of shipping supplies such as tape or any mailers you might elect to use. So to convert 2 book credits (if you mailed books that weighed less than a pound) the resulting SwapaDVD credit will have cost you $3.20. If one mailed 2 hardcover books weighing 1.5 pounds each, the cost increases to $3.70 (the standard 2 pound media mail rate is $2.47) Even at the 2 pound book rate you would save $1.25 per credit over buying them at the kiosk at SwapaDVD.

The Nightmare Before Christmas – Out of Print and Stupid Expensive!

My 17 year old step-daughter dearly wanted a copy of Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” (Disney) but as it is out of print (and now presumably residing in the legendary Disney vault) finding copies of it for reasonable prices is next to impossible! At the end of November, used copies at Amazon were starting at $50 and new copies were over $70! At those prices there was no way we could justify filling this Christmas wish. However, I placed myself on the wish list for a copy at
SwapaDVD.com as soon as I’d registered with them and was amazed when my number came up on December 8th! I received it in the mail on December 18th – with plenty of time to spare and what amounts to a $2.00 cash investment. This was one of my first major “scores” at the site and my step-daughter was extremely happy on Christmas morning. As of the date of this post there are 77 members on the wish list to get a copy. They aren’t posted very frequently so I imagine that the folks at the back of that list may be waiting until after Christmas 2008 to get their copies, unless they rank it very high (top 5) on their list.

UPDATE – June 17, 2008:

As of today, there are 124 members wishing for a copy of this DVD at SwapaDVD.com. Of these, it appears that 41 of them have ranked the title within the top 5 positions of their wish lists . I counted 13 members ranking it #1 and 12 more at #2. No copies have been posted into the system in the last 7 days.

My newest addiction: SwapaDVD.com

On November 14th I joined SwapaDVD while it was still in beta as I’d been a member at their sister sites (PaperBackSwap and SwapaCD) for a while and had really been successful in refreshing my reading and listening libraries at little expense. Since joining SwapaDVD I’ve received over 20 DVDs and have over 15 still enroute to my home as I write this post! Pretty good results in less than 3 weeks! The site went public on November 27th and that’s when the action really started! At 2:07 PM (CST) on November 27th, 2007 I noted the following metrics concerning the site:

3,683 available DVDs ++

332 registered members in the directory**

As I write this post, there are:

21,846 available DVDs ++

826 registered members in the directory**

** there are far more actual members who are unregistered than registered. A registered members is simply one who has input a public profile to the site. I myself am unregistered and enjoy full membership.

++ This number does not include the thousands of DVDs that have already been traded – it’s just the number currently available to browse through.

I can’t begin to guess how many members there might be now at the site, but they have a map of the US available that shows a red dot for each location (which could count hundreds of members) a member(s) has signed up. That map is full of red!

If you’re interested in trading your old DVDs in for new ones you really need to check them out. The only costs involved come into play when you actually ship one of your own DVDs to another member (usually less than $2.00 for a standard DVD). When you join, you’ll want to post at least 10 DVDs of your own that you’re willing to trade. This will earn you a free starter credit so you can order something right away from another member! The system that they’ve set-up even assures privacy as the only time anyone even finds out your real name is once they’ve printed out your order.

I’ve spent a lot of time playing around on the site so I’ll be back to post some user hints and guidelines. Until then… either click on the yellow banner above or the white radio buttons to visit the coolest new DVD trading destination on the planet!

Added January 11, 2008:

As I write this I have received 62 DVDs (or sets) and have 5 others en route to me. The stats of the site are:

32,868 available DVDs

1,325 registered members

In the past 5 days an average of 822 DVDs were added each day. Of course a significant portion of those went to fill wish list requests or were gobbled up by folks browsing the items listed on the “posted today” page.