Hey all. Wasn't totally sure which forum I should post this in, but this one seemed the most fitting.

I have about 500 DVD's and I am totally over the "Ooh look at my huge collection!" phase.
It had become too much of an eyesore so I started looking at alternate storage solutions.

I made my decision and went with some nice koskin leather-like slip-case binders from Case Logic.
View Image (http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B0009V78OG.01._SS500_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg)
They hold 96 discs in each binder and I picked up 10 of them so I have plenty of room to expand my collection. Needless to say, this method takes up far less wall and shelf space than 500+ keep cases! At around $130 total it was a far less cheaper route than a media file cabinet or fancy high capacity shelf system.

Now, my question to my fellow AVS Forum mates is...
What the hell do I do with 500 keep cases?? Should I remove the art inserts and Ebay them? What would they be worth, if anything?

Any advice is appreciated. Seems like a waste to just pitch them in the bin.

Thanks much.

id pack them up and save them in case you ever want to sell any of the discs...you will quickly find out that they will be nearly worthless without them.

id pack them up and save them in case you ever want to sell any of the discs...you will quickly find out that they will be nearly worthless without them.

Eh, good point I suppose, with HD-DVD's starting to enter my library.

Although the whole idea was to make room, and I would rather not have a huge box full of empty cases sitting around. There's quite a few I know I would never bother to upgrade to HD-DVD though, so maybe ill just pitch those and keep my 5 star rated collection cases in storage for possible future sale.

Thanks. Any other chime in's? :)

Take the inserts out and carefully store those. Toss the DVD cases out. If you ever want to sell any of them, just buy a few empty DVD cases, put the insert in them, and you're good to go!

You might want to save any of the cases that aren't black, though.

Aren't those cases a pain to keep things organized though...meaning you either leave a lot of empty spaces in between so you can add more or you end up having to move them all in order to add one if you keep them in any kind of order? I find the dvd cases easy to move around to keep in order/rearrange as I get more.

It's interesting this thread just popped up, since we just did this in our household, but we don't have nearly the number of DVDs.

To the previous posters' question, you can easily store them without having to keep them in any kind of order if you number each DVD, and number each slot, then keep an index. You can organize the index in any way you want, and add DVDs in whatever order you buy them. The index stays organized, while the disks are added randomly.

I did exactly what Steve is suggesting and down loaded DVD Profiler to keep track and create an index. I printed the index. Find a movie, then find its assigned number in the book. Works great.

I have software that scans the upc code and enters the info into the computer for my records, I can use this program like a library and loan out movies. That is why I have not done that yet. I would have to keep the cover with the disc in order to keep using this program..Also, I have a lot of TV Shows on DVD and they go an average of 3-5 discs and some of them are double-sided....maybe I should check out DVD Profiler.....

I put all my DVDs into my Sony Mega changer, and put the cases in the attic.

When I did the same with my 2- 400 dics CD changers, I kept the inserts and gave the cases to my local used CD store, They gave me a bunch of credit to buy more.

But as someone pointed out, you cant sell any without a case, and used DVDs only bring 4.00-500 with cases, it doesn't make much sense to throw them out and buy new ones later.

I recently did the same thing. I organize my DVDs by subject (one binder for comedies, one for sci-fi, etc.). I purchased a binder system that has room for the inserts and saved all my old cases in case I ever want to donate them to my local library and upgrade to Blu-Ray or something.

If you want to catalog them to keep in binders, there are a bunch of different programs.
I use this one, its pretty nice and only 40 bucks.
http://www.collectorz.com/movie/

I hope that one day there will be no need for discs (much of my media is already backed up on a HDD) ...... but I'll probably miss reading the sleeve notes :-)

I just use an excel spreadsheet to catalog my discs, then i just view on screen and sort depending on what I'm looking for. i.e. movie title, movie type or concert, location, ect. Then you can make it look any way you want and catalog ANY kind of disc. I have some things on SVCD/cd, WMHD, ect. and I denote that as a catagory (media type).

I was using some zip up koskin case logic binders, but I'm having trouble finding the exact ones I bought initially. I'm considering going to those aluminum looking trunks next?

DVD cases start taking up too much real estate, thats for sure!

I would avoid using this type of binder. You may be familiar with "archive quality" sleeves for the old 35mm slides - well, most DVD sleeves used in binders tend NOT to be equivalent to those.

I found that the reading surface of the DVD picks up lots of something (plasticizers?) over time. This looks like a dingy film across the surface. The DVDs need a thorough cleaning to be useable and in some cases are not readable even after cleaning. I have not had this problem keeping them in either original commercial keep-cases or in after-market hard-shell cases. Some brands of these storage binders seem to be better than others. The problem is worse with DVD-recordable discs than with commercial DVD movies. This may be due to a more durable reading surface that stands up better to cleaning.

Very true. I guess you'd have to examine each brand of binder on a case by case basis. I've seen different types of sleeves. Original cases I've never liked just for the fact that you are flexing the disc from the hub to the edge on some. These are the worse type for recordables as they could cause layer separation. Others are better in that you just push on the hub to release without having to flex the disc. But that still puts pressure on the inside of the hub and doesn't solve the wasted space issue. I tend to make an image of my favorite discs to a hard drive and play them from there instead, avoiding frequent handling of the disc and avoiding any read hiccups that may occur.

I would keep all the original cases. If I was a buyer I would want the original case the DVD it came with (yes i guess im picky :)

if you just want the movie and dont care about seeing it anymore, why not just make a copy of all your dvds now and sell them all. then you still have the film and you dont have to worry about displaying them?

I do what many have said with folders. Also I discreetly number each disc and box with an accession number taken from software that I use for indexing from www.dvdprofiler.com. I add the empty cases to storage boxes in sequential order so that I can find them if wanted. the storage boxes are in the attic.