Disc three: come home, all is forgiven.
December 13, 2010 9:03 AM   Subscribe

What to do about orphaned DVDs from a boxed set?

So, two or three years ago, I bought several seasons of The Sopranos on DVD from a used DVD place. Weeks after I bought them, I got around to watching them and discovered that a single disc was missing. So it goes: a little three-episode lacuna in the middle of the fourth season.

A week or two ago I bought a season of Battlestar Galactica on DVD filling in the last gap in my collection of that series. (Again, I bought from a used place.) After I got home, I noticed yesterday that there are a couple of discs from the first season mixed in with my box of the second season (and of course, a couple of discs from season 2 missing). Bummer, especially as by the time I noticed the mixup, I was 4000 km away from the point of purchase. Nonethless, caveat emptor: if I had looked more carefuly at the spines of the discs, I would have noticed these were from then previous season.

I was thinking: with the recent purchase, this suggests that some other hapless customer may also wind up with two discs of season 2 in his first season box. Is there some way to harness the magical power of the internet to reunite orphan DVDs with their families?

A cursory look at eBay does not seem to show people selling single orphan discs, but in any event that is not really what I am talking about: I have no problem with simply going out and plunking down $24.98 for a factory-new box. I am just thinking that I cannot be the only person who has tiny little gaps in a boxed set through mistakes. Does there exist a site for straight-up swaps? Somewhere that I could in theory go to find other dismayed customer and swap two season 2 discs fro a pair of season 1 discs, or go out and track down a surplus Sopranos season 4 disc three (or whatever it is) from someone who pawned his Sopranos and later discovered a disc sitting in his DVD player?
posted by ricochet biscuit to Computers & Internet (8 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Response by poster: One mefite suggested in a memail that I avail myself of an online source or borrow the revelant discs from a library to copy them. Again, I am not so much concerned for the gaps in the run (which can be addressed a dozen ways). I was thinking of the neatness of reuniting these things, which appeals to me.

The National Post has a mitten registry every winter. You find an orphan glove on the street, in the subway, whatever. You contact the registry with a photo of the item and the time and place of you chancing upon it: the registry publishes this information online. With any luck, the owner spots it and the registry puts the two of you in contact, so your glove comes home. That is the kind of thing that I had in mind.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:37 AM on December 13, 2010


I don't think there is. Which is a shame, since I accidentally sent back the first disk of the Muppet Show boxed set, which I own, to Netflix in place of some spaghetti western.
posted by notsnot at 9:42 AM on December 13, 2010


Have you tried contacting the companies that released the box sets? I realize that sounds naive, but I've had it work in the past. If you can find an email or other contact information, just ask if you can buy the discs you're missing directly from them. The worst they can do is say no, and then you're no worse off than before.
posted by Janta at 9:55 AM on December 13, 2010


Best answer: The problem I see with a national Orphaned DVD registry would be 1) people who game the system to get complete sets, 2) people who send discs in really poor shape, and 3) discs breaking in the mail.

That said, you could try posting to Craigslist around where you purchased the DVDs, and other local branches of Craigslist. If you could somehow set up a local trade, you could then ensure that you are getting a real, retail DVD, in good shape and all that.
posted by filthy light thief at 10:13 AM on December 13, 2010


Response by poster: Yeah, I might go the craigslist route. As I mentioned in the post, I wonder if there is not some disappointed Galactica viewer in Vancouver wondering what happened to discs four and five of Season 1, not knowing they repose three time zones away in Ontario.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:25 AM on December 13, 2010


Have you tried getting in contact with the store? They might be able to help you by swapping out things in store or possibly contacting anyone who recently bought season 1 and has the wrong discs.

Just like contacting the releasing companies it can't hurt any.
posted by theichibun at 11:01 AM on December 13, 2010


I get this problem too. We buy a series, and maybe it's over a year before we discover, say, disc #5 is duplicate of disk #4. Or Disc 4 of season 3 is missing, where season 3 wasn't even unwrapped until years after the purchase.
posted by Goofyy at 1:17 PM on December 13, 2010


I would recommend justthedisc.com, but the site is currently down.
posted by timepiece at 6:25 PM on December 17, 2010


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