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For Obscure DVDs, a Precarious Future (New York Times - Registration Required) (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/movies/homevideo/04rees.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)

I hate to hear this.  For those who can't get the article or don't want to register, here's a depressing excerpts.

"...the video market is glutted. For big studios that means more jousting over future formats that may restart sales. But for specialty companies that have traded otherwise unavailable horror, action, art-house and exploitation titles, the glut has meant a struggle to survive."

The article contains bleak predictions for the future of out-of-the-mainstream DVD releases from executives at Synapse Films, Subversive Cinema, and Blue Underground, among others. 

Troubling, very troubling. 

That unbelievable stream of pg-13/weak R "horror" crap that makes up three quarters of the new dvd section at Blockbuster can't possibly be helping.  I've been smelling this on the wind for a little while and was hoping I was just being pessimistic. 

Lots of great titles disappeared when the vhs glut began to collapse on itself.  Years of rooting through video store closeouts, friends attics, garage sales and flea markets followed.  Before the dark time, as independant and mom-n-pop video stores folded, there was just no way to get a hold of all those titles, even frantically duping them on a friends two vcrs. 

Now, there's still no way to be able to afford all the great obscure titles floating around at the moment. And I KNOW it's all on borrowed time.  I don't know that I want to spend years haggling with flakey eBay sellers to get some of this stuff, should it come to that down the road.

I read that article a year or two ago - it's citing statistics from 2006.  I don't know, the collapse doesn't seem to have happened.  When a new format like DVD comes along, assuming it's popular, there's going to be a period of rapid growth and then things will eventually level out.  That's not really a catastrophe, it's just the way things work.  There's been some reorganization among the smaller companies, as one or two go out of business and others take over.  From what I've seen, this seems to have resulted in an increase in the number of obscure titles that are available. 

They mostly are complaining that large chain stores and rental places don't stock their titles, but I think with the popularity of Netflix, and the gradual shift towards people doing more shopping online, precisely because the rental places and big chain stores have a lousy selection, the gloom and doom predictions will be proven wrong. 

Call me an optimist.

As far as VHS titles, have you checked Amazon?  They've got a ton of obscure titles available, most for pretty reasonable prices (plus a few bucks for shipping).  You have to specify VHS as your search category, otherwise it'll stick the VHS tape back on about page 3 of your search results.  Of course sometimes you can find a good deal, sometimes somebody else snatches it up first.  And no haggling over prices and waiting for auctions to end, and the feedback is honest because there's no fear of retaliatory feedback from sellers.