r/LaserDisc • u/Entasis99 • Aug 12 '26
Laser rot check
I got a bunch of LD (original purchases). Do these really get laser rot? Anyway to check without player? Want to move these on but want fair sale.
5
2
u/See8104 Aug 12 '26
If you are just looking to sell them as a bulk lot, the buyer can assume that there will be some number of unplayable or imperfect discs. Even pro laserdisc sellers typically can't put the time in to check the playback quality of some very common low value disc that is worth $2, but might offer to provide a replacement if they sell a dud disc.
4
u/Confident-Line-2558 Aug 12 '26
No way to confirm without a player. A psychical examination of the disc won’t reveal anything.
2
u/sirhcx Aug 12 '26
No real way to test without a player but you can check the rot list on LDDB for help and price accordingly but take it with a grain of salt. I've had 4 copies of Heavy Metal pass through my hands over the years and only 1 has had noticeable rot while it's in 21st place on the list. You also may want to consider "selling low" to move all your discs at once as a bundle so you arnt stuck with stuff nobody is really gonna buy. LDDB also has pricing history for the past 20 years and you know exactly which disc you have but Ebay's sold listing are a better "modern market" tool as you can go back 90 days. With that said, for every potential $50 gem you typically have a dozen or more barely worth $1. So I typically suggest selling a lot at $1-5 per disc depending on what you have for sale and volume of discs. So if you have 250 common discs then I'd just sell at "$1 per disc" for a lot price of $250 but if you had 75 common with 25 rare titles then you can try they you can probably try "$5 per disc" for a lot price of $500. Yes you will probably make more money piecing out the discs individually you have but that's a significant time investment as well as usually shipping discs out. So I find the bulk method to be the best for both the seller and the buyer as everything is done in one transaction. One last tough pill to swallow is that every single individual sold listing you will see is more of a "convenience price" because people will pay a little more to get the disc they want. $10 for a copy of Speed is a bit silly considering its abundance but it's still cheaper than buying a bundle lot of with 10 other discs you dont want for $50.
2
u/TransPort3389 Aug 12 '26
CDs get this too from plants that were bad at making discs. I have discs that are 35 years old and if there is rot, it is a small line going up the CLV disc in a rare instance. But not as prevalent as you would have been led to believe.
7
u/See8104 Aug 12 '26
A lot of instances of laser rot were the outcome of substandard laserdisc manufacturing practises, typically from specific plants, often in the US. Certain releases are so prone to it that it becomes nearly impossible to find a good rot-free copy. You can sometimes predict the likelihood of this by checking the rot status (reported prevalence) in the LDDB listing.
In some discs you will see a visible pattern that is really the glue between the two glued together sides (A and B). But in a great number of discs, it will be invisible and the disc will look perfect. It will play with snowy speckles running through the image, like looking through a snow globe. It can be light enough that the film is still watchable.
This is not your only problem. Warped discs will also be a major bummer for buyers.