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DVD Horror Stories
Date: Sunday 24th January 2010 [15:51] | Posted By: Joe
For a change, here's a little horror story that will make some anime fans cringe and check their collection, and others not even blink.
Full Story
It's a well known fact that anime fans like to collect DVDs. Over the years I've met many kinds of collectors with various degrees of care towards there discs. One fan had a strict policy of keeping the DVDs out of their cases, as soon as they were opened they would be discarded around him . The same applied for his CDs and games. As a result finding anything in the mess that ensued wasn't easy. He didn't mind, he knew where everything was, at least he thought he did and that was good enough for him.
At the other extreme of the scale I've heard of fans who buy two copies of the DVDs, one to watch and the other to keep mint in box unopened in its original plastic wrapping. Most fans are somewhere between these two extremes, I've met more of the fans who prefer to keep their discs pristine. The weirdest one I've encountered was one fan who checked the inner ring on the bottom of each disc. That tiny raised ridge near the hole in the middle of each disc. If the inner ring wasn't a complete circle if it had gaps from moulding, he would exchange it with the retailer. He didn't appear to have obsessive compulsive disorder, but I imagine he was only few years off from being diagnosed with it. Chances are until you've actually read this article, you never even considered looking at the inner ring on the bottom of a disc before.
Fans treasure their collections, it's a tangible link to the thing they love. It reflects who they are and what they like. As a result fans are keen to keep their collection is mint condition. Which is what this horror story is about. A friend of mine brought a disc to show me. At first glance it was fine. He keeps his collection in good condition and looks after his stuff. He had a sad look on his face.
The box was in mint condition, it had been opened, but it was flawless.
"Go on, open it" he prompted me.
I opened the case, and I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Until looked a bit closer. There were tiny brown marks inside the case, about the size of a grain of sand each spread across the case.
I took the disc out of the case and looked at the case. The concentration of brown grains was even thicker.
Then I turned the disc over. It was covered in horrible brown marks.
I asked my friend what he had done to the DVD to make this happen. He didn't do anything. He stores his DVDs on a bookshelf in a tidy household and cleans often enough. The culprits were ants! They got into his house and discovered that the nooks and crannies of his DVD collection was the perfect place to live. What was worse he discovered that they even got through the plastic wrap and lived in his best boxsets.
We cleaned the DVD using a damp cloth (and small circular movements). It was a fairly slow process. It played fine after cleaning. The plastic DVD case was easy to clean and dry too using a damp cloth. The paper sleeve on the other hand could not be easily cleaned. The inside is permanently marked.
So the moral of the story? If you love your discs, make sure to check for ants!
Otaku News
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