The home entertainment landscape has changed. The days where you could walk into Woolworths, Tandy, or Blockbuster to pick up the latest tape or DVD are long gone, and they aren’t coming back.

In fact, not only have those days gone, and the aforementioned shops have ceased trading, but very few places sell physical media anymore. If you want a new release DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K title, the options are sadly few and far between.

In the UK (at the time of writing), there is a very short list of places where you can buy brand-new DVDs and Blu-rays, and this list includes HMV, Fopp, Amazon, and direct from a publisher (101 Films, Arrow etc). You can also find the odd title in select supermarkets, but this is becoming a rarity these days and not many supermarkets stock physical media.

Out of the above retailers, I expect Amazon receives the most business in the physical media market, but both HMV and Fopp (owned by the same company) pull their weight. However, it’s a pretty bleak picture when it comes to choice and variety and it’s quite clear that DVDs and Blu-rays are now seen more as niche products rather than an area of mass consumption for retailers.

But it’s important to remember the likes of HMV and Fopp aren’t the only place to buy physical media. If you’re happy to pick something up second-hand, then you have additional options on the secondary market.

And let me make one thing clear if you are a collector: THE SECONDARY MARKET IS YOUR FRIEND. There are some absolute bargains to be had right now on pre-owned DVDs and Blu-rays, you just need to look in the right place and be prepared to up-cycle if needs be.

eBay is perhaps the most obvious place to go, and you can get some great bulk buys, but have you tried CEX? Yes, I know most CEX stores smell a bit funky (and that’s putting it mildly), but hold your nose and have a rummage through the shop – you never know what you might discover.

For those who don’t live in the UK, CEX is a chain of stores which specialise in used entertainment goods. The focus these days is mostly on phones, laptops, and consoles, but they also sell DVDs, Blu-rays, 4K, and occasionally the odd HD DVD (remember them?).

The volume of physical media on offer at CEX isn’t what it once was, but it’s not bad either. As with any shop that deals in assorted second hand goods, it can be a bit hit-and-miss, but if you are willing to scope out a few shops you might find exactly what you’re looking for.

As an example, I’ve recently been looking for a copy of Gremlins 2: The New Batch on Blu-ray. This is a title which only received a limited release on Blu-ray in the UK (as part of HMV’s Premium Collection), and as it is now deleted, there are no new copies available.

But a couple of trips to CEX and I managed to track down a copy with the discs (Blu-ray and DVD), the case, the outer slip, and the associated bonus material (art cards) all in excellent condition. And best of all, it cost me just £12!

A quick look on eBay tells me the same Blu-ray has recently sold for £31 and in one instance one copy went for a whopping £46! So, the £12 I paid from CEX is an absolute steal (plus I didn’t have to pay postage costs either).

CEX has also helped me piece together the ‘90s X-Men cartoon collection on DVD. The cartoon received a full DVD release in the UK back in 2009/2010, thanks to Clear Vision, but has since been deleted and is no longer available in bricks and mortar shops, except CEX.

Thanks to CEX, I’ve been able to pull together all 12 DVDs from the set. This equates to two DVDs per season for seasons 1, 2, 4, and 5, and four DVDs for season 3.

These same DVDs are available on eBay, but prices vary wildly and are almost always more expensive. In fact, some of the DVDs (seasons four and five I’m looking at you) carry high costs indeed, presumably because fewer were sold first time around.

Either way, CEX proved useful and now I have all the episodes of X-Men on DVD. Once again, the retailer proved invaluable for this little collector.

So, all good when it comes to CEX? Well, yes, but we do need to talk about a little wrinkle: Their online delivery service.

The service works like any other and gives customers access to all of their inventory across their stores. For collectors this is great, as many deleted titles are available through CEX, and these are available to order at the touch of a few buttons.

However, be warned, the online service does have one key problem: The delivery charge! Customers have to pay £2.95 per item on all deliveries and this quickly bumps the cost up to unaffordable levels.

For example, I recently found 16 titles I wanted to order from CEX and gleefully added them to my basket. However, these 16 items resulted in 16 postage charges of over £47, which is just crazy!

I understand CEX has to ship different products from different shops, as that is where the items are stocked, but in some cases the DVDs and Blu-rays are coming from the same place, so the charge doesn’t completely make sense. Plus, who is going to pay £2.95 per item on £1 DVDs?

Suffice to say, I didn’t order the 16 titles in my basket. I removed all but a couple, and reluctantly handed over the postage costs for what remained.

Of course, there is an option to pick up items in-store, but you need to be able to get to the various different stores, which is inconvenient for those with transport and pretty much out of the question for those that don’t. So, yeah, approach the online service with caution.

The key thing is CEX is useful for collectors and it is affordable too. The stores provide access to a wealth of titles, including many deleted DVDs and Blu-rays, and it can be great for those in the process of building up their collection or hunting down a few lost gems.

My advice is to simply make a list of what you want, keep it to hand, and pop into CEX. Chances are you’ll find what you’re after pretty quickly and without breaking the bank.

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