Crate Digging Finds

Crate Digging Finds - DVD / Blu-ray / 4K Collector from Peterborough, Ontario. Flea Market / Yard sale physical media buyer and "sometimes" seller.

A few yard sale rules I’ve learned over the years: Always stop, even if it looks like they have nothing. Last summer...
09/06/2026

A few yard sale rules I’ve learned over the years:
Always stop, even if it looks like they have nothing. Last summer, there was a small table with maybe twenty books. One of them had Slimetime: A Guide to Sleazy, Mindless Movies for 10 cents. Another time, I found Tinto Brass’s exploitation film Salon Kitty (1976) mixed in with a bunch of mainstream movies. If there’s nothing interesting, just pet their dog and enjoy being outside in the nice weather. Most sellers know it’s all junk and are just happy someone showed up to look.
You don’t collect kids’ movies? Look in the box anyway. Once I found Ralph Bakshi’s Fritz the Cat (1972). It was hard not to laugh knowing the parents apparently put this explicitly adult animated film in the player for the kids and walked away to do chores.
This weekend, an older lady with just a few dresses and some knitted items had only two DVDs: Jeepers Creepers 2 (2003), about people trapped on a bus with a monster outside, and Martin Scorsese’s four-hour documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005). I grabbed them both.
There are also a lot of the same movies over and over, like Twilight (2008) and The Fast and the Furious (2001). But if you’re patient, after a few stops a gem eventually comes along. This weekend it was the American-made Karla (2006), the true-crime drama about notorious couple Karla Homolka and Paul Bernardo. At the time of its release, the movie was extremely controversial, with Canadian politicians calling for a boycott. Misha Collins later expressed regret about making the film after meeting one of Bernardo’s surviving victims.
Poorer neighborhoods can have better stuff. Rich folks tossed their Hollywood crap in the garbage years ago and switched to streaming, while budget-minded households still appreciate inexpensive DVDs and books for entertainment. Downtown this weekend, I found a couple of Graham Hancock books I’d been looking for and a copy of Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream.
My biggest problem is grabbing doubles. For any serious collector of music, books, comics or movies, the app for keeping track of everything is CLZ. Unfortunately, crouching in front of a crate while searching titles on your phone looks a little odd. Before you even do that, ask the price first. Get it locked in before they start thinking they should put those Disney VHS clamshells back inside for another twenty years—or raise the price on you. And in case you’re wondering, your Black Diamond's are pretty much worthless.
Sometimes I know it’s a double and just can’t leave it behind for 50 cents. This weekend it was the Brazilian classic City of God (2002), about a young photographer growing up amid the escalating violence of Rio de Janeiro, and Bill Cosby: Himself (1982). I think part of me grabs these things just to save them from the landfill, because that’s probably where they’re headed after the sale. I store them in my crawlspace until the day I’ve finally had enough and have a sale of my own.
Other times I grab titles I don't really need just so the seller doesn’t have to break a bill. This week it was Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) and Look Who’s Talking (1989), just to make it easier to grab Tenacious D: The Complete Masterworks (2002) without waiting for change.
And finally, the last rule I always forget:

CHECK THE DISCS. 🤦‍♂️

I was in Oshawa last Sunday [26/08/30], at the mall. A place called Now And Then - Music and Movies [recently moved down...
08/31/2026

I was in Oshawa last Sunday [26/08/30], at the mall. A place called Now And Then - Music and Movies [recently moved downstairs] has an amazing selection of movies, although unfortunately the prices are a bit high.
I was eyeing the Gore W***e 4-film DVD box set from SRS Cinema LLC, but couldn't justify the $100 price tag. And although I need the Severin Films Motorpsycho (1965) to complete my Russ Meyer collection, I had to walk away from the 4K section altogether.

What I did grab...

The The Greasy Strangler (2016) is one of those "What the f**k did I just watch?" movies. A serial killer who covers himself in grease, a naked disco-dancing father and his browbeaten son... just downright bizarre. Its "so-wrong-it's-right" sensibility, similar to John Waters' early work, gives it a special place in my Comedy/Cult section. So glad to finally have a copy.
I upgraded my SS Experiment Love Camp (1976) discs to the 88 Films Blu-ray, and also grabbed SS Camp 5: Women's Hell (1977) on DVD from Cheezy Movies. Both were directed by Sergio Garrone, who is perhaps best remembered for his Spaghetti Westerns, including Django the Bastard (1969).
Found Cult Epics The Key (1983) in the adult/erotica section. After Caligula (1979), this is regarded as the film that fully established Tinto Brass' signature erotic style. A husband leaves the key to his diary where his wife can find it, drawing her into his voyeuristic fantasies. Elegant period piece or softcore exploitation dressed in art-house trappings? Either way, another one for the Tinto Brass collection.
Then, on Monday [26/08/31], my Vinegar Syndrome order finally arrived!
After missing out on the now-"sold out" Faces of Death II (1981) 4K, I wasn't going to let that happen with Part III (1985). This one is considered the most "serious," or least cartoonish, of the early sequels.
I also accidentally ordered Ice Cream Man (1995), thinking it was the 2026 Eli Roth film. Turns out it was Paul Norman's old low-budget film, repackaged to cash in on the newer movie. Thankfully, I didn't already have it. Looking forward to some campy comedy-slasher fun!

Yard sales yesterday [26/08/29] were OK. Mostly mainstream fare filling holes in my collection, but there were a few int...
08/30/2026

Yard sales yesterday [26/08/29] were OK. Mostly mainstream fare filling holes in my collection, but there were a few interesting finds.
The first American Pie (1999) and Part 5, American Pie: The Naked Mile (2006).
Road Trip (2000), with the always hilarious Tom Green, was another pickup. I remembered Tom also had a cameo in Charlie’s Angels (2000), so I grabbed that one from the box as well.
I picked up Adam & Eve (2005) for the National Lampoon collection. I don’t remember The American (2010) with George Clooney at all, but I thought the cover art looked appealing. That’s the nice thing about paying less than a dollar for a movie—you can take a chance.
Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan (2010), Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant (2009), and I can’t believe I didn’t already have the Depression-era boxing film Cinderella Man (2005). Watch that one if you haven’t already; it’s a good one.
Classic Alfred Hitchcock: The Legend Begins: 20 Movie Boxset (2007) will be a fun deep dive, along with MGM’s Zulu (1964).
3,000 Miles to Graceland (2001) is one I'm looking forward to revisiting. At the time of this release, while researching the horror / exploitation 'CIC' VHS label. I ended up started an interesting correspondence with the film’s producer, Don Carmody. Early in his career, Don worked with David Cronenberg and Ivan Reitman and eventually became a vice-president of production at Cinépix. He helped build the Montreal/Canadian film business during the Meatballs (1979) and Porky’s (1982) era, at the beginning of the Jon Dunning/André Link Canuxploitation period that later evolved into Lions Gate Films in 1998.
The last three films I picked up were Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera (2004), which I’m sure will kick around my office floor for months since I don’t yet have a musical section; The Others (2001), of which I already have multiple copies. The larger spine cases come in handy for other titles like The Doors (1991) or Titus (1999).
And finally, The Black Hole (2006), which I didn’t realize I already had. Perhaps I’ll get into how I prevent myself from ending up with doubles in a later post.

Adult Digging Finds: Part 2Back at D’Arcy More’s 'More In The Attic' on Friday, 26/08/28, grabbing some adult/erotic cin...
08/30/2026

Adult Digging Finds: Part 2

Back at D’Arcy More’s 'More In The Attic' on Friday, 26/08/28, grabbing some adult/erotic cinema. Like last week, my favorite part of digging through this lot was finding the diamonds in the rust.
From this batch, I rescued more Mexican-distributed “Classification C” films from Zima Entertainment: The Price of Desire (1997), I Like to Play Games (1995), S*x Spa 2 (2005) and Carnal Cravings (2006), joining last week’s Madam Servant (1997), Naked Secrets and Lies (2006) and S*xual Surrender (2003). Essentially one step below “Classification D” adult content, these are often considered softcore or mature art films.
I also had to pull Ovidie and Jack Tyler’s French film S*x Stories (2009). Although it contains unstimulated s*x, it’s much more of a narrative/relationship film than simply a collection of s*x scenes. Distributed by Philadelphia-based Breaking Glass Pictures, it’s often compared with art films like 9 Songs (2004) and Shortbus (2006), yet still tends to get lumped into the p**n category despite its broader artistic ambitions.
Another standout was David Hamilton’s Bilitis (1977). Primarily known as a photographer for his distinctive soft-focus style, Hamilton made his directorial debut with this film, co-written by Catherine Breillat. While Bilitis wasn’t considered especially controversial at the time, Hamilton’s later work and the allegations surrounding his photography and films have made his legacy far more complicated. He denied misconduct; the allegations never went to trial.
The dark crime drama Jaded (1998) was another rescue, along with Alfonso Cuarón’s Y Tu Mamá También (2001). While the latter contains nudity and adult s*xual themes, it serves a much broader exploration of relationships, adolescence, friendship, class and Mexican society. A mainstream/arthouse classic.
A couple of unexpected finds were Bill Zebub Productions ’s Catherine’s Pain (2010), a reworking of Bill's earlier R**e Is A Circle (2006), and Nick Broomfield ’s Fetishes (1996), a documentary about a New York domination establishment. Broomfield’s confrontational approach to marginalized subjects has influenced filmmakers including Michael Moore and Louis Theroux.
And, like last week, I also saved the couple-friendly Pleasureland (1996) and Brad Armstrong’s Flashpoint (2007), along with classics like Aunt Peg (1980), Cousin Betty (1972) and plenty more.

Was at a yard sale last weekend [2026/08/14] and came across a bunch of comic-animation-type discs. I don't know much ab...
08/22/2026

Was at a yard sale last weekend [2026/08/14] and came across a bunch of comic-animation-type discs. I don't know much about these, having only seen them when I was a kid. I instantly recognized the Shout Select label and figured, what the hell, I'm in.
The more I look into them, the more I can see how people nerd out over 'em. Transformers – Season One (1984) turns out to have received a really nice treatment. It includes a lot of original television footage that was missing from the earlier Rhino Video releases.
G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (1985) was also given special treatment by the same company, adding the five-part miniseries to the set and correcting the original television opening and end-of-episode audio that had been retained in the commercial bumpers. The extras, including a 1963 Toy Fair presentation, are what make physical media so desirable to me.
On the Warner label is Challenge of the Super Friends (1978). The DC Legion of Doom appears for the first time on this show. Thankfully, this yard sale also had Super Friends: Volume Two, which provides the closest full Saturday-morning experience to the original broadcast.
The finale three episodes of Justice League Season 2 are presented as one re-edited continuous story on Justice League: Starcrossed – The Movie (2004).
Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010) features Jason Todd—the second Robin, killed by the Joker in a 1988 comic—as a villain returning to Gotham as the mysterious Red Hood. This disc is a darker, more mature take on modern animation.
The DVD I'm most interested in revisiting is Batman: The Movie (1966). Filmed right before the second season, it was released right in the middle of the television craze. Adam West as Batman; Burt Ward as Robin. It wasn't part of the original home-video releases because the rights were tangled for many years. Good to finally grab it as a standalone.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983), on the low-budget Mill Creek label, is another fun find. It only gives you 65 episodes instead of all 130, plus the extras included on the BCI releases. He-Man is particularly important because it sits right at the beginning of the 1980s toy-cartoon phenomenon that Transformers and G.I. Joe would soon take to another level.

Adult Digging Finds Since 1999, local Peterborough eBay seller D’Arcy Moore has been selling movie-related items thr...
08/22/2026

Adult Digging Finds

Since 1999, local Peterborough eBay seller D’Arcy Moore has been selling movie-related items through his eBay store, More In The Attic. After coming across a bunch of spicy adult content, he reached out to see if I was interested. Besides the usual hardcore fare, I was happy to find some real gems.
Andrea Bianchi’s Malabimba (1979), & Jess Franco's The S*xual Story of O (1984) on Severin; Sugar Cookies (1973), written by a pre-Troma Lloyd Kaufman, with Oliver Stone as associate producer; women-in-prison fare like Fugitive Girls (1974); Joseph Sarno’s Girl Meets Girl (1974); Radley Metzger’s The Image (1975); and several Emanuelle films: Yellow Emanuelle (1977), Divine Emanuelle (1981) and Lady Emanuelle (1989).
Also in the mix: Mexico’s “Classification C” films Chica Fácil / Madam Servant (1997), S*xo, mentiras y lujuria / Naked Secrets (2006) and Entrega S*xual (2003).
Erotic titles included: Tell Me No Lies (2001) and Zalman King’s Delta of Venus (1995), based on the Anaïs Nin book. I also pulled Francis Locke’s softcore titles Erin’s Erotic Nights (2006) and Mistress of Unit C (2006), plus some friendlier films: Exposure (1995), Bobby Sox (1996), Nikki Tyler, P.I. (1998), Lap Top (1998), Whispering Hearts (2002) and Michael Ninn’s Forever Night (1998).
And then there were the classics: Santa Cruzin’ (?), Wet in the Woods (?), Emmanuelle y Carol (1978), Lasse Braun’s American Desires (1980), Thousand and One Erotic Nights (1982), Danielle & Her Family (1976), Devil Inside Her (1977), Siblings (1983), Shaun Costello’s Water Power (1977) and Forbidden Ways (1976).
Speaking of classics, check out Magic M’s Golden Age ### R***e podcast for great info on the early years of adult cinema. The Opening of Misty Beethoven (1976), Behind the Green Door (1972), The Devil in Miss Jones (1973), etc.

While vacationing near Horseshoe Valley, I was browsing Marketplace looking for folks selling lots, and there was Craig ...
08/11/2026

While vacationing near Horseshoe Valley, I was browsing Marketplace looking for folks selling lots, and there was Craig Johnson, selling Severin Films 's Definitive Guide to Video Nasties (2010), just a few minutes away from where I was staying. A three-disc, 14-hour documentary analysis of the hysteria caused by the distribution of violent movies in 1980s Britain. Damn... I'm SOLD!
Before heading back to Peterborough, I also grabbed the UK-banned slashers Night of the Demon (1980) and Don't Answer the Phone! (1980) from Craig.
Other rarities I'm ecstatic to add to the collection include Fred Olen Ray's Alien Dead (1980); John Hayes' Grave of the Vampire (1972); John Russo's Midnight (1982); Night of the Lepus (1972); the Ozploitation horror Patrick (1978) on the Synapse Films label; the environmental horror Prophecy (1979); and Satan's Cheerleaders (1977) by Greydon Clark, who directed such exploitation classics as Satan's Sadists (1969), Black Shampoo (1976), and Skinheads (1989). Also included is Severin's supernatural biker flick Psychomania (1973), directed by Hammer's Don Sharp.
Speaking of Hammer films, from Craig I also grabbed The Hammer Horror Series, featuring Brides of Dracula (1960), The Curse of the Werewolf (1961), Phantom of the Opera (1962), Paranoiac (1963), The Kiss of the Vampire (1963), Nightmare (1964), Night Creatures (1962), and The Evil of Frankenstein (1964). There's also The Blood Beast Terror (1968) on the Redemption label, which is often mistaken for a Hammer film because it stars Peter Cushing.
A couple of real oldies on Kino Lorber : Nosferatu (1922) and Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927). Bette Davis films include Dead Ringer (1964) and Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964), along with William Castle's Homicidal (1961).
A bunch of posters and horror-related items were also thrown in, along with a pile of Blue Underground titles, including Baba Yaga (1973), Circus of Fear (1966), Fulci's City of the Living Dead (1980), The House by the Cemetery (1981), Manhattan Baby (1982), Zombie (1979), and The New York Ripper (1982).
As well as Dead & Buried (1981), Deathdream (1974), Larry Cohen's God Told Me To (1976), The Killing Hour (1985), William Lustig's slasher Maniac (1980), The Nesting (1981), The Toolbox Murders (1978), The Prowler (1981), and Uncle Sam (1996).
Then there's a stack of Midnite Movies to add to my ever-growing shelf: The Beast Within (1982), The Bat People (1974), Die, Monster, Die! (1965), The Dunwich Horror (1970), Dr. Phibes Rises Again! (1972), The Return of Dracula (1958), The Vampire (1957), Invasion of the Star Creatures (1962), Invasion of the Bee Girls (1973), The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977), X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963), Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Premature Burial (1962), Panic in Year Zero! (1962), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), Strange Invaders (1983), and Invaders from Mars (1986).
The three MGM made-on-demand (MOD) titles are also interesting: Pray for Death (1985), Enter the Ninja (1981), and Charles Bronson's Western The White Buffalo (1977).
Best vacation ever... Cheers, Craig!

Thrifting in Barrie, Ontario First stop was re-Source Thrift Shop Barrie at 221 Cundles Rd. E. Not much at this loca...
08/09/2026

Thrifting in Barrie, Ontario
First stop was re-Source Thrift Shop Barrie at 221 Cundles Rd. E. Not much at this location. Anime fans might be interested in the copy of Titan A.E. I spotted, I already have one.
Next up were Talize and Hock Shop Canada - Barrie, both in a strip mall at 400 Bayfield Street. Talize was overpriced and didn't have much. Hock Shop had a lot of DVDs for $1.00 and Blu-rays for $2.00. It was pretty picked clean, althoguh I did pick up My Bloody Valentine (2009) [3D], See No Evil (2006), and Saw X (2023).
Since this was my first trip to Barrie, one spot I definitely wanted to check out was BJ's Records and Nostalgia downtown at 13 Clapperton Street. BJ's is [co-owned?] by Danny Stephens, guitarist of the mid-'70s Barrie rock group Lisle. Back when I was very young, my father released their 'Smile With Lisle' album on his label, Bronco Records, which ended up having a hit single, "Shelly Made Me Smile."
I thought I would stop by, say hello to Danny, and drop off some of my father's live photos of the band. Along with an amazing collection of music—including the Bronco Lisle album transferred to CD—the store also had some movie crates for me to dig through.
From BJ's, I grabbed Lon Chaney's Bride of the Gorilla (1951), Blake Edwards' The Party (1968) starring Peter Sellers, and a couple of comedy snap cases: Meatballs (1979) and Police Academy (1984).
Since we were parked downtown, we thought we would walk around a bit.
A ton of zombies were tranq-dancing down the main drag. Either that, or just some hard-working folks with bad backs falling asleep on their way home from work. I can't believe it's $60 to park at the beach, but the city can't clean the human excrement and p**s off the sidewalk downtown. For a first-time visitor, I would say it was a very sad sight.
A place called Stuff did have lots of vintage clothes and a small shelf of movies, but nothing I needed. They also have a second location that we didn't visit.
Pawn Smart at 29 Bradford Street had lots of $1.00 movies, although it would seem that the shop itself had picked through them and put the rare titles in glass cases. C'mon you're taking all the fun out of the thrill of the hunt. There were a few titles I wanted; however, I couldn't justify the $15 and $20 price tags for movies I could get online cheaper.
The Salvation Army Thrift Store Barrie at 11 Essa Road was the last place we stopped. I was happy to grab the first season of Penn & Teller's Bu****it! (2003) television show. Looking forward to seeing that one again.

Packing up the vacation scores...
08/08/2026

Packing up the vacation scores...

The previous swapmeet was washed out. So Vintage Vendors and friends rescheduled to September 12th, 2026. With a plann...
08/02/2026

The previous swapmeet was washed out. So Vintage Vendors and friends rescheduled to September 12th, 2026. With a planned raindate on the 13th. I'm looking forward to this. I usually find something rare at these events. 866 Taunton Road West, Oshawa.

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