Crowds descend on the annual Regent Music Sale at the Regent Theatre on Saturday. PHOTOS: GERARD O’BRIEN Is Dunedin running out of DVDs? You may have thought so if you went searching for one at the Regent Theatre Music Sale on Saturday. The section was all but cleared less than 20 minutes after the doors opened. Regent Music Sale co-ordinator Kath Wallace said every year, the most in-demand items remained vinyls and DVDs, but they were finding it harder to get their hands on them. ‘‘There were some fantastic records, quite a lot of good DVDs and CDs, even some tapes — we are down on stock this year.’’ That did not stop the theatre from quickly filling up with people searching for a deal. Less than 20 minutes after the doors opened, a large chunk of the DVDs had already been cleared out. The sale always attracted a range of people, including a large cohort of tertiary students, Mrs Wallace said. Father and son Nathan Laven and Seth Moon, 12, sift through the records to go with the new record player they picked out at the sale. They were attracted to the physical media such as CDs, records and DVDs. ‘‘A lot of the things that they’re buying online, like some games and things, they can start them, then halfway through they suddenly disappear out of existence ... there’s definitely value in hard copies.’’ Mrs Wallace also thought this may have played a part in the struggle to get donations of those items. People were simply choosing to hang on to their movies. Auctioneers had also been taking a lot of DVDs during clearance sales. ‘‘Years and years ago we had so many DVDs that at the end of the sale, we were virtually giving them out to the charity shops. ‘‘This year, I don’t think there’s going to be much left to give to them.’’ Waitati residents Nathan Laven and his son Seth Moon were at the sale, and like many other attendees, Seth came for the DVDs. He was disappointed not to find what he was looking for — anything related to The Simpsons. Despite arriving shortly after opening, Mr Laven said they may have been too late. ‘‘You’ve really got to be in like the first 10 or so to get in there and get all the good stuff,’’ he said. The pair had snagged a Japanese record player, which was their ‘‘best find of the day’’. They spent the rest of the time searching for records to play on it. ‘‘You’re always looking for the gold in the vinyls, you know, you’ve got to sift through.’’ laine.priestley@odt.co.nz
