A man couldn’t believe what he was offered when he took 100 DVDs of popular films and television series at a high street pawn shop, hoping to make a small fortune
A man who sold 100 DVDs from his personal collection to a pawn shop has shared his shock at the sum he received in return. DVDs first hit the market in the late 1990s, and by the early 2000s had completely overtaken VHS as the go-to format for watching TV series and films.
Sale of the discs in the UK peaked at a whopping 252million in 2008 before profits began to dwindle. Today, with streaming platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime allowing viewers to binge their favourite programmes and films on demand from the comfort of their living rooms, many are choosing these alternative methods to consume their favourite shows and movies.
Following this shift, online pawn shops including musicMagpie and Decluttr emerged as a way to grab cash for these surplus items, while others turn to high street pawn shops to flog their media collections.
Cayle Marklew recently visited his local CeX branch – a retail outlet that buys, sells, and exchanges pre-owned electronics and entertainment merchandise with a particular emphasis on gaming – to do precisely that.
“How much will CeX give me for this?” he asked in a TikTok clip, displaying a hefty bag crammed with DVDs of hit films and series including Twilight and Sex and the City.
Cayle’s footage carried on as he positioned two piles of the DVDs on the shop’s counter, which CeX said they would sell for approximately £50.
However, Cayle netted just £3.78 in exchange for half of the DVDs. Left with the remaining 50, he claimed that particular CeX branch “wouldn’t take [them] at all.”
Instead he travelled elsewhere, in order to try his luck at at a second branch in Stoke-on-Trent.
“They’re pretty on it here,” he said.
“I knew I wouldn’t have any trouble with the DVDs here due to the fact CeX Stoke has an entire second floor dedicated to it.”
However, parting with the rest of his collection sadly resulted in a second sum that was lower than he expected. “So my final result for the second voucher was £3.79 – pretty similar to what the first CeX gave me.”
He concluded his clip by pondering: “So, about £7.20 all in one for 100 DVDs! Did I get ripped off?”
Reacting to his story, one TikTok user confessed: “For that price I’d have just kept them or given them to a charity shop.”
Another buyer shared their success story, adding: “I just paid £1.50 for 30 DVDs, and looking at a further 90 for £3!”
While a third person recalled: “CEX gave me £2.54 for 50 DVDs a few years ago. I was shocked and said is that it. He was going to give me them back, after I waited 10 minutes for him to take them all out of the cases.
“I should have said yes I want them back. I now just give them to the Charity Shop whenever I have a good clear.”
