Your South Park collection could be worth more than you’d think… (Picture: Comedy Central)
An expert has revealed that diehard South Park fans could be sitting on a small fortune thanks to a sense of ‘underground culture’.
The long-running animated series has built up a loyal fanbase over its dark humour and parodying, with more than 300 episodes having aired since 1998.
But despite the fact they can all be streamed online for minimal subscription fees, boxsets are proving to be a surprising hit.
Speaking to Metro, pop culture PR expert Mike Drake, who has a background in the toys and collectibles industry, explained: ‘You could turn on your TV, and you could stream South Park whenever you like, however, the boxsets have continued to sell since the series began.’
He added that he believes it’s part of ‘an underground culture’, continuing: ‘You’re passing it among friends and being like, “Oh my god, disc five, episode three, you have to watch that,” it’s almost like the way in the 70s, an older brother might give a younger brother a Playboy.’
Bundles of the DVD boxsets are being sold on eBay for between £50 and £100, however, the collection in its entirety, with 58 discs from seasons 1-21, are reaching more than £500 on Amazon.
Diehard fans are sharing boxsets among themselves, despite cheaper streaming alternatives (Picture: Comedy Central)
And they’re not the only adult cartoons that are selling for far more than they’re worth.
Mike revealed that some boxsets are in high demand, despite drawing in criticism from collectors.
The Simpsons, which has been running from 1989, has launched countless toys and memorabilia, with episodes across 36 seasons having been on air and available to watch for free for decades.
Talking about one collection of The Simpsons’ boxsets that are so desirable they went up in value after being axed, Mike explained: ‘One of the things that DVD collectors hate, when you ask them, is they don’t like things that are in boxes that can’t go on a shelf, and for the first series of Simpsons DVDs, they divided the seasons up in tin character heads, so like season one might be in a tin Homer head, and you’d open it up.
The Simpsons’ toys and collectibles have proven to be huge hits (Picture: 20thCentFox/Everett/REX/Shutterstock)
‘The problem was, you couldn’t fit them neatly on a shelf, you had to display them some other way. So many people complained about that that they stopped doing it after the initial five family members. And then for season six, they went with a regular box.
‘But then for season seven, they went back to shapes because even though everyone had complained and said stop, when they stopped, everyone was like, “Why did you stop?”
‘They went back to that and the original seasons in the tin boxes (because now they do normal boxes) are more desirable, and I believe there was a reissue of the sixth season in a shaped box that went up in value.’
Similar gimmicks from the Aliens movie collection and The Walking Dead have also proven to be huge successes, despite sometimes not even being practical in other ways.
The tin-shaped heads weren’t such a fan-favourite at first (Picture: eBay)
They were later in high demand (Picture: eBay)
Mike said: ‘There was an Aliens boxset that actually came in a Xenomorph head, and that goes for a hefty price, because it’s a very well sculpted alien.
‘And The Walking Dead, that came in a zombie head, but to unlock it, you had to shove a screwdriver into the zombie’s eye.
‘The interesting part is, a lot of the screwdrivers broke because you had to twist them to get the head open, and it was almost a locking mechanism, and those actually retail for a fair amount, because people are replacing ones that broke.
‘I know that they take care to make packaging like that and involve the original people, because the sculpture for the package was done by the people that were actually doing the zombies for The Walking Dead. It looks so authentic, and it looks so good that it’s like having something literally from the show.’
This zombie head boxset of The Walking Dead is a masterpiece (Picture: eBay)
Some boxsets, like this Aliens one, are collectibles themselves (Picture: eBay)
A season two DVD boxset in the zombie head is being sold for £125 on eBay, while the Aliens collection in the head sculpture reaches £150.
‘It really depends on, besides the popularity of the item itself, does the boxset with a collectible make sense?’ Mike said, before providing a clear example of one that didn’t.
Though not a DVD collection, a piece of Jerry Seinfeld memorabilia ended up being one that no one wanted, despite being a huge part of the show.
After a 1993 episode of Seinfeld, in which Jerry wears a puffy shirt on The Today Show, a collectible was released of the shirt.
But it didn’t go down so well, despite one seller now attempting to flog it for $120 (£92), while others have it on sale on eBay for less than £10.
‘If a set comes with a collectible, the item needs to make sense, and be desirable,’ Mike said. ‘I would also add that it needs to be displayable.
‘The Seinfeld Puffy Shirt box is an example of a bad collectible. It’s funny, but only the most diehard fan would want to display it and nobody was clamouring for it.’
He went on: ‘Does this make any sense for me as a collector, to display? If I’m someone that loved Seinfeld, do I want a tiny, puffy shirt to display? And the answer is no, because you can go on to eBay and you can see them sometimes as low as $5.
‘However, what we’re seeing more of now is a high-end collectible set – and this has been going on for a few years.’
The Seinfeld puffy shirt didn’t quite ‘make sense’, Mike explained (Picture: eBay)
Mike highlighted that several TV and film boxsets with specific collectibles are in high demand – like The Terminator films which were released with a Terminator head that fans would want to display, or a snow globe from The Muppets’ creator’s 1986 film Labyrinth, which is being sold on Shout Factory for $260 (£200).
He continued: ‘This box set, for the first time ever, comes with the snow globe. The snow globe is something that people have wanted since 1986 when the movie came out.
‘So the desire for this is tremendous, with additional things like a poster and a lithograph and a pin, which all great, but that one item which people wanted for so long, puts this into the not only a very desirable category, but because the item is featured within the movie itself, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, unless someone else makes that snow globe, people are going to want that box set so they can get that item.’
It’s not just the demand for particular items that give them high value, particularly when it comes to TV boxsets, Mike noted, emphasising the ‘rarity’ and ‘scarcity’ of what’s included.
He explained: ‘There are series’ where, when they aired, they had one type of music, and then, because they didn’t have the rights to use that music in syndication, the music was remastered, and if someone’s a fan of it, they’ll look at it and go, “Hey, this isn’t the song that went with this scene,” and if it’s on DVD, the correct people will gravitate towards that, because that’s the version they know. That’s the version they remember, and they want that.
‘Likewise, sometimes there’s commentary that’s not available anywhere else, and I have to say that I’ve watched movies where the commentary was amazing, and I almost am tempted to watch it more with the commentary than I am to watch the movie proper, even though that’s why I bought it initially.’
Using the example of The Reindeer Games, a 2000 film starring Ben Affleck, Mike said: ‘It isn’t actually a very good movie, but the commentary for it, they kind of sound like they’ve maybe had a few before they sat down, or say things that perhaps they shouldn’t do.
‘It is actually more entertaining than the film. And that’s an example of where they put the DVD out with the commentary, and then people start to talk about it, and then if you go buy it now, it doesn’t have that commentary, has a different commentary. Because the studio wasn’t thrilled about what they were saying.’
Citing the most expensive boxsets out there, Mike revealed one Dragon Ball collection is selling for $4,000 (£3,100) due to its ‘scarcity and unavailability in other mediums’.
‘This is something director Guillermo del Toro has long been advocating, buying physical media to safeguard it,’ he said, recalling an example of Gremlins 2, which was originally released with Hulk Hogan voicing a character before using an alternate scene in VHS editions with John Wayne.
‘Many diehard fans, afraid of changes like this want what they perceive as the correct or original version,’ Mike added, warning: ‘With anime this is especially important because the American version is often edited in ways that totally change storylines.’
Mike’s tips for if your TV boxsets and collectors’ items are worth a high price:
As well as the item and the show being popular itself, the boxset with its collectible needs to ‘make sense’, unlike the Seinfeld puffy shirt.
It also needs to be displayable, and ideally something that fits well on a shelf, unlike The Simpsons’ tin head boxsets, which have nonetheless proven to be popular.
The rarity and scarcity of items that fans have been clamouring for, like the snow globe from Labyrinth, make items high in value, especially when they’re only being sold from one retailer.
And of course, the design of particular eye-catching collectors’ items, like The Walking Dead zombie heads, remain popular.
If you’ve got DVD editions with original soundtracks, voiceovers, scenes or commentary that are unavailable to purchase now, you could be sitting on a small fortune.
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