Replacing broken cases

HdE

Comic Book Guy
Hey all - just posting this because its driving me mad lately.

I had a couple of items arrive from the States last week which didn't fare too well in the post. The cases - a 6x DVD and a 4x DVD - were pretty badly damaged, leaving the discs to flap about loosely on their hinged trays.

Given that I actually have a few DVD box sets in a similar state here, I thought it might be time to look into replacing them. But it's surprisingly tricky to do! When I look up replacementss on Ebay or Amazon, it seems like the only available items are completely different dimensions to the cases my DVDs originally arrived in!

So, I'm curious... has anyone else here had any experience with this stuff?
 
HdE said:
Hey all - just posting this because its driving me mad lately.

I had a couple of items arrive from the States last week which didn't fare too well in the post. The cases - a 6x DVD and a 4x DVD - were pretty badly damaged, leaving the discs to flap about loosely on their hinged trays.

Given that I actually have a few DVD box sets in a similar state here, I thought it might be time to look into replacing them. But it's surprisingly tricky to do! When I look up replacementss on Ebay or Amazon, it seems like the only available items are completely different dimensions to the cases my DVDs originally arrived in!

So, I'm curious... has anyone else here had any experience with this stuff?

Have you tried contacting the retailer, although it might help if you ordered directly from the distro as they're in a better position to help?

I ordered Soul Eater on Blu-ray direct from Madman in Australia, and when it came the case was shredded, wouldn't even hold together. I e-mailed Madman and they sent me a new case free of charge.
 
I got a good deal on a Trigun box set because the case was absolutely destroyed on the inside, all of the hinges were completely snapped off. I managed to find a case on eBay for about £1 or £2. I don't think they're that hard to find, most cases seem to be a standard, I'm sure if you look on eBay you'll be able to get one. Just make sure the spine is the correct measurement. I have thought about for a while getting a new box for my K-On Season 2 Part 1 box as when I got it from Zavvi, the hinge broke in the post but considering I'll probably end up importing the Aus Blu Rays eventually, I've decided not to bother.
 
IncendiaryLemon said:
I don't think they're that hard to find, most cases seem to be a standard, I'm sure if you look on eBay you'll be able to get one.

Sady not the case!

I've already looked around on Ebay and Amazon for replacements, and it's INCREDIBLY hard to find an exact replacement case for the stuff that's been damaged.

Good case in point: Mazinger Z collection 2 arrived today. The brackets which hold the disc trays in place had been mashed in transit, leaving one disc pretty badly scuffed. I can't find an identical case of this kind anywhere online!

The last box set I had which got damaged in the post was another Discotek release - Captain Harlock. Oddly, this is another 6 disc set, in a different type of case completely.

Looking for replacements, it's been impossible to find anything with identical spine dimensions. Really aggravating.
 
I recently had this problem with the Good Luck Girl Collector's Edition but it was really weird. The collection is two slim blu-ray cases in a chipboard art box, the box & one case were perfect but one case was smashed to hell... Amazon couldn't explain how it'd happened but sent out a replacement case (that only held one disc so was useless).
 
This is why I cannot stand brick packaging. There are so many different kinds that it's a huge pain to deal with broken cases. Back when I was buying Ranma 1/2 on DVD I got a few boxes which were crushed just enough to break the hubs so I bought a batch of clear double thinpaks which worked nicely for fixing any broken cases of standard size in my collection, but I have several bricks in horrible condition and it's too annoying to have to buy one individual case of each type (if it's even possible) to house all of the discs and artwork.

R
 
It's helpful to hear everyone else's experiences with this stuff.

I figured it might be worth sharing my latest on this, just in hopes that it's helpful for anyone else:

I sent an email to the Amazon marketplace seller I ordered my items from, and they replied with a really friendly but ultimately unhelpful offer to refund a massive $1.20. They mentioned that they also carry stocks of spare cases, but a little further investigation reveals that these aren't necessarily the right size for my particular product, and they also want me to pay for them. Not really sure how I feel about that - especially as said marketplace seller has had quite a bit of business from me.

So, I did a little further digging around on Ebay and Amazon. I'd never previously thought to enter the spine dimensions in my product search, but this turned up the goods pretty quickly. So I've ordered a couple of packs of replacement cases. These should take care of the damaged goods I've got, plus a few that I've had kicking around for a while. the search parameters I entered were '6x dvd case 20mm spine' and '6x dvd case 22mm spine'

This has set me back a fair bit of cash for what I'm getting, but I figure it's worth it.
 
I usually find that the sizes are fairly standard but the configuration isn't always what I want.

I'm still looking for a 4 disc 14mm clear box with 2 swing trays instead of disc holders on the front and back on the case because it has an insert that I don't want damaged by a normal disc case types.
 
I have been known to trim the artwork so that it fits inside a different type of case...

Normally get replacement cases off ebay too, but you're right, it is a massive pain, as some case types only seem to be available from the US. I imported a stack of 10 viva elite 4 way blu-ray cases at one point so I didn't have to worry about broken cases for a while. As it seems that while a lot of blu-rays get sold in this type of case in the UK, nowhere in the UK actually stocks this type of case...

casetopia is the US ebay shop I occasionally buy cases from, postage is a LOT for just a case, but you're not likely to get customs as the cases themselves are cheap. Depends how much it annoys you (damaged cases REALLY bug me...).

Do you know what the brand of case is? As I often find that narrows the search down considerably.
 
NoSurprises said:
Do you know what the brand of case is? As I often find that narrows the search down considerably.

I've actually found the opposite to be true. I've had more luck replacing unbranded cases than trying to source direct replacements for Scanovo cases, for example.

There's still a few things that I've not been able to properly replace, but I'm not precious aboutthe cases being exactly the same as the ones I had before, or anything. So long as I can fit the inlay into the case and get everything tucked away inside, I'll be happy.

I've got a batch of replacement cases headed to me for midweek, so we'll see how well that works out.
 
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