It wasn’t supposed to go this way. A few months ago, I’d placed an order for Arrow Video’s For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars. I would’ve ordered the boutique label’s The Good, the Bad and The Ugly 4K limited edition release too — Sergio Leone’s sublime masterpiece that concludes his Man with No Name trilogy. Instead, I decided to wait, as the release had been delayed by a whopping few months, and I figured I had plenty of time to order closer to the release date.
Big mistake.
As we marched toward the August 22nd release date listed on Amazon UK, the listing was nowhere to be found. Or more specifically — you could view it, but had no way to actually place an order. That’s when the panic set in, made worse by a widespread shortage across retailers such as Zavvi, HMV UK, and others. Even Arrow’s own web store had already sold out, offering no relief for eager buyers. Collectors started scouring the internet, hoping to catch a restock and nab the coveted limited edition.
Aside from a handful of boutique Blu-ray stores like OrbitDVD and DiabolikDVD (both based in the United States), the release was nowhere to be found. But even their stock sold out almost immediately, snapped up by collectors the moment listings went live. Speaking from experience, even the rare restocks reported by users on Reddit and Blu-ray.com often turned out to be false alarms, mistakenly flagged as “in stock” by retailers.
Since then, criticism has been directed at both the boutique label and retailers, some blaming them for underestimating demand, others for taking pre-orders without the inventory to back them. And while those criticisms are valid to an extent, the issue runs deeper. This shortage isn’t just about one title, it reflects broader challenges surrounding physical media and the collector’s experience in the 2020s.
From steelbook-only 4K releases to low print runs, scarce limited editions to region-specific availability, collectors today are increasingly boxed in by the realities of a shrinking market. As more consumers gravitate toward streaming, studios and boutique labels are forced to scale production accordingly. For every Man with No Name trilogy that sells out instantly, there’s likely a warehouse full of unsold stock from lesser-known titles. As sentimental as we may be about the hobby, it’s hard to ignore those economics.
So where do we go from here? As I’m writing this piece, the limited editions of For a Few Dollars More and A Fistful of Dollars are sitting neatly on my shelf, with an extra space reserved for The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. That void might never be filled, as scalpers have already pushed prices north of £100. But perhaps that’s just the cycle of the hobby. It’s ironic, just a year ago, Kino’s slipcover edition of the film was commanding inflated prices on the aftermarket. Now, thanks to Arrow’s newer, more feature-rich release, its value has dropped. Today’s grail is tomorrow’s shelf-warmer. Maybe one day we’ll see yet another edition that surpasses Arrow’s, and the current frenzy will seem almost quaint (I’m still holding out hope for a restock, though).
