I been on this site for a while now and I would say I am checking on here quite frequently but I don’t think I seen anyone ask this question before here.
What is your rarest physical piece of media you own?
It’s a very simple question and it basically can be anything from merchandise, Virgin books, Big Finish audio, the Collection boxsets! This idea popped into my head when I was lucky to get a physical copy of Solitaire for only 11 and a half pounds.
Solitaire itself is an audio from the Companion Chronicles range and the story is usually told by the companion. This release is usually sold for over 80-100 pounds on amazon and the cheapest I found on Ebay was also for 80 pounds.
So share some pictures if you can! I will update my post when Solitaire arrives and maybe I will expand this post with other physical releases that can be counted rare or hard to get.
This question was asked back in February but it seems to only got 5 replies so I kinda wanted to ask the question again. Maybe since then more people joined and more people are interested in this topic! Thanks for reading!
14 Likes
Ooh, I’ll have to think. Maybe a semi-obscure Virgin book like License Denied or my singular BBV VHS, Unnatural Selection in terms of actual scarcity.
I didn’t spend much money, on those, though–I try to only buy stuff online when it’s cheap! My most valuable DW item is probably my CD of Chimes–I picked in up in a charity shop for two quid alongside Seasons of Fear through Neverland and Scherzo. One of the best deals I’ve ever stumbled on!
13 Likes
A really good question. Mine might be one of the rarer annuals or rarer Target novelisations. The second Hartnell is pretty hard to come by (although I’m not lucky enough to have any of the really rare Troughton ones) and The Wheel in Space is a pretty rare Target (as I understand it).
I also have an old jigsaw with Hartnell and the Daleks but it’s boxless and missing a couple of bits so isn’t worth anything. Likewise I have a boxless TARDIS Tuner.
I have a stupidly big collection and I’m sure some of it has increased in value over the years but the majority of it I picked up in jumble sales, charity shops and the like for pittance. Luckily, the rare novels, audios etc I bought when they were released so I paid cover price for things like Lungbarrow which seem to go for silly money on ebay.
14 Likes
oh my god that is soooo good- a bit jealous tbh
Talking of deals- I recently bought like 18 of the BBC New Series books for only 39 pounds and since then my bookshelf never looked better
11 Likes
Another rare release I got is the First Doctor Adventures Volume 2. Apparently it’s very rare because of a story this boxset has which is The Invention of Death. Got them 25 pounds each.
10 Likes
I’d be fascinated to know what is making pretty recent Big Finish releases to be classified as ‘rare’. Is it simply that the CDs are being discontinued?
10 Likes
Well not only discontinued but releases that are probably sold well because otherwise it would be much easier to get them. Two recent titles I can think of is The Annihilators, a Third Doctor release that I can barely see exist on ebay and amazon and Torchwood: Aliens Among Us 2.
6 Likes
The only physical and licensed Doctor Who things I own are Yahtzee and a trivia game from c. 2015. I doubt either one of those are rare. I also own a pair of mugs which I doubt are official but are certainly not rare.
Outside of Doctor Who, I have a limited edition Waterparks cassette - only 1000 copies made! Then again, it wasn’t sold out after a week which is very unusual and probably testament to how few people still have cassette players. I also own the CD of that album (also a special, limited edition, but less rare), and it sounds so much better I basically never use the cassette. This album wasn’t designed for that quality of audio.
9 Likes
this one also has the [REDACTED] Master so it probably bumps it up.
For my own rarest collectible, I have an original copy of the 1980s Doctor Who tabletop roleplaying game that my partner ebayed me for my birthday that I love so much. Idk how rare it actually is but I’m happy.
There’s also a copy of Doctor Who and The Invasion from Space that I’ve had my eye on for a while but it’s nearly $500.
11 Likes
I own the VMA The Well Mannered War, which can go for around £100 on eBay.
I got it for £35 but I’ve yet to read it because I have to repair the spine first (it’s one page turn away from falling off).
Not the rarest book of all time but still a find I’m pretty proud of.
9 Likes
My rarest stuff, DW wise, is probably some VHS tapes and audio cassettes.
9 Likes
I have a few random bits and pieces that might be considered rare, I’m not sure if there worth all that much, though.
I think my oldest piece of merchandise is the Radio Times tenth and twentieth anniversary magazines from 1973 and 1983 respectively. I bought them off a family friend for about £40-50. They’re both in excellent condition considering their age.
Possibly what’s even rarer is that the 20th Anniversary magazine was still in the WH Smith’s paper that it was originally taken home from the shop in!
12 Likes
I’ve got a number of pieces of physical media that could be considered rare; a complete collection of the VNAs (including the Benny ones post-losing the Doctor Who license), VMAs, EDAs, and PDAs; the first four Virgin Decalogs; the three Short Trips collections from BBC Books; several short story anthologies from Big Finish including Life During Wartime; the two original books in Target’s “The Companions of Doctor Who” series (Turlough and the Earthlink Dilemma & Harry Sullivan’s War); the first three Faction Paradox books; two spinoff novels from the Monthly Adventures, The Coming of the Queen and Project: Valhalla; and the 80s choose-your-own adventure Sixth Doctor book Invasion of the Ormazoids.
12 Likes
These are so good! The WHSmith bag just makes it even better.
7 Likes
yeaaaah thaaat- Listened to The Destination Wars featuring it and it was so plain and boring- one of the only stories I consider non-canon in the world of Doctor Who (for obvious reasons)
4 Likes
I went on a VNA ordering spree a few months ago - some of them are pretty expensive! But I got some good deals on them. Especially living in the US, a lot of them feel pretty rare here!
9 Likes
Yeah I noticed they can be quite pricing mainly because the series never got any reprints I think. I saw some bundles of 10 Virgin New Adventures books for 94 pounds for each bundle and I might get one of them. (Not like I have enough books already on my shelf to read)
7 Likes
Nothing really flashy, but I do have a special alternate version of the 12th Doctor’s Magic the Gathering card which is pretty neat lol, though I wouldn’t call it rare by any means.
7 Likes
Still sounds pretty dope! Not really a trading card person but it must be fun collecting different cards with different designs- that’s kinda how I feel looking at the different Big Finish covers on my shelf… gets nostalgic after a while but also just a reminder where I started and where Big Finish started
6 Likes
Yeah I’ve only recently started dabbling in card collecting. Nothing super major, mostly Pokemon cards, but a friend knows I’m into DW and got me a big pack of the Magic cards to have, and somehow the alt art for my fav Doctor (12) happened to be in there, so that was sick.
8 Likes
