If trying to buy a classic & it's out-of-print (OOP), know this: it's original was likely first transferred to a VHS. Owning the VHS is owning the collectible film. If it's OOP, it is ever so likely not to have ever been tranferred to DVD.

Read my lips: before buying a listed classic, rare, OOP, DVD from an eBay seller, search for the film on eBay on VHS to find out if it is out-of-print. If so, get it in your mind that if a seller is offering a DVD of a 1930's or 40's classic OOP, unless the production company is listed on the seller's website, like "Warner Brothers," "MGM," etc., your chances of buying a bootleg (homemade, home burnt, DVD-R) that is an illegal, unauthorized, copyright infringing item is quite high.

Write the seller before you press that bid button and ask this one very simple question:

"Is this a genuine, authorized, copyrighted DVD or is it a DVD-R?" If they don't respond, don't buy it. Report the item to eBay as bootleg. You'll save yourself lots of long, drawn out hassle to get your $ back, help prevent illegal sales on eBay, and nail a DVD-R bootlegger (a seller who is listing a DVD copy of a film without the producer's written consent to make the DVD R copy or sell it).