How we choose

Every page here answers one question: is this film on disc, what does a real copy cost today, and where do you get it. Here's how we get to that answer.

The Slipcover exists because working out what to actually buy on physical media is harder than it should be. Streaming catalogues rot and re-encode; retailer pages push whatever's in stock; and the good discs — the 4K restorations, the boutique-label editions, the out-of-print ones — quietly disappear. This is a reference for films on the shelf, priced honestly.

Where the catalogue comes from

The backbone is Wikidata, the open, community-run knowledge base released into the public domain (CC0). We rank the catalogue by how widely a film is documented across the world's encyclopedias — a plain, honest proxy for the films that endure and get collected, rather than whatever is trending this week. Synopses are drawn from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA) and credited on each page. A few things are curated by hand where automation gets it wrong: the credited director on films the databases muddle, the Australian cinema list (so co-production accounting doesn't put The Matrix in it), and the 4K index below.

How the prices work

The disc images, prices and "from" figures come from live eBay listings at our last rebuild, so what you see is a real thing a real seller has, not a book value. Prices are in AUD. Listings refresh weekly, and the weekly movement feed tracks price drops and newly-confirmed 4K releases between rebuilds.

How 4K and labels are confirmed

A film is marked 4K when a current listing is a 4K UHD edition or it's on our curated index of confirmed 4K releases — and when we can't confirm one, the page says so plainly instead of selling you a search. Boutique labels (Criterion, Arrow, Imprint, Umbrella and the rest) are detected from the listings themselves, so label pages grow as listings rotate.

How we make money

When you buy through the Amazon or eBay buttons, we may earn a small commission — at no extra cost to you. That's the whole business model: no ads, no paywall, no sponsored placements. A film's position in the catalogue is set by its standing, never by what pays us. See the full disclosure.

Part of a small network

The Slipcover is a sibling to The Sleeve Notes (records on vinyl) and The Attract Mode (video games in the flesh). All three are independent and run by one person who'd rather own the disc than rent the stream.