At this site, we used to sell rare, out-of-print, public domain movies. Our great customers would place the order, and we'd custom burn them a DVD-R. Back in the first decade of the 21st century, times were good. We helped track down a lot of rarities, helping people find movies that they hadn't seen for 20 or 30 years. We also found a lot of rarities that we'd been looking for years, too, through all the great contacts we made along the way. The best part was when we would get requests from folks who had actually worked on the movies. It was a great feeling to actually provide the directors of rare movies a copy for their own library.
We made a lot of good friends, and even made a little bit of change along the way. But the major corporate interests caught on to our game, and started putting out the movies themselves, or just plain asking us to stop selling them, using the DMCA or whatever tools they had at their disposal to stop us. The main online payment brokers dropped us like we were the plague. What was once a great joy turned into frustration and sadness.
I knew that our business was no longer viable when I found out that Amazon would burn their customers a copy of Dusty And Sweets McGee on DVD-R upon request. Whatever business we had left, the big boys took it away from us. I guess they figured if they couldn't beat us, they'd join us. But by joining us, they actually *did* beat us in the process.
So, thanks to everyone for participated in the adventures of A Different City along the way. It was truly a pleasure doing business with you all. I'd like to resurrect the operation some day, but clearly we'll have to do it in a different fashion. Until we figure that out, A Different City is no more.