• Cellophane: A lot of people complain about how hard it is to remove this tightly applied shrink wrap and I usually rip it off as soon as I get home with my purchase (damaging the box in the process), but I’m still kind of glad it’s there, indicating that my movie is brand new and factory fresh. It’s like an unspoken guarantee that nobody has opened the box and licked the disc.
• Stickers: These colorful, eye-catching little decals look good, but since they’re affixed to the shrink wrap, they get ripped off and forgotten almost immediately. I’ve discarded loads of these things and I can’t recall what a single one of them said.
• Security tape: To some DVD manufacturers, shrink wrap isn’t enough. You’ve got to seal the top of the box with a strip of safety tape, just to be sure. All this does is add an extra step between you and an open box. Some companies put it on every single edge of the box, apart from the spine. Now that is one secure DVD. Next, they’ll be welding the damn thing shut.
