One thing often overlooked about LDs is that, unlike DVDs, the most important factor in LD playback is THE GEAR YOU PLAY IT BACK ON! A cheap or mid-level LD player will give you mediocre picture and sound quality. A really good, high-end player will give you theater-quality pictures and audiophile sound.
This is very different from DVDs, which --because of their digital nature, only need to accurately reproduce the "1s and 0s". LDs are analog, and just as with vinyl LPs, the quality of the playback gear can make a huge difference in the quality of the output.
The players that are really worth having are the "big three": LD-X0, LD-X1, and LD-X9, from Pioneer. These were all Japanese-market models. The X1 was sold in North America as the LD-S2, so that would be the model to look for there. The LD-S1 is also decent, as are a few others, like the Japan-market CLD-HF9G, the only really good combination LD/CD player. But the X0/X1/X9 series are the ones to have, with the X9 being the "absolute king", due to its superior comb filtering and interlacing, etc.... that yields the best picture.
Be aware that as special parts like drive gears and laser heads on LD players wear out, in most cases there will be no replacements. Capacitors and such may remain available, but not the mechanical bits. Already, many models can only be kept running by cannibalizing other units, and since some of the same components tend to wear out on them, this still isn't a great guarantee of longevity.
I currently have three LD-X1 players (my de facto player of choice, since they are much easier to find in Hong Kong than the X9s that I'd really like to have), and am considering adding three more that a friend has for sale, just as "insurance" that I'll be able to continue to enjoy watching LDs for a while to come. Played back on a unit of this quality, the sound is --on the well-made discs-- superior to DVD sound, and the picture nearly as good, better in some ways on some systems (no digital pixelated crud; if part of the disk is bad, the rest still plays fine; blacks are jet black and rapid movement is smoother, like in the cinema, without the "jerkiness"). That said, without proper upscaling (especially) it won't look as good on 1080p screens as HD stuff; it has, after all, lower native resolution.
As for discs. there are some great concert discs out there, as well as "collector" boxed sets (including bonus bound books, etc...) of films like the Godfather series, the original Star Wars movies, the Nightmare Before Christmas, and others; rare old black-and-white classics from "The Criterion Collection" and others; old and odd television series like Combat, the Fugitive, Dr. Who and Star Trek; documentary things like National Geographic; lots of classical music recordings, etc.... While much of this has been released on DVD as well, some of it has not been, and the only way to watch some of it is via LD.
If you are into karaoke, I think you could bury New York State under karaoke laser discs 100 meters high, and still have enough left over to bury New Jersey, too!
It was universally THE medium of choice throughout the whole karaoke craze. Japan has plenty of anime stuff on LD, too.
I don't think LDs will ever go way up in price; the number of collectors is too small. However, SOME rare discs (the Beatles Let it Be movie, for example) will retain their value well, and the very best players like the LD-X9 will retain their value, too. But the massive number out there of some movies, like Jurassic Park, compared with the number of people still interested in preserving this medium, will keep their value from going very high in general.
My favorite RECENT LD acquisitions? Stevie Ray Vaughan with Double Trouble: always loved the CD, now being able to hear it AND SEE it performed is just fantastic!
Also an LD of Andres Segovia performing in the Alhambra. A deservedly legendary master captured while still alive! :thmbsp: