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Serial Numbers Cut Off Slipcases?? (1 Viewer)

MarcoBiscotti

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I'm really frustrated, this is the second time this week I've bought a DVD set only to come home and find this...

First I bought the release of American Psycho and uponening unwrapping, noticed a strange evenly cut out rectangle in the upper right corner of the outer slipcase where the serial number should have been. Underneath was the exposed back of the inner keepcase. I found it strange but figured it was an exclusive thing to this set, at first I even thought it might have some signigigance or something, like a decision made when manufacturing the covers that somehow related to the movie or release.

Well last night, I went out and bout the new Bill & Ted boxset and this really pisses me off... I get home and unwrap the thing, and again, on an actual 3-disc boxset somebody had the nerve to actually cut the cardboard off the back where once again the serial number should have been!

What the hell is up with this practice and I want to know if it is the studios, retail stores, distributors, etc. who are doing this?

Would you return the set if you were me?

American Psycho was one thing and I could live with it... but what kind of a maroon decides to cut a square out of the cover of a cardboard boxset??

Do they even stop to think that perhaps the point of purchasing these box sets in the first place is so collectors can conveniently display their titles on shelf, and that by hacking up the covers and boxes it sort of defeats the purpose of wanting to have one?

I'm just shocked that anybody could actually think it would be a good idea to take scissors to the back of a brand new boxset and than rewrap and sell it on shelf thinking it's perfectly fine. This really upsets me and I wanted to ask if anyone else experienced the same problem with either of these releases, or ever in the past?

I also want to know who's behind this and why it's done at all? Are the stores to cheap to pay for stickers?

Would you bother returning the set and explaining this to the cashier or suck it up and keep an eyue out for this in future?

:angry:
 

Alex-A

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I don't know who does it, but it must be somewhere along the manufacturing line of the slipcovers. My I, Robot and Day After Tomorrow Special Editions both have the UPC cut out of the slipcover, and I've seen many others at stores with the same thing. It looks like it may be developing into a trend or something. Stupid ideas people come up with....
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Again... on a BOX SET??

I'm looking at this open box and theres a big hole in it!


If it's at the manufacturers hands, is it safe to assume that all of these B&T sets have this?


What's next, they'll take a pair of scissors to WB Film Noir Classics V3?


I find it ridiculous and disrespectful. Who can be this clueless?
 

Craig S

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I've noticed this on quite a few slipcases. I've always assumed that the slipcases were manufactured before the UPCs are assigned, so they leave the cutout so the UPC on the keepcase can show through.

Never seen it on a boxed set, however.

Not sure if this is something to get worked up over. The only thing being cut away is the area where the UPC barcode would be. I haven't seen any artwork lost because of this.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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I hear you Craig, and the American Psycho issue didn't really bother me, but when I open a box set and lay the cover aside and peer through a gaping hole in the box to see the dozens of other DVD's on my shelf sitting behind it, it bothers me!

A slipcase is one thing... but to have a cutout in the top cover of a boxset is something totally different!

If anyone's purchased the Bill & Ted Collection, please post whether this same technique was put to use on your set.

Thx.
 

Dom

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My only experience with this "ritual" has been with Band Wagon. The outer slipcase had a perfectly cut out
section where the bar code normally exists, exposing the
bar code on the back cover under the inner DVD keepcase.

I thought this was intentional as the cut out was perfect, it didn't appear to be sabotaged by a third party.

Why do they do this? Can't a scanner read a bar code
on a slipcase?

I guess they manufacture the slipcases without knowing the bar code being assigned? They must have a separate slipcase manufacturer?
 

Arnie G

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It's so a buyer in a store can't substitute a more expensive movie inside the case & have it check out as the cover movie.
 

MarcoBiscotti

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I don't understand Arnie... This is done so that I don't end up pulling out a lower retailing DVD from the set and try to check out with that?

How would that work exactly and why and how is this preventing such actions... boxsets come well packaged/wrapped and tightly sealed, I've never seen anyone ripping one open in a store to pull out one of the individual discs?

What does the cutout on the actual box cover effect?
 

Dom

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I can understand substituting a slipcase cover on a single DVD since it's not sealed, but not on a boxset?

Boxset cases are usually sealed. You'd have to open the seal, put it on another boxset and reseal it.

Maybe this happens...but it is puzzling.
 

Ruz-El

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I agree with Arnie, the UPC is missing off the slipcase so you can't substitute adifferent more expensive title and have it come up at the lower price, also so that an item isn't scanned twice, causing an error.

Now why Marco's boxset has a hole in it is a huge bloody mystery to me! Are they using the bonus discs barcode as the sets barcode? Usually the bonus disc in these sets don't have a barcode. Hopefully we get an answer, and this is a one time thing. The whole set was wrapped, right? it wasn't dvds wrapped in plastic and stuck inside an unwrapped box cover?

Like Marco stated, I would dread the day that all those Warner Box sets came with wholes in them!
 

Matt Czyz

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I think Sideways was the first movie to have the barcode on the slipcover cut out ahead of time, and it was for the reason Arnie mentioned: the studios/retailers/whoever feared that you could just stick, say, an expensive Criterion disc underneath the loose slipcover. After all, how many cash-register workers check underneath the slipcover? I've never had one check and see that the movie underneath the slipcover was a more expensive movie I might have swapped out. It's ridiculous, really, the cyle that's been started: Studios start using more glossy/shiny/embossed slipcovers to attract customers, realize possible abuse of said slipcovers, intentionally damage slipcovers to curb abuse.

And they said that making paper inserts for the inside was getting too expensive?! :D
 

Jesse Skeen

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Don't know, but I wish it would STOP now. Stores that use price tags stick them right on the slipcovers, and you can't always get them off without causing further damage. I've had to buy discs that come this way either through mail-order or only at stores that don't stick anything on them. They look rather beat-up when they've been on the shelves for a while too. Whose bright idea was this anyway, and why are they still doing it???

Oh yeah- how is it that inserts inside the case are too much trouble to print now, but these things AREN'T??
 

Christian Preischl

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Good question. The "Hitch" slipcover must have moved up a bit during transit, so the whole top of that cover was banged up when it got here.

However, I received the Wild at Heart SE 2 days ago, and the slipcover was in fact shrink-wrapped together with the amaray. So it is possible.

Chris
 

MarcoBiscotti

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But again... THIS WAS WRAPPED!!

It was a box set for christ's sake! It was completely sealed and shrinkwrapped, I of course didn't notice till I got home and unwrapped the box to find a hole in the outer cardboard that slides over the box. The stupid thing is... NO keepcase is underneath it but the inner box itself, so what's the point?

Picture MGM's Scorcese box, the one where you have to slide the top off of the base to rewveal the cases sitting neatly inside the bottom half of the box... now picture the top half with a hole cut out of it, yet it doesn't even reveal any of the keepcase serial no's, because it's cut out at a part that fits directly over the inner box.


I don't understand this at all and the box set imo, looks horrible now. Again, I don't agree with the practice, but can sort of understand where they're coming from on single disc keepcase releases... though they need to stop doing it!

But why here?


I know somebody out there bought the Bill & Ted box set as well... I'd really like to know if you copies came like this too?
 

Jeff Jacobson

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There is a thread devoted to the Bill & Ted set. At least some of the people posting there have purchased this set and could answer your question.
 

Will_B

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Marco, maybe you could post a pic? Maybe you bought a promo copy that had been cut-out? (When CDs are cut-out, they usually run a drill through the barcode, or use a hole-punch machine on it).
 

CraigF

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Marco: Where'd you get your B&T set? Just so I don't get it from there, if not all are cutout...

BTW, we had a similar thread about this a while ago. Most places around here go the sticker over the slipcover barcode route, haven't seen a cutout yet.

Something I find a little annoying, for amaray slipcovers, is some places removing them. I guess they're not a big deal, but some are the "open-up" variety which I kinda like. Anyway, the other day I saw a studio rep pulling them off of a certain well-known purveyor of animation in a certain VERY large chain store. I decided to finally ask why, and: the price was reduced, and the old price stickers were too hard to remove, so they just toss the slipcovers. (This place does not customarily put lower price stickers over old ones, they remove the old, probably to not piss people off so much.)
 

MarcoBiscotti

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Craig, I picked mine up for $19.99 at Metro Video in Montreal.

I'm gonna check out some other retailers this weekend and if I don't see the same practices being put to use on this boxset, I'll be returning mine.
 

Shane_M

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I just wish they'd get rid of the slipcases all together. I hate them. They're usless in my opinion.

Just an FYI - My Bill & Ted set came directly from MGM (review copy) and the slipcover was cut.
 

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