Stickers, Wrap, and Cardboard Sleeves (1 Viewer)

[Dick]

Why won't you people hear us? We're your customer base and the reason for any profit you make. So, once again I ask,


1. Why do you put the glue for the plastic wrap on the spine of the disc rather than on the edge that opens? Trying to remove the remaining plastic on the spine is damn near impossible without gouging it.


2. Why do we need cardboard sleeves? From a purely environmental standpoint, these are as egregious an addition to packaging as were the stupid cardboard long boxes containing early CD's. Public pressure led to the elimination of those, so why won't you hear us regarding your DVD's and Blu-rays. YOU DO NOT NEED, NOR DO WE NEED, THESE DAMN REDUNDANT SLIPCASES!


3. To Best Buy and other retailers: If we really have to suffer these slipcases, must you attach your company stickers to them, which are all too often so sticky that removing them requires much effort, and leaves visible fingernail gouges? Use a less adhesive glue, for godssake! You should see the mess that was left behind after I tried to remove your tag from FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. If I ever decide to sell this, I cannot list it on eBay as "Like new," because, thanks to you, it isn't!


You can say this is all about added shrinkage prevention, but way too often it leaves paying customers with product that is defaced, and we movie collectors are a very particular bunch -- we want our cases to be free of damage!

 

[Aaron Silverman]

2. Why do we need cardboard sleeves? From a purely environmental standpoint, these are as egregious an addition to packaging as were the stupid cardboard long boxes containing early CD's. Public pressure led to the elimination of those, so why won't you hear us regarding your DVD's and Blu-rays. YOU DO NOT NEED, NOR DO WE NEED, THESE DAMN REDUNDANT SLIPCASES!

CD longboxes had a purpose. They made it so that record stores could put CDs in existing LP-sized bins. Once vinyl started to fade, stores invested in CD-sized bins.


Also, I used them to wallpaper my college dorm room.

 

[Charles Smith]

That isn't glue on the spine. I think it's the shrink wrap getting heat-fused to the plastic.


And yes, any fusing that (only rarely) takes place on the three open sides doesn't present any problem, even if it takes a few picks to get it all off. It eventually comes off cleanly without defacing the product. The residue on the spine, however, makes the product look like something from the 25-cent table at the church rummage sale.

 

[Persianimmortal]

2. Why do we need cardboard sleeves? From a purely environmental standpoint, these are as egregious an addition to packaging as were the stupid cardboard long boxes containing early CD's. Public pressure led to the elimination of those, so why won't you hear us regarding your DVD's and Blu-rays. YOU DO NOT NEED, NOR DO WE NEED, THESE DAMN REDUNDANT SLIPCASES!

As you probably know, sadly there are certain people out there who actually collect this redundant, wasteful piece of marketing fluff, and thus consider it a feature! That's why slipcovers won't go away.

 

[Dr Griffin]

I don't mind the slipcovers. If the slipcover has raised lettering or other enhanced artwork, I think it's OK, but the ones that are exactly like the case artwork I can do without.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

What I love is getting completely redundant slipcovers but an "eco-friendly" case inside. A case I immediately throw in the recycle bin.

 

[Gary Seven]

To get the stickers off the slip cases, use a hairdryer to heat up the sticker, and then carefully pry it off while maintaining the heat on the sticker. Afterwards, use the sticker to "pickup" any residual. Works 99% of the time and your cases are are free of stickers and glue.

 

[Brent Reid]

To get the stickers off the slipcases, use white spirit. Works 100% of the time and is completely odourless and invisible when dry.

 

[Persianimmortal]

I find that crumpling slipcovers up in my fist and tossing them into the nearest bin is the best method for dealing with those unsightly stickers.

 

[darkrock17]

I have no problem with shrink wrap, but I too can't stand the stickers on the tops and sometimes and the sides and even the rarer ones when the bottom has a sticker as well. As for slipcovers, I like them as for the most part they're glossy and shinny and that appeals to the Magpie inside of me. Slipcovers can also have different artwork from the actual cover itself, so it's really to each his own when it comes to them.

 

[Tony J Case]

CD longboxes had a purpose. They made it so that record stores could put CDs in existing LP-sized bins. Once vinyl started to fade, stores invested in CD-sized bins.


Also, I used them to wallpaper my college dorm room.

Plus without the Longbox, we wouldn't have gotten Spinal Tap's Extra Long Box on Break Like The Wind:

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The cardboard slip covers started as a theft prevention measure for retail stores. That they've become collectible for people is sort of besides the point.

I used to work retail and I can tell you that a clever thief can remove a disc from a shrinkwrapped case that doesn't have a slipcover in under five seconds, and sometimes take the disc without even pulling the case from the rack. The slipcovers make it harder to do this. Of course, anyone truly determined to steal a disc probably won't be stopped by anything, but during my retail days, they made a measurable difference in theft. The extra few seconds they'd take would often be enough for a thief to not feel comfortable standing around to do it. It's probably an extra ten to twenty five cent cost to the manufacturer that could be the difference in preventing a $20 loss. They were also cheaper for the manufacturer than those magnetic tags they sometimes use.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

That anti-theft explanation would make sense if they would actually SHRINKWRAP the slipcovers with the case inside- instead they just seal the case and put the slipcover over it with NO shrinkwrap! And the first generation of those actually led to MORE fraud, as people were putting higher-priced discs inside slipcovers of lower-priced titles- they solved that "problem" by cutting a hole in the slipcover for the case's barcode to show through rather than printing that on the slipcover.


My impulse-buying seriously decreased when this packaging trend started- I simply will NOT buy a disc if the store puts a price sticker or anything else on the unsealed cover. I don't care about the schemes to remove it, when I buy a new, unused item I shouldn't HAVE to do that. Best Buy has lost TONS of business from me because of that, but they didn't really seem to care when I let them know.

 

[CraigF]

I like embossed/lenticular/etc. slips., but only when they "belong", like for a 3D BD, or like for e.g. Super 8 when it's almost a "necessary" part of the package design i.e. looks "wrong" without it (who recognises that BD without the slip pic?).


However, I can tell you one thing slips do: they help protect the packaging during shipping of those ridiculous so-called eco cases. I get so many of those (without slips) where the cover insert is partially or quite damaged from being pressed in, sometimes punctured. I return them, I'm tired of buying replacement cases, let somebody else who doesn't care have the punctured ones (from amazon.ca, I rarely get slips from them).


Slips are usually shrinked on in the UK, much better idea, including I notice I just about never get a UK BD case that's damaged when there's a slip, their "standard" disc cases were not very durable plastic (it's changed for the better though, more like "our" plastic now in "their" case format).


Also, I've been getting lots of BDs here recently, mostly Sony/Columbia IIRC, where the shrink is glued on all 4 edges...really annoying, the spine is bad enough. And it is some type of light glue, that remnant shrink is not easy to get off.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

That anti-theft explanation would make sense if they would actually SHRINKWRAP the slipcovers with the case inside- instead they just seal the case and put the slipcover over it with NO shrinkwrap!

I don't have any desire to engage in an argument, but as I mentioned, I worked in retail, and those slipcovers did decrease theft. It was easy to notice - titles without slipcovers were missing discs at far higher rates than titles with slipcovers. Copies of the same title without a slipcover had more missing discs than copies that did have them. Shrinkwrap basically does nothing to deter theft, because a good thief can conceal a razor between their fingers or inside a glove, quickly palm the side of the case, slice, and drop the disc out. With a slipcover, the thief would have to stand in that spot for a few seconds longer and remove the slipcover from the case, and then slice. They don't like being exposed like that, in an area where there's always security walking around and cameras on. As a store manager, slipcovers don't make theft impossible, but they buy you an extra couple seconds, and that's enough to throw a thief off-balance or make him think "I don't want to be standing in this one spot for that extra time."

 

[TravisR]

I don't have any desire to engage in an argument, but as I mentioned, I worked in retail, and those slipcovers did decrease theft. It was easy to notice - titles without slipcovers were missing discs at far higher rates than titles with slipcovers. Copies of the same title without a slipcover had more missing discs than copies that did have them. Shrinkwrap basically does nothing to deter theft, because a goof thief can conceal a razor between their fingers or inside a glove, quickly palm the side of the case, slice, and drop the disc out. With a slipcover, the thief would have to stand in that spot for a few seconds longer and remove the slipcover from the case, and then slice. They don't like being exposed like that, in an area where there's always security walking around and cameras on. As a store manager, slipcovers don't make theft impossible, but they buy you an extra couple seconds, and that's enough to throw a thief off-balance or make him think "I don't want to be standing in this one spot for that extra time."

Yeah, at a minimum, slipcases are a mental deterrent because it's one more thing a would be thief has to get rid off.

 

[ROclockCK]

I don't have any desire to engage in an argument, but as I mentioned, I worked in retail, and those slipcovers did decrease theft. It was easy to notice - titles without slipcovers were missing discs at far higher rates than titles with slipcovers. Copies of the same title without a slipcover had more missing discs than copies that did have them. Shrinkwrap basically does nothing to deter theft, because a goof thief can conceal a razor between their fingers or inside a glove, quickly palm the side of the case, slice, and drop the disc out. With a slipcover, the thief would have to stand in that spot for a few seconds longer and remove the slipcover from the case, and then slice. They don't like being exposed like that, in an area where there's always security walking around and cameras on. As a store manager, slipcovers don't make theft impossible, but they buy you an extra couple seconds, and that's enough to throw a thief off-balance or make him think "I don't want to be standing in this one spot for that extra time."

Ironically, up here in the great white, unshrinkwrapped slipcovers are the rule rather than the exception, especially with first run new releases. But with no sensormatic tagging of the slip itself, some unscrupulous collectors simply pilfer the slipcover and either tuck it away until the price of that title falls, or just turn it around on sites like eBay.


For a lark, search 'Blu-ray' + 'slipcover' + 'lenticular' for an idea how wildly in-demand some of these Blu-ray slips have actually become.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

For a lark, search 'Blu-ray' + 'slipcover' + 'lenticular' for an idea how wildly in-demand some of these Blu-ray slips have actually become.

I did that once - I got a title that came without a slipcover and I thought I'd check, I figured if someone was selling one for a dollar, since I got the movie itself so cheap, why not? And then I saw people asking almost as much as the movie just for the slipcase and quickly got out of there! It's funny that something that was meant to make life a little bit easier for retailers has become such a collector's item. And I have to admit, I usually like the way they look. Given the choice between a copy of the same movie with a slipcover or without, I'll take with, but I'm not willing to pay extra for it.

 

[Tony J Case]

Wait - people buy them? Holy shit! Ebay here I come!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Wait - people buy them? Holy shit! Ebay here I come!

People will pay $10-20 for certain ones that are in mint or near mint condition. (Or pay $50 on eBay for a sealed Blu-ray that comes with the slipcover instead of $25 for a sealed Blu-ray without it.) Even run of the mill titles that don't seem like they'd have big fanbases will still fetch $5.