Any U.S. customers order boxsets from Blackstar?

Dave F · 04-01-2003, 11:13 PM

I was trying to figure out the charges incurred for ordering Buffy season 6 from Blackstar.co.uk , but it got too confusing. Does anyone have any idea how much they usually charge for shipping, etc for boxsets? In the past I've ordered from Bensonsworld, but I'm wondering if I can save a few bucks with Blackstar.

Thanks,
Dave

Yee-Ming · 04-02-2003, 05:51 AM

short answer: buy from amazon.co.uk instead. I'm not in the US, but in Singapore, and have used both.

blackstar gives a boxset a "grade" out of four levels (can't remember the actual term they use), and each level has a different shipping cost.

amazon.co.uk on the other hand treats a box set, regardless of size, as "one item", so all you pay is the "per shipment" cost plus "one item". generally, on shipping alone amazon.co.uk is already cheaper.

but the biggest plus is amazon.co.uk will deduct the tax from the list price, which in the UK is a hefty 17.5% (so divide list-price by 1.175 to get cost to you). blackstar does not do so. so why pay 65 pounds at blackstar for an ST:TNG set when you can get it for about 59 pounds from amazon.co.uk (both before shipping)? at least that's why now I buy all R2 releases from amazon.co.uk, and I have a fair number.

Cees Alons · 04-02-2003, 07:38 AM

You may also want to check out Benson's World. No shipment costs in the UK (or the Commonwealth?) and very reasonable costs for shipping overseas.

Cees

Ronn.W · 04-02-2003, 09:32 AM

Just go to the sites and proceed to check out to see the full cost with shipping to US. Not a hard thing to do. And, Amazon.co.uk beats the other two.

These are my total prices on check out, shipping to the US:

Amazon.co.uk: £54.14
Bensonsworld.co.uk: £61.00
Blackstar.co.uk: £63.99

Yee-Ming · 04-02-2003, 09:16 PM

what Ronn said. sorry Cees, I had an email exchange with Bensonsworld about the tax issue, they don't deduct the tax, but charge the same flat shipping rate regardless of your location worldwide, so in a sense the tax portion in the price (which is not actually payable) is used to "subsidise" the overseas shipping, if that makes sense.

so I've found when buying single discs, Blackstar or Bensonsworld might be cheaper, but when buying big-ticket items like boxsets, amazon.co.uk is always cheaper. alternatively, bundle several purchases into one shipment, thereby splitting the "per shipment" charge over more items and making the net shipping charge per item lower.

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Dave F · 04-02-2003, 09:34 PM

Thanks for the advice, guys. The help page at Blackstar just made my eyes glaze over. I generally use Bensonsworld, but for an almost £10.00 difference, I think I'll give Amazon a shot.

Thanks again,
Dave

Ronn.W · 04-03-2003, 10:03 AM

FWIW, I've used all 3 retailers, and Amazon usually ships faster (or at least I get it faster) than the other 2.

Cees Alons · 04-03-2003, 02:38 PM

Quote:

exchange with Bensonsworld about the tax issue, they don't deduct the tax...

Ah, I see. That's something I didn't notice, because for me there's no difference (living, together with Benson's, in the Euro domain).

Generally speaking, I'm very glad with Amazon too. I use the UK, the DE and the FR site on different occasions. All ship very fast (here inside Europe).

Cees

Dave F · 04-03-2003, 08:55 PM

One last question: Does anyone have any experience with Play.com and boxsets? The price seems pretty good...

-Dave

[Edit: Nevermind, it looks like they don't ship to the U.S.]

Yee-Ming · 04-03-2003, 11:11 PM

not that it appears to matter anymore, but I looked over Blackstar again yesterday; they seemed to have changed their shipping policy re: boxsets back again -- when I first ordered ages ago, they simply treated a 4-disc box set (for instance) as 4 items. they then had a "grading" system which I described in my earlier post. now they seem to have reverted to a per-disc charge, but the per-disc charge is lower than that charged for a single-disc release.

whatever it is, it is still plenty more expensive than amazon.co.uk, and that's that AFAIC.

(reason I checked was because for some reason ST:TNG season 6 is now a hefty 74 pounds, rather than the 63 pounds they used to charge (and still charge for season 7). anyone know why it's shot up? my guess is pre-order and early purchase discounts are now gone, but season 4 is 69 pounds. all seems a bit irregular, and 11 quid is quite a bit of money

)

LennyP · 04-03-2003, 11:58 PM

Bensonsworld is always cheaper than Blackstar but I once lost J50 worth of DVDs and they didn't replace or refund. I used to order every Farscape, Stargate, MutantX and Relic Hunter volume from them, but for almost a year now I haven't bought a single thing from them since.
I think Amazon.co.uk is a good alternative and there are coupons sometimes too.