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"Babylon 5" - Will there be a price drop?

post #1 of 55
2/23/06 at 5:30pm
Thread Starter 
$80 per season is a little steep for me. Since some of the Star Trek and X-Files season set DVDs dropped from $100 to $50 and under recently, I was wondering if there were any similar plans for the "Babylon 5" season sets.
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post #2 of 55
2/23/06 at 5:36pm
You probably already do this, but keep an eye on ebay. I bought season 1 and 2 new for ~$50 each(new), season 3 for $19 used, and I just got season 4 and 5 for $20 each used. All are original R1 DVD sets from people who were just clearing out collections or their "junk".
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post #3 of 55
2/24/06 at 8:35am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
You probably already do this, but keep an eye on ebay. I bought season 1 and 2 new for ~$50 each(new), season 3 for $19 used, and I just got season 4 and 5 for $20 each used. All are original R1 DVD sets from people who were just clearing out collections or their "junk".



I just checked and saw some pretty good deals for "new" and "unopen" sets. I'm not really into buying used DVDs though, but I would look into it if I feel that there's a deal too good to pass up. Thanks for the suggestion.
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post #4 of 55
2/24/06 at 8:41am
Another consideration is Amazon's used market... though you have to be very careful in reading the feedback of the sellers and description if you care about making sure you get legit Region 1 sets.
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post #5 of 55
2/24/06 at 10:01am
Quote:
All are original R1 DVD sets from people who were just clearing out collections or their "junk".

Babylon 5 and "junk" should never be used together!
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post #6 of 55
2/24/06 at 1:50pm
I never said it was junk... just descriptions I have seen. One man's junk is anothers cheaply bough treasure.

Joey, I know what you mean about wanting new/unopened. Unfortunatly, I have had problems with those disks more than used ones, usually from being loose in the packaging and ending all scraped up. I also know what you mean about not passing up a deal if it is too good... the same guy who had to clear out his babylon 5 DVDs also sold me Buffy season 2-7 for $20 each so I definatly can't complain. It also came around at a very good time. I had been contemplating getting the "ships from asia" version of those seasons because the "normal ebay" or, heaven forbid, full price is a killer.

Good luck in your hunt.
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post #7 of 55
2/25/06 at 5:08am
I can't believe you guys consider eBay, an Auction website, a leader in judging price drops. COnsidering the fact that over 75% of the DVD's sold on their site are bootleg copies imported from Asia. Not only that but 30% of the sellers on eBay defraud potential sellers and rip them off.

eBay is just a huge scam by its users who attempt to defraud buyers on a daily basis and eBay does nothing to police its own auctions.

I would look at asking Warner Brothers about this issue.
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post #8 of 55
2/25/06 at 5:32am
I can't believe you seriously think we are talking about ebay as a barometer for judging anything retail. It is the same thing as going to garage sales and finding a good deal on something you want.

Exactly where are you getting your stats? I can't really comment on the 75% dvds sold since I am relativly new to buying DVDs on ebay, but I have over 1400 buying and selling transactions on ebay with exactly 2 not going well. One where someone tried to rip me when I bought and one where I was selling. Everyone's experience is different, but I think your numbers may be a bit biased.

The funny thing is, if Warner Brothers really gave a crap about any issues, they could have all auctions pulled. A gaming company I use to volunteer for had ebay pull hundrerds of auctions that were not legitimate in regards to their product.
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post #9 of 55
2/25/06 at 6:34am
B5 should never come down in price; it should only go up to ensure that only the truly enlightened - aka: those who recognize it as unarguably the greatest TV science fiction ever made - purchase it and revel in amazement at its complexity, consistency and brilliance over a a 5 year arch!

Get a loan and buy it new...now! I'm sure I am still paying for it on my 18.9% credit card hehe.

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post #10 of 55
2/25/06 at 9:14am
Mark,

I have to disagree with you. Your figures sound a little high, and with a little common sense and checking a seller's feedback you can avoid the "ships from Asia" bootleg market.

Now I'll admit that sorting the wheat from the chaff isn't always easy, but I bought X-Files sets on ebay, and some Homicide and Profiler sets where I thought the sets were priced higher than I was willing to pay.
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post #11 of 55
2/25/06 at 10:47am
Really? Just do a simple search for any title, anime, x-files, star trek and other titles and you'll find a large variety of other titles. Well over 80% of the auctions that I saw were imported products from Asia ... not Japan, Asia such as China, Hong Kong and other areas of Asia where bootleg copies are prevailing from.

Also, over 75% of the intended auctions that I had been interested in included sellers which had over 100-200 responses of Negative Feedback. That's way too many and indicates everything from items not received to shipping packages taking too long to ship items despite buyers paying for shipping serves to nget their packages within a week.

Also, I read complaints against eBay's Paypal service where one seller had his account, over $13,000 worth of funds froze because Paypal had been insituting frozen accounts among eBay sellers and buyers. Check out this site for more information:

http://paypalsucks.com/

I had been ripped off by one ebayer and I threatened another ebay by turning them over to Federl authorities because a second ebayer had taken two months to send an item to me that I had bought. Just do a search and check out the feedback and you'll see what I'm talking about.
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post #12 of 55
2/25/06 at 11:46am
Hi

Got all 5 seasons for nada. Collected enough over a year thru Ipoints.co.uk to watch them

Cheers

Oscar
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post #13 of 55
2/25/06 at 11:57am
Gee Mark, do you really think a website called "PaypalSucks" is going to have anything good to say about it?

Jimmy!
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post #14 of 55
2/25/06 at 1:15pm
Just read some of the posts and some of the information about lawsuits against Paypal that have been won.

I collect a ton of authentic anime DVD's, Region 1 DVD's and I have found some really great deals on eBay. However, I have discovered that there are over 30 different sellers on eBay who are selling "FREE FANSUBS" of various anime shows on eBay and I went on their forums and posted that I was going to start keeping a detailed list of these sellers and post them on my site. eBay immediately told me that I was wrong for posting that and removed my messages. While I understand that they have this right eBay does nothing to eliminate this practice.

These fansubs are free to download but they create professional DVD packaging from images found online and pass them off as $20 DVD sets. Not only that but I threatened to turn their names over to those groups selling these DVD's and eBay got very offended over what I intended to do.

I don't want to turn this into an anti-eBay topic but you need to understand that bootleg and piracy of eBay's DVD sellers chew up a major portion of their business and that they do nothing to combat this which is why I'm warning everyone against using eBay as a qualified source of national DVD Pricing.
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post #15 of 55
2/26/06 at 6:06am
Once again, I don't think I saw anyone using ebay as a source of national DVD pricing, why do you keep claiming this is in the discussion?

None of the "ships from..." auctions I have looked at had an ebayer with 200+ negative feedbacks in their profile. Were these sellers for anime? I have never looked at buying anime, which may explain the difference in my ebay usage.

You immediatly turned it into an anit-ebay topic with your first post. You then turned it into an anti-paypal with your second post. Neither of which have ANYTHING to do with what I originally brought up... that you can find good deals on ebay for R1 dvds from people clearing out collections.

Contribute if you wish but you would probably get better mileage banging your head against a different therad.
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post #16 of 55
2/26/06 at 11:19am
No, I chimed in during Dan's comment and let me quote:

Quote:
You probably already do this, but keep an eye on ebay. I bought season 1 and 2 new for ~$50 each(new), season 3 for $19 used, and I just got season 4 and 5 for $20 each used. All are original R1 DVD sets from people who were just clearing out collections or their "junk".


That's why I chimed in on this one. I just find it nauseating that anyone would consider eBay as the norm for judging price drops on DVD sets.
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post #17 of 55
2/26/06 at 11:47am
Quote:
You probably already do this, but keep an eye on ebay. I bought season 1 and 2 new for ~$50 each(new), season 3 for $19 used, and I just got season 4 and 5 for $20 each used. All are original R1 DVD sets from people who were just clearing out collections or their "junk".
Mark, where in Dan's reply (above) do you find any indication that he is suggesting Joey should consult eBay for information on an impending price drop? He was simply suggesting Joey might consider eBay for a cheaper, possibly used set, rather than wait for a price drop that may never happen.

This thread has gone way off topic, due to your misunderstanding of Joey's original inquiry.


Quote:
I'm warning everyone against using eBay as a qualified source of national DVD Pricing.
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post #18 of 55
2/27/06 at 6:25am
Mark dude,

I don't know who you think you're dealing with, but none of us are stranger to the issues associated with eBay or Paypal. Believe it or not, we didn't get on the internet yesterday. Outside of ridiculously exagerating the issues and pulling some numbers out of your arse, you're not telling us anything we don't know wrt careful shopping on eBay. And you're certainly not impressing anyone here.

But thanks for warning us "against using eBay as a qualified source of national DVD Pricing."

--
H
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post #19 of 55
2/27/06 at 10:53am
hahahahaha ... I didn't mean for everyone to get so defensive. I was just shocked that danDO's comments about eBay. I just don't consider eBay as a valid marketing tool for pricing DVD's. While I have indeed found many bargains I consider such online sites such as http://www.overstock.com & http://www.bestbuy.com and Target stores as veritable sources of good prices.

For instance, this week, Target has 24 Season 1 and That 70's Show Season 1 are on sale this week at $19.99.
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post #20 of 55
2/27/06 at 11:41am
That 30 percent figure of ebay sellers rip people off makes me laugh. I've been buying and selling items on ebay, including DVDs, for years with absolutely no problems whatsoever. My feedback is above 600 with 100 percent positive. The people who tend to get ripped off are the ones who don't bother to do their homework before bidding on something. eBay has a feedback system in place for a reason. If you see someone has negative feedbacks, don't do business with them. Also, on DVDs, there are a lot of bootlegs on ebay but most are very easy to spot. ASIA COLLECTOR'S EDITIONS, Superbit THX disks and generally anything from China should be avoided. Even if their feedback is in the thousands, sellers of bootlegs usually have at least 1-2 feedbacks indicating the true nature of their goods.
I'll agree ebay could do a much better job of knocking out some of the blatant piracy that goes on, on their site. The claim that ebay is nothing but a "huge scam" is laughable, however. Anyone who refuses to buy from ebay is missing a chance to get some exceptional bargains, IMHO. Of course, a lot of stuff goes for gouge as well, but that's the free market for ya!
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post #21 of 55
2/27/06 at 12:13pm
Quote:
I just don't consider eBay as a valid marketing tool for pricing DVD's.


Mark, it's been repeatedly pointed out that no one has said that. Perhaps you should stop arguing against something no one is advocating.
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post #22 of 55
2/27/06 at 12:17pm
Quote:
That 30 percent figure of ebay sellers rip people off makes me laugh.

People who pull "facts" from where the sun don't shine often make us laugh.

Andy
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post #23 of 55
2/27/06 at 4:09pm
If you want to know part of what I'm talking about, just look at this:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...erid=itrimming

While the number is low, between 15-30 percent, and I can point out that I mostly look for anime DVD's, this is indicative where nanime sellers are concerned. I've also seen other such indicators, though not as big on other auctions such as normal DVD auctions and such. When you buy TV DVD sets on ebay and they have 512 negative feedback comments from buyers within 30 days is a very big problem that ebay doesn't deal with.

I'm not saying that everyone is like that on ebay but the number is too high and it's like playing russian roulette with ebay.
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post #24 of 55
2/27/06 at 4:33pm
Anyone who buys from a seller with that much negative feedback is not taking reasonable steps to investigate before they bid Mark.
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post #25 of 55
2/27/06 at 4:45pm
Joey, you could try your library????
But, just buy the first season and see what you think. I bet you will be happy to spend whatever it costs to get the remainder. That is one set that I still watch even though I know every episode already. It is just fun.
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post #26 of 55
2/27/06 at 5:11pm
Thread Starter 
I've already seen Babylon 5 when it aired on the TNT channel a few years ago. Thankfully they aired it in its proper order. I loved it but the first season was such a struggle to watch. Very slow and boring. But the next 4 seasons were incredible. Its definitely worth buying, but $80 per season is a bit too much.
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post #27 of 55
2/28/06 at 4:13am
Quote:
If you want to know part of what I'm talking about, just look at this:

http://feedback.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA...serid=itrimming

While the number is low, between 15-30 percent, and I can point out that I mostly look for anime DVD's, this is indicative where nanime sellers are concerned. I've also seen other such indicators, though not as big on other auctions such as normal DVD auctions and such. When you buy TV DVD sets on ebay and they have 512 negative feedback comments from buyers within 30 days is a very big problem that ebay doesn't deal with.

I'm not saying that everyone is like that on ebay but the number is too high and it's like playing russian roulette with ebay.

Those are some impressive numbers for that seller. I guess the day change has reduced his negave feedbacks from 512 to 497. A pretty big number. Of course the seller also has 18,857 positives in that same 30 day period. So that comes out to 2.6% negative feedback rating. That's pretty amazing for the volume of business they do.

If they had a movie I was looking for, I would not hold their current ebay feedback against them.
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post #28 of 55
2/28/06 at 8:26am
Well, that's a big risk that you could end up getting ripped off.
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post #29 of 55
2/28/06 at 9:20am
2.6% is a big risk?
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post #30 of 55
2/28/06 at 10:10am
Quote:
2.6% is a big risk?


It depends. Sometimes, you have to look over the positive comments to see if someone is stuffing their rating, which some sellers do on EBay.

Getting back to the subject, another way I saved on these sets back in the day was to order from Canada. Back when these were released, the exchange rate pretty damn good, and I could get these for about $55 + shipping. Course, nowadays the exchange rate probably isn't as good and the savings may not be there...

Jason
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