DVD's Overpriced? (1 Viewer)

[Radioman970]

That would be funny. But I'll get used to the extra bits on the sides and those annoying black bars on the top and bottom soon.

Dang. I need Season 6 and up on Little House. I have seen those for about $27 or so other places.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

You know, I remember when DVD's first came out and how Sony said that over time the SRP of DVD's would gradually decrease to become affordable to those who couldn't afford the format. I wonder what happened? DVD's still remain the same SRP as they did when they were first released.

 

[CraigF]

I am not at all displeased by the price of TV on DVD, the way I've learned to do it. OK, I don't like it that the sets I bought when new are 1/3 the price now, but I thought it was worth it at the time, so it must have been. What I have learned to do is wait. So I'm always a year or two behind new releases, but over time I still always have a backlog to watch, and I'm getting them cheaper (bought 23 season sets last week!!). My advice: buy in late November a year or two after release, and if possible wait until the whole series is out.

Hate the splitting of seasons, thanks to HBO for starting that (big surprise). I am into them for a small fortune...

My gripe is the very poor QC of the packaging at the manufacturing level, TV on DVD is just disgusting compared to movies. From set packages that are clearly damaged before shrinkwrapping, to discs that are covered in fingerprints and tons of scratches too, to flimsy hubs that don't hold the discs during shipping, to the opposite where you need a crowbar to get the discs out, to packages that fall apart the second time you open them. I get the distinct impression the studios think TV on DVD is some quickie cash cow that's not worth much investment, and that the customers for TV on DVD are somehow less fussier and quite a bit dumber than the movie on DVD customers are.

 

[Firebee]

You're quite possibly right. One of the worst sets, even though it was pretty creative how they did, was the foam whatever material used to hold the discs for ``Eureka'' S1. My discs never stayed on the hubs, and never will.

 

[CraigF]

I know this is OT to the pricing issue, but if they are going to put two flippers face-to-face in a slim case, please use hubs that are tight!! Some studios know that, or knew that, but they decided to save a penny and a second in the packaging time by using flimsy loose hubs, with the inevitable results. Stick your bloody flyer(s) that you can afford instead of relevant set inserts and at least put them between the discs. OK, I'm done!

[An example of the brain power of these people is putting a $5 off coupon for the set I just opened in its box. Does me a lot of good, could have saved the slimmie discs from looking like year-old rentals instead. I lied when I said I was done... ]

 

[Mark Talmadge]

Most sets that I buy are right around $30. I was actually tempted, recently, to purchase Law & Order but considering that the earlier sets are still priced at the same SRP as they did when they were released has forced me not to consider acquiring them ... While $50 is a high price for a season boxed set I think that anything over that just isn't priced on a fair basis.

What's even worse is that some boxed sets are not priced according to their content but according to previous releases. If a set only has about 13 episodes included with the set, the studios shouldn't be charging the same price for a 22 episode boxed set.

 

[BobSchneider]

One sided full season set with some decent extras at 39.95, no I dont think thats not terriblely over price but I cant usually wait three to four day and my local used dvd store will have it at 29.00 or less. Yes single move titles dvd reguardless of the extras even if it a extra disk are over priced if the cost more than 10.00 (so I own very few critirion dvds). Flippers even if it a full season dvds are over priced if cost more than 25.00 new or 20.00 used. And in my book of the biggest rippoffs are half season dvd sets (flipper or single sided) especially if their sold new for 39.95 to 49.00 range like the fugitive was sell for new, a half season should never cost more than 15.00 other wise its just a marketing ghoul rip off.

 

[CraigF]

In Canada, the list price to get the complete Sopranos Season 6 is $250 (~same in U.S. $)!!! Oh man, I can feel the blood pouring out of an orifice. And believe it or not, many places (such as amazon.ca, and Canadian B&Ms) do charge $100 or more for S6/part 2, 9 whole episodes (I think, don't have it yet), hardly more than $10 each. Some places only charge $50 on sale, I ordered it for $40 IIRC from the U.S., which seems a relative bargain in comparison, but isn't that cheap when you think of it.

Edit: just checked amazon.ca now, and S6/P2 is only $70 today (P1 still $100), I guess some people complained or something...

 

[Professor_Echo]

Does anyone remember the full retail price on the first two seasons of NORTHERN EXPOSURE when they first came out? I'm talking about the ones that had the silly winter jacket packaging. Weren't those over $50 and only had a handful of episodes on each?

I remember a friend of mine buying them at the time for his wife and he was shocked to see that the first two seasons didn't have many episodes, especially given what he paid for it. To add insult to injury, his wife confided in me that she didn't even want the DVDs, she was fine with watching her old VHS copies from when the series was first in syndication!

At the time I thought those two sets were the biggest ripoff around.

 

[Corey3rd]

The first week a major title comes out, the stores discount it nearly 40%. And if you wait another 5 months, you'll find it in the $10 bin at WalMart. who can't afford the format?

are you sure you're not remembering when CDs came out and we were told that when they sold better, the price would come down to the price of a vinyl record?

 

[CraigF]

BBC "series" can be kinda expensive. Even on sale they usually are, except for the really popular ones here like "The Office". Considering a series is ~6 episodes.

Like the later series of Red Dwarf are ~$40 for 6 episodes of less than 30 minutes each. I only mention them because I've been waiting for them to go on sale for at least a year.

Edit: these are "luxury"/enthusiast goods after all, so I don't whine too much out loud, just to people who understand...

 

[BobSchneider]

Actually I forgot three worst offenders of over price dvds fox's original pricing of the X files sets ,HBO charging 70.00+ for the 12 episode seasons of sopranos , deadwood and etc.... and pramounts outrageous pricing of all the star trek season sets originally as high 120.00 those were all horrible deals no matter how good the shows were and their stupid pricing help encourage and excellerate the illegal bit torrent download movement.

 

[Corey3rd]

The X-Files were expensive, but that was back in 2000. Sure it was $100, but you got 7 DVDs. Think how much A&E was charging for 2 DVDs of the Avengers.

always seems to me that the big price difference took place in 2005 when Warners did their big promotional push of offering various season sets for $17 or so at retailers plus they had the buy 6 get $50 rebate. Who didn't beef up their Warners collection when they could grab titles for less than $10?

the prices don't encourage downloaders. How can you price something to compete with free? If anything it encourages people to just rent the DVDs from Netflix.

 

[BobSchneider]

the prices don't encourage downloaders. How can you price something to compete with free? If anything it encourages people to just rent the DVDs from Netflix.[/quote]


Uh no stupid greedy over pricing helps excellerate bootleggy, netflicks is still more expensive than downloading and burning disks. Plus that fact the studios have no really committment to producting quality dvd sets, poor video/audio captures, high defective disk rates most technically savy folks feel no gulit download shows for free.

 

[TravisR]

nevermind

 

[Corey3rd]

Uh no stupid greedy over pricing helps excellerate bootleggy, netflicks is still more expensive than downloading and burning disks. Plus that fact the studios have no really committment to producting quality dvd sets, poor video/audio captures, high defective disk rates most technically savy folks feel no gulit download shows for free.[/quote]

The person who regularly downloads shows for free will never buy a DVD set. it's that simple. And they don't care about the price or quality. They just want it on their harddrive.

if I'm unsure if I'm willing to invest the cash into a boxset, I will rent it from netflix to see if the show is worth it.

 

[BobSchneider]

I rarely buy new dvd sets any more unless it a show I want to support to encourage releases of future season sets (ie Wild Wild West series I bought new) most series if I wait a week my local used dvd shop has the sets for anywhere from 10.00 to 15.00 less then retail. Over pricing hurts sales and Im sorry the whole mp3/file sharing movement began in direct response to grossy over priced music cd's that only had 3 to 4 decent quality songs, with the spread of broadband connections, cheap cd/dvd burners and blanks to rip it made it easy to cherry pick cds of the decent tracks and load them on your mp3 player or pc and reject the junk tracks. Over pricing dvd sets leads to bootlegging , if you look at the torrent searchers the highest rank searches are always the newest over price cds /dvd sets , followed by the latest hack verison of M$ office, over pricing makes the hacking economically viable, the best cure is to produce quality dvd sets, at reasonable prices and if the set does turns up with defective disks make good on it and fairly easy disk replace process, then and then alot of the dvd bootleg issue would go away.

 

[TravisR]

Unless studios give away DVDs, there's always going to people stealing them online.

 

[Mark Talmadge]

I don't buy season sets on the week of their release anymore. There are a few exceptions but I'll wait until weeks after the release when they start getting discounted.

I've noticed that area stores like Best Buy and Circuit City oftentimes discount recent releases at 25-30% off their discounted normal prices. Northern Exposure, Law and Order, JAG and many other season sets are oftentimes well above the $50 mark. They're listed at $55 through $75, which is ridiculous for these sets. It's noth unreasonable to ask the studios to price their sets up through $50. I just think that anything above that is just charging consumers for the "name of the series" rather than the content.