Just How Much Is A Slipcover Worth To You, Anyway? (1 Viewer)

[WilliamG]

(Come to think of it, I did'nt really phrase that the way I meant it! :b)

While I think they're nice to have, I certainly don't think having one is a prerequisite to a purchase.

 

[Mike Frezon]

William: Gotcha. Sorry for the confusion.

Well, then, I guess I answered your question since I put all my keepcase discs into slim cases anyway. So, why pay extra just to get the slipcover?

 

[MarcoBiscotti]

I consider myself a man of high morales... but personally, if I owned this DVD and later happened upon it in store with a fancy new slipcover that I wanted for $5 more, I'd simply remove slipcover from the package and leave. Well, once I'm actually at the store (presumably for a reason) I'd probably make sure to buy at least one other title to justify my free piece of cardboard, but since it's really no loss to anyone, I'd simply claim it for myself as an ever so trivial yet well deserved reward for the ammount of money I spend at said DVD retail establishment on a regular basis.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

They should follow ME around and see what titles I decide NOT to buy because they don't have shrinkwrap on them and the store has put price and theft alarm tags directly on them! I overheard someone at Best Buy ask if they were USED DVDs!

I'm a sucker for limited-edition packaging, but when new merchandise is subject to the same abuse used merchandise goes through it's worth nothing to me.

 

[JoshB]

As I see it, its mostly about marketing. There are releases that begin without a slipcover, then are released weeks or months later without one, then a another release follows, this time either a lower rpice, a different release (usually dropping the bonus disc or adding a fullscreen version, ala certain Fox titles) which often includes a slipcover.

I work in a retail store, and recently many titles, mostly Fox, have introduced newer slipcovers for older releases. I think I agree it has something to do with how people see the title as they are shopping. Now there are whole displays, in stores like Wal-Mart, where one side of the display is all Fox titles, and all of them have a similar slipcover in design, or added one to all of there titles in a store. These are titles that never had one to begin with, but now they do (28 Days Later, From Hell, and many others, especially re-issue titles that dropped many extra features)

Yea, I would say its all about marketing. Its just easier frpm a distance to see the titles and cover art if the art is matte instead of glossy or shrink wrapped. Plus, at least to the average consumer, it makes the title stand out from other titles around it if it has some kind of added packaging or attention.

Remember that most average consumers dont visit the HTF as fotne as members, and mostly dont care for studio marketing and packaging, they just want the movie when it comes out. If some people really wanted to collect them, it would be difficult since many older titles are now released with newer slipcovers or titles that didnt have them before now have them. And if a studio has a display in a store, and all of them have the same color slipcover (blue borders, like lower priced Fox titles, or giving it a new slogan like "Collectors Edition" or something like that), then yea they are trying to make a sale.