Weekly RoundUp 9-21-10 (1 Viewer)

[Citizen87645]

I don't know if it's a fluke, but Amazon has Community Season 1 for 17.99: http://amzn.com/B002N5N5LG

 

[Jason_V]

BestBuy.com has a bunch of BD's for 2/$20 both online and in store. (I can confirm the latter since I was just there. No signage that I saw, but they rang up 2/$20.) Incredible Hulk, Mamma Mia, Graduate, Wanted, Resident Evil (multiples) and so on. Link

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Jason_V

Mike, I may be the only one, but I...um...appreciate that screen cap of Andy Whitfield. Haven't seen Spartacus, but knowing he's not coming back to the show isn't exactly making me want to run out and catch up on the show.

 

My pleasure, Jason. For you and all the other fans of the show, I have just linked Timothy's official HTF review of Spartacus: Blood & Sand in the OP.  

 

[Matt Hough]

The review for the first season Blu-ray set of Modern Family can be found here.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by MattH. .

Timing is everything! I just added the link in the OP.

 

Thanks, Matt!

 

[Jay*W]

Originally Posted by Cameron Yee

I don't know if it's a fluke, but Amazon has Community Season 1 for 17.99: http://amzn.com/B002N5N5LG

Plus the coupon code SONYFIVE takes another $5 off Community or several other Sony shows:

 

http://flash.sonypictures.com/downloads/homevideo/community/amazon_coupon.pdf?hs308=email

 

[Citizen87645]

Hm. That almost makes it worth buying again!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Leo's Official HTF Review of The Secret of Moonacre is now linked-to in the OP.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Argh, why no Community Blu-Ray? I hate the thought of buying on DVD what I'd normally watch in HD.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Aaron Silverman " width="" />

That one surprised me...along with a couple of others--30 Rock especially. One has to wonder how they pick and choose which TV releases get HD treatment and which do not.

 

[Jason_V]

Following up on a previous conversation: I was in Best Buy Sunday and they had their normal DVD/BD display. Walked in Tuesday night...they had reset the store with a much smaller media section. It was almost impossible to find American Beauty BD anywhere on the shelf. It looks like they have the same number of BD's, but the DVD's have certainly been decreased. It's sad, considering it was the last of the "major" stores to carry a lot of discs.

 

The local Target stocks a good number of titles. FYE is terribly overpriced. Costco can't compete. Fry's is the last bastion in this neck of the woods, but it's about a half hour away from me. Looks like that's the brick and mortar option. Otherwise, it's going to be Amazon and other online shops.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Jason_V

 

The local Target stocks a good number of titles. FYE is terribly overpriced. Costco can't compete. Fry's is the last bastion in this neck of the woods, but it's about a half hour away from me. Looks like that's the brick and mortar option. Otherwise, it's going to be Amazon and other online shops.

I am really amazed at the retail transition in my area over the last year, Jason.

 

First off, I have no Costco or Fry's near me. I used to do a LOT of shopping for used stuff at Hollywood Video and Blockbuster. The HVs are now all gone and there's just one Blockbuster store near me (and I wonder how much longer it will last with yesterday's news of bankruptcy). The Border's near me dropped ALL of it's media section. Circuit City is, of course, also long gone.
 

I have Best Buy, Target, Wal-Mart & BJs Wholesale Club still available...and FYE.

 

I used to NEVER shop for anything new at FYE (whose corporate offices are actually based in Albany). But that has changed for me. If you haven't checked out their prices lately (release week prices) you might want to consider doing so. They have become my new B&M of choice.
 

I recently purchased one of their annual Backstage Pass memberships ($25 gets you 10% off every purchase) and there are coupons widely available for BP members on top of that discount.

 

This week, Glee on Blu-ray was marked $69.99 down to $49.99. My 10% brought it down to $44.99 and then the coupon in EW for 10% off any TV on DVD set was stacked on top of that for a final price of $40.49. Not too shabby.

 

30 Rock on DVD was marked $34.99 (very competitive) minus 10% = $31.49.
 

The coupons they commonly run are for $3 off a purchase...or $5 off a purchase of $35 or more...sometimes 40% off any used CD or DVD.

 

And...I am always having good luck finding USED material at my two local FYEs (It's unfortunate because I used to have a much larget number of FYE stores available to me...but they've been downsizing, too). Now I'm just down to two stores in the local malls.
 

But, their pricing patterns have improved quite a lot over the past year. It has been an obvious sea change--one which I have welcomed. I would love to include them in the WRU, but I find the prices can vary quite a lot even in my two local stores (which aren't located all that far apart).
 

True story: I went to my local mall the other day (which has both a Best Buy and an FYE) to pick up a couple of new titles. I knew--from the WRU--what Best BUy's prices were. I went to FYE first and never even bothered going to Best Buy. And I wanted to see if they had cut back their software section! But I never even bothered because I knew I wouldn't be able to do better than I had at FYE.

 

[Jason_V]

Absolutely, Mike. At least half of the "new" BD collection has come from the FYE used bin. You have to know your prices when you go into the store, but that goes for anywhere. Maybe it's my "old age" talking here: I'm less likely to seek out the coupons and mega deals now than I was even six months ago.
 

March's Toys R Us Toy Story deal was fantastic, sure, but would I do it all again now? I don't know. It's entirely possible I've been in this game for so long I don't have the passion for the deals anymore. I know what a good price is and pick up what I want when it goes on sale. BB's current 2/$20 is pretty nice and I took advantage of it.

 

I'm going to the mall this weekend, hopefully (if I manage to get myself out of bed), and I'll check out the Backstage Pass. I know the last time I was there the cashier tried to hit me up with it. I passed, but since they do have a fairly nice selection of used stuff, it may be worth it. I guess I'm still stuck on the "FYE bad" idea.

 

(Oh, I'm looking forward to going to Blockbuster in the next few weeks to see if anything good is on clearance...)

 

[TravisR]

Community is $17.99 at Amazon and if you use the coupon 'SONYFIVE', it knocks another $5 off. It'd be nice if all not very popular sitcoms got a Blu-ray relase but for a $13 DVD set, I'll live with it.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Jason:
 

Two things:

 

First of all...FYE has completely gone into full "confuse the customer" mode because they have two different versions of the backstage pass. The one I have is $25/year for the blanket 10% off every purchase (20% off on your birthday No way was I going to overpay!

 

[Jason_V]

Originally Posted by Mike Frezon No way was I going to overpay!

 

I feel the same way, Mike. I need my computer when I go to make any purchase in a store!

 

I'm not down for monthly fees on this kind of stuff. So unless they give away something really awesome, I'm in for just the regular Backstage Pass.

 

 

[Mike Frezon]

Originally Posted by Jason_V are details on the regular BP.

 

If I were you, though, I'd check your local FYE first and see if they have changed their pricing structure. They seem to vary from store-to-store. Like I said, there are differences between the two stores near me. For example, one has almost all their regular CDs marked at $9.99 while the other is all over the place. I think they are still experimenting with the different structures to see what works best for them.  

 

[Malcolm R]

On the flip side, I was at a Sam's Club last week and thought they'd nearly doubled their DVD/BR selection which I found strange as my local Walmart store has reduced their selection. Though I thought Sam's prices were very high for a Walmart-owned, membership warehouse club. I ended up with only one budget 4-film disc (which was only a couple cents cheaper than in the regular Walmart stores).

 

Costco definitely beats Sam's on prices.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

Costco has had a lot of budget catalog BD's for $10-$13 lately. Of course, I bought most of them on DVD years ago already, so I take a pass.

 

I did the trial of the monthly FYE membership. It wasn't worth continuing, but there were some nice coupons and deals to use in that month.

 

Which was exactly a year ago, come to think of it -- I remember going in on my birthday and buying NOTHING. Now I could find a pile of stuff to buy in the Metal section (and my birthday's next week).

 

[Jason_V]

^ They had a ton of the Gone with the Wind and Wizard of Oz boxes at my local Costco last weekend. There were also a fair number of Universal BD's for 9.99: King Kong, American Gangster, Pitch Black (those come to mind). 24 slim pack season sets were either 14.99 or 19.99.