the problem with Disney Treasures: Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow (1 Viewer)

I'm really annoyed that Walt Disney Treasures: Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow / The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh is impossible to obtain from Disney itself or from any legitimate retailer only three weeks after its release. A member of the Disney Movie Club has to be really on the ball to buy DVD's either right away or as a pre-order. If you have other things to do, like wait for payday, go to work, or blink, you might miss it.
Disney's DVD division is awfully smug in deliberately creating a shortage of product. Perhaps they think limited editions create a buy-it-now mentality that really moves the product, but editions this limited just piss people off, and cheat regular costumers, especially when they are forced to buy at exorbitant prices from dodgy sellers or do without. In effect, the DVD division is telling customers to jump when we say jump, or tough luck. Is that nice?
There's some navigating to do at these contact numbers, but once you get a voice at the other end, complain. They are always very nice even when they can't help. They write down and convey complaints.
DVD Technical Support: 800-723-4763
DisneyWorld merchandise: 407-363-6200
Disneyland merchandise: 800-362-4533
Disney Online: 800-328-0368
Disney Online Store: 866-902-2798
I will post email addresses in a few minutes.

I'm pretty sure they simply did not anticipate such a demand.

Brandon Conway said:

I'm pretty sure they simply did not anticipate such a demand.

Click to expand...

Exactly. I'm sure they'd love to be making the money on selling as many DVDs as possible rather than having people on eBay making money.

I predict a release with either just the theatrical version or the TV version as a standard release not too far into the future. As much as I like the theatrical version, I would guess the TV version will get a single-disc release.

It's called a scam. They're probably holding back many of the copies to sell later. If Disney doesn't care that most of their limited releases are bought by speculators, don't support any of their products.

Mark Lx said:

It's called a scam. They're probably holding back many of the copies to sell later. If Disney doesn't care that most of their limited releases are bought by speculators, don't support any of their products.

Click to expand...

They don't have to hold back. They didn't make that many. After they sent out promos, they had 39,000 copies. That goes pretty fast when you have an audience that's been aching to get it for how many years? My Best Buy had sold out of their 4 copies by Wednesday.
The Treasure people had been burned on their numbers the last few times around. this time they went too low. That's the nature of the beast.

I do believe there will be a single no frills disc release within the next few months. I'm just guessing, mind you. I know nothing for sure, but it would make good business sense.

I really don't think the Disney scheming thing is called for. It's not easy determining how many copies to make for a catalogue title that many have never seen and many of the ones that did see it haven't seen it in 45 years.
I'm a big fan of the film, but even I had doubts on how well it would sell. Glad to see it doing well.
The lack of copies at Best Buy drew a lot of attention in film forums. Unfortunately, that probably REALLY interested the DVD hoarders who will try to profit from the shortage.
I could have grabbed all the copies available at my Costco. I just took the one I needed. Hopefully there is such a thing as good DVD karma.
btw, this white text on black is getting old

rich_d said:

btw, this white text on black is getting old

Click to expand...

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can change the skin for the forum. I couldn't stand the white text either and changed it back to the normal forum text.

rich_d said:

I really don't think the Disney scheming thing is called for. It's not easy determining how many copies to make for a catalogue title that many have never seen and many of the ones that did see it haven't seen it in 45 years.

Click to expand...

Then don't make them limited releases. I have a few of the treasures tins and don't give a flying frig if it's number 657 of a limited release. Doesn't make me feel special. If anything it makes me feel like a Disney robot (serial#657). While Disney has an awful lot of entertaining product, they are not actually superior at any one thing, so they're not worthy of such pretension.

Hmm... not really a problem with this one is it? More of a case of "It sucks to be you". Copies sold out on a limited run, it happens.

BrianP said:

Quote:

Click to expand...

Fair point. I can see and appreciate your viewpoint. But I don't see it as a pretension, I see it as a marketing gimmick. And earlier on in the DVD years I think it did help to give the releases some recognition. Still your point about why do a limited release if you don't know how many the market will bear is a good one.

Corey3rd said:

The Treasure people had been burned on their numbers the last few times around. this time they went too low. That's the nature of the beast.

Click to expand...

Quoted for truth.

I don't think it is a scam. As I mentioned in the other thread, I had honestly never heard of this film before a couple years ago, when it was first rumored to be released, and there are few films I haven't heard of.
I don't think Disney anticipated this.
But remember what happened with the first wave? There were several titles that went out of print quickly, were going for huge amounts, but then starting showing up in Costco and other stores. Stay tuned, the same could happen with this.

Mark Lx said:

Then don't make them limited releases. I have a few of the treasures tins and don't give a flying frig if it's number 657 of a limited release. Doesn't make me feel special. If anything it makes me feel like a Disney robot (serial#657). While Disney has an awful lot of entertaining product, they are not actually superior at any one thing, so they're not worthy of such pretension.

Click to expand...

The limited edition element is what worked best because it creates a special nature to collecting them all. People know that they can't just keep putting off getting the latest wave cause they might not be around. Maybe the numbers don't matter to you, but it turns on enough people eager to snag them.

Jon Martin said:

But remember what happened with the first wave? There were several titles that went out of print quickly, were going for huge amounts, but then starting showing up in Costco and other stores. Stay tuned, the same could happen with this.

Click to expand...

The big difference here is that the production run is so much lower this time around (39,500 each compared to 150,00 each for the first wave titles.) It is pretty clear that Disney had lots of overstock on the first wave, so they repurposed the product by removing it from the tins (to make the discs less collectable and not piss off consumers who paid full price) and bundled them together as a set to sell at discount at stores like Costco.
With each successive wave, the production run has gone down, but wave eight is by far the lowest production run yet. For wave seven, 50,000 copies each of two sets were produced, while a whopping 120,00 copies of Oswald were made. Talk about something most casual fans have never seen or heard of, IMO Oswald has Dr. Syn (aka the Scarecrow) beat by a mile! The oswald set is tremendous, BTW, and well worth owning, but how Disney arrives at their production run numbers for this series completely baffles me.

That's part of the reality of things. They get burned on Oswald and they get more conservative. Disney people want to keep their jobs too. So, if they then overcompensate, well that's just part of human nature.
DVDs are a consignment business. A Disney forecasting manager or marketing manager who underestimate true demand for an item take their beating once. If they overestimate demand, with consignment returns they take their beating every week. What would you do?

Richard--W said:

Disney's DVD division is awfully smug in deliberately creating a shortage of product....In effect, the DVD division is telling customers to jump when we say jump, or tough luck. Is that nice?

Click to expand...

Then you need to start raking everyone over the coals. Universal shorted the 2 disc copies of United 93 and Munich a couple years ago. DreamWorks shorted the 2 disc War of the Worlds.
From the very beginning, the WDT line has gone very very quickly. By the eighth go around, I have no sympathy for people who couldn't plan well enough to get their hands on one, ESPECIALLY HTF members who knew they were coming months in advance.

I'm sorry, but this was KNOWN to be a limited edition with a very low printing, so people should have saved their money BEFORE release date and acted quickly. It's not WALL*E, where you know you can afford to wait for payday after release date and still find it everywhere. And this was announced months ago. I don't see that it's Disney's fault for anyone's poor planning.

So you honestly think I should have known that "Dr. Syn," of all things, would be sold out within minutes of Best Buy opening Tuesday morning, and that if I sauntered into the store Tuesday afternoon I'd find The Duck and Annette, but not Dr. Syn? I'm really supposed to know that?
In all the previous Waves, I've never had to be sure to run in when the store opened to get all the Treasures. This is the first time it's ever happened. Regardless of any other considerations, Disney should just go ahead and make more copies. In this recession, with so many companies in trouble, how can they refuse to do something which will make them money?