DDD 20% off sale Now Extended until 11/23/06 (1 Viewer)

[Mike Frezon]

You guys are all bringing up excellent points about DVD shopping in general.

Like Gary, I wait on new releases to either hit the used bins at local rental shops or stores which carry used bins. Exceptions are for those few titles which I "gotta have" right away or are not likely to make it to used bins.

Dan-P: That was a terrific bit of smart shopping...and the kind of shopping that people on a budget need to do. Thanks for taking the time to share that with us all. I'm sure it was a lot of work to do in the first place...and then to share it all with us was very cool.

I often wish I didn't HAVE to spend so much time shopping for the best price on DVDs or HT gear...but I do. I've always been curious about whether I would still be such a "smart shopper" is I had limitless funds (or at least a much bigger budget!). In other words, is being a "smart shopper" borne of necessity or something that you do no matter your circumstances. I would love to find out some day.

 

[Citizen87645]

If you see my last post, you're better off using buy.com's discount via Google Checkout for HD DVDs.

 

[Keith I]

The code for DVD Price Search is "PRICESEARCH" not "DVDPRICESEARCH."

I'm waiting for some titles due out on 11/14 and I've written down the current prices to see if they will be raised.

 

[MarkA]

I just checked my shopping cart and saw my hd-dvd's on hold in my shopping cart for Tuesday have been raised by $2 apiece. I can get the same price (including tax) from Amazon. I have always been a loyal customer of Deep Discount DVD but I guess I won't be much longer. How deceptive.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Yes, true (although not for certain titles -- such as V for Vendetta, still cheaper at DDD *before* their discount than at Buy.com *after* the Google discount, even after the DDD price hike -- which I had in mind for this particular purchase), and I've used them several times over the last couple of months, along with multiple orders at DVD Empire, Best Prices and CD Universe, because of that Google Checkout discount! Woe is the wallet.

I was willing to put in a small order with DDD just to let them know I haven't forgotten them and appreciate the sale, but.... never mind!

 

[Citizen87645]

Wow - why is V for Vendetta so expensive now at buy.com? When I ordered it around release date it was 23.53, which put it on par with the DDD discount. Casablanca is also at 28.99 on buy.com while at DDD it's about five dollars less.

 

[Will_B]

I'm still kicking myself for not buying the 2-disc version when it was on sale at Amazon for $13.99! That price lasted only one week.

 

[Ronn.W]

Yeah, you really do have to look around now before blindly buying from DDD, expecting them to be the cheapest retailer. A lot of it has to do with the fact that DVD prices in general have fallen greatly in the last couple of years, and due to that a lot of bigger retailers can beat the price. Normally, what I'll do is go shopping at DDD, then head on over to another site (like Amazon, where I also shop) and put the same DVDs in my cart to see what their price is. On a largish order (10 or more) there are always a couple that the other store beats the price on, but overall DDD still usually ends up a few dollars cheaper. Not as much as it used to, though. And, with the right combination of DVDs, the other store will occasionally beat DDD. No big deal. I just order from whoever is cheaper and everybody wins.

One thing to keep in mind when you see prices go up before a sale, is that DDD is continually running sales on DVDs, this is one of the ways they keep them cheap. Right before the 20% off sale, they stop all of their current sales, and so prices revert back to their "every day low price." So, it's not that they're raising prices to compensate for the sale, it's that the sale price on that DVD is no longer valid. DDD has been called on the carpet about this in the past on other forums, and they have proven this is how it is in most cases. They have been caught raising the price "unfairly" on a handful of films before the sale, and each time they've been called on it, they put the price back and blame it on a mistake in the system. Regardless, they did put the price back.

I've been ordering from DDD for years, and they have had their share of problems. A few years back, they sent me 3 bad orders in a row (three strikes, they're out!) and I stopped ordering from them "for good." For good turned out to be 18 months, and I fell prey to the 20% off sale. Since then (maybe 3 years?) I've had no problems with them. And, to be fair, those 3 bad orders were all fixed by them. It was just too much of a hassle to deal with. No retailer is perfect, and I think sometimes people can be too critical with any retailer.

Sure, their free shipping can be slower than grandma walking through a mine field topped with molasses, but I still see it as a case of you get what you pay for. Amazon's free shipping gets to me a lot faster, but then Amazon's warehouse is a lot closer than DDD's. My thought is, if you're buying a couple of hundred dollars worth of DVDs during the sale, why not throw caution to the wind and pay the $5.36 for expedited shipping? It only makes sense. If I spend more than $100 on any order, I pay for the shipping. If I spend more than $300, I do UPS 2nd day, or whatever it is they offer. I do the UPS option simply to get rid of the USPS variables. I've known too many postman to let big boxes sit at the office a few days out of laziness, or "not having enough room in the truck." If you're worried about the shipping time, that $11 or so it costs is a bargain when you've got a large order in.

I'm not trying to sway anyone into ordering from DDD, nor am I saying they are without fault. Like any other retailer, they have their quirks and human error does happen, especially in times when they get inundated with orders, like during the 20% off sale.

What I am saying is, the 20% off sale can still be a really good opportunity to pick up cheap DVDs. Spending an extra 15 minutes price checking can be worth it, and there are still a lot of great bargains to be had, it's just not a "no brainer" like it used to be in the past. I only shop at DDD twice a year, during both 20% off sales, of course. During that time, I think I spend more than I do at any other retailer for the entire year.

 

[Dah-Dee]

Just want to point out that in the case of V for Vendetta, DDD absolutely, positively, without a doubt raised the price of this title *during* the sale and where the particular title had not been part of any sale that ended just prior to or 'overlapped' the 20%-off sale. I had it in my cart for a couple of days at the initial 20%-off sale price and then, poof, it went up in the cart and on the website.

No big deal. I've ordered from them a gazillion times in the past and will order from them in the future. Just no more orders during this sale, don't feel like fiddling with checking prices all over the place right now when in the past we could feel pretty confident with this particular sale we were getting the best price available on pretty much everything.

... Okay, I just saw they've got the Cylon Head. One last order. Good grief!

 

[Mark Zimmer]

My orders from DDD (when not during 20% off mode) usually come in a day or two, thanks to their distro center being in Illinois and me in Wisconsin. Handy, that.

 

[nolesrule]

I placed my order a little before the sale officially started with free shipping, and I got it in the mail today. Considering there was a federal holiday and a weekend in between, that was pretty darn fast.

I placed another order today for the new Family Guy set.

 

[Bob Gu]

I had two pre-20% DDD orders on the way that caught up with each other over the holiday. They were delivered today, well ahead of the estimated arrival dates. But a shipped backordered single item that should have arrived already, has not. A small package is easier to become delayed in the mail stream.

I am surprised at the number of posters that only shop DDD during the 20% off sale. DDD has better sales going at other times. In the past 4 weeks or so they have had buy-one-get-one free sales, on A&E and Sony TV shows.

DDD claims to match the lowest internet total price. Click on the Guaranteed Lowest Price details link at the right top of their page.

 

[Mark-P]

Does anyone know if you order an item during the sale that is out of stock, do you still get the sale price when it ships? Even if they don't get new stock until after the sale is over? I know pre-orders are exempt from the sale, but what about back orders? The reason I ask is I ordered "War and Remembrance parts I-XII, regular price $119.77 and it was discounted to $95.81 in my basket but with a note that it was out of stock. I just want to be sure that they don't raise the price back up when it finally ships.

 

[Mike Frezon]

They honor the sale price at which is was ordered. It's not your fault they didn't have it in stock when you ordered it.

 

[Jay Pennington]

The site is indeed acting screwy. Search results for some titles have "item not available" in red, but if you click on the title, you can buy it.

But the biggest problem for me right now is that there is nowhere to enter the promotional code! I get right up to the screen with "place order", without ever been provided a means to enter the code. (I assume clicking "place order" would take me past the point of no return.)

I've taken advantage of their sales on previous occasions, so I don't think it's me.

Or is it?

 

[nolesrule]

If you are logged in, try logging out. It worked for me when I entered a bad promo code and it disappeared.

 

[Jay Pennington]

Thanks, that did it!

 

[Tim_P_76]

Order #2:

DVD : EVIL DEAD 2-BOOK OF THE DEA $ 19.19 In-stock
DVD : SANTA CLAUSE, THE (WS) $ 11.13 In-stock
DVD : CLERKS 10TH (ACS)(3D) $ 19.16 In-stock
DVD : MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL, THE $ 11.37 In-stock
DVD : DA VINCI CODE (SE/WS), THE $ 14.20 In-stock
DVD : TITANIC (1953) $ 8.26 In-stock
DVD : BACKDRAFT (2D/ANNIVERSARY) $ 11.28 In-stock
DVD : A&C-MEET FRANKENSTEIN $ 11.28 In-stock
DVD : MALLRATS (EXTENDED/10TH ANN $ 15.84 Avl 11/24
DVD : WEDDING CRASHERS (UR/WS) $ 17.24 In-stock
DVD : HEAT (SE) $ 16.32 In-stock
DVD : FORBIDDEN PLANET (CE) $ 31.81 In-stock
DVD : LOONEY TUNES-GOLDEN COLLECT $ 36.28 In-stock
DVD : ASTAIRE & ROGERS COMPLETE C $ 57.44 In-stock

I spent around $664 clams between 2 orders...yeesh. But I love it.I'm like a kid on Christmas with my first order from last Thurs. arriving today.

 

[Joe-Frietze]

Yeah, I'd say a solid 75% of my orders during the sales have been out of stock items. Never any problems.

 

[Ric Easton]

Well, I guess I better sh*t or get off the pot! At one point I had over 400.00 worth of stuff in my cart. I've been slowly whittling that down to a more manageable total. It sure is tough though!