DVD a ripoff? (1 Viewer)

[Kelly Grannell]

If we want to talk about semantics, yeah, 1000% is never. But the place I bought my Bluetooth earpice sold it to me for approx US$60 whereas literally two blocks away they are selling the exact same item for about US$140.

Same brand, same model, same warranty, both legit (not grey-market), but priced more than 100% higher.

 

[Sean Richardson]

Your argument is more specious; The Wright Brothers, and the Russians, and many other people who succeeded after initially failing, *learned* from their mistakes and succeeded based on modifying their failed strategies. Kelly's point was that they're doing something which has failed previously in the exact way that has failed previously, so there's little reason to expect success.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Thanks Sean, I could not put it more clearly and eloquently as you did.

 

[Bill>Moore]

It will be interesting to see if it helps put a dent in the pirates' market or not. As a flight attendant, many colleagues who work international flights and want DVDs buy the bulk of their DVDs on trips to China. They're pretty incredulous that I would spend the $15 sale price on a DVD in the US.

 

[Galen_V]

There was an interesting discussion on Slate a couple days ago about this very topic (apparently there was an article in the WSJ about it). Here's a brief snippet of their analysis on why this strategy won't work, as well as the link to the rest of the article.



http://slate.msn.com/id/2114505

 

[DevinJC]

lol, more specious. I've never considered degrees of speciousness. Interesting.

I don't pretend to know WB's long term strategy, therefore I'm not in a position to say their strategy is a true reflection of previous attempts by others. But I would wager unless their strategy is a direct attempt to achieve a loss for tax purposes, that said strategy probably has more research and analysis behind it than most opinions here.

For all I, or anyone else here, know, WB is involved with high level talks with the Chinese government that will lead to a crackdown on piracy within China. Likely? No, but possible.

Or, Chief honcho of WB knows someone in the US govt who thinks an agreement against piracty between the US and China is likely to take place in 2 years, thus WB is getting their product out and about now. Or a better agreement or whatever, I have no idea, simply speculating.


What I do know, or like to think I know, is that if low pricing fails to sell the licensed DVDs in China then, eh no money lost right? You could in theory make 1 million Dvds for $250k and not sell a one of them b/c you didn't crack the piracy market... write it off and move on. The loss incurs when you sell them for $3 instead of $20... but if you don't sell them at all....wait a minute you could write em off at a 20 million loss.


Hell, now I think failure is not even an option. Either way, WB makes out, and they might get lucky and break a pirate. More specious indeed.

 

[DevinJC]

and for the record, I don't think it will work either.

It's still not competitive enough. Sell em at a complete loss, sell em cheaper than the cost of copying and packaging them. Sell em so cheap they get used for coasters. 2 years later, jack em back to marginal profit.

That of course is an overly simplified version of a potentially viable solution for someone like WB with resources in excess.

Wal-mart destroyed Main street with said business model after all.

 

[Mark Maltais]

Wow a lot of guys here justifying paying 20 bucks for a DVD when now IT IS CLEAR the things cost much much less! WTF?

If they can pump these out for 3 bucks in China they sure as hell ought to be able to bring the price down here or at least give me more for my money (DTS, commentaries etc). All this BS about marketing the DVD is crap. The MOVIE was marketed, what's marketed about the DVD...most I've seen is a 15 second clip on tv that says "own it tuesday" How much can that cost? The movie already made money in theaters, then 6 months later (if we're lucky!) it comes out on DVD? But in China it's out right away now??? Now I'm sure the movie itself is out at later dates in china (theaters) but come on. And how long before these things are on e-bay?

Hell for 3 bucks for a LEGIT movie..I'm gonna find me a chinese pen-pal and order a pile of these things! Even with postage and a few bucks for the pen-pals trouble it's still cheaper than 20-30 bucks a piece I'm paying here! And if they were losing that much money in china, why not just pull out...no movies there for a year!! None in theaters, no dvd's no NOTHING! Yeah that'll learn em!

 

[Jason Seaver]

You seem to be under the impression that prices are set based solely - or even primarily - on production costs, when in fact they are set on what the audience is (thought to be) willing to pay.

Is a movie on DVD worth $20 to me; will I get $20 worth of entertainment from it? In many cases, yes. That movies are only considered to be worth $1 somewhere else (with no concern about any of that money reaching the people who made it) is interesting, but not a reason for outrage on my part.

 

[Joe Szott]

Comparing prices of CDs/DVDs/games is pointless, it is 100% personal preference.

Like if I buy GTA: San Andreas for $50 and a new CD for $15. If I play GTA for 100 hours, that's $.50 an hour for the entertainment. Play the CD once and get 90 mins out of it, that's $10 an hour. Game >> CD.

But if I played GTA for say 5 hours it's $10 hr, and play the CD ten times it goes to $1 hr. CD >> Game.

So either one is a huge winner/loser depending on your preference.

Personally I love to play games, the amount of entertainment I get for the price vs. theater movies or DVDs is well worth it. But that's me...

 

[Damin J Toell]

All the DVDs you buy cost 20-30 bucks? Forget the Chinese pen pal and do a little shopping around before you buy.

DJ

 

[Mark Maltais]

No I'm not familiar with marketing!!! Could care less until marketing is blamed for me shelling out WAY more cash than I should. I understand it's part of the price...but how much. How long we're we getting screwed by the music companies until MP3 came out...they blamed high prices on marketing, production, packaging and the artist (who only made between 1.00 to 1.50 on each album For a band of 5 that's gotta suck). Then MP3 arrives, prices go down, because companies realize the screwing is over. Now you can download songs for 1 buck a piece.

FYI

I've rarely seen new releases for less than 20 bucks here in Canada (you know, land of taxes, free health care, prime ministers, have our own oil that we sell)!!

Our prices are higher, (which is another BS story now that our dollar is doing great) Usually DVD's hover around 23-26 bucks. Around 30 bucks is not uncommon either.

Usually the only "tv" spots I've seen for DVD's are for popular movies (which are going to sell anyways). Most mediocre stuff is not advertised that hard, maybe a few ads here and there...besides I'd gladly accept a few bucks of the price in exchange for me not seeing a commercial. You may not mind shelling out more than you need to for a movie but I do, especially now that the guy across the street (ocean) is getting it for 3 bucks!!!

Popular movies will sell/rent REGARDLESS of tv spots etc...

My $0.02

 

[Kelly Grannell]

When I'm clueless about something, I tend not to brag about it. Oh well, different strokes for different folks.

Do you even know how much $$ for a 15 second spot during prime time? Oh yeah, I know the answer, you don't know AND you don't care.

 

[Mark Maltais]

WTF? I'm not familiar with feminine hygiene products either, doesn't mean I'm clueless about them!
How is saying your not familiar with something turn into clueless...this sounds like something that a kid in class says when he never asks questions then he fails the test.

 

[AnthonyC]

Except CD prices didn't go down. They're just as high as they were in the pre-MP3 days for the most part.

That's a difference with CD and DVD. DVD prices go down after a while, while CDs go up in price. Makes no sense to me.

 

[Damin J Toell]

Well, that's definitely not the situation in the US. In any given week, there is a whole slew of new releases available for well under $20 (if not under $15) at stores such as Best Buy and Circuit City. And, in any given week, those same stores run deals on a large number of fairly recent and older releases, such as for 2 for $20.

Forget China, move stateside.

DJ

 

[Mark Maltais]

Best prices here are usually at the future shop or sometimes wal-mart. You can find them for under 20 bucks but most new releases are like 28 and marked down to 23.99 or somewhere around there.



Don't have to... I live 30 minutes from the US border got the best of both worlds...in fact I'm going down there next week to buy a tractor!

 

[Kelly Grannell]

You got ripped off big time.

Non new releases are around CAD$10 to CAD$15 in my part of town. New releases are around CAD$22 to CAD$28, which translates to US$17 to US$22. Sure beats driving 30 minutes down and another 30 minutes back, wasting time crossing the border to save a measly US$5.

Even if I'm buying 5 titles with US$5 savings per title, it's still not worth the 1 hour travel, time on the border crossing, money spent on gas (depending how you drive, in my husband's case, 60 minutes of driving equals to 120km, which translates to 10 litres of gas, which means another $9 spent on gas.)

All that time just to save (in the end, minus expenses), about CAD$15. Not making any sense to me. The time spent alone (I can see 90 minutes spent on travel, border crossing and purchasing the discs) is not worth the savings.

 

[Mark Maltais]

That's where we differ, the last time I was in toronto it took me an hour stuck in traffic just to do 10 km on the 400 to get to Finch...here a half an hour is nothing plus you just don't make the trip for a DVD.

My wife and I go down for other things so the DVD's would be a bonus...but this is getting off track as I rarely buy DVD's in the states.

BTW a 15 US dvd would only cost 18$ canadian AND there is no duty, PLUS you get to fill your car down there for half the price of a canadian tank so gas is NOT A FACTOR, in fact I come out ahead since I would drive down there on a nearly empty tank anyways.

The original point is if they can sell these things for 3 bucks in China the least they can do is sell them for a REASONABLE price here. I'm not saying for 3 bucks, but if you can buy the things in the states for 15 bucks US and we pay 23-30 bucks here and the exchange rate on the dollar is 82 cents then why the hell are we paying 10 bucks more when it should be like only 3???

I am talking about new releases here, I'm well aware of the older stuff being cheaper. Obviously the new releases allow a lot more gouging by the studios.




P.S. I'm a cop so tell your husband to slow down...