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Why are boxed sets so expensive? (1 Viewer)

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There is no incentive to buy a set if there is not much savings. Plus they don't fit on all racks. I see them gathering dust on store shelves.
What's the deal?
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alan halvorson

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What box sets are you referring to? There's box sets such as the X-Files and Sopranos and then there's box sets of dvds available singly. I suppose you're referring to the later.
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David Lambert

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I see them gathering dust on store shelves.
Are you sure they're just not gearing up box set inventory for the holidays? Box sets sell great guns as gifts (why they're also called "gift sets" :) ).
In fact, the report at USA Today asked me - for an article that hasn't been published yet, to my knowledge) - as to why in my opinion box sets are so damn popular these days.
Since that reporter is also an Editor for Video Store Magazine, I think he's pretty darn sure that box sets sell well these days!
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Jacob_St

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If you are referring to TV show box sets then I have to disagree. The X-Files offers about 24 hours of entertainment (not including commentaries). I say the price is quite fair. The same goes for The Sopranos, The Simpsons, and on down the line.
[Edited last by Jacob_St on November 06, 2001 at 09:21 PM]
 

Patrick Larkin

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Its a strange business. Its as strange as audio CDs.
The Sopranos, Season 2 is going for $70. Its 4 discs. The Simpsons is 3 discs going for $30. The Twin Peaks set is going for $50 and its also 3 discs. The Godfather Collection is 5 discs and its $75. There is no rhyme or reason. I suppose they are just getting a bit extra where they can.
As for audio CDs, I noticed a big rack of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" at Best Buy. They STILL get $32.99 for a double CD. Check out the price on The White Album too. The companies KNOW they can get it so they inflate the price for certain titles.
[Edited last by Patrick Larkin on November 06, 2001 at 10:39 PM]
 

Jason Seaver

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So, what you're saying is that different programs on different discs from different producers sell for different amounts?
(This statement was delivered a mock-confused look on the speaker's face for the sarcastically-impaired)
 

Patrick Larkin

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So, what you're saying is that different programs on different discs from different producers sell for different amounts?
I think my statement was pretty clear.
An audio CD is $12-15 no matter what title or where you buy it. Audio is down to selling the media product and not the content. (With the strange exceptions like The Wall or White Album which are just grossly overpriced. If they were selling -content- they surely would not be since they are classics.)
DVDs for the most part have stabilized in price and have moved into the UNIT status as CDs. $20 or so will buy you just about any DVD.
So, when purchasing -media-, I look at that scale. If I buy a DVD box set, I don't expect to pay more than $20 x the number of discs. And I don't thin a disc of extra stuff is worth another $20. Sorry, thats me. Feel free to disagree.
 

Kyle Milligan

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Of course the Sopranos, Simpons, X-Files sets are a good value, and worthwhile... and if you don't like it, too bad. There aren't alternatives.
But what I THINK Dave might've been getting at is those collections sets that don't really offer an incentive for buying all the film titles at once. The box set price is very close to what you'd pay if you bought all the titles individually.
Fox has been pretty good about it to my recollection. It seems to me that if you bought the Die Hard or Alien sets, you would save as much as $20 or more depending where you bought it, and it'd be like getting one disc free. Some other studios don't seem as interested in reeling in the customers looking for a bit of a bargain.
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Peter Apruzzese

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An audio CD is $12-15 no matter what title or where you buy it. Audio is down to selling the media product and not the content.
If you go by suggested list prices - the only valid way, in this case, to make the comparison - this is incorrect. CDs range all over the map from as low as $3.99 (budget titles) all the way up to $19.99 (the "Harry Potter" soundtrack is a $19.99 list price). These prices have nothing to do with the amount of music on the media.
Different studios = different pricing, no matter the amount of content or discs. You have to remember that artists' rights are the single biggest studio expense - the DVD may only cost $1.50 to manufacture, but the rights payments can easily add several dollars to that raw cost. In the case of box sets, who knows how much more it costs Paramount to pay the artists for "The Godfather" films compared to what HBO pays the cast and creatives of "The Sopranos"? You can't equate a simple "number of discs or hours of content" from one title (or studio) to the next. Every contract is different - every title is different.
 

DarrenA

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The Sopranos, Season 2 is going for $70. Its 4 discs. The Simpsons is 3 discs going for $30. The Twin Peaks set is going for $50 and its also 3 discs. The Godfather Collection is 5 discs and its $75. There is no rhyme or reason. I suppose they are just getting a bit extra where they can.
You can't really equate the number of discs to the price of the box set. Afterall, the Godfather Trilogy may be five discs at $75.00, but four of those discs contain three movies at roughly 540 minutes worth of running time. While the Sopranos Season 2 box set is priced at $70.00 and has four discs that contain 13 episodes with a run time of 700 minutes.
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David Lambert

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But what I THINK Dave might've been getting at is those collections sets that don't really offer an incentive for buying all the film titles at once. The box set price is very close to what you'd pay if you bought all the titles individually.
I agree that what Dave (original poster Dave, not me-Dave) meant.
I neglected to tie in my answer to that line of thought, so here goes:
Collectors, like me, tend to keep an eye on the titles and may actually hold off on buying a separate item if they feel a box set is coming (example: how many people bought the Stargate SG-1 disc when they heard that a Season 1 box set was on-the-way?).
On the other hand, who wants to be stuck with an extra separate title when they might prefer the box set (example: I have 7th Voyage of Sinbad; I've decided I'd like to get rid of it to clear the way for the Sinbad box set).
As to what I posted about box sets as gifts earlier: When you buy these to give to someone, part of your gift is that you are giving them A SET, not 3 or 4 individual items all bundled up.
Now here's the tie-in: the sellers are aware of the mental states I describe above. They know that someone who's gonna buy a box set will buy it as long as it's roughly the same price as the individual items. If it's more, then it's a no sale (unless you're a mathmatically challenged consumer!). They realize that - at least initially - they have no need to "discount the package deal"...the fact of the inexpensive cardboard sleeve holding the items together is enough incentive for most to buy the box set.
Especially at Christmas! :)
Having said that, box sets come down in price far more quickly than the individual items, once the prices start to fall.
Example: Costco has the Alien Legacy box set right now for just $44.99! (That's based on an SRP of $79.98! Until about 3 months ago the SRP was $119.99!) And that's not the only box set they have at that price. I saw at least 6 box set titles among the selection. Bruce Lee, Marilyn Monroe, Omen, and others. I think PotA was in there, too.
I think I'll go repeat this last paragraph in the Bargains section of the forum... :)
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Blu

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I beleive the cost of the box sets is directly relative to the amount of the cost of the show for example. Sopranos: HBO directly pays to have that show produced and since it is a subscription network they have to recoup that money from later sales since they usually don't syndicate their shows out for $$$. But at $70 it is still a good bargain IMHO. X-Files is different, they are just packing a lot of episodes into one set which adds discs and the cost goes up for transfering the image onto the DVD. They might have had to go back and retouch some of the episodes which also adds to the cost. I think I've seen season 4 as low as $80 which would be a great bargain.
 

Patrick Sun

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Costco is also selling the Die Hard (remastered) 3-pack for $45, and I've been tempted to buy the whole set, though I think I just want the 1st Die Hard and pay a little more for just one DVD vs. 3 DVDs at a lower average price. It's this quandary that I had when I was at Costco yesterday. I wound up buying nothing, deciding to push the decision off another week.
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Ruben Zamora

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Get your box sets at WAL-Mart. I saw the Godfather Trilogy for 59.00$ when it came out.
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Anthony Hom

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Box sets are very suvbjective. Here is a list of box sets that I bought:
James Bond set vol 1
James Bond set vol 2
James Bond set vol 3
Alien Box set
Die Hard Box (remastered)
Peanuts holiday box
Planet of the apes box
Sherlock Holmes box (Basil Rathbone)
Superman Box
Stanley Kubrick box (rev. 2)
all of them I bought at Costco at great discounts, most were 15% off to 30% of retail. otherwise I would not buy them because they are too expensive. I would have bought Monty Python ($100.00), If I didn't buy each 2-pack.
 

Yohan Pamudji

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Back to the original post:
There is no incentive to buy a set if there is not much savings. Plus they don't fit on all racks. I see them gathering dust on store shelves.
What's the deal?

The only people who would need extra savings as an incentive to buy a boxed set over the individual movies are those who don't want all the movies in the boxed set in the first place. For example, I bought the Alien Legacy boxed set for the price of 3 movies ($55 or so, it's been a while) and it has 4 movies in it. I didn't want Aliens 3, but since I wasn't paying extra for it (I was actually paying less than I would've to get the 3 movies I wanted!) I bought the boxed set anyway.
And previous posts were right: boxed sets are great as gifts. Alien Legacy is a much cooler gift than the 4 movies separately.
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Inspector Hammer!

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Dave, it's obvious that you never were a laserdisc collector, because if you were, you would plop down 70 bucks on a dvd set with 5 or more discs without even breaking a sweat!
Try paying 200 bucks or sometimes more, on a box set of the original 'Star Wars' trilogy on LD, now THAT'S expensive!
Dvd box sets are pocket change in comparison with some of those!
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Ryan Spaight

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Figuring it in cost per hour is much more useful than cost per disc. The Sopranos box is four discs, but with thirteen hours plus extras. The Godfather box is five discs with less tha ten hours plus extras. So, the Sopranos box is actually a better deal even though it's less discs for the same price.
Of course, that's assuming you can quantify how much the Godfather is "worth" on a per-hour basis, which to me is as silly as pricing a smile.
Ryan
 

Patrick Larkin

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Of course, that's assuming you can quantify how much the Godfather is "worth" on a per-hour basis, which to me is as silly as pricing a smile.
Exactly. Thats why iot makes more sense to price the media. Its the reason why a CD store can charge $13.99 for Abbey Road and the same price for a Vanilla Ice CD. :)
 

Ryan Spaight

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quote: Exactly. Thats why iot makes more sense to price the media. Its the reason why a CD store can charge $13.99 for Abbey Road and the same price for a Vanilla Ice CD.[/quote]
Well, I think per-disc makes less sense than per-hour, though either is a poor indicator of *artistic* merit.
After all, you can get "budget" CDs for five bucks a pop, all the way up to "audiophile" pressings for nearly thirty dollars. And more to the point, CD box set prices are all over the map, anywhere from under ten dollars per disc to over twenty.
In any case the content provider (oooh, how new media!) is charging you based on how much content you're getting (and the amount of royalties they're paying), not how many plastic discs are in the package. If they could compress a season of the Sopranos onto one disc, they'd still charge $70 for it.
Same reason why a 3-CD box of anonymous cover versions of 40-year-old songs costs $10.
Ryan
[Edited last by Ryan Spaight on November 07, 2001 at 01:43 PM]
 

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