De-Valued?

[The Curmudgeon]

Are DVDs too cheap now?

There was a time, loyal Dweller, when a DVD was a fairly pricey item. I remember seeing early Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Thing DVDs and looking at them in a sort of 2001-style silent awe. They were new and cool and shiney - and expensive.

Times have changed, of course and nowadays the likes of TCM and The Thing can be found in any 3 for £10 deal. (Oh, I realise I'll be talking pounds here, so you American folks can just work out the difference in your kooky space-dollars). Sales and bargains are all well and good for older movies that have been out for a while, but the on-going trend seems to be that brand new movies drop in price at an alarming rate, before something that was in the cinema a year ago is now almost halved in its retail value.

Take a quick tour through any DVD site, be it Play or Amazon or CD-Wow, and you'll notice a horde of movies you were itching to see a year ago now in a sale.

And is that a good thing?

The knee-jerk reaction to this, of course, is "hell yes." Who wants to pay through the nose for anything, right? But as someone who regularly trades DVDs and sells them on ebay, its depressing to see just how practically worthless your treasured collections actually are.

Before I had the Internet, I got my first few DVDs, and they were uncut import versions of Cannibal Holocaust, Nightmare City and Beautiful Girl Hunter. I paid a pretty penny for them, because there was just no way of getting hold of anything like that through traditional means. And man, they were something SPECIAL, you know? Rare, imported films you couldn’t get anywhere else – awesome.

Skip forward a few months and I had actually watched the damn things and I was clamouring to get rid of them. I now had the Internet and what do I find? They’re practically as common as any mainstream blockbuster. These hard to find, sought after movies were now going for the same price as Independence Day.

It is quite worrying, because you know the companies will be trying to get as much money as possible from us, and if we’re not paying top dollar for big movies, forcing them to put them all in sales (if memory serves, this sort of thing didn’t happen in VHS’s glory days), they’ll try and put out the next thing to get more cash out of us. Whoops – HD DVD – they already have. This also explains the increasing tendency to re-release movies time and time again. From vanilla disc to two disc to three disc (or even four in some cases), and I now notice the same movies being released again but in fancy packaging like tins, all in a desperate attempt to get us to spend a bit more cash.

While it’s all good for our wallets to get the movies we want at a lesser price, I can’t help but feel its going to be damaging in the long run – for the industry as a whole and for the value of our collections.

Thoughts?

[hackersanonymous]

Ello..

As a Scottish person, you can understand why I'm initially inclined to agree with your "Hell yes!" suggestion. Cheaper is gooder (?!? Ed).

But then I also agree with your devaluing of collections.

My example isn't quite as offbeat as your one.. I bought all of the Bond films on DVD, and mighty splendid they were too - and worth every one of the many, many pennies I paid for them over the months I endured their staggered release.

And now the "Ultimate" Bond DVDs are out. About 2 months ago. And they're already down to 2 for £11. It's utterly galling.

I'm going through a similar quandry with other things - like stuff in my loft... It seems I'd get more for throwing them out than I would for EBaying the things... Sigh..

Toodles!

[Ben]

I rarely sell any of my DVDs, and by the time I do want to sell one, I've watched it enough times where I don't care if I only get 80 cents for it.

In general though, most (electronicly related) things seem to be following that trend. TVs, CDs, sterios, cameras, etc, which is a real shame for people like me who have 3 VCRs and two portable CD players in the attic. Damn IPODs.

[The Curmudgeon]

Hacker - I noticed that about the Bond DVD's. It would REALLY suck if you had bought all of the Bond video's as well, wouldn't it?

It happens with most DVD's now though. You buy King Kong 2 disc - oh, look - here's a 3 disc. Lord Of The Rings 2 discs - oh look, here's a 4 disc!

Mark my words - this will continue.

[InvisibleWolfMan]

I feel the same way. I've gotten quite picky about my purchases, and will wait until a blue moon discount before I purchase anything anymore. Yet, I still find I fight off most because I read somewhere else that there's a rumor of an Super-Duper, Bladder-busting, Ass-glued-to-your-seat Edition that's being done.

The latest example? Why, the Predator bust of couse! Although I think it's CRIMINAL what they're asking for it... £109! It's almost the same price as the PLANET OF THE APES bust I got! And that had 14 DVDs! This one only six! That one had 5 original movies, 1 remake, cartoon series and TV series. This one has Predator 1, 2, and AVP!!! UGH!!!! How dumb do they think we are?

[The Curmudgeon]

Especially as its going to be redundant when AVP II gets released.

(You gotta admit though, having the Alien AND Predator heads on your shelf would look MIGHTY fine..)

[trashcanman]

This double-dipping stuff is driving me bonkers. I've waited over half a decade for a SE of "Bram Stoker's Dracula" that has been persistently rumored but never delivered. A few months ago I finally broke down and bought the ghetto edition (my personal name for no-frills DVD releases) of "Blade Runner" only to see two weeks later, that a triple disc edition was just announced. The X-men movie trilogy boxed set was just released with minimal special features despite the wealth available on the previous editions that I passed on waiting for a sweet boxed set release. And then there's the original unrated director's cut of "House of 1000 Corpses" that Rob Zombie all but promised us after his film was cut down to an "R" rating. And don't get me started on my waiting for "Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair", the NC-17 extended, both films cut seamlessly together, god damn I must see it now edition that Tarantino promised and Disney (parent company of Miramax and general symbol of everything that's wrong with corporate America) has refused to allow him to deliver. Just give me the goods up front, damn you! I refuse on general principle to continue buying the same films over and over again on the same format. I'll never forget my rage at buying the intial release of "Fellowship of the Ring" only to find a commercial for the upcoming extended edition among the bonus features. I gave the measly 2-disc edition to a friend and swore never again to be suckered by this kind of BS. But now I suffer by not owning some of the films I love while I wait for special editions that are promised but not delivered. If only I could get my hands on these so-called "powers that be" and throttle them until they cough up everything they've got on these films at once. Happy thoughts.

[The Curmudgeon]

Agreed. I think to be on this site I think it's safe to say that we're all, on one level, movie fans and DVD fans, and bare-bone vanilla, "ghetto" (hmm, permission to steal that phrase) DVD's just don't cut it anymore.

It's a sinking feeling. You buy your DVD, it's got a nice featurette and a few out-takes. It's not great, but you're happy enough.

A few months down the line and - BAM - the movie you love in a glossy slipcase with two discs packed full of extras. Your original disc now looks more than a little crappy. Time to bring out the wallet again..

Still, there's always trade sites and ebay, but man its a pain. I remember buying Hellboy when it first came out, thinking the 2 disc version with the shiny slipcase was something of beauty. And what's included INSIDE the box? An advert for the THREE disc version.

Why do they do it to us???

[trashcanman]

AAAAAGH!!! They've done it again,the bastards! I just saw an advertisement for the upcoming "Chronicles of Narnia" 4-disc extended edition. Will the pain never cease?