CaptainRon

I haven't seen a thread about this, so I figured I would bring it up. I just want to hear peoples thoughts and opinions on the slew of complete mega sets (both confirmed and rumored) such as ELR, King of Queens, Seinfeld, Gilmore Girls, Full House, The OC, Miami Vice, Northern Exposure, and the X-Files etc...and rumored ones such as the Sopranos.


How should the DVD buying public react to these sets? Most of us here are avid collectors who if we want to purchase a show do it season by season. Should we be insulted/angry that in the end we could have just purchased a nice and clean MEGA set, for much less then all the individual seasons?

Also, what about situations like Family Guy were mega sets are being released before the show is even over?

These huge sets seem to becoming more and more of commonality and I think it would be interesting to hear everyones thoughts and opinions.

animatedude

doesn't bother me at all.actually i stopped buying seasons sets years ago cos i knew companies would release complete sets in the future.....BUT...

in case of something like Seinfeld,i was pissed because i spent so much money on those limited giftsets cos i thought since Seinfeld is so popular,Sony would do like Warner Bros did for Friends and sell the box for those who got the seasons sets already but no...

anyways,HBO need to reduce the price to their complete sets,it's too expensive.

islandclaws

I think it's retarded because fans that have paid top dollar on day one when these seasons are released get left in the dust so that newbies to the show can buy the whole thing. M*A*S*H is a great example of this, although Fox did right by releasing the extras on a separate set. Even on a lesser scale Miami Vice, which has no new extras, is being released as the complete series with the first two seasons on single-sided discs versus the DVD-18's we have now. I think studios should offer some kind of incentive for fans that have previous seasons. Maybe offer us the bonus discs for s/h costs or something else comparable. Sometimes I don't want to wait for every season of a show I like to come out so I can get a series set. Look at Sopranos. I've been collecting those seasons since Day 1 and it's taken years for me to be able to complete the series (as of Oct. 23rd). Should I now get fucked over on extras because a complete series is coming out for late-bloomers? Methinks not.

GreenVulture

It's the price you pay for being an early adopter. Like when people paid out the ass for the earliest HDTVs, or more currently, the earliest HD DVD players. Or PC parts or MP3 players or video games/consoles or iPhones or regular DVDs, and so on.

Joe Molotov

Yeah, that's way it always is and always going to be. Should I get mad when I bought a DVD boxset for $60 only to find out that Best Buy's got it on sale for $20 a few weeks later. Or when I buy a PC game for $50, only to find out that the price has dropped to $20 a month later? Because that kind of stuff happens every week. That's just the way it goes, you can either buy it now for full price and get instant gratification, or buy it later and hope for a pricedrop. Don't buy DVDs thinking you're getting a collector's item.

rdclark

I think we all need to get over these fantasies like "there is some sort of ongoing relationship between collectors and studios," or "studios owe us something other than what we bought when we agreed to pay," or even "life is fair."

The target market for complete series sets isn't people who already own the seasons. It's people who *didn't* buy the season sets.

How is this different from gamers, some of whom wait in line at midnight to be the first to buy Halo 3 for full price, while others will wait a couple of years for "Halo Gold" and get all three games for $10?

I don't understand why people get all worked up over marketing strategies that are no different now with DVDs than they were for other products years or decadws ago. Do you buy the individual issues of a comic, or wait for the "graphic novel" version? Do you buy hardcover books, wait for the paperback, wait longer for a harcover omnibus edition that collects three or four novels in the series, or just bowwow them from the library? Do you buy a car when it's new and hot and dealers are charging more than the sticker price, or wait until the model is about to be replaced and you can get it for dealer invoice plus a $3000 manufracturer's rebate?

"The worth of a thing is the price it will bring." If owning the season sets and watching them as they're released is worthwhile to you, you'll pay and be happy; you got what you wanted.

This applies to people who actually care about the shows and watch the discs. The ones who only care about their value as collectibles are just gamblers anyway, and "fair" isn't even on the table.

Out of Bounds

That's a completely different situation. The release of season by season boxes followed by a megaset once all the seasons are out is a conscious marketing decision. It's not something that happens because one of many retailers happens to put something on sale.

I do agree with your last statement though. Anyone who thinks they're investing in DVDs with some kind of potential return down the road is just throwing their money away. Like comics, DVDs, except in the rarest of cases, do not appreciate in value. Any run of over a few thousand discs isn't limited in any sense of the word. If you look at an LE that says "only 20 thousand copies pressed!" that's not a limited edition at all. Just marketing hype.

Out of Bounds

Exactly! The studios and distributors are in business to do one thing: get your money. They don't care if you feel offended by their marketing tactics. As long as they're successful, they'll keep on keeping on. The bottom line is that they care about their bottom line, not the kind of people who post on boards like this one.

calhoun07

I don't have a problem with the practice in of itself. Sometimes it works out for me when I just don't get to buying a TV show on DVD for whatever reason. But as with anything in DVD, waiting is always worth while for the most part, unless it's a limited edition that you miss out on if you wait.

It's just like new releases that sell for $20.00. If you wait just a few months you can snag the same DVDs for five to ten bucks at many places. And TV shows often go on sale all the time throughout the year, and often beat the prices of the sets brand new.

If you want to pick them up brand new, then that's obviously worth it to you. I prefer to wait. There isn't a single DVD that comes out that I need RIGHT AWAY. If I do buy it right away, it's because I believe I got a good deal on it that satisfies me, but I don't beat myself up if I see the same DVD cheaper later on. I pick up enough of the cheaper ones later on I am sure it balances itself out.

My only pet peeve with some of these megasets is if they throw in bonus features in there that are not available other wise. It's clear they aren't marketing to the same people who got each set individually, but the fans who got them individually are likely much more avid fans of the show and would embrace the bonus features, so it really feels like a piss on the fans when studios do that kind of thing.

Greg MacGuffin

I'm not normally one to point out typos (seriously, I make them all the time), but this was the funniest thing I read all day. I had to read this sentence about five times before I figured out what you meant.

Other than that, I completely agree with your post. Well done, sir.

The Monkees

It doesn't really bother me so much, but Warner is screwing with people with Scooby Doo. They released A Pup Named Scooby in volume sets, 7 in total. So I ended up spending $70+ on those all together over the years. Now, they are releasing it in season sets, so I wasted a good chunk of money of those when I could have spent less money on 2 or 3 season sets.

bluetoast

I can understand where both sides are coming from:

Customer's Standpoint

On the one hand,if someone buys each season as they come out, and if the show isn't popular, their purchases help for future season sets to be released, and maybe even a complete series set. As such, why should they do all the "hard work" and some guy who gets the set for a Christmas gift get all this stuff all at once, with a cool box and bonus discs on top of that?

If the show is already popular (Seinfeld, M*A*S*H), it probably has a lot of fans, and people will buy all season sets regardless of an almost guaranteed series set a few years down the road. In other words, most of the people who buy a show on DVD buy it individually. This makes sense otherwise we'd see a lot more series sets a lot earlier on shelves. But the thing is, people don't want to wait for a few years for something even if it's guaranteed to come out, it's not worth it. As such these customers often feel shafted when series sets come out.


Company's Standpoint

On the other hand, the company isn't obligated to offer anything to previous customers, that's business. Most of the time, once they have your money, that's the end. Unless they realize that repeat business is good for them, are a generally nice company (Apple offering $100 certificates to early iPhone customers) or they offer loyalty based incentives.

An ideal situation would be one of two things:

If they had special proofs of purchases inside each Season Set, and said "save this, just in case" and then turn them all in for a box/bonus disc, whatever. Maybe pay extra if it's a lot of stuff. But that would take a lot of planning.

The other way to go is to release the entire season set earlier than expected. This could potentially be a really bad decision for the company though. Sometimes they want to test the waters, see if it's feasible to make money off of Boy Meets World or whatever. Unless a show is less than 1.5 seasons long or so (i.e. got canceled), I doubt they'll do so right off the bat.

But there are some examples of that happening which is a good thing, I think:

Get Smart. They released the entire series exclusively on Time Life online. That seems pretty ballsy, but it probably did very well.

Also I know they only released 2 seasons of Dr. Katz, and now they are coming with the complete series in November. I wonder how that'll go, and whether or not they will individually release the remaining seasons. Sales of that might be indicative of the future...or maybe just that of Comedy Central's DVD division.

xage

Captain Ron, I see your post/thread as a clash between you, your desire, your guilt and your purchasing power.

CaptainRon

Xage, clearly you have no idea what my intentions here were. I am providing and open discussion in a forum about something that effects us as DVD owners. I am on both sides of the argument. I love mega sets I think they are one of the things that make collecting fun. I also think that there is something to be said about those who buy sets early.

I just feel as though these are interesting discussion topics for a DVD forum, and have nothing to do with any of the items you listed, which, by the way are completely ridiculous.

In short...get over yourself.

Jah-Wren Ryel

Wooosh!!!!

MTRodaba2468

The way I see it, if a Complete Series set comes out for a show that I've picked up the individual seasons for, I can always sell the individual seasons to help cover the cost, or if there's nothing extra that I'm interested in, I just don't bother. It's just something that I expect for series that have been selling well.

Now in the case of the Family Guy set, it's pointless, since the show is still airing. It's like the Harry Potter sets that have been released with the first three movies, then the first four movies, etc. You know there will be a boxset with all 7 movies, why bother getting the earlier ones.

gotrice487

Being that this is a business...yes it is fair although it does suck for us

But I'm glad I waited on the Friends as my Complete Series just came to my house today and it looks great on my shelf!

TGM

Sure its fair. It sucks, but it is fair. The only thing that will dictate a market need for a megaset is how well the individual sets sell... so, it's a vicious circle... if people buy the individual sets, and studios make money, it will prompt a megaset... if people don't buy the individual seasons, the megaset will never be made...

lordwow

Is it fair if you go to buy a video game on the day it launches it's $60, but if you wait 2 years it's $20? Well sure, you said "I want this game so bad, I'll play $60 for it." That's the same with DVDs. I bought the 3rd Season of TNG for $100 when it came out because I liked it that much. Years later, I just bought the whole set together for $250. Unfair? Not really, since I enjoyed those episodes for years on DVD before I got the megaset.

izatright

Whoa, wtf? What'd I miss?

Pizza

No, I don't feel it is fair to us consumers. (Especially when prices drop or a bigger, badder version is released months if not weeks after a release.) Sure, it is what business is all about, but what goes around comes around. Because of all this nonsense I've become a much more reserved buyer. I no longer jump out of the gate to buy something on release date. I now wait and wait some more for the prices to drop . . . and I'm sure I'm not alone. The studios will make a quick buck for now but it comes with a price.

argh923

Wah. Cry me a river. You can easily sell your old sets that you've bought and recoup most of - if not all - the costs of getting the full set if you want it. I've done this with three sets (X-Files, Angel, Buffy) and have actually gained a profit on two by selling on Amazon.

movieguru

Most people that buy tv on DVD are not necessarily collectors like all of us on this forum. Only those that are the collectors will care when a mega set comes out. Most consumers that buy these shows are casual buyers who just want to pick up a season or two of a show, or just get an entire series. They're not looking to buy 30 or more series on DVD like we do. Those casual buyers probably won't care if a megaset comes out if they've already bout the individual sets.

nateman

I do & I don’t have a problem with the studios releasing ‘Complete Series’ sets.

On one hand, it doesn’t bother me because I already own all of the seasons on DVD & if they want to release a TV show in one whole DVD set for the people who’ve forgotten to pick up the individual season sets, great.

On the other hand, usually these ‘Complete Series’ sets include extra features that weren’t included on any of the individual season sets, thus screwing over the loyal people who’ve bought the seasons on their release date.

Personally, being a big TV on DVD collector, I don’t wait for ‘Complete Series’ sets because if the individual season sets don’t sell well enough, they aren’t going to release a ‘Complete Series’ set. Plus, usually these sets have the discs packaged in some stupid way that ends up scratching the discs.

The only really big thing that bugs me about these sets is that too many people say, “I’ll wait for the Complete Series set” & thus, the rest of the seasons of the TV show don’t get released on DVD.

movieguru

Part of the problem is that some series are released while the show is being produced, so they can't have a complete mega set before the individual ones are released. This will be the case with most of the new shows coming out now.