Brian T

Figured I'd post this here since there's probably not enough fellow Canucks on this site to justify a separate thread!

A couple of weeks ago (as mentioned in another thread hereabouts), Canada's last surviving music/movie store chain, the British import HMV, announced it was closing down for good. The sales began immediately, but naturally began with paltry 10% discount that did little to offset their high prices but strangely didn't stop hundreds of people from swooping into the flagship store here in Toronto and scooping up "bargains" that were anything but. This continued at 20% off, which still netted prices bettered by Amazon for a lot of stuff. Now they're at 25% off, which is starting to yield some ok deals, and they've reduced most of their 2/$XX deals a bit further if you do the math. For example, 2-for-$30 discs are now 2-for-$20, or ~33% off (the store uses typical closing sale b.s. math to make you think it's actually higher), which is a great way to grab MANY second-tier Shout Factory discs -- which reside in their 2/$30 tier -- at pricing even the U.S. sites can't match. That said, I was able to get all of these for $10 a pop:

THE FINAL TERROR
GHOST TOWN
THE GONG SHOW MOVIE
HACKERS 20th Anniversary
I MADMAN
NEW YEAR'S EVIL
SCARECROWS
SHOCKER
SLUMBER PARTY MASSACRE
SONNY BOY

Further to that, all former 2-for-$20 discs are now 2-for-$15, which does correlate to the official 25% off and netted me these Shout titles for $7.50 each:

DIE MONSTER DIE
COHEN AND TATE


Other Shout titles spotted but not purchased (stickered at 2/$30 originally, now $10 each):

GHOULIES 1/2
JACK'S BACK
G.I. JOE THE MOVIE
EDDIE & THE CRUISERS 1/2

So, for those with an HMV nearby, now's probably a good time to start paying regular visits, especially if you're looking for more offbeat stuff. They say the final day is in April 30, but as in all such situations, that's not written in stone.

LorenzoL

Hey Brian T, any news about if Best Buy Canada are bringing the Rogue One steelbooks here too?

Recently BB Canada website has been really inconsistent with their exclusives being very limited or being sold out. I wasn't able to pre-order the Dr. Strange steelbook because of it.

MooMooMooMoo

Same thing you describe happens frequently in the USA. A store has a going out of business sale, raises their prices, then slightly marks them down & idiots beat the doors down & empty the store. A somewhat recent dvd/cd example was the Circuit City chain.

When Canadian chain Future Shop pulled out of the USA, they were one of the few who had real sales; & many of the best were unadvertised. The new sale merch was always marked down Saturday Morning; & for several weeks I was getting up at 6 am & hitting every Future shop within 100 miles or so, & getting incredible hauls of import music cd's at $1.00 ea.

Brian T

Im afraid I'm not much of a source of info on Best Buy or their steelbooks. I don't visit there very often except if I happen to be near one, or during the Black Friday/Boxing Week sales, or when I need to upgrade some piece of a/v or what have you, which is pretty infrequent. Might be better to check with various stores, perhaps?

As for Future Shop's misadventures in the U.S., I actually had to look that up because I'd forgotten all about it! Turns out it was back in 1999 when they shuttered their stores there, so no surprise Moo4 got the deals he did! I'm sure they wanted a quick exit, too. Naturally, when they closed shops here before rebranding the rest as Best Buys, the bargains weren't anywhere near as good. Frankly, neither are HMV's right now -- except for the Shout titles above and a few others if you do some math while rifling through the stacks -- but most of the store closings I've pillaged in the last year (HMV, Suspect Video, Queen Video) have produced better hauls in general because we're finally in an era where so few people care to buy packaged media even at bargain blowout pricing. Then again, judging by my decreasing space to store all these "great finds", they've clearly got the right idea.

Brian T

Looks like I have to stand corrected about HMV being Canada's last music/movie chain. Apparently, Sunrise Records is still very much in business and has negotiated new leases for 70 of HMV's stores.

https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...locations.html

Sunrise's flagship store used to be right across the street from HMV's flagship store here in Toronto, and when it closed last year I assumed it was because that chain was officially out of business. Considering they were one of the few chains (not unlike HMV, but a bit better) to stock products from the full spectrum of DVD/Blu-ray labels (and music, too, I presume), this could be good news if they continue that dedication to the collector mentality, and to the strong mix of mainstream AND offbeat stuff for which they were known, and even play into that Millennial/Gen-X'er/hipster fascination with "nostalgic" physical formats like LPs that I find annoyingly twee (something the new owner says he very much plans to do in that article). And yes, to fellow canucks here, I already know their prices were never spectacular, but bargains absolutely could be had from time to time.

andicus

Yes, I enjoyed shopping at my local Sunrise from time to time.

Unfortunately, I seriously doubt they'll move into my local HMV, as it's about twice the size of the Sunrise location that already left the same mall. It wouldn't make sense to open a larger store, when they apparently couldn't justify the cost of the existing store. Unless, I suppose, HMV was taking a lot of sales away from them. Hmmm.. Maybe there is hope!

MooMooMooMoo

1999........ I didn't realize it was that long ago. I am OLD.

MooMooMooMoo

I miss A&B. They were my fav Vancouver store.

orangerunner

A&B really dominated the market for many years with the best prices on CDs anywhere in the world. I still remember American sailors arriving in the port and seeing them walk out of A&B Sound with huge stacks of CDs.

It's funny, I just bought a copy of "My Stepmother is an Alien" from Value Village brand new in the wrapper with an old A&B Sound price tag of $34.95 still attached to it. I'm guessing that was a 1998 price tag!

LorenzoL

Our choices to purchase physical media in Canada is bad with the closure of HMV. I missed pre-ordering the steelbook for Dr. Strange and went to my local BB and they have none left. Even their regular 3D combo is out plus the clerk tells me that they are planning to reduce more of the shelf space for the movies.

So it's down to Amazon.ca or BB Canada unless we import right?

BTW, Rogue One steelbook pre-order is up in BB Canada.

LorenzoL

I went to the HMV Yonge and Dundas location last Saturday. I couldn't find the GIJOE movie but was able to purchase some of anime like Ramma 1/2 sets at a discount. The 25% off is not that great but much of the stock has disappeared already. Now I can wait until closer to the closing date to pick up whatever is left and I'm interested on.

Brian T

Sort of. As I sometimes mention in these forums, there are substantial savings to be had by signing up for an easy U.S. mailing address, either at a US Postal Service outlet or at one of the dozen's of "parcel pickup" locations that pretty much line the border. I realize for Toronto/GTA dwellers that means Niagara Falls, NY, about an hour away, but if you time your orders reasonably well, you can have a bunch of stuff waiting for you when you get there, and even add a few hours of cross-border shopping to make a day of it. I find customs agents are very lenient these days, too. Someone once asked me what my time and gas were worth in these situations, but it was irrelevant because a) I'm ordering movies for ~20-40% less than I'd pay in Canada, even factoring in the exchange rate (if I could find them at all) and b) not being a born-and-bred Torontonian, I really enjoy getting out of the city on a regular basis.

Importing from U.S. retailers into Canada is often prohibitively expensive on shipping but many (too many, actually) of the sellers on Amazon Canada's Marketplace are U.S. based, so I often find good deals on new and used stuff there, and the shipping stays at $3.49CDN. The only drawback is the increased risk of damage during the longer journey via multiple couriers, and the potential hassle of returns/refunds, but so far so good. Importing from the U.K. and other European locales is pretty painless, thankfully.

And obviously we can't entirely rule out used CD/movie/book stores and/or pawn shops which are still fairly plentiful in Toronto (and smaller cities and towns). A lot of them are a little too savvy when it comes to "market value" of the stuff they re-sell, but decent bargains exist. And despite the recent closures of legendary rental shops Suspect Video and Queen Video (which were absolute gold mines of cool stuff cheap), there are still a handful of rental shops worth keeping an eye on for the inevitable going-out-of-business sales.

By the way, have you seen Sonic Boom's new "superstore" on Spadina south of Dundas. Pricey for the rare stuff, but a good mix of mainstream and offbeat shit, and definitely worth regular visits.


I noticed they've been padding the stock at some (all?) locations with massive amounts of utterly common Fox/MGM DVDs clearly brought in solely for this purpose, and sticker priced at a fairly ludicrous 2/$25. And yet, people keep snapping it up like they're getting some amazing deals. Fox Canada must have a warehouse full of this stuff for just such occasions, or they over-produced so much of it that retailer close-outs help them get rid of it at a sneaky profit.

orangerunner

We have a few of these parcel pick-ups in a tiny town called Point Roberts WA, just south of Vancouver.

They charge $3.50 minimum and it can cut about two hours out of your Saturday, depending on border traffic.

Unless you order a lot of titles from one vendor in one shipment, the savings is probably not worth it.

I went to the HMV and they had a few Fox titles such as Man On Fire, Master & Commander, The Heat, The Siege, Taken etc. that were 3 for $10 after the discount.

Brian T

Got an email from HMV just now announcing that all the remaining stores will be closing on April 15, rather than the previously announced April 30. Additionally, some stores will be shuttered on Sunday, April 9, apparently.

The announcement also states everything is now 60-80% off, but having frequented FOUR locations at least twice a week for the past couple of months, I can confirm that they're not all on the same page when it comes to the reductions. The flagship store in downtown Toronto has been the slowest in dropping prices to match what corporate says they should be, but I suppose that makes sense considering their location and heavy traffic.

The store in the mega-mall right across the street from me closed about a week ago, so I was able to follow the downward discounting until the very last day (Mar. 27). That store was virtually cleaned out, with everything at 90% off on the last two days. Even the "planted" 2/$25 Fox/MGM titles mentioned earlier were finally blown out at 2/$4. Even though I'd already loaded up on a few of them when they finally hit 2/$8, I picked up some doubles and triples for flipping on Amazon. Nice to get several Fox Cinema Classics (Carmen Jones, The Razor's Edge, Wild River, Agony and the Ecstacy, On The Riviera) and a bunch of 3D combo packs (Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter, Epic, I Robot, Ice Age 3, Percy Jackson 2) I probably wouldn't have bothered with at full price for two bucks each!

I also wouldn't say the downtown store was picked over that badly, at least as of late last week, but I guess it depends on what you're looking for. I tend to flip through every row on each visit (especially as they've become more disorganized as the weeks have gone on), and eventually I find a few things (or many) at prices I can't even match in the U.S. It is a shame that the only way we can even remotely beat U.S. pricing (even factoring in the exchange rate) in Canada is to pick over the bones of stores that are going out of business.

Here's a shitty pic of about 3/4 of what I've picked up so far. Everything pictured cost between $1.50 and $6.00, nothing more, and nothing was bought without at least some foreknowledge (educated blind buys, in other words). And yeah, I'm well aware that there's some stuff in there that probably isn't worth even that much in terms of quality or personal fulfillment but I'm also confident that far more than half of these will end up on Amazon Marketplace after I've watched them, since they're titles I only wanted to see in the first place and not necessarily own. Blowouts like this present a decent opportunity to add a few hidden gems to the permanent collection, or check some things off the mental list and probably make a small profit on the back end. For example, I already own the OOP Rodan/War of the Gargantuas double feature DVD, so the copy I found buried on some back shelf at HMV has already been listed and sold two days later on the Marketplace for $51 (!). That nicely offsets a good chunk of what I've spent so far. I wouldn't be surprised if some stores still held a few surprises like that, provide one uses a little diligence.

andicus

^Nice haul! I've been too lazy to check out my local HMV. I'm not the type to buy stuff to turn it around. In fact of all the times I have done that in the past, I've probably only sold one item.

If I go, I'll end up with a bunch of stuff I don't need.

Thanks for the heads-up, regardless!

The good news is, Sunrise IS moving to my local HMV location. So there's that!

laidbacklarkin

There's a title in the middle of the left pile, qualifying you for the saying 'you are what you buy' !

Brian T

Yeah, if it wasn't for the fact that I've had a Marketplace account for about ten years now, I'd probably have left some of that stuff sitting because like you I really don't need a lot of it, even though pretty much all of it was on my "I'd watch that cheap" list, either from seeing it on the shelves in old rental places (where I rarely rented) or in stores like HMV (where I rarely bought). I think Sunrise is taking over at least two of the four locations I've been to so far (Scarborough Town Centre and Upper Canada Mall). Not sure about Fairview across the street, and I heard the flagship will be torn down for, what else, condos (which explains why the lot beside it has been vacant for so long).


How DAAARE you call me Anna The Scream Queen Killer. Why, I oughta . . .

Oh wait, now I see it.

(by the way, if anyone's looking for a movie in which Betsy Rue outdoes her indelible performance in My Bloody Valentine, Lucky Bastard's the one! )

laidbacklarkin

LOL, good one, BrianT

Brian T

Well, HMV is no more, at least until Sunrise moves into most of their old locations. Between the three stores I had access to after the place nearby shuttered a couple of weeks back, I managed to dig up some nice-priced curiosities (the vast majority on my radar for ages) right up until the final days, when 80-90% discounts kicked in. Downtown's flagship store was the picked clean long before the final day, with people buying the most dreadfully-common leftovers from those parachuted-in "2/$25" Fox/MGM titles that were spread all over the store because, well, they had to buy something since they came all that way, I guess).

I know a lot of what's in these last two photos are DVDs, but it's hardly worth starting a separate thread now. These are just for posterity now, anyway, I guess, and to show the kinds of things that were still in stock until nearly the end -- provided you were patient in flipping through every increasingly messy shelf. Mostly I was after low-budget and/or indie genre stuff that the average HMV shopper in Toronto's boroughs and the GTA probably wouldn't bother with, as that's where I often find some hidden gems (as some of these have proven to be already; others, though, will be up on Amazon soon enough). As with previous hauls, a few of these I already owned, but picked up doubles for resale on the Marketplace to offset my compulsive spending somewhat.

1st and 2nd stacks: all $2.00 - $3.00
3rd stack: $4.00 - $6.80
Upright discs: $7.00 - $9.00
John Wayne Blu-Ray set: $12


All discs below: $1.50 - $3.00
(Except Toho Godzilla Collection and Paranormal Activity 6-Film sets: $6.00 ea.)

andicus

Amazon.ca has The X-Files s1-10 on for $64.99CAN.

http://a.co/d/htWrwnt

Pretty sure I paid around $50/season for this on DVD. Ouch!

PhantomStranger

I paid something closer to $100 per DVD season, back in the day.

To be fair, I did watch and enjoy those sets a great deal.

Brian T

Deal of the Day for Nov. 27:

SOPRANOS COMPLETE SERIES - $64.99

(note: was $59.99 in a DOTD last November)

andicus

Still a steal, at that price.

I paid $104.99 and it is worth every penny.

Brian T

Up next . . . a decent set that always drops this time of year, but now to an all-time low that might also appeal to U.S. buyers:

FOX SEARCHLIGHT 20th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (21 discs) - $39.99 CDN
(Approx $41.38 U.S. shipped)

Includes:

orangerunner

I just walked into the local Dollarama in Richmond, BC and it looks like they have a large selection of Blu-rays and DVDs for $3 after a fairly long drought.

Blu-rays:

Seabiscuit (w/ slipcover)
Tower Heist
American Tail: Fievel Goes West
Stomp the Yard/Gridiron Gang/You've Been Served (3-pack Mill Creek)
The Descendants (w/ Slip cover)
The Sentinel (Michael Douglas)
Jones Brothers 3D
Bridget's Jones Diary
Heist (Robert DeNiro)
Extraction (Bruce Willis)
The Lorax
Iron Man (animated 2 pack)
Taken 2
Life of PI
...and few other straight to Blu-ray-type titles.

DVDs

Say Anything
Shallow Hall
The Social Network (Digipak)

..bunch of other straight-to-video titles.