(DEAD) Secondspin.com - 20% off + free shipping - HEYNOW is back

[jeffbase34]

Originally Posted by dino88

Really?!! Rome and Deadwood used to be cheaper? I wish you would have told us sooner.

Wow, what an asshole. Do you want me to stop posting deals as well?

[bigjim25]

Originally Posted by dino88

Really?!! Rome and Deadwood used to be cheaper? I wish you would have told us sooner.

Prices at SS do go up or down just like they do at DD.com.

[Cheato]

I'm satisfied with my orders (put in a second one last night that included games, but I didn't list the games here, and prices are after 20%-off):
Friends: The Complete Sixth Season [4 Discs] $11.18
Sword of the Beast $12.79
Charlie's Angels [2 Discs] $3.99
Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai $3.99
One Down, Two To Go/Brotherhood Of Death $3.10
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka [Widescreen] $4.79
Detroit 9000 $3.99
Alexander [Widescreen] [2 Discs Director's Cut] $2.30
Alexander [Widescreen] [2 Discs Special Edition] $3.99
Firefox $3.99
John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars $3.19

Like Dane, when it comes to SS, I usually rely on the free international shipping sale codes, so these prices are much better for these items than I would have had to pay otherwise.

I think people expecting to pay $6-7 for new or recent releases are expecting too much. Did SS used to have better prices? I don't know. I stopped saving my wish-list items' prices in my spreadsheet, so I'm not tracking them anymore. I don't see anything unusual compared to the last time, though, from a couple months ago, and I check prices there almost daily, so I'm used to seeing the exact same prices on things on my list.

However, their prices are based on supply and demand. I have seen one of the Rome season set's prices drop a couple times, but it keeps returning to that $30+ price. For a while, weren't they $39.99, or maybe $38.99? Now, $33.99? If they're selling at that price, why shouldn't SS keep them there? If they want to sell more of them, they'll lower the prices.

I have purchased hundreds of items from them. My wish-list doesn't include things like "Mission Impossible 3," which can be purchased for about $1.50, to take an extreme example. My wish-list has gotten so limited that this time my orders only included four items from it. Everything else was peripheral stuff that I came across while browsing and searching for other things.

From my perspective, it seems that what people are really seeing is that they can't get new or recent releases for as little as they'd like, and their wish-lists now contain items that are harder to get (since they've already purchased the easier-to-get-and-lower-priced items), and the prices of those remaining items may be higher.

I mean, we can't really compare the "used to be" prices on "The Wrestler" or "What Doesn't Kill You," since those things haven't even been out long enough to have established some kind of baseline price at SS. And the one Criterion I bought was the same price it's always been: $15.99 (before 20%-off), not $25.99. There are no other Criterions that are on my wish-list that are currently in stock.

Out of curiosity, though, I checked prices on items that used to be on my wish-list that are currently in-stock, and found only these:
Armageddon ($15, same as it's always been)
Brazil (3-disc DC) ($24, same as it's always been)
Hidden Fortress, The ($16, same as it's always been)
King of Kings, The ($24, same as it's always been)
Kwaidan ($17, which is $1 more expensive)
Man Who Fell to Earth, The ($24, same as it's always been, except for a short time it was $2 cheaper)
Samurai II - Duel at Ichijoji Temple (same as it's always been)
Sanjuro (old version) ($13, cheaper by $2)
Sword of Doom, The ($16, same as it's always been)
Videodrome ($22, same as it's always been)


I think cautionary posts about price-changes in a thread like this are useful, but some of them are bordering on (or simply are) threadcrapping.

jeffbase34, although dino88 may have poked you a little hard, if you could step out of yourself for a minute, I think you might admit it was kind of funny. Nobody wants you to go away or stop posting anything, deals or otherwise.

[david2708]

Well, I'd say 85% of the movies on my wishlist all went up yesterday by $4-5 on average. The previous prices had been stable for months, but suddenly yesterday-all up. My wishlist has about 25-30 items.

[smashthesymbols]

I'm curious what everyone has in their wishlists that are jumping $5. I've got nearly 400 titles on mine and very few titles have increased lately and the ones that did were minor. I've noticed some going down as well.

Anyway, I placed a small order tonight. Prices are after the 20%.

South Park: The Imaginationland Trilogy $4.70
Shock $3.50
Call Northside 777 $5.02
Strangers With Candy: Season 2 [2 Discs] $6.70
Strangers With Candy: Season 3 [2 Discs] $6.70

[david2708]

Some price rises before & after from my wishlist

Dark Knight 8.02-10.99
Eagle Eye 7.54-12.99
Hancock 7.35-11.99
Indiana..Crystal Skull 7.16-12.99
Iron Man 8.31-12.99
Journey To The Cetre... 6.49-10.99
Quantum Of Solace 9.37-12.99
Wanted 8.05-11.99

[Cheato]

Same here. 240 items on my list (244 yesterday), and of the 73 currently available, I see almost no price changes--up or down (other than the aforementioned Young Indiana Jones V1 and V2). I already ordered Friends Season 6, which had dropped by $6, from $19.99 to $13.97 (now at a "7" price, meaning it's on "clearance" at SS).

Actually, Entourage Season 4 may be cheaper, too, but I haven't paid attention to that recently, as I ordered it from Hastings (and haven't received it yet), and it wasn't on my wish-list a few months ago.

Forever Knight Season 1 is up $5, but the $14.99 price it was at previously was only for about 1 week (not a red price, it was listed at $14.99 as a regular price)--however, that one week aside, it's currently at the same price it's been for years.

I Dream of Jeannie Season 2 (colorized) is cheaper now, too, but again, it's a clearance price, and I'm not that interested in the colorized one so I haven't looked at that price closely over the past few months. Cheaper than it was a couple months ago, though, by $4.52.

Other than 4 other movies, which also have lower ("clearance") prices (House of the Dead: DC [$5.27], House of the Dead 2 [$2.77], Kingdom of Heaven [$5.37], and Saturday Night Live: Bad Boys [$5.57]), every single item on my list exactly matches its prices from a few months ago (and in other threads about SS's sales, I have posted similar information, so this pattern goes back much farther than that). If you have specific price increases, then list them, like Dane and david2708 did. Blanket statements are merely claims, not facts.

[Cheato]

Originally Posted by david2708

Some price rises before & after from my wishlist

Dark Knight 8.02-10.99
Eagle Eye 7.54-12.99
Hancock 7.35-11.99
Indiana..Crystal Skull 7.16-12.99
Iron Man 8.31-12.99
Journey To The Cetre... 6.49-10.99
Quantum Of Solace 9.37-12.99
Wanted 8.05-11.99

Those are some interesting and unusual prices. In my old spreadsheet of prices, I have no prices that end in numbers like ".02," ".54," ".35," ".16," ".31," or ".05."

Looking in previous SecondSpin threads here, nobody listed any orders with prices like the ones you listed.

All prices end in a "7," ("clearance" prices) or a "9" (regular prices).

I just browsed the "drama" and "action" sections of the DVD listings, and there are only "7" and "9" prices listed.

I am not saying that you are wrong. However, I'm not sure why those items were priced as they were. They are not the standard pricing used on the site, at least in my experience and in the information available in this forum.

[david2708]

My original price list will be out by a cent or two. When I saw the 20% off thread I went to my wish list and wrote down the titles I was interested in and calculated 20% off-mostly in my head. When I returned to the site the next day all the prices seemed substantially higher. I had to go back to my written down list with the 20% off and convert it back to the original figures to do a price comparison. As I did alot of the first calaculations in my head, I was going to be off by a couple of cents here and there, but only a couple of cents. Hence why my prices may look odd.
Trust me, the prices rose $4+.

[Kaori00]

This sale is nothing but a bad joke. Plus you just end up with scratched up poor condition DVDs. I've bought from them before & all they sent me was garbage. I don't recommend buying or doing business with these scam artist. Best wishes and good luck to all of you that take the dip.

[david2708]

Their TVDVD stuff is pretty good. Mostly they only get played once unlike movies which get multiple viewings and can have scratches. The TVDVD's I've got off them are usually flawless. Occasionally they have sent me an obvious ex video rental movie , but only occassionally and usually dirt cheap.

[Cheato]

Originally Posted by Kaori00

This sale is nothing but a bad joke. Plus you just end up with scratched up poor condition DVDs. I've bought from them before & all they sent me was garbage. I don't recommend buying or doing business with these scam artist. Best wishes and good luck to all of you that take the dip.

I find this story hard to believe. There are many threads about SS here at DVDTalk, and all of them talk about excellent customer service and excellent quality. Did you contact them about your problems? If so, I am sure you got a refund. If not, then stop whining. I've had things slip through the cracks with them--scratched discs, missing discs, etc., but they ALWAYS refund my money, no questions asked. I have purchased hundreds of items from them (over 100 games, easily over 200 DVDs).

They sent me the HD-DVD version of the briefcase version of Blade Runner, instead of the DVD version, and after one email, they simply refunded my money and told me to keep the HD-DVD version.

I ordered 24 Season 4 from them, and 4 months later, when I got around to watching it, realized there were 2 copies of disc 4 in the set, and no disc 3. I emailed them, not expecting them to do anything about it (I mentioned four months had passed, didn't I), and they immediately sent me a replacement season set.

A missing game disc in a PS2 case? No problem. Refunded.

Scratched discs in Friends Season 5 that wouldn't play? Refunded.


And as david2708 mentioned, I too have received the occasional ex-(Blockbuster) rental, but they have always been perfectly fine.

[jeffrey r]

I've bought a lot of stuff from SS over the years, and generally gotten decent prices and decent used product. But to be honest, ever since gohastings really stepped up a few months ago with their good sales, gohastings has proved far superior. I've gotten better prices, and on every blu-ray I've ordered from gohastings, plus Rock Band Beatles, they've all been virtually brand new, with all inserts, cover art, slipcovers in perfect condition.

[Drake]

Out of the 80 plus discs I bought this year only 1 was really scratched up and it played perfectly..as I said in an earlier post 75% of the stuff they send me is brand new.

[smashthesymbols]

I've purchased 82 titles from them over the past year or so and only 1 was in unacceptable condition. It took one email to them and they immediately shipped a replacement that arrived in perfect condition, I didn't even have to return the damaged copy. I'd also guess probably 20 of those titles were brand new when I got them.

[andicus]

Originally Posted by Kaori00

This sale is nothing but a bad joke. Plus you just end up with scratched up poor condition DVDs. I've bought from them before & all they sent me was garbage. I don't recommend buying or doing business with these scam artist. Best wishes and good luck to all of you that take the dip.

What an odd post...

I'd be interested to hear how you were 'scammed' by SecondSpin. My experience with them has been completely the opposite.

[ProfessorEcho]

Besides the fact that they rarely have anything I'm looking for (given that I collect so few mainstream titles), my biggest problem with SS online is their antiquated search system which really discourages casual browsing. They should take a cue from a site like OLDIES.com to see how a comprehensive search engine can work. Having such ridiculous features as searching for something by the DVD's release date and yet offering no search for the release date or decade of the films themselves is a waste of time. And to just have text listings and not even provide thumbnail images of covers, something their sister site at Wherehouse manages to do, is hopelessly out of date.

They need to update their site, which as it stands now is an online anachronism, especially if one is to seriously consider their self-proclaimed boast of being the world's biggest seller and buyer of used DVDs.

[mikelowry]

Items Bought:

Falling Down [Deluxe Edition]
Used DVD - Price: $9.59

Better Tomorrow [Widescreen]
Used DVD - Price: $7.19

Fist of Legend [2 Discs] [Ultimate Edition]
Used DVD - Price: $10.39

Election
Used DVD - Price: $9.59

Total Bought: $36.76
Credit Applied: ($0.00)
Shipping: $0.00
Total: $36.76

So far I have no bad experience with SS.

[smashthesymbols]

Originally Posted by ProfessorEcho

Besides the fact that they rarely have anything I'm looking for (given that I collect so few mainstream titles), my biggest problem with SS online is their antiquated search system which really discourages casual browsing. They should take a cue from a site like OLDIES.com to see how a comprehensive search engine can work. Having such ridiculous features as searching for something by the DVD's release date and yet offering no search for the release date or decade of the films themselves is a waste of time. And to just have text listings and not even provide thumbnail images of covers, something their sister site at Wherehouse manages to do, is hopelessly out of date.

They need to update their site, which as it stands now is an online anachronism, especially if one is to seriously consider their self-proclaimed boast of being the world's biggest seller and buyer of used DVDs.

Now that's a valid criticism. Their search is awful. It would be nice to have some sorting options for results too, especially by price.

[chocoboy87]

No bad experience with them here either. I nearly always find something to order when they have a good special offer on, particularly when they are doing free shipping because this also includes international to the UK. Top class service everytime.

[Cheato]

^ Lucky dog. Wherehouse ships free to the UK, too (when they have a free shipping deal, of course). They won't even let me pay them to ship to Japan. (Yes, I know their stock is the same, but every once in a while, there's a price difference, and the weekly sales are different on the two sites.)

And +1 on the poor search at SS. It's terrible at all the TWEC online stores, including Spun, Wherehouse, and FYE. Tim Tucker's GreaseMonkey scripts make the Search a little more functional, though (thanks, Tim!); I love being able to set items to "Ignore."

[TimTucker]

Here's another quick tip in addition to the script that I've posted before -- don't use the default url for browsing movies.

The default url is:
http://www.secondspin.com/stores/ss/movies/browse.jsp

Instead go to:
http://www.secondspin.com/movies/browse.jsp
(assuming that the script I'd linked to before is up to date it'll even drop off the unused "New Price" column)

That'll at least allow you to view artwork for items.

[ericn101]

Originally Posted by andicus

What an odd post...

I'd be interested to hear how you were 'scammed' by SecondSpin. My experience with them has been completely the opposite.

I felt scammed after some of my orders. Some of thier stuff is nice, however My luck has been pretty bad with them. I saved a few dvd's and cd's over the years that I bought from them, I will try to upload photos. One example (no exaggeration) was a snapper case held together with tape and had huge amounts of Black marker child scribble all over the case and dvd, extremely scratched and a broken spindle to boot. I cant believe they would buy something like that and put it into thier inventory. I can go on and on. A couple of times they instructed me to pay return shipping, so I filed a charge back bolth times and kept the discs. I figure if they want them back they can send a mailer. It just amazes me how people order 80 dvd's and they are all like new.

[Divine_Trash]

Hey there, I was wondering if anyone knows a way to search by studio?

[lithium11]

heynow is back.