I'd say that's about right for me, too. Of course, it depends a lot on just how much I want the title as well as the MSRP. If something has a $40 MSRP, like most Criterion Blu-rays, it's going to be a lot harder to find it in the $10-$15 range. Yes, I realize it's not impossible, like the Criterion B&N sale and some past markdowns from Amazon, but that just makes those deals all the more remarkable when we get them.

Oh really? Then I think you should take back all of those Criterions you just bought for $13.

My goal for bargains is at least 50% off. That doesn't mean I won't pay more for select titles, and other titles I'd want to get more than 50% off, but that is always my goal...

It's interesting to see all the people that take into consideration the MSRP. I've always found that to be a kind of arbitrary number, considering some studios seem to always have a higher MSRP than others, regardless of the type of edition or disc.

...but it's the MSRP that frequently determines the traditional sticker price. I consider a bargain to represent a price meaningfully less than I'd ordinarily pay, so I can't help but consider the MSRP as part of that. (If something were absurdly overpriced in the first place, you could argue that a very substantial discount on that still wouldn't be a bargain, but I'm speaking in boring general terms here.)

I threw out that 40% kind of arbitrarily, though. To me, a bargain is when I see something I want at a price that makes me go "well, I guess I'm buying that now". I figure the ordinary discount on Amazon is thirty-something percent, so a bargain would start at the next big notch past that.

Don't get me wrong, I hear ya on the MSRP thing. I just have never been the type of person to say, "Wow, 50% off the MSRP, I need to jump on that." It's always been the actual price of the item.

When it's something you want and you'll enjoy.

I have to agree. Regardless of how much the price has come down from MSRP, I still do not have more than $10-$15 in my budget to spend per disc. Even if a special or collector's edition set (for a single title) that's normally $80 has come down to $20, that's still over my budget and I won't buy it. I probably only get 50% or less of the new releases that I really want because, of course, they're not all gonna be < $15 right off the bat, but they've all gotta get cheap(er) sometime, right? And I'm willing to wait. I can count on one hand how many times I've done a headdesk over seeing a title I spent $x.00 for drop down to substantially less than what I paid for it.

Right there with you, Trevor.

It depends on what the purchaser considers a "bargain". It's that simple, really. Different prices will be appealing to different people with different incomes and priorities. That's the way business works.

For myself, I don't pinpoint the value of films I love at a specific price-point for an individual Blu-ray. However, I generally consider a Blu-ray purchase a bargain if it is $10-15 and a film that I love and want to add to my collection. $10 (or less) is definitely the best way to make me feel motivated into buying a film - and sometimes I will even feel more inclined to "blind-buy" a title with that kind of pricing. However, I really can't see myself doing that as much in the future as it's resulted in me purchasing many films I have either hated or found to be "meh" overall.

MSRP is irrelevant to me, and if I have to pay tax or shipping, it's not a true bargain to me. But if I see a BD (that I don't have but thought of getting) selling at Amazon for around 50% of what it sold for on release date, that I would call that a bargain.

if we're talkin BARGAIN, $15 for new release, $10 for everything else.

that's not to say I wont buy something that aint a bargain though, nor will I buy everything that is a bargain. very case-by-case basis.

Speaking of MSRP, it's amazing how many idiots (I mean people) actually pay MSRP in retail stores. Whenever I'm browsing in the movie section, I always see someone who picks up a DVD or Blu-ray that's not on sale and throws it in their cart.

These must be the same people who buy DVDs/BDs off Ebay and end up paying more for a used product than they could have bought new on Amazon.

O yea, I bitch about these people in the HD forum all the time. I know a guy that goes to Best Buy and picks up around 12 titles each week! Probably could get another 4-6 titles for the same money on Amazon.

^ I have a good friend who is the exact same way. He'll tell me how much he paid for one title, and I would often have paid $10-15 less than he had. But it's not like I keep these deals to myself. I tell him! He still says he prefers to go to Best Buy and pick them out himself and walk out with them in hand.

But the thing that makes it even more stupid is that he likes Criterion releases and foreign films, the types of titles that aren't exactly plentiful at Best Buy. That's what I really don't get. Fine, I'll accept that someone would be willing to pay more to have it today, but why limit oneself to the selection of a couple of B&M chain stores?

Paying MSRP will never make sense, just wasting money, places like FYE never made any sense, they want twice as much as a store across the street, most likely why they closed.

What makes a bargain, cheap, ten dollars, however now that I am mostly done with my back list of films I may be willing to pay more for new releases so I do not have to wait months to save seven dollars.

Under $10 for BD is my magic price point that screams BARGAIN!
I'll gamble on just about anything I'm remotely interested in on BD if it's 9.99 or less.

Otherwise I'm always a price-conscious DVD shopper just because there are always so many sales at different locations (online and b&m) that I get a kick out of looking for the absolute lowest price (cognizant of weighing sales tax vs shipping costs, etc).

And as a rule Amazon gets much of my business. Their "free shipping" is nice, and since I rarely care how fast I get a title delivered it all works for me.