DVD Polizei

Good to know, thanks.

Proglodite

I just double-checked my 1900 and it is definitely Region B locked. --Peter

MooMooMooMoo

They must have done a 2nd press run. I'm watching it in a player set for "A" right now.

The discs & box do state "B"; but to make sure I hadn't made an error, I played a couple minutes of several region A br's for the first time. All played; the player is definitely set for region "A" right now, & it is definitely playing the MOC/Euerka R "B" 1900/Novocello without issue as a region A player.

Unless my player spontaneously modified itself, it would appear that the current pressings of 1900 are region free.

MooMooMooMoo

Thanks for the info. I likely won't buy the big box, as I have Frankenstein, The Wolfman & the Universal Monsters Essential Box on blu & the others on dvd. Hopefully they'll change the UPC or at least sticker corrected stock. Otherwise, this could be a problem forever.

hariseldon

I think you have an OPPO, right? Did you play 1900 set at Region B at some point. If so and you don't use the Stop Button often, the disc may be in teh Persistent Memory/Storage and may still play once you switch the player back to A.

If you want to try an experiment -- keep the player in A, take the disc out, and clear the Persistent Storage from the Setup menu. Power Cycle the player and try 1900 again.

Or, there is a way to just clear the memory of that specific disc though I've never gotten the hang on it. I think if you are playing the disc in Region A, hit "STOP" 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) times it's supposed to 'forget' that disc -- erase the region memory, erase the bookmark, etc. When you try play again in Region A, a B locked disc probably won't play and you;ll have to switch the player back to B to get it memorized again.

Using Eject or just STOP once should keep that disc in the Memory

MooMooMooMoo

No, this is the first time I've played 1900. I'm aware of what you're talking about. My 1900 set is region A compatible.

hariseldon

In that case so much the better though quite odd for a disc to change region codes within the same distribution company.

Disney did that with one of their Region A locked Blurays -- Pinocchio maybe -- between Plat and Signature releases

Proglodite

A number of Network titles are variably dropping in price - I grabbed 8 titles earlier today that worked out to $4.50 with shipping (I chose the slow-boat option since nothing was in stock anyway). Some of those disappeared, but An Unearthly Stranger and Tower of Terror have appeared. May be worth keeping an eye on this link for the next couple of days...

Peter

Proglodite

For the curious, these are the Network titles I grabbed earlier today:

The Club [Blu-ray]
Roberto Farías
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Percy's Progress [Blu-ray]
Leigh Lawson
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Warn That Man [Blu-ray]
Gordon Harker
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Love Thy Neighbour [Blu-ray]
Jack Smethurst
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Blonde Fist [Blu-ray]
Margi Clarke
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Mine Own Executioner [Blu-ray]
Burgess Meredith
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Flying Deuces [Blu-ray] [Region Free]
Stan Laurel
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

Ransom [Blu-ray]
Sean Connery
Sold by: Amazon EU S.a.r.L.
£2.49

laidbacklarkin

Interesting - noted something I hadn't seen until now on all my Zavvi purchases. Zavvi now charges a 'Sales Tax' for orders shipped to outside of the UK. It used to be the product price and a shipping charge until now. Their shipping rates have gone up (it seems more like a per item price that stacks up) and a sales tax charge shows. The sales tax is equal to Orange County's Sales tax (I live in SoCal)

Its just bizarre, these umpteen taxation policies and differences depending on retailers. UK product prices are supposed to be inclusive of VAT for Euro purchases, which is the reason Amazon strips it off that price for international shipments. As of a half hour ago, there's been no change to that policy and Amazon UK does not add any sales tax to purchases being shipped to SoCal. I tested it out on the German and French sites and its the same policy. Yet Zavvi's policies have changed. I don't buy from any other UK retailer, so would like to hear of other experiences.

MooMooMooMoo

Since the new sales tax bs, I've only bought from Arrow, MOC & Amazon.UK. No tax on any of those orders.

hariseldon

I'd say definitely odd. No sales tax added in NC so I wonder which states will be affected or if Zavvi has some sort of business presence or registration in some states.

I tried a bunch of different zip codes and the only State or Zip Code I could force a Sales Tax is California at various levels so it's keyed to zip or city. Even WA and PA which have laws forcing collection of tax inside the US don't appear to be collecting tax at Zavvi

laidbacklarkin

There isn't an explicit mention of California anywhere on their site. From the URL below which references the US Site (us.zavvi.com), I find a pretty generic T&C under 'Price and Payment' which states among other things '.....Orders with a delivery address outside the UK may be subject to import duties and taxes (including VAT) which are levied once a delivery reaches your destination country....'

https://us.zavvi.com/articles/terms-conditions.list

The exact same verbiage exists on TheHut.com as well, which owns Zavvi

MooMooMooMoo

I don't believe the new law requires international tax collection. My GUESS is Zavvi either has a large USA physical presence, or else they're ripping off customers.

Chris-K

I tried ordering a title a few weeks ago from Zavvi, and the sales tax thing showed up. I live in New Jersey. Order cancelled due to item being out of stock (and an obvious price mistake!)

hariseldon

Again -- odd that it's so state specific and it's not the usually suspects. ThHut/Zavvi must have some US partner and sounds like it's a new legal relationship.

I quickly cycled through the 50 states at a checkout screen -- seems at a minimum it goes by state and then fine tunes based on zip code
Tax being added now for -- California, Kentucky, New Jersey, Missouri, Nevada, and Utah. The 1st 3 i've have seen grouped more than once and seem to be Warehouse Hubs for several stores, the last 3 I've rarely noticed on those same lists.

Doing some searching I did find some parts of the company with Job Offerings in
Sheperdsville, KY -- like everybody else
Lindon UT -- job openings on indded and linkedin in several UTAH cities

I see a number of job openings in NYC and Texas as well, but I wonder if the NYC jobs are bases in New Jersey

It appears from business reports that THG has been extremely aggressive buying up a lot of different companies in 2018 so it's certainly possible they now have physical presence is several states -- lots of Beauty products, Nutritional Supp, Language Connect (commercial translation). Sometime this summer they announced they had access to $1B in Bank Funds and were interested in acquiring more companies (or parts of companies like pieces of Walgreens) worldwide though mostly it seemed UK,US, and AUS
At one point they had a warehouse in Illinois to ship low cost product back to the UK to avoid VAT after the CHannel Island backchannel was declared illegal -- low cost

MooMooMooMoo

It sounds to me that Zaavi is ignoring the Washington State lawsuit & is charging tax in states where they have a physical presence per last year's USA law.

Jay G.

I think you're referring to the recent South Dakota v. Wayfair Inc. Supreme Court ruling. Washington State wasn't directly involved, but was particularly interested in the case since Washington doesn't tax personal income or capitol gains, meaning they get 52% of their tax revenue from sales tax.

Also, the ruling is that states can start making companies outside the state collect sales tax, but it doesn't mean that they necessarily will. For example, the case involved a South Dakota law that requires all merchants to collect a 4.5 percent sales tax if they have more than $100,000 in annual sales or more than 200 transactions in the state.

Zaavi is likely just complying with all relevant federal and state laws at the moment. I'm not sure if their revenue in South Dakota is enough to mean they're subject to collecting tax in that state.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/u...merchants.html
https://www.seattletimes.com/busines...pay-sales-tax/
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle...hington-state/

DVD Polizei

Have to wonder if these companies that "collect tax" for the states that have a tax...do they report it and pay it to the states...

Jay G.

Yes. That's the only reason they'd collect tax. Otherwise they'd be better off not charging tax and having lower prices, to compete better. And if they collected tax for a state but didn't hand it over, that'd be wire fraud, a federal offence. It's not worth it for the piddling amount sales tax provides.

MooMooMooMoo

Agreed. The other part that sucks as a (mostly) former internet retailer is the reporting requirements are ridiculous. Until my business got so small that I could do it myself, I used to pay an accountant more than I owed in taxes just to do my Washington State sales tax reporting (sad but very true).

In Wa, they require it reported by sales in $'s per zip code (that the product is shipped to). I would think the cost of processing those reports must take away a good chunk of the tax they collect........

DVD Polizei

Yeah, well maybe you're a company who hasn't registered in a state, but still collect it. The state won't know because you aren't registered.

Second, maybe you do the awesome thing and register, but maybe you've accidentally "underreported" your tax paying, but over-collected.

Yeah, we can pretend there are Big Freddy offenses, but as if that's stopped any business from committing crimes.

I'd like a statement from the company that says, just like my employer, at the end of their reporting year, how much taxes they reported and how much they paid to the IRS.

Because all we as consumers get is a receipt for the product, and the sales tax on the receipt, and that's it. Nothing later to verify what was sent to the IRS.

Jay G.

"The state" isn't some monolithic entity, but made up of people. People in that state will know, because they're being charged. People in that state may complain, especially to their state government. Hell, one of the customers may be an actual state tax employee.

Still fraud, and would require some cooking of the books, which likely wouldn't be worth it for trying to skim a fraction of a fraction.

Most companies don't commit crimes. There's exceptions, but they're rare.

Edit: However, the bigger reason why it's unlikely is because collecting tax reflects negatively on the company when compared to competitors that don't. Whatever extra money a criminal company could squirrel away is likely overshadowed by the loss in revenue to other companies that don't collect sales tax for that state.

1. Sales tax isn't reported or paid to the IRS. It's reported and paid to individual states
2. Companies already produce statements and reports for the states they pay out to. It seems ludicrous to think that the average consumer would be better equipped to analyze such a report over the states' tax agencies.

https://www.thebalancesmb.com/how-to...s-taxes-399043

Viper187

What pisses me off is some of them are providing excessively detailed information to states they don't actually collect for. Where the hell is that part of the tax code? I've never seen it.

Jay G.

That might be the "Use Tax Notice and Report Laws" that some states have. More info here:

https://blog.taxjar.com/use-tax-notice-report-laws/
https://blog.taxjar.com/economic-nexus-laws/