If it is, they sure don't seem to enforce it much. Over half of the mailboxes at one USPS location I use in Michigan are rented to Canadians (at least that's what the ladies there tell me). I declare most of my purchases, but in 25 years of routine trips (every 2-3 weeks) across the border, I've been pulled in less than five times to pay duties/taxes. Up to them, I suppose.

More interesting are the U.S. "parcel pickup" depots that cater exclusively to Canadians. U.S. border cities seem to be littered with them. Some of the ones in Niagara Falls, New York -- closest to Toronto and therefore very popular -- seem like licenses to print money (in the form of $3-$5 per parcel 'holding fees'). They're packed to the rafters with parcels headed north. Crazy lineups, too, at least when the dollar was nearly at par.



Americans buying from Canada certainly helps our economy these days (especially once they realize just how much their dollar is worth right now). Not sure about the reverse, though -- in particular shipping to U.S. post boxes, which I think is what Pizza was referring to?? -- since duties/taxes in general seem to be waived or ignored on massive amounts of stuff both shipped into Canada or purchased (and declared) on trips to the states. But that's hardly the fault of the shoppers. Spending limits and customs agents are both rather generous, in my experience. Cross-border shopping -- especially when the currencies were nearly at par for the past year or more -- did few favors for Canadian retailers, particularly in border cities, but Canada tends to suffer by comparison in selection and pricing so a lot of folks go elsewhere for it. These days, however, everything is back in favour of American shoppers, as proven (and yet oddly derided from some quarters) earlier in this thread.

I ordered a few of the cheaper Kino Studio titles available in this U.S. sale (Satan Bug, Truck Turner, Report to the Commisioner, Black Sabbath, Crimson Cult, Hornet's Next), but with the unfriendly exchange rate, I may wish I'd held off.

Thanks...been waiting on a price drop for Throne of Atlantis!

Me too.

This all becomes moot once Canada becomes the 53rd and 54th states in 2078.

I'm not entirely against that. Well, except for the guns maybe . . .

Nice. I've been meaning to pick up Batman Vs. Robin. Glad I held off.

You also have a more rational health care system!

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Not exactly bargains but:

Sherlock: Season 1 [Blu-ray] $22.99 [previous low $19.28]

Sherlock: Season 2 [Blu-ray] $22.99 [previous low $19.58]

Sherlock: Season 3 (Blu-ray) (Original UK Version) $22.99

Amazon is matching Best Buy I think.


For those who missed the Black Friday bargain:

Person of Interest: Season 3 [BD + DVD] $16.99

Are there US versions on blu ray (and no, I don't mean Elementary)? I thought the only US blu ray versions were the UK ones.

I always wait until the DC animated stuff hits 10 bucks or less. It always does at some point or another. It's just a waiting game.

If I don't find a Steelbook at Target, then I'll wait for it to drop to $10.

Have import taxes changed in Canada? For many years my Canadian customers asked me to value packages at no more than $9.99 USD or they would get dinged badly.

A couple USA elections back, a new map was all over the internet: "The United States Of Canada & Jesusland".

The USOC was all of Canada & the USA West Coast & East Coast other than Florida. Jesusland was the rest of the USA.

I like the concept (live in Washington State), USA west coast.

Never saw that before, but it's hilarious, and with the exception of Quebec up here -- which would probably want to be its own country -- it does seem to reflect certain realities.

I see now why most of my time in the U.S. has been so pleasant. I've largely been limited to the states of Michigan and New York. I haven't ventured into Jesusland much since I was a child.


It has its advantages, and it was championed by Kiefer Sutherland's grandfather (true story!) and implemented here when the population was about two-thirds what it is now -- but I can see where providing something similar to a population ten times the size of ours would be an uphill struggle.

.

I believe that you are correct that only the UK versions are on BD. My understanding is that PBS sometimes trims the UK series it broadcasts, to fit different time slots or to make them a bit less risqué, given the severe censorship constraints in the USA for broadcast TV (but not cable, of course). It makes sense that the only versions on BD would usually be the UK originals.

Me too. I got price alerts from Camelx3 about these, but when I realized they were matching Best Buy's prices, decided to get from there to earn more points and use up the $5 certificate I already had (I had to find a filler to get free shipping, since some were online only deals). Will wait for Gods and Monsters to get to this price too.

Some Olive titles are "50%" off at $14.99

COFFY
FRIDAY FOSTER
THING WITH TWO HEADS
HAMMER

There may be others. Only noticed these so far. They should probably be lower considering how barebones they are, but still . . .

CINCO DE MAYO
CRIMINAL LAW
STREET SMART
MEAN SEASON
SHE DEVIL ($0.50 more)

That said, I will rarely splurge on Olive titles - no idea about the appeal of this label that does not spend any money on restoration/clean up/extras. All they do is slap the HD master from the studio with dirt, grime, specks, scratches et al onto a 25GB BD and release it at a boutique label price. On principle, these setups like Olive shouldn't be encouraged. Find that to be true of Kino as well. Its as if they are doing the world a favor by throwing stuff onto a bluray disc. Even at $14.99, these are at least $5 overpriced

I agree with most of what you're saying, -all of their stuff is over-priced, but I'll cut a little more slack to Kino, -at least some of their selections contain some decent extras (and those are the ones I'm more willing to order).

While their prices aren't the greatest, Olive's Blu-rays have been pretty decent if you don't care about special features. They are releasing movies that simply wouldn't hit Blu-ray from any other distributor.

I would agree; Olive tends to be over priced even at 1/2 off; & it's a crime how they're handling the Betty Boop blu-ray's. The old Republic VHS box set is still the best Boop collection out there, & yes I DID say VHS...........

IMO, Kino has gone significantly downhill since the merger with or purchase by Lorber (whichever it was).

Given a choice on the same title at similar pricing, I'll usually go with MOC, & also a lot of Kino's choices of titles over the last year have not been up to their previous standards.

I was happy to get Witness To Murder & Quartermass each well under $8 shipped on blu, but that's about what they're worth.

I can understand dumping on Olive, especially with regards to supplements. In cases where a superior, features-rich U.K. Edition of an Olive title exists, that's the one I end up getting. As for Kino, though, I can't share most of the prevailing sentiment here (well, except for DWilson's), as I've been deeply satisfied with the MANY of the special editions I've purchased from their catalog. QUATERMASS, in fact, was one of their best special editions yet. Eight dollars was a great price, and I paid a little over $13 but would gladly have gone higher if necessary, and the title would still be worth it. Even a lowly-regarded personal favourite like CONVOY came loaded with a good three to four hours of bonus features! Other Kino titles may only have a commentary and trailer, but once was the time when people around these parts were often quite happy with such "special editions" from the majors, especially if the commentary track was particularly enlightening.

The fact that many of the Kino titles had NOTHING (save maybe a trailer) when their own studio MGM put them out years ago -- often in non-anamorphic widescreen -- or, worse, when MGM never bothered putting them on pressed discs at all, opting instead to dump them unceremoniously into their MOD wasteland in the dying days of physical media, speaks volumes about what Kino has given us. And every time I see new pre-orders up from Kino, I'm amazed at some of the titles they're willing to take a chance on this late in the game, even more so when they round up new special features to sweeten the deal. That, plus the current sale prices at Amazon U.S. coupled with the even-superior-prices-for-Americans pricing at the earlier Amazon Canada sale (both of which deserve to be semi-annual events, or better yet, permanent pricing!) will forever keep me from lumping Kino in with the likes of Olive, which truly charges premium pricing for virtually nothing.

Just this weekend I picked up what appear, so far, to be very nice special editions for TRUCK TURNER (director commentary, New Beverly Q&A, radio spot, trailer from hell, trailer), CRIMSON CULT (commentary with Barbara Steele, two interviews, two trailers) DERANGED (new, unrated version of the film, TWO commentaries, producer interview, trailer) and BLACK SABBATH (Tim Lucas commentary and trailer; admittedly slim, but the other version of this one also has special features as I recall).

In fairness, I also picked up REPORT TO THE COMMISIONER, which appears to have zero supplements, but the fact that it's on Blu at all, and so cheap at the moment, is justification enough for me,

I'm assuming Kino/LORBER is getting the licenses for these films dirt cheap.

Please let us know if there's enough of an upgrade on Black Sabbath & Crimson Cult to justify purchase. I would personally be more interested in a quality print that blows away all previous editions than in extras.

Exactly my requirement as well. No scratches, no dirt, no specks...cleaned up video and audio like Criterion does. if Criterion can sell a few times a year for 50% off for all the work they do, no reason why these other setups cannot. some Olive and Kino titles are deplorable in quality and am yet to find a title in their catalog that blows you away on the PQ

Olive and Kino Lorber don't do their own transfers, that's why...they're stuck with whatever they're provided by the studio. Twilight Time is also stuck with whatever transfer a studio provides.

Companies like Criterion are involved with their transfers.