I just wanted to mention a very pleasant experience I had with MovieStop in Maryland. There are only 2 B&M stores at this time here, but apparently GoHastings bought the chain last November. They are stocking the stores with GoHastings used product.

They are also running a few decent deals. When I was there on 5/29, it was buy 3 used, get the 4th used item free. The fourth item was not the overall cheapest item, just the fourth cheapest item. So, if you bought 5 discs and the last disc was $1.99, they did not count the $1.99 as your free one.

Second, they have a store subscription card. For $15, you get 1 year of Entertainment Weekly, 10% off purchases, +10% on trade-ins, and 20% off your first purchase.

The used prices were hit or miss. Recent product was $14.99-$17.99, but I picked up the 4 disc Fantasia for $27.99 and Diamond Bambi for $14.99 (pre-discounts), among others.

If you have a MovieStop in your area, it may be worth checking out.

Good hunting!

Where in MD? I'm not in that area, but I visit frequently.

Towson and Halethorpe, I was told.

I've had the card for 2 years and doubt I will repurchase next time.

With all the movement to Hastings style stores I don't buy anything in there anymore.

Half the store is merch now. Mostly vinyl and $20 action figures.
All the Blurays are crammed into a small section on the wall and the dvds are now on shelves that are 7 feet high maybe 8.
Like walking through a maze that you can't see over the top of.

I know I haven't spent enough on used to get my $15 back.

I gotta agree...I discovered MovieStop in Florida last year and I loved it....one of the local stores even had a Scream Factory endcap which was awesome....and then they got bought by GoHastings....hasn't been the same....Can't stand that all the movies/tv shows are all crammed and can only see the spines. Really sucks now.

It's true - half the store is comic book merch, action figures, and related stuff. At the store in Towson, used blu ray product was about a 25'-30' section. The back-half of the store was all DVDs - about 2/3 used, 1/3 new.

Yeah unfortunately MS is dead to me now. I have been shopping at mine for probably 9-10 years and was doing trade ins and reserves all the time. I haven't shopped there since the takeover. I read on another board that trade in values took a nose dive as well. Shame.

And yet I still have neither chain near me. GAH!

I hate the switch to more memorabilia and crap like that taking away room for movies but to be fair I read that trade-in values bounced way back to really fair values after stores made the switch to the Hastings point of sales systems. So if your store has already made the transition it may be worth checking it out

Lots of reports of MovieStop closing nationwide. This sucks for me as it was my favorite place to check out used DVD's/Bluray's. I will admit I hated when GoHastings came in and changed everything up, condensing the space where all the movies were and took up space with lots of other items instead.

I guess they've already started liquidating their stores.

Yup the word came down on Friday. Not surprised, and cant say I will miss them much. I went from going once a week, to maybe 2-3 times total after Hastings took over and turned it into Spencers Gifts.

The number of locations to purchase movies is slowly but surely being whittled down. At least Best Buy seems to have halted their strategic withdrawal from selling media.

I am going to miss them. Let's face it, in the realm of blu-ray bargains their trade in 3 get a new release blu-ray reservation for free deal was as good as it gets.

For what it's worth, their current liquidation deals were 30% off used blu-rays/dvds, 20% off new blu-rays/dvds, and it looked like 10-20% off most of the other crap in the store when I went in today.

I went into my local store today, and malazar's price reductions were in effect at mine as well. Their prices on used titles are still just a bit much. The Transporter Refueled isn't worth the $19.49, even with 30% off. When they start to hit 50% off used, I might go back.

I used to have a lot of luck finding nice used criterion deals back in the day but once they started stocking all that crap I haven't seen once since.....