Tarantino

It must be, since I work there and have checked the discount myself.

= J

dsa_shea

Cha-ching!

RoyWilbury

My local Best Buy is certainly going to have to do something else to clear out their stock of HD-DVD. They are one of the stores that recently and in fact still currently have just about equal sizes of both HD formats stocked on the shelves. Neither section looks like it gets a lot of purchases, but the HD-DVD section looked like very few units had been moved when I went there today. In fact, it seemed like the HD-DVD section actually had more discs than it did a week or two ago when I was last at the store.

Most discs were $29.99, with some at $24.99 and some at $34.99. Even with the 30% discount and my 10% off coupon I had today, I still couldn't justify picking anything up. As others have mentioned, there are a few new release titles that this discount would work well with. But otherwise, even with the extra 10% off coupon, I would have been paying about $19 (before tax) for titles marked at $29.99 (which are most of them), and something around $16 for titles marked $24.99. I considered picking up "The Bourne Supremacy" since I have the other two films in the series, and I could have got it for about $17.50 or so after tax. But Amazon has it for $13.99 right now.

If they moved to, say, 50% off, that would perhaps entice me to pick up some titles. But if they move everything up to actual list price, that would nearly negate the extra discount. If a title's list price is $39.99 and they currently have it marked at $29.99, then the current 30% sale gets the title down to about $21. But if they raise the title to list price and then discount it 50%, the title would go for $20.

JoN8282

I work there as well and concur - In fact I suspect Tarantino and I have very similar jobs for Best Buy - just on opposite coasts...

Remember... theft isn't always just walking out the door with something... augmenting prices in an unethical manner is just the same... and what else exactly is "magic"...

From what I read... 30% is it... obviously if they don't move at all... plans change, but for now... It's safe to say 30% is it.

RoyWilbury

It probably varies widely from store to store and market to market. At my local store, the stuff has never moved a great deal and if anything seems to be moving even less now even with the 30% off sale (perhaps the "death" of the format is sending away more customers than the 30% off sale is attracting; but this is just a total guess based on anecdotal information of course).

In fact, my local store appears to have finally removed the Toshiba HD-DVD player display (the one that matches the Blu-Ray display, with the player and a display and a rack of movies below it) and replaced the Toshiba HD-DVD players that had been going for under $150 or so with "Combo" players priced at, I believe, $799. That probably doesn't help emptying the HD-DVD software stock (even if the sale would probably be targeted much more at people who already have players than people who might buy a player now even at a cheap price.)

Given that it may be early adopters who would buy HD-DVD software at this point who might be a bit more savvy as to searching for decent prices, I don't think the store is going to move much software that is stickered at $34.99 or $29.99, because it's still more expensive with the 30% off than places like Amazon. If they could get the stuff within $1-$2 of online stores like Amazon, I might just buy some titles at Best Buy rather than online. The stuff doesn't have to literally match or undercut Amazon's price. But as long as Amazon is cheaper even if I go to Best Buy and stack a new cutout sale discount on top of a coupon discount, I think at least at my local store, the stuff won't move much.

I realize that Best Buy still surely moves software at their store despite it usually being priced higher than Amazon, but I think especially when it comes to HD-DVD, the software would perhaps have moved at the higher prices when the more casual/novice consumer bought a player at the store and just bought some software to go along with it, without much knowledge or at least concern about lower pricing online. But most of that type of consumer is gone when it comes to HD-DVD, so I would think it's mostly the early adopter, HD-savvy types buying the stuff (or not buying) at this point.

Come to think of it, I'm wondering if my local store's HD-DVD shelves appeared to be stocked fuller than in the past because they've stuck all of their remaining stock on the shelves to clear it out. Perhaps that's why everything seems more abundant than in the past.

JoN8282

Roy -

Like I said - as of now, they say 30% is it, but you never know what the future holds, obviously plans can change.. and you make extremely valid points. Since I've been here awhile and do post pretty frequently, I am here for the deals lol... not just the heads up.

I agree at this point, If I were in, I'd be trying to get out... not go deeper... I'm actually very surprised the company did not utilize contracts with distributors to send back most of them. It may honestly be a genuine attempt at not completely abandoning customers who may have already bought the player.

I would assume that the "more full" feel to your stores shelves are exactly what you suspect...

Tarantino

I'm actually a Best Buy Mobile Manager - although I used to supervise Media as well.

= J

RoyWilbury

You make an interesting point that makes a lot of sense; they may be trying to keep good will with HD-DVD customers (or at least avoid bad) by not completely removing everything connected to HD-DVD from the stores immediately.

I've heard a lot of reports about masses of people returning HD-DVD players in the last month or two, however long it has been since Warners made their announcement. I don't know how heavy HD-DVD player returns have been at Best Buy, but I would imagine they would only increase if a casual consumer that bought a player and perhaps wasn't up on all of the recent changes went into the store and found no HD-DVD software at all. Then, if somehow they didn't know the particulars about HD-DVD being totally over, they would certainly be made aware of that fact when no stock is there. I suppose the 30% discount might be a tip-off as well, though. Given that, at my local store, they removed the HD-DVD player display, it doesn't look like they are thinking the 30% discount on software will entice anybody to buy an HD-DVD player.

Someone else mentioned the idea of Best Buy eventually selling their stock to another retailer like Amazon. Does that really happen very often? I would think returning material to distributors/manufacturers would be a more common thing. Perhaps that will happen eventually. I don't know what the distributors/manufacturers would then do with all of that remaining stock. Does it seem like even Amazon is actually ordering new stock of HD-DVD at this point? It makes sense that various retailers would just try to sell off stock they already have. But I would have to think that the various studios have a lot of existing stock right now. Where does that stuff usually get dumped when most or all B&M stores aren't ordering it anymore?

Goldberg74

I picked up the 2-disc Beowulf HD-DVD yesterday for about $22. It was a good deal until I checked this morning and Amazon has it for $21 now.

Gizmo

Buy it from Amazon and then return it to Best Buy with your receipt. If its sealed, they'll take it back.

The Cow

Time + effort + gas > $1

Trevor

Plus the Best Buy version has the cool trading cards.

ScissorPuppy

Target is currently selling Beowulf for 19.99. Next time you are at best buy, bring your receipt and tell them you saw it chea
per at Target. They will refund you the difference plus 10%.

Sweet Baby James

Plus you get 22 RZ points.

That'sAllFolks

More than likely it will go to clearance re-sellers. I've bought a lot of stuff off Half and eBay that has CC stickers on them. I bet we'll see a ton of HD DVD stuff on half for 3-4 bucks new. There's a lot of product out there and I doubt most retailers will order more. I'm selling EVERYTHING -- even the movies I got dirt cheap because 1) HD DVD is dead and when my player dies, there goes any replay. 2) I'm almost certain these prices will decrease a lot and I can re-buy later if I want.

I may be wrong, but I don't think I'm too far off.

DVD Polizei

But can't you just transcode an HD DVD movie on a Blu-ray media disc in the future, so it plays on a Blu-ray player? I can't believe we won't see or currently don't have HD software which allows this.

The blank Blu-ray discs are expensive at the moment, but in a few years, they should be pretty cheap. I would imagine HD DVD ROMs will be cheap in the coming months as well for ripping. LG's combo drive is around $300 but I'm waiting for it to drop later this year.

colbyw

Does nobody have a clue???? There is no retailer that will take a loss from a failed industry when those manufacturers/suppliers are still in business. The discounted price will be reimbursed by the manufacturer/studio and they will be the ones to set the discount bar...I laugh everytime I read what you all think you know and how the retailer is trying to rip you off. Oh; and p.s., the manufacturer will also cover the cost of having the product shipped back and the cost of the buyers' purchase because it is a failed market. Yes, HD titles may continue to drop, but it will be the HD suppliers that set that bar, not the retailers.

DVD Polizei

Actually, I don't think you or anyone knows exactly for sure, how the movie studios are reimbursing retailers. If there was a recall on movies, wouldn't you think the retailers would have sent their movies back by now? Some have, but very few from the obvious retailers still having HD DVD in stock.

True, some retailers don't "try to rip us off", they just try to sell a product for as much as they can. Just depends on your definition, but the end result is the same, no? The consumer is still paying more than what the product is worth. And in the case of HD DVD being a discontinued format, it is certainly the case consumers are being given an unclear and vague idea of what a reasonable selling price point is.

So, retailers are currently trying to sell the movies they have ABOVE the reimbursement amount if they were to send all their product back.

I'm still not sure where you get your idea of a manufacturer paying for shipping back to them and the cost of the buyer's purchase because it's a failed product. That's the risk buyers make. You win some, you lose some. Some reimbursements will be made, but you make it sound like the buyer has virtually no risk. Well, they do.

You cannot tell me if a buyer purchases an HD DVD player at a cost of $120, and months later the HD DVD player is now reduced to $99, that the buyer will be credited $21. That's just ridiculous. I've never seen such a situation. Prices flunctuate just like the stock market, and like the stock market, a buyer for a company makes decisions on how it will last and what risks there are for the product losing its value over a period of time.

JoN8282

Tarantino: CA Sup Here

Roy: My store experienced very high returns on HD-DVD, way more returns then sales... our direction from cooperate was to sell these returns as up convert dvd-players with "hd-dvd playback" - they don't want us clearing these out to people who don't keep up with the news... I know everyone likes to think big companies are evil... but honestly any news, memos, or literature they hand down on this matter is totally about not screwing the customer. I don't know about actually selling to amazon as they are in fact one of our largest competitors, but many times what they call "sideways sale" does occur... the last big one was last september we mandated our own digital tv transition, and no longer sold any tvs that would need a converter box, what we didn't manage to clearance out (who knew the demand for tubes just wasnt there lol) - was actually sent off somewhere in bulk - price unknown.

DVD Polizei - I'd rather not get into specific detail on this, but vendors subsidizing price changes is a common occurrence in this industry... and in electronics for that matter. Typically on many items the vendor subsidizes a sale or price drop, and the retailer may add on more savings... to then create a massive savings for the customer, to drive traffic to the store.