Anything new spotted? Any of these on sale?

Golden Girls S3/S4 is $25 this week at Target, a drop from the $14.99 price point that the rest of the seasons are going for. But my local Best Buy has all the seasons of the show for $11.99, meaning it's cheaper to buy them separately there and be done with it.

Oh, and it seems that the Commish and Renegade are also getting Complete Series runs in the latter part of 2010, so save your cash on the double packs and wait to get the entire run. Apparently Mill Creek is playing the odds by putting out the re-releases then getting more cash out of people who want to finish the run. Save your money and wait, so it seems.

Not sure about all the others, but Tales from the Crypt S1/S2 & S3/S4 are $17.99 at my Target this week.

A year ago the $19.99 sets were 25% off, bought several. Now they're 10% off. Not much of a deal, really.

I'll share some twisted logic I overheard at San Diego Comicon. In 2009, some dealers had tradepaperback collections for only $5. This year the lowest price was half off cover, or about $9 or higher. People were buying about as much as last year by my observation, yet when asked, the dealer said he'd only have a $5 sale again when the economy got better. It appears Target is following this same logic.

Am I wrong to think a merchant would have lower prices to boost sales in order to move more merchandise if the economy was "bad"? And if people are buying items at higher prices, isn't the economy better than "bad"?

I thought this as well: the economy sucks, so they figure they can lessen the sales so they can keep people buying but limit the losses. I'm guessing they're tightening the sales so they can continue the Black Friday sales so they can make their nut for the year. When they finally start not selling a lot of stock, they will start cutting prices deeply so they can get rid of stock.

Sure it is. It may not be the BEST price it's ever been but a 2 season pack of Tales from the Crypt for 17.99 is a fine deal. It's not a bad deal at 19.99.

I paid $19.99 just last week and I still think it's an amazing price!

I don't know their reasons, but maybe they figure they only do "loss leaders" in good times when they think the consumer will also end up buying more regular items on the trip to the store. When the chance of that is low, they expect less volume and don't bother with loss leaders.

If people are worried about their own finances, many of them will swear off "luxury" items period. They aren't going to trade show conventions and they aren't cruising the aisles of Target looking for DVDs. Instead, they're saying, I am out of work or I might be out of work and I can't be buying stuff like this. So reducing prices to any level where the retailer can still show a profit won't boost sales that much.

The people who are buying in this environment are people who are either hard core collectors or people who aren't that concerned about their own finances. The former group will buy because they are strongly motivated to buy and the latter aren't the sort to bargain shop. So again, reducing prices won't persuade these people to spend that much more than they would have anyway.

I think Silverscreenvid has a point. While I don't personally know any people struggling, I hear about them all the time so they obviously exist. It makes sense if you're struggling that you probably wouldn't buy "luxury" items (including DVDs or Blu-Rays) even at much lower prices, so dealers figure the "rich" will still buy and they'll make up for the lower quantity purchased by extracting more out of the rich with higher prices. Could be. Normally when prices go up, demand and quantity sold go down, but lots of things don't follow logic lately. I usually don't think of DVDs and Blu-Rays as luxury items... simply discretionary spending "wants".

I'm very price conscious so I only buy at cheap prices regardless how the economy is doing as long as I continue to have a little extra money. I'm not rich nor a hardcore collector. I continue to be amazed every time I frequently see someone buy a $20 new release DVD (or $25 Blu-Ray) at Walmart.

When it comes to why Blu-Ray hasn't "taken off" like DVD did, that is incredibly easy, and I have a few pieces of anecdotal evidence to support it. Going from VHS or laserdisc to DVD was a huge step up in quality and convenience (small discs) and the price became reasonable within a few years, so almost everyone bought them until they reached "saturation". Blu-Ray however only offers a moderate step-up in video quality on the same size disc at a higher price right now. Since most people (even well off people I know) aren't videophiles, they are not going to rebuy Blu-Rays to replace the DVDs they already have just for better resolution when good upscaling players make DVDs look reasonable. I know a guy who makes a huge amount of money (compared to me) and thinks nothing of buying the latest Apple product every time one comes out (iPhone, iPad, etc.), but he won't touch a $10 Blu-Ray of his favorite movie because he has a huge DVD collection and says "DVD is good enough for me". I pass on most Blu-Ray deals not because "DVD is good enough for me" (i.e., I prefer Blu-Ray picture quality) but because Blu-Ray is not THAT much better than DVD to justify paying $10+ on what I already own. $5 is my DVD to Blu-Ray upgrade price point and apart from a few sales last year, we aren't at that price yet.

So, that is why I believe Blu-Ray and any other HD format will have sales that pale in comparison to DVD... there's just not enough incentive to upgrade until Blu-Ray becomes dirt cheap.

One more thing while I'm in a "blabby" mood, on the subject of the Target TV sets, I want a few things like Get Smart S3 & S4 to go along with S1 & S2 I got for $14.99 last year. I saw that pack on the shelf for $17.99 and said "no, I'll wait for $14.99 like last year"... made that much easier by the fact I haven't opened my first set and am not compelled to buy it now.

I picked up Tales from The Crypt S1/S2 yesterday for $17.99. I'll pick up S3/S4 in a month or so if they are on sale again. Like someone previously mentioned, $19.99 is already a great deal for two complete seasons. The sale just gives me more incentive to buy them.

Has anyone ever seen a S5/S6 pack?

They are $17.99 again. Just picked up Tales From the Crypt Seasons 3/4 for the October Horror Movie Challenge.

Lol i was bamboozled i bought a That 70's show season 5 and 6 pack thinking it was the box sets considering it came in a big box but when i open it up its the slim sets surrounded by multiple cardboard pieces to fill the box. I gotta assume they only did that to fool someone like me who likes the box sets of shows.

They do that so you can put the seasons you already bought in the box with those. A nice way for people who bought the individual sets to still get the compete series box.

Unless you bought this

http://www.target.com/That-70s-Show-...n&frombrowse=0

and paid $133, then yeah I would say you were bamboozled.

The Target in Idaho Falls, ID rarely gets any of the $20 two-packs... I did get an I DREAM OF JEANNIE and a GILLIGAN'S ISLAND there but other than that I rarely see any of the sets that everyone else seems to see.

Still seems weird considering the front only says Season 5 and 6 to have it where you can add to it. Seems silly.

^It's more likely because they're using a box size was created for the "old" style package. Now they're out of that package and only have the slim packs. Rather than pay for having a new size created (plus throwing out the ones they have) they just add filler. While it seems counter-productive and more expensive it can work out to less depending on the expense of the "fill' material.

Every BluRay in my collection is one I bought second-hand at pawn shops for $5-10 each. I've not found one priced 'new' yet that I'd even think about buying (apart from when Amazon had Dark Knight for $8.99, but I didn't have enough other items to qualify for free shipping before the promo ended). It's gotten to where $8.00 is my cutoff price for buying used BluRays, and even then, that's only for ones I really want.

These same pawn shops are selling used DVDs for $1.50-$2.00 each, as a comparison.

Even with those prices, though, I don't think a whole lot of people are buying all that much from what I've seen. Average people (i.e. non-collectors) are probably just renting Redbox and not buying much at all (except kids' movies).

mythmaker18, thanks for the suggestion on pawn shops. A couple other people have told me the same thing. The trouble is there are no pawn shops near any of the stores I normally visit, so I guess if I get some time I need to search on Google maps to find a few and then drive out of my normal paths. I guess I'm not too hopeful of finding one with good prices and a good selection in my area. If pawn shops were universally great for buying BDs, I think people would be talking about them more often.

I've actually never set foot in a pawn shop in my life, so it would be interesting to see if they are like what I've seen in the movies (you know, the poorly lit store with the tough guy owner with tatoos and a shotgun behind the counter, and a bunch of stol... I mean legitimate merchandise, where if you trade in something like a $2000 diamond ring they'll offer you $100 and turn around and sell it for full price). That's what Hollywood has taught me about pawn shops, and I know Hollywood would never lie or exaggerate. :-) Seriously, though, I'll try to go to one someday and see what it's really like.

Almost all of my buys recently are from the pawn shops here locally. Just the other week they had all regular DVD's 1.69 (usually 2 bucks a pop), box sets are always 7.99, and the older OOP Disney stuff are 5 a piece if they have any at the time. I'm not sure what they sell Blu Ray for as I don't have a BR player yet.

Target had American Dad V3/V4 and Family Guy V3/V4 double packs for $9.99 each. I did not scan them so not sure if it's an error.

Found and picked up "M*A*S*H" S5/S6 two-pack for $19.99. They still had copies of the S3/S4 two-pack but I didn't see any S1/S2 sets or shelf space/markers.

Still waiting on "Everybody Loves Raymond" S7 to show up for ~$10... I still don't understand why that one was skipped over on the ELR two-packs.

I think Videoeta.com mentioned something about a double pack of either S6-S7 or S7-S8 coming out soon for Raymond.