Originally Posted by GenPion

This is absolutely crazy if this turns out to be true. Man, I never imagined in a million years that this could be why cheap $6 and $3 sets were showing up at Big Lots. Unbelievable. I guess we'll wait and see what happens.

I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping this isn't true and that all our Big Lots continue to gets new waves of DVD's. Of course, everything sounds (to me) like the lawsuit corresponds to our Big Lots blowouts so I really don't know what to think right now. I never imagined myself unknowingly buying stolen goods. Jeez. Of course, It's not our fault -- we are consumers, purchasing a product, and the blame goes on the people who had poor mismanagement for something like this to have occurred in the first place.

Originally Posted by WMAangel

I think we might now know why all these sets are so cheap:
They were supposed to be destroyed!
Read the whole article here from The Hollywood Reporter!:

July 29, 2009
Warner Bros. lawsuit claims $10 million loss in brazen DVD theft

By Matthew Belloni

The home video arm of Warner Bros. has filed a $10 million lawsuit against a company the studio says agreed to destroy 2 million surplus DVDs but instead turned around and sold them on the cheap.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Agoura Hills-based IWMB, Inc. and its president, Cal Jones, were subcontracted to dispose of the excess Warner Home Video DVDs and Blu-Rays but intead hawked them to a third party who put them on the market at discount prices that significantly undercut legit retailers. At least 750,000 of the stolen units were sold and 250,000 remain unaccounted for, according to the lawsuit.

Studios periodically destroy excess DVD product, which consists of unsold discs returned from vendors and defective goods. Here, WHV says it entrusted the product to Cinram Distribution, which has a deal with Warners to handle excess inventory (and which, surprisingly, is not a defendant). Cinram subcontracted with IWMB, which is alleged to have shown Warners a "fraudulent certificate of destruction" before going out and selling the DVDs and Blu-Rays on its own.

"The resale of the Warner Product at prices that undercut the prevailing wholesale and retail prices resulted in a substantial loss of revenue to WHV, believed to exceed $10 million," the complaint says. WHV alleges fraud, conversion and violation of California's business code. It seeks punitive damages as well as an injunction against further sale of the stolen product.

Neither IWMB nor Jones could be reached for comment.

Warners is repped in the case by White O'Connor partners Andrew White and David Fink and associate Hajir Ardebili."

Originally Posted by dx23

If the story turns out to be legit, then it explains the appeareance of the Best Buy exclusive of Appleseed steelbook at Big Lots. Still, I don't agree with what Warner did with this overstock, which is probably similar to what all the studios did with the HD-DVDs. It's sad and stupid that studios prefer to loss money by paying companies to destroy their unsold stock than to sell those to the masses at a minimal profit. Believe it or not, those DVDs bought at Big Lots at those cheap prices have cause great joy to a lot of people right now around the country. Those seasons sets, cartoons and films are a great distraction to many of the economic issues that are going on.

Originally Posted by Alan Smithee

Just plain stupid that more could be gained overall by destroying these than selling them. At the very least why not keep them in the warehouses for 20 years until someone does buy them at the price they want to sell them at? What if this stuff goes out of print later?

It was speculated the same thing was going to happen to the unsold HD-DVD stock after the format died, since more money could be made writing it off than selling it- thankfully at least a good amount of cheap stock still got out, allowing me to build a good collection.

Originally Posted by dx23

If the story turns out to be legit, then it explains the appeareance of the Best Buy exclusive of Appleseed steelbook at Big Lots. Still, I don't agree with what Warner did with this overstock, which is probably similar to what all the studios did with the HD-DVDs. It's sad and stupid that studios prefer to loss money by paying companies to destroy their unsold stock than to sell those to the masses at a minimal profit. Believe it or not, those DVDs bought at Big Lots at those cheap prices have cause great joy to a lot of people right now around the country. Those seasons sets, cartoons and films are a great distraction to many of the economic issues that are going on.

Originally Posted by ADP

... Honestly I like the old WB classics more than the sets thus far. Can't beat G-Men, Each Dawn I Die, The Roaring Twenties, and a few others for $3 when Amazon has them priced at $17.99 + shipping

Originally Posted by cracksky

Welcome to the madness!

Which stores did you hit in Richmond, VA? I mapped out a plan to hit the 6 main stores in the area soon (from D.C.) but if they don't have much I may scrap it for now.

There have been sporadic $3 boxes found at Woodbridge and Sterling and some more at District Heights, MD. No $10 sets in the area that I've come across.

Originally Posted by xage

The Bestbuy exclusive comes with an exclusive ID book the one from Big Lots is the coomon steelbook release.

Originally Posted by WMAangel

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Agoura Hills-based IWMB, Inc. and its president, Cal Jones, were subcontracted to dispose of the excess Warner Home Video DVDs and Blu-Rays but intead hawked them to a third party who put them on the market at discount prices that significantly undercut legit retailers. At least 750,000 of the stolen units were sold and 250,000 remain unaccounted for, according to the lawsuit.

"The resale of the Warner Product at prices that undercut the prevailing wholesale and retail prices resulted in a substantial loss of revenue to WHV, believed to exceed $10 million," the complaint says. WHV alleges fraud, conversion and violation of California's business code. It seeks punitive damages as well as an injunction against further sale of the stolen product.

Originally Posted by jones

It baffles me that a company would pay another company to destroy something.

Hey, we already lost a bunch of money making too many DVD's. Why don't we loose a bunch more money paying to ship truckloads of DVD's and loose a bunch more paying someone to destroy them.

I must be in the wrong line of work.

I feel like the biggest trash digger right now...

Originally Posted by WMAangel

I think we might now know why all these sets are so cheap:
They were supposed to be destroyed!
Read the whole article here from The Hollywood Reporter!:

http://www.thresq.com/2009/07/warner...t-lawsuit.html

Apparently a subcontracted company entrusted to dispose of excess inventory instead turned around and sold them "to a third party" (I'm guessing this possibly could be Big Lots or whoever supplies them), so now Warner is suing them!!

EDIT: Here is the full article for those too lazy to click:

"July 29, 2009
Warner Bros. lawsuit claims $10 million loss in brazen DVD theft

By Matthew Belloni

The home video arm of Warner Bros. has filed a $10 million lawsuit against a company the studio says agreed to destroy 2 million surplus DVDs but instead turned around and sold them on the cheap.

The complaint, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Agoura Hills-based IWMB, Inc. and its president, Cal Jones, were subcontracted to dispose of the excess Warner Home Video DVDs and Blu-Rays but intead hawked them to a third party who put them on the market at discount prices that significantly undercut legit retailers. At least 750,000 of the stolen units were sold and 250,000 remain unaccounted for, according to the lawsuit.

Studios periodically destroy excess DVD product, which consists of unsold discs returned from vendors and defective goods. Here, WHV says it entrusted the product to Cinram Distribution, which has a deal with Warners to handle excess inventory (and which, surprisingly, is not a defendant). Cinram subcontracted with IWMB, which is alleged to have shown Warners a "fraudulent certificate of destruction" before going out and selling the DVDs and Blu-Rays on its own.

"The resale of the Warner Product at prices that undercut the prevailing wholesale and retail prices resulted in a substantial loss of revenue to WHV, believed to exceed $10 million," the complaint says. WHV alleges fraud, conversion and violation of California's business code. It seeks punitive damages as well as an injunction against further sale of the stolen product.

Neither IWMB nor Jones could be reached for comment.

Warners is repped in the case by White O'Connor partners Andrew White and David Fink and associate Hajir Ardebili."

Originally Posted by MooMooMooMoo

What's really weird about this is that traditionally overstock/returns, etc are sold by the labels to cutout wholesalers who then sell them to retailers at a substantial discount from regular wholesale.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Originally Posted by broyfan

Have been visiting my local biglots in portland, or a couple times a week now in search of blu rays and yesterday I showed up at 9am when they opened and they had 5 copies of smallville s7 on blu ray! Other good finds i picked up was the Wonder Woman Collection seasons 123 for $6. I found that odd because they had a wonder woman season 3 sitting there by itself for $6. Also found Justice League Collection. They also had several copies of smallville season 4 dvd, roots, life goes on, west wing, jamie foxx show and joey. So all who are after blu rays don't lose hope because they are still showing up in stores!