Note that I make mention of the word relative market value, so it doesn't really matter if Ebay or half.com is a seller's forum or not (which I agree that they are).

Let me also state that I don't absolutely rely on this method alone - really only when it involves OOP/rare and certain limited edition titles.

Unless the trade involves budget priced titles, a 1:1 trade involving single movie titles usually suffices for me, provided they are not OOP nor Criterions.

Ebay is a "seller's market." In addition, it's an auction. People (a large number) gets caught up in the auction fever. IMHO, it is not an all indicative of what the fair market value really is.

One more comment, and I'll close. Anyone who buys DVDs from Ebay needs to seek immediate psychiatric help.

Bynum - read my post.

It's all relative.

Especially when you average out final auction values of multiple auctions and throw out the ones suffering from "auction fever", as I do. And by the way, I also use relative list prices on half.com as another guide, but not as a rule.

As for buying on Ebay, although I would much rather conduct business here due to the frustration factor there, I disagree with you if you know when to bid and what to bid.

^^

There was an article in a local paper about how a mail carrier was caught dumping a bag of mail in a dumpster! He was caught, but just think about how many times he might have done it before he was caught! Who knows how many others were doing it? No wonder some of the DVDs I am expecting have not showed up yet!

And what's up with traders that want equal number of DVDs for a box set? For example, I asked one trader about Buffy Season Two (a six DVD collection), and they wanted 6 DVDs in return for it! Locally, I can get Buffy Season 2 for under $60 Canadian. Depending on the value of the DVDs in the trade, I would expect to trade 2 higher priced, or 3 lower priced DVDs. But six! And this was not one trader! It has happened a couple of times. Does that mean that I should try to get 2 movies for double DVDs like AI, Unbreakable, etc? Some people are looking for every opportunity to rip you off....

This MSRP vs. "Market Value" stuff has been discussed before. Usually I go by MSRPs if I don't feel like researching the "worth" of the disk. The budget and older titles can be easily spotted that way for instance. However, if a deal isn't made right off the bat, then I go off and compare practically everything. I think I actually overdo it sometimes. Kinda fun though, its like shopping without spending the money and possibly getting something via trade . I find it amazing how many people who think a movie is worth so much more for reasons other than OOP, and to some extent Criterion. I guess the Beautiful Mind example up there is a good one, the guy apparently thinks its worth so much more since its so "new". Although titles are usually ARE hotter while new, that usually doesn't last long. If you weren't "Hot" about the movie enough to simply go buy it, then why wouldn't you just pass on a offer that you give 2 of your titles for it and wait till its not so hot. I do remember the old days of trading though where an SE was rather rare and usually commanded more for it, but that was simply because of the difference in content. Hell, most early titles were released with the extras that budget titles have now. The Sealed vs non sealed arguement is kinda funny too. I would rather someone open up the disk and stick something inside to protect it that send me something sealed. I gues the sealed are supposed to be worth more so people can go off and exchange them locally if a store will do that for them. I think someone else said it earlier that trading was a whole lot easier a couple years ago. I'm never out to shortchange anyone, but I don't want to get shortchanged either. I will say that I luckily haven't been insulted during talks about a trade and I even had to deal with Anime_Guy for those of you who remember him before he was banned. OOPs i said a name huh?

Anime Guy!?!?! Hah! what a... I won't say it! That dude is something else, thank God I never liked anime therefore I never bothered with his posts. He has now been effectively banned from the Dvdfile trading forum and u have to read his unhinged babblings there, I was rolling on the floor! That dude can really work a room and a forum too! I didn't realize he was banned from here.
I agree with Dvdave also on the fact that sealed or not sealed has the same allure as Ricardo Montalban saying Real Corinthian leather! What's a Corinthian? Leather is leather me thinks. As reiterated earlier here, I love the ones that say only viewed once! How can someone tell, is there rings on the dvd that let u tell how often it's been viewed? A tachometer maybe?
I just saw a post on one of the sites where the guy has literally 8 conditions that u must adhere to if u are going to buy from him:
No paypal! No emailing!
No haggling! No cigarette smoking on my post!
No small children!!

Give me a break! I skipped the post real fast, just left it in the dust! I thought about sending him an email saying " Hold on, hold on, I'm not really sure I'm getting this but do u mean No paypal or no money? Do u mean, like, no emails but I can phone u? wait, hold on! how about... lol!

i'm now not accepting any form of payments for my dvd sales. i also only sell to people who are predominate leftys, write poetry and know how to whistle really loud but only when they see a pretty lady with fishnet stockings while working on the job as a construction worker. They must also have that metal lunch pail with them while they work. If not, they can move on to the next trader.

So, u knew it was your post I was talking about, S?

I definitely think I am done trading for awhile. I made a couple of trades this past week. Things are changing though. It must have been the summer thing... who knows. Anywho, my trading, at least at this moment, is going to be very limited for a while.

I have spoken with a couple of other people and they are actually done permanently. I guess the trading BS that comes along with trading sometimes is worse than it used to be. I dunno.

But I will post occasionally. I pretty much have all of the main wants... although I will never be done collecting.

Happy trading to all!

I feel the same way. First of all, there is not much that I want anymore. I have ebayed a bunch of my DVDs that I didn't want, and I got enough money to pay for all of my wants (most of them anyway). Secondly, it seems like more and more traders have a chip on their shoulders. Whatever happened to being polite? I will probably post every now and then, but nothing like I was doing over the summer....

I used to say i was done permanently about first of the year, then I browsed and found a few titles I wanted and the addiction began again . I do more of just going out and buying a DVD on a good best buy sale now instead of waiting for a trade for it. Like I've said before, people want double the disks they get for one of theirs if its new and its just worth it for me to buy it. I keep it sealed until I get around to watching it in case I do get a trade worked out for it (hedging my bets), but ultimately it works out that someone offer after I watched it . Also, I've found over the years that patience definitely IS a virtue in this case. I can wait another month or so if I have to to get the movie somewhere used or something if need be. Presently, my want list is fairly short, although each day closer to christmas adds to that list, there are simply too many titles coming up that I'd like to get and not enough dough. Luckily the sale are getting better on the new releases. Ebay, at present, is a buyer's market, therefore, I'm holding onto my titles until the market picks up if I decide to go that route. I've had titles for a good while that turned a very decent trade out of the blue anyway, so i have no problem holding onto them for awhile.
Yeah panayoti , the strange thing about Anime_Guy was that (at least when I looked) he never had any Anime...lol. The english was bad, but he was definitely good for a laugh...lol. Speaking of listing trades he hadn't recieved yet, he was really bad about that. I did a few pity trades with him when he looked very desperate and actually came out ahead. Poor guy, you never want to come off as desperate.....
I'll admit to having a chip on my shoulder , but at least I'm polite....well mostly I try to subliminally insult people, kinda like the Fight Club movie editing scene Seriously though, I just do this for fun. If it gets to where it no longer is any fun, I won't do it, i'll just buy the damn things. If I looked at the time I spend doing this, I'd probably come to my senses and do that anyway. I've usually found that if I wait, I'll run across my wanted titles anyway in a used shop somewhere. I just like matching a disk that I ran across that I remember seeing on someone's want list with one on my want list. Kinda like a puzzle. I usually avoid the people who aren't reasonable. Unfortunately, that list is getting longer, but there are some really good traders on here that I'd not hesitate to make a trade with.
BTW guys, there will be no smoking in my posts, or 100 feet from the entrances of the posts, from now on.....

I agree with Bill, Movieking, and especially DVDave. Politeness is very important and tact equally so. It's amazing how when u go out of your way to be nice and flexible, that 99% of the time others will react in kind. This is the reason I keep coming back here.
I, too, have pretty well filled my want lists but there is always a disc that comes up that may not be high on my want list but if I see it in a store, I'll pick it up thinking that if I'm not that thrilled by it, there will be someone here that would want to do a trade for it. I have also kinda gotten tired of doing the trade thing due to the fact that there doesn't seem to be that much great product being offered anymore on the forum. It seems as if quite a few traders have gone on to greener pastures, or maybe it's just due to the fact that I have filled most of my wants. I find as DVDave states, that recently it's much easier to find a disc that u want used (and they all eventually turn up) than it is to trade for them, and sometimes cheaper. Being in Canada, I'm getting charged up the wazoo large by Customs for dvd's being sent, whether they're labelled gifts or under $20 or whatever. I've talked to another Canadian trader friend that told me he was never nailed as often as I was so this is kinda pissing me off. It's effectively killed off me wanting to buy or even to do multiple trades with people. So all in all, it's easier/cheaper just looking for it used or even new sometimes. Movieking, you're Canadian, right? Has this happened to u?
Another thing, do u traders do as I do and buy discs that I see cheap or rare that I already have or have no desire to keep just so that I can trade them here on the forum? I must be addicted!! If anyone wants to trade my mint copy of Stunt Man LE for something, LMK.
Also, checking out all the used stores, here is the hardest dvd's to get because no one seems to want to give them up:
1) Amelie
2) Simpson's Season 2
and 3) Talking Heads Stop making Sense.
This is for the Toronto area and I regularly check about 10 - 12 used shops.
Anyone else have a list?

I haven't been hit customs on a trade yet (knock on wood, since I have a couple of multi-titles coming my way in the next week or so), but I did get hit with an ebay auction before. I won a DVD for $5US, and the person who sent it to me marked it as a $20US value, which meant I had to pay $5 tax, plus $5 handling. Needless to say, I never dealt with this person again.

Most of the stuff I want now are pre-releases. The things that are out that I want the most are Buffy Season One. Muppet 10 DVD Collection and The Godfather Collection.

Is there anyone in the world that wants my copy of AI? I think that it is my most untradeable DVD....

Movieking, get out!! You've been at this trading thing for about a mohth longer than me and you've only been hit once!?!? Do they think I'm a drug dealer? I've been nailed about 4 or 5 times for customs charges! What is their methods, their reasoning behind opening people's packages?
I'd love to get that Muppet Set 2, and the Sopranos 3. AI wasn't so bad but I would probably only trade a minor title for it. How about my copy of Greatest NFL sports bloopers for it? hee hee.

Yup, hit only once, and that was ebay, not through trades. The law in Canada as follows:

Anything marked as a gift that is under $60C can go through untaxed

Anything marked as merchandise that is under $20C can go through untaxed.

I always make sure to tell the people that I am trading with to put a value of $10 or $15 a DVD. So far, so good.

I did get nailed with customs for a DDD order before, but I was able to sneak a digitaleyes order that was over $20C through as well.

well, I get hit each and every time which really pisses me off to no end, and 90% of the items I was charged for were marked as gifts and under $60.
what a nightmare!
They got me on record I'm sure.
Wankers.

When I was a boy I thought it rained because I masturbated.

Not me, I've got someone that does it for me.
Never rains here either.

Well, I guess I made out okay today.

After buying a few DVDS at Best Buy today, I stopped at FYE and saw they actually had movies on sale!

While looking, I found Shallow Hal for 14.99. Come to find out as I am checking out, it was not on sale anymore... should be 27.95. Of course, without a word, I got it for 14.99. Funny thing is, the woman clerk actually stated to her other co-worker, you better change that, we're losing a lot of money. Losing my eye! Charging DVDS at MSRP and you are losing money?

And, on Ebay, picked up a used Sopranos Season One for $47.00. Pretty excited about that!

Holy hell, what a storm we had last night!

(wink.wink.)

"rain from heaven"

Though not as much fun as the subject of self-abuse...

....what's the longest any of you all have had to wait for a shipment to make it from the US to Canada? I sent out to someone about 6 weeks ago and they still haven't received it. I've since sent to Canada twice and am done with both trades; hell I managed to trade with a fellow in England within a week's time. I'd appreciate any tales of troubled packages from anyone who's had similar problems...

...BTW, for what it's worth, it rained buckets in NY last night...

Unless it was held up in customs, there is no way it should take six weeks to get here in Canada. When I had my package from ebay held up, it took about one month. If it is in customs, and customs are busy, it could be a couple of months. Just wondering, what did you write on the customs slip? Gift or merchandise? And what value did you assign to the package? What you say on the customs form makes a big difference on how quickly things get through customs, and whether they are flagged or not...

Thanks for the response.
I put a value of $17 and marked it as a gift.

Is there a way of telling if it's being held up in customs as opposed to lost?