asianxcore

I was wondering about those barcode stickers that are placed on the outside of the case of a DVD, over the barcode on the paper jacket. I was at Best Buy today and Mill of the Stone Women had it. But none of the other Mondo Macabro releases have it. Irreversible had it when I bought it at Best Buy as well. They are like hell to remove and I was just wondering are these usually on there or put there for some other reason?

chileorgullo

barcodes they place on top like so?
http://www.geocities.com/coginx/trbc.jpg

fumanstan

I believe that some have said they are to designate store specific sales?

Dabaomb

it could be store-specific sales like fumanstan stated but more often than not it's for security devices. E.g. The copies of Elf at Best Buy. had a UPC sticker over the regular UPC that's completely different than the normal UPC.

E.g. Fox titles that have a "00" on the top don't have any security device, "20" indicates checkpoint (like Circuit City & Target), and "50" means sensormatic (e.g. Best Buy).

If the DVD cover is originally printed with a "50" on the top but it's sold to someone like Amazon.com that doesn't use security devices, they will put a UPC with a "00" on top of it.

Also, it could be for special promotions. E.g. The Warner Bros titles at Best Buy that have a freebee will usually have a UPC sticker with a completely different UPC than the regular one (e.g. Matrix Reloaded with the bonus DVD)

asianxcore

Yup like that one.

Thanks for all the answers. Originally I thought those might be on there when stores sell their stuff way under MSRP or something. They are just really annoying to try and get off

talemyn

And, of course, the wierd thing is that, with the exception of one time, I've never seen the UPC on the actual cover be different from the one on the sticker. The only thing that I can think of is that it is a different barcode format.

Dabaomb

read my post above

MEJHarrison

I've seen different UPCs. Just last week I picked up Star Trek: First Contact from Target and it had a sticker on the cover different from the UPC on the cover art.

As for removing it, since it was on the plastic, I peeled as much as a could and attacked the rest with a napkin lightly sprayed with some WD-40. Took about 4 minutes to be completely rid of it. I might not have bothered, but the security sticker ripped part of the UPC sticker and we just can't have that.

talemyn

Now how did I miss that . . . I swear I read through the whole thred . . .

JLyon1515

I read your post Dabaomb, but I still don't see an explanation of why the sticker is the exact same UPC. I've had it happened several times that they are exactly the same...no 00 vs 20 vs 50 difference or anything, just the same sticker. Why could that be?

talemyn

That's where I was going with the different barcode formats. If you go to http://milk.com/barcode/server/, they allow you to generate barcodes in various formats (and at lengths of 7, 8, 12, and 13 digits). For example, here are all of the versions or the 12-digit UPC code "123400000567":

UPC / EAN

UPC / EAN, short height

UPC-E

UPC-E, short height

You can also have supplimentary side codes (of 2 or 5 digits) as well . . . for example these are all for the UPC "123400000567" with a 2-digit supplimentary code of "89":

UPC / EAN

UPC / EAN, short height

UPC-E

UPC-E, short height

darmok

i always suspected the supplementary side code was some sort of retailer indicator. good to know!

talemyn

This is actually pretty interesting the more that I read up on these things (in an extremely geeky sort of way ). -----> http://www.barcodeisland.com/upcext.phtml

Apperantly, the supplimental codes are intended for use with books, newspapers, periodicals, etc. only. The 2-digit code is for newspapers, magazines, etc. and represents the issue number (although, it's doesn't always match the issue on the cover . . . it could be the month, and special internal issue number, etc.). The 5-digit numbers are for books and represent the books MSRP. The first digit indicates the currency and the last four the price (apperantly, no book can have a MSRP of over 99.99, I guess. ).

Lots more info on that site. x 2

talemyn

More interesting info . . . the first 5 numbers in a UPC code represent the manufacturers code. For example, UPC's that begin with "037429" appear to be Criterion products (thanks to http://www.upcdatabase.com/ for that).

Snowmaker

My South Park season 5 had one on the cardboard under the shrink-wrap. I had to carefully peel it off because it was also blocking artwork and then slide the shrink-wrap back on to keep it like all my others.

I keep the shrink-wrap on all my digipaks for added protection.

darmok

i have the same fear. sometimes the retailer sticker is so big it actually covers up some text/artwork, and want to rip off the sticker, but fear that it may rip off some of the gloss along with it. that happened with my beauty and the beast slipcase. the newer slipcases have better gloss, though.