I'm starting to wonder if the floor has fallen out from under DVD prices, and if so, why it's happening.

From my perspective of gettingn into DVD just in the last couple years, it used to be a DVD under $20 or $15 was a bargain. Now I need to see it under $10 to consider it a bargain.

Not counting what I snagged in the DDD 20 percent off sale, I've grabbed several low-priced DVDs lately. They've included:

= Devils Advocate and Deep Blue Sea for $4.88 each from WalMart
= Highlander Immortal Edition for $6.99 at Media Play
= Willy Wonka for $7.50 at Target
= Last Starfighter for $8.44 at WalMart
= The Lost World Jurassic Park for $7 at Circuit City

Is it because they're older? Wonka is the new release in keepcase. They're not all bare bones. I don't see new editions coming for these. Could it be because of whatever new format is coming? I just don't know.

All I do know is these low prices make it almost impossible not to buy.

I think you got it with your last line there. The studios still make money off of pricing like this, so everybody wins, and they sell more becasue they are cheaper so they get the consumer who was on the fence about the title before. I personally love it!

Low prices moved DVD players. IIRC, it followed the razor blade theory - sell the stick for a loss, make money on the blades.

But while I don't see razor blades selling for much less lately, DVDs have come down sharply. Looking back over my price history in my DVD Profiler, discs I thought I got a bargain on a year or two ago now look like I paid too much.

I've got a Trek 2-disc collector's edition - probably TMP and TWOK - that I paid $19.99 for. Then I got a couple that I got for $15. IIRC, the newest, First Contact and Insurrection, were for around $13.

I think the pricing is due to the up coming new format (whichever one that is). Regardless of why....I am loving the amount of movies I can get for such low $$$.

Or a more relevant analogy is computer printers and ink. The printers are dirt cheap. Where they getcha is the damned ink. My printer cost $149. A set of ink cartridges cost $60 shipped. (I've got Dell.)

I think the Trek releases have been $13.99 since ST:VI.

The new format is totally irrelevant as far as price for current DVDs. Just as the price of VHS didnt go down when DVD was on the horizon.

basically to mirror others points... 1) the more people that buy DVDs the less studios can charge and still make money. So, now that DVD players are in the majority of peoples homes, more DVDs sell and its easier to make profits on cheaper DVDs 2) the more cheap DVDs out there, the more consumers may be enticed to buy a DVD player (if they dont have one already) which can lea to purchases/rentals of first run, mroe expensive releases 3) the cheap movies are old 4) its cheaper to make DVDs now b/c there are more and more factories that do it and the process has been streemlined (i dont know if i even by this one - CDs are still overpriced and they cost less then $3 to make, market, etc.)

I think the used DVD market might have something to do with it too. Places like Hastings and Movie Gallery will buy dozens of each new release title when it comes out, but they'll only hold on to them for two or three weeks before they start dumping these barely used DVDs for $10-15 (or less if you wait for the sales). Plus it seems like every videogame store, pawn shop, and 2nd hand goods store has a healthy selection of cheap used DVD as well.

Good point. Probably due to the fact that the only defect or flaw on a DVD that will ruin it are deep scratches or surface flaws. With used video tapes, you had analog magnetic material going through countless machines that wore and tore at the material which made used tapes a very risky item to buy. I bought a few used tapes from rental stores back in the day, but it got to a point where I couldn't trust the quality of what I was getting, plus the fact that I eventually went too WS VHS which of course, no rental store ever carried.

I can't see how there can be much of a market for used DVDs. I've looked at them, and found the prices to be not much less than new. Sometimes, the used DVD may cost the same, or even MORE than a new one.

If you wanna jumpstart your DVD collection, eBay has sellers which frequently sell 50 and 100 or more lots that average around $3 a piece.

The best way to buy used DVDs is from the Movie Gallery Buy 2 Get 2 sales. This way you can pick up movies that are about a month old (most are older ones that didn't sell) when they are pulled to be PVMs. They are no more than $15, which you might be thinking is high since you can buy most new movies for $15 the week of release at CC or BB. However, since it's B2G2, it's like you spend $7.50 per movie. I go through the movies and only buy them if the case and disc are in "like new" condition.

Ebay isn't a bad place to buy DVDs, per se, but there's so many bootlegs, copies, pirated discs that I'd be hesitant to buy from eBay! I might give it a try though...I thought about buying the Toy Story 2-disc pack, but I didn't because the price got jacked up because of supply/demand. Fortunately, not long after I decided against it, new versions have been announced!

After several months initial release time the main audience for a given title drops and what's left starts gathering dust in the bins and on the shelves. I look at the Wallyworld $5.50 bin and see a slew of titles I bought for 2-3 times more a few years ago and no longer need to buy, and I'm sure lots of other people have bought them at higher prices as well. Dropping the bottom out of the price enables them to move them and still get some more profit/milage out of them rather than recycling them, I'm sure. People won't pay $20 for a title they have a casual interest in but they'll pay half that, hence whenever I'm at Walmart there are always a few people looking through the cheap bin for something to watch. Pretty good economics....would I rather pay $20 for a title I like, or buy 3 of 'em I like for the same money?

I hate buying DVDs used from rental stores. They are never in good condition. People who rent these things dont care about the discs b/c they dont own them. So usually a used copy will have lots of scratches... i have this problem with renting new releases some times, so i cant imagine buying them.

I find this to be especially true at places like "CD Trading Post" places. I've often seen beat up, used copies selling for MORE than the new ones at BB, WM, etc.

Jawbreaker new at BB for 5.99 is only slightly tempting-

Jawbreaker used for 12.99 is laughable

Yeah, you're right. The first time I attempted this, I was going to buy a used copy of Highlander: Endgame and the discs looked like they were puked on, shit on, and everything else...well not really, but the discs were just covered in fingerprint smudges. I mean the entire surface was a film of fingerprint oil. The clerk tried to clean the disc with one of those Disc Doctors, but it looked like it just smeared the stuff all over. So needless to say, I passed. I ended up buying a used copy of Bourne Identity.

Hastings has a guarantee on their used DVD's. If its damaged so it will not play you can exchange it for another.

Unless it was dirt cheap and/or OOP I wouldn't bother buying a used DVD.

...in Mexico!!

Pro-b

not neccesarily. Just this past weekend i was at the grocery store and they had bins of used DVDs of some fairly recent movies. I,Robot, Man on fire, LOTR trilogy, going for $7 a pop. Just a few months ago they weren't even selling used DVDs, now they have a bin in front of every register. The used DVD segment in stores like FYE, Blockbuster, Gamestop/EBgames all seem to be growing as well. i think the market is definately growing from say, a few years ago.

This is all due to studios. Over the past couple of years they have been experimenting with making movies impulse purchases. At $10 or less, a DVD becomes an impulse purchase. At $5, it becomes a VERY easy impulse purchase.

So does Hollywood Video (a 1 year guarantee in fact). I now ask to view their DVDs before I purchase them and while I have rejected a few of them, others I have had them buff up using their Disc Doctor and have had them looking like new. The best deal that I got there recently was Dead Like Me : Season One for $20 + tax. Three of the four DVDs had to be rebuffed to my satisfaction and for $20 I got a great set.

It occurs to me that not too long ago the very idea of owning a theatrical motion picture that you could watch at home was a joke. It took lots of money and lots of specialized equipment. Now we can buy them in the checkout lanes of grocery stores. How far we've come!

Impulse buys. More like warp speed buys. Mark a movie I like under $10, and I'll certainly grab it. I bought seven in the DDD sale, which is more than I ever bought at one time. I hoped it would satisfy my wants for a while. No such luck, thanks to these "impulse" buys.

The other night I caught a bit of Christine on Encore. I just ordered it from DDD! Somebody, stop me!

The market is there and only getting stronger, just as there was one for VHS tapes when they were the way we watch movies. The pawn shops by far rank higher to me than BB or the major rental chains- the movies are usually much cheaper and there has almost always been only one owner of the disc. By far I have more used movies in my collection than ones I purchased new. As prices drop on new discs, many of the pawns are forced to drop their discs as well.

Most of these stores have 100% guarantees on their used DVDs, but if all i can do is exchange it for another one that is just as bad condition, what good is the guarantee?

I've never considered going to pawn shops... i may have to try that sometime (cashed out due to DDD). I would expect used discs to be in better condition at a pawn shop since it would have been a person who actually owned the disc who had it prior and not some flunky who was renting it for the weekend.