Does Amazon Sell Bootlegs?
 

I recently found, ordered, and received a copy of the OOP Criterion Notorious. It wasn't from a 2nd party seller, it was from Amazon itself. I was really surprised to find it available and even more surprised when it actually shipped.

I haven't opened it yet, since it is a gift for a friend. Could it be a bootleg? Has anyone else had an OOP title suddenly come up for sale on Amazon that was legit?

TIA!

Amazon.com sometimes recieves shipments of OOP DVDs and they put them for sale. They are original region 1 DVDs and not bootlegs. I have ordered and recieved several OOP DVDs with no problem.

You certainly had a good day in finding that OOP Notorious.

You definitely had good luck finding that. I had to order mine off of Ebay. Congrats on the find.

How much did they want for it?

I found a copy of the OOP Disney title Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs about 8 months after it went OOP several years ago, and it was a legit copy. As long as you're 100% sure that it's sold by Amazon and not a 3rd party - you should be just fine.

Notorious is OOP? Huh. I didn't even know. Guess I'll be holding on to mine then.

You should be holding onto it anyways. It's directed by the best director of all-time. I can't say much about the movie itself, except that I've heard good things. I've yet to watch my copy.

It's not unknown for Amazon to acquire stocks of OOP titles. You seem to be assuming that because it's OOP but on sale as a standard Amazon item, it might be bootleg. That's not the case.

However, if you opened up the case and found that the disc is coloured on the play side instead of the standard silver/light gold, then it most likely is a bootleg.

There are certainly a number of bootleg items on Amazon Marketplace. They've still got the listing for Silverhawks for example! And it shows up every time you ask for stuff like Thundercats !

The Marketplace is riddled with bootlegs. Amazon itself is very safe. I have never heard of them selling bootlegs.

Yep, OOP titles do trickle in at Amazon. They had Straw Dogs Criterion a month or 2 ago as well.

There's a lot I can criticize about Amazon, but I don't think there's any reason to worry about bootlegs when you purchase from them. (Not necessarily true, as others have pointed out, if you are buying from an "Amazon Merchant".)

GREAT!!! Thanks all!! I'll ask my friend when she opens it if it is silver vs. colored on the play side of the disc. But it was absolutely from Amazon rather than from their "marketplace". So it looks like I got the real deal, no bootleg! Hurray!!

I'm going to check Amazon every once in a while for those OOP titles I'm still missing, just in case I find another deal. Thanks again for all the input!!

BTW - the Criterion Notorious I bought was $35!

Does it have the black Criterion label sticker at the top?

Yup, has the black label!