Here's the actual story that GizmoDVD refers to:
http://www.tvshowsondvd.com/news/Fre...-Edition/10195

I'll have a bit more about it tomorrow, or possibly the day after, about how to distinguish the old Yearbooks from the new.

I've got the 6 disc version when it came out, and I was never able to get the 8 disc one -- far to expensive. This time around, I still don't think I can.

I already have a ton of things I need to get (new iPod, cell phone, etc) and I can't spend $130 ish on something I already have.

They should just release the 2 discs/yearbook for like $50...but I guess that would be an even bigger F you to the people who bought the original "limited" edition

I'm in the same boat. Bought the regular set, have never seen an episode of the show actually.

I imagine I'll like it, but another $100+ just for two bonus discs? Probably not.

But if they release the bonus discs separately I might bite.

I know a lot of old fans should (and I don't blame them) be upset, but at the same time... it makes logical sense!

The original set came out in 2004... this is 2008. Judd Apatow and Seth Rogen are much better known to the average person on the street today than they were in 2004, as well as Jason Segel, who is on How I Met Your Mother, and is part of the Apatow movie team as well. After Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad, I think there's a much larger audience for Freaks And Geeks now than there was in 2008. Everyone stands to gain, Shout! can use Apatow and Rogen to sell to a lot of people who didn't even know this show existed, as well as fans who missed the Yearbook edition last time. It's called business people, Seth Rogen is one of the biggest actors in Hollywood right now, it makes sense they'd want to cash in while the iron is hot.

I could honestly not give two shits.

I was one of the few who paid the $120 for the yearbook set years ago. However, I was in it not for a collector's item, but to own the definitive version of a show that most never watched when it was originally on the air.

Hopefully more people will discover the show now...

And Shout Factory has my wallet targeted, especially with the MST3K set planned for the end of the year.

get under the rock you live in. You should know that the words "Judd Apatow" and "Seth Rogen" mean a hell of a lot more to the average person on the street today than they did in 2004. Why would anyone with the least bit of financial smarts not cash in when Apatow and Rogen are at the peak of their fame?

So you really think casual people will go out and buy this $120 set over the $40 one because of 2 extra bonus discs and a fancy package? It was meant for the hardcore fans, not the casual "let me take a look at the series" person. Just because Apatow and Rogen are getting popular does not mean people will suddenly drop a huge chunk of change for something where the bonus discs comprise very little Apatow/Rogen anyway. I'm sure there are some of the hardcore fans who could not get this back in the day, but for the most part, this set will sell very little because for an extra $80 bones you get very little unless you are a hardcore fan of the series. As-is people have a hard time spending an extra $5 for 2 Disc versions of popular movies, but they expect them to spend $80 more for 2 additional discs? There was a reason why this was not sold in-stores when it was originally released.

I'm still in the pissed off camp and will forever be. Shout Factory has lost me as a customer forever. Telling us it will never be re-made ever, mold be destroyed and then re-release it later? Slap in the face.

It's not like that set came with fine print that said "unless everyone involved with this show gets famous and we can clearly make a lot more money". The fact that the stars have become famous is the lamest of the various lame reasons for this double dip -- that's what defines it clearly as a cash-in, uninterested in the feelings of the fans who thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime purchase but just there to make more money for Shout!.

Did anyone think that maybe they didn't recoup the costs for all the music licensing and this cash grab is going to make that happen. Whatever. If it helps them stay afloat and putting out solid products (with full music) I say go for it.

^^But it's also a business. They aren't just in it to make hard core fans happy, they're looking to make money and profit.

And like someone else said...this is a niche audience they are targeting. Regardless of how avid the fan is, not everyone has $120 of disposable income to blow on a 18 episode series. There will still be a very small amount of people owning this SE.

Edit: I agree with Michael. I look at it as Shout, if they make more money on this re release after shelling out a ton for the music rights, will be more willing to take a chance on another short lived, quality show like Freaks and Geeks when it comes to a dvd release.

well. You may say it's a lame excuse to cash in on Rogen and Apatow's newfound stardom, but I think it's smart. Copies of the yearbook on ebay go much higher than originally listed for. There are two sets of people who will buy this... 1. People who bought the show originally in 2004 to check it out, became a diehard, but didn't get the chance to buy the yearbook, and 2. People who saw The 40 Year Old Virgin, Superbad, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express and all the other Apatow flicks, loved it, and would rather buy the best edition possible than the regular version.

Considering people are willing to pay $300 for the yearbook on ebay, I think it's nice that Shout! is willing to give those people a break.

the problem is the following: people are (or were) willing to pay $300 because this set was purported to be a very limited run. reprinting and reissuing a set that dilutes the presumed value of the set will surely upset some people.

^ IMO, people who bought the Yearbook should've bought it for the love of the show, and not for the "well, I can make people jealous in a few years when they find out this is in my collection". I mean, the Buffy complete series set was supposed to be limited, but Fox ended up putting it back in print about two years later, nobody really got upset because people who bought that set bought it because they love Buffy and wanted the bonus disc, not because it was supposed to be a limited run that they could one day be snobs about getting the chance to own. I bought the Buffy "Chosen Collection" under the impression it was limited... I bought it for me, I am not bitter at all that Fox put it back in print knowing the demand is there for it.

If you bought the set solely for the idea that a few years later, you could resell it on ebay and make back several times what you paid, shame on you-- this is your karma. Those are the people I think who are pissed off about this. Read F&G fans paid extra because they felt the set was worth it, not because of any profitable reasons.

As mentioned before, did Buffy come with anything like this:
No, no it did not. If I wanted to sell it for big bucks I would have done it years ago, when I didn't have expendable cash. I bought it because of the promise above and Shout! lied to us. Its one thing to repackage the 8 disc set in a normal DVD boxset with a mini-book highlightening some of the pages (which the fans contributed to), but to re-issue the same damn thing with minor differences is crap.

and as stated above not everyone is going to drop $120 on an 18 episode series. You still own a damn fine collectable, the perceived value is just going back down to SRP.

it has nothing to do with karma. the people who bought it from the website purchased it with the caveat that it was part of a limited run. if i wanted to unload mine, i would have. it is the collector-nerd in folks that is peeved -- they had a (formerly) valuable rarity. the value of any limited object is determined by how much the market is willing to pay for it regardless of whether or not you wish to sell it. ebay just happens to be an indicator of what the market is willing to bear and therefore gives a rough monetary worth. now its perceived value is diminished. if i just wanted to watch the show, i could have purchased the 6-disc (?) version released through mainstream channels. i paid what i thought was a fair value for a limited run item. now, not so sure ...

^^I see what you're getting at...but are you saying that if it was never a limited run, you wouldn't have purchased it? You would've bypassed the extra discs, bonus footage, and collector's yearbook because it wasn't a limited run?

I always enjoyed the fact that I was getting something immensely unique (the yearbook) in regards to a show that I loved yet was short lived. My enjoyment came from the SE itself being unlike anything I've seen before in regards to a TV show on DVD, not a perceived higher value in the item.

well, some people are very greedy and will snatch something up at a store just because they can resell it for more (I've seen people own up to doing it with Disney titles and out of print tv titles on these boards). I think a lot of people were doing this with this set. They went and bought sets depriving real fans of getting the set and then turn around and sell them it for twice the SRP. I think the fans who want it deserve to get it at list price.

Plus, if you're a fan of Freaks And Geeks, you should consider that you've been enjoying this set for four years.. that's what matters. If you're a fan of the show and bought it for the right reasons, it shouldn't matter that new fans will be able to pluck down cash for it. Like I said earlier, I have no bone to pick with Fox over the Buffy "Chosen Collection" set even tho they promised a limited run, and then ended up reissuing it in a regular run a year or so later knowing the demand out there.

At worst, consider this like Disney and their moratorium titles that go out of print, then come back in print, then go back out of print. Right now, an authentic copy of Snow White goes for over $50 on ebay, next year it'll be back down to $20. If you bought Snow White for the right reasons (fan of the movie, bought it for your kids, etc...) it shouldn't bother you that it's coming back in print next year. It's only the people who were hoping to pay off a mortage by buying it and holding it for resale who are screwed,

Whomever is responsible should be sued. There's a sworn statement saying only 25,000 copies were going to be made, ever. That calls for a lawsuit. Then again who cares I only own the regular 6- disc editon.

It's smart in the same way that Universal releases a new edition of The Mummy to DVD whenever a new Mummy-related film comes out, along with its sequel, The Scorpion King, and Van Helsing. I'm not saying it doesn't make good business sense. It merely jerks around the consumer, and jeez, they're only the people who buy the product.

Didn't David say that he was going to tell us how to tell the original from the reissue? So there is some way to distinguish them, for the collectors...

It was available via a website only for a few days before being sold out. If you wanted it, you ordered it. People did not order multiple sets after they found out it was worth something...it simply wasn't possible.

If your a fan, hock up the money and pay the eBay value. I don't get pissed off that a Babe Ruth card is $5,000 now and was 4 cents back in its day. I don't throw a fit that a Star Wars figure MSRP is $5 and it sells for $300 on eBay. Some of you guys would fall dead if they re-printed some of the collectibles you spent big bucks on. How is THAT any different? Oh, maybe because they said they would make 25k and thats it. Destroy the mold. Done. No more.

Maybe because pressing more copies of a disc is as simple as a few mouse clicks on a computer? Not quite analogous to your action figure theory.

if Shout was adding new extras, the analogy would make sense. But from what I gather, it's a straight-ahead repressing of the 2004 set. Nothing more, nothing less. It's like a cd that comes back in print after several years off the market

Break out the mold and add plastic. Easy.

I worked for a very well known toy company (that many people here buy products from) and if they pulled any of this crap you would hear people screaming from miles away. They are limited to a certain number for a reason.

Clearly some people here don't care about this, and call it typical DVD tactics, but I consider this to be fraud, especially with the little snippest that was provided when we ordered these "never to be remade again, ever, I promise' BS.

I'm done with it. I will not purchase anything from Shout again and I have already e-mailed them to let them know how I feel about it. I hope others who were scammed by Shout do the same.