I think it was 800.com that included packets of microwave popcorn in their DVD shipments.

In a few of my shipments they sent Red Vines instead, which got me started on those.

Anyone remember 800.com's 3-DVDs-for-$1 promotion back in late 98? And because they didn't ship **RIGHT AWAY** the self-righteous indignant nerds on the Usenet nearly lost their freakin' minds. Good times

I remember getting some killer deals, like Criterion Brazil on DVD for like $15 (3-disc edition) or the first Kubrick collection for $40, etc. It was an absolute pillaging on the part of savvy consumerrapists. And we knew the gravy train was over by late 2000, but wow what a ride.

Also, adult movies

I just popped one of those bags a few months ago. It was totally fine, and no one could tell the difference between it and a 'fresh' bag.

Expiration dates are a total sham to get consumers to throw stuff away and buy more.

That's how everyone maximized their coupons. Place an order with a pre-order then cancel the preorder. The coupon is already applied.

I can understand not calling them if the pre-order cancelled accidently, but doing it on purpose? No wonder they went out of business.

I know all this is true, i used it to get many dvds too.

I meant the way the op was bringing this up as if Reel just went down, when it has been down for well about 8 years now.

Just to clarify, again. Reel as a retailer went down 8 or whatever years ago. But until recently it still operated as an apparently popular review and information site.

The OP may not have even known it used to be a retailer.

Good point I hadn't thought of that part of it.

Trevor, you were around back then. There were numerous discussions about multiple accounts as a way to use coupons multiple times as well as ways to get the deal on just one DVD instead of 2. I'm not saying I approve, I'm just remembering what a lot of members did. That's why there started to be so many rules about what we could post. Posting of work-arounds became frowned upon.

Yup, checkout and ordering technology was much more primitive back then. We saw a tremendous number of multiple accounts at 800.com, especially during the 3 for 1$ sale. You can look back and argue the intelligence of having such a sale and how it was too tempting not to cheat on it. But back then, pre-internet-meltdown, the name of the game was not profit but getting a large user base so you could justify going public with a big IPO. Still, I remember going through pages and pages of listings of suspicious orders (multiple orders from the same address), trying to determine whether people were cheating or did they just happen to live in the same dormitory or something similar. Back then, no matter how hard we tried to automate the rules we set, there were people who could get around the automation and legitimate purchasers who were turned away.

Even today, the one order per household rule affects people. I know of people who tried to order their government coupons for digital TV adapters only to be turned away because someone else who used to live in the same apartment they did had already redeemed the coupon.

A bit off topic, I guess. But I had forgotten all about Reel.com too.