I live in the US and usually buy 7-10 dvd's at a time via Columbia House DVD Club because the average cost/dvd is typically under $8 (but it is a hassle purchasing this way). I recently took a peek at eBay and saw lots of current titles really dirt cheap - bit they're all pretty much international purchases from Hong Kong etc. Now these dvd's are all billed as region 0, the packaging has Chinese characters all over it and the dvds have Chinese subtitles. One example of what interested me was the full 7 seasons of Star Trek Next Generation going for US$120 + $35 s/h.

My questions are:
If I bulk buy, is this going to work out cheaper than Columbia House? Could people please mention some typical cost/dvd for their bulk buys. I would be happy ordering 50 dvds at a time if it's worth it.

Do the dvds default to Chinese subtitles, or do they just start playing in English without sub-titles? Are the menus unintelligible because they're full of Chinese text?

Are there any recommendations for places to buy dvds from in Hong Kong?

Are there any gotchas I could step into e.g. ability to return defective or damaged dvd's etc.

Thank You!

ebay = bootleg more than 50% of the time.

If you buy from a reputable etailer like DDDHouse, then it should work out cheaper if you buy more than a few titles.

HK dvds have menus where you can deselect the subtitles. Your player should have default settings regarding subs I think.

HK dvds of American films are typically going to be region 3, so make sure you can play them. If you're finding R0 DVDs from HK of american films, they're likely bootlegs.

There's lots of places to buy HK DVDs - check the sticky threads above in this forum.

Some etailers are better than others at defective and damaged DVDs. Usually though - at 6 - 8 bucks a piece, when I do get a bad one, I often just write it off and buy it again or just forget it.

This isn't even available in HK (legally). Believe me, eBay is good for some things, but if a deal is too good to be true, 90% of the time it is.

Do you have info that proves this?

Do you have info that proves otherwise?

I was just giving my conservative estimate... my best guess would be 80% bootleg when dealing with 'import' dvds or whatever. I use ebay and I trust it on some things, but DVDs is one thing I don't trust. That said - I do use half.com alot for video games and DVDs, and that's basically ebay now... even on there I've gotten a few bootleg imports - even though the seller is supposed to go by the bar code. This is why I prefer half.com - at least there's something there to try and keep people honest - ebay has nothing except the threat of bad feedback and people reporting auctions (which a. doesn't really do much unless the person reporting is dilligent and b. it's difficult to tell from a description if the item is a bootleg when the seller insists that the original star wars trilogy is not a bootleg )

You're welcome to trust ebay all you want - my saying 50% was by no means meant to indicate a fact that I could back up... it was just a conservative arbitrary number meant to indicate the real problem with ebay and bootlegs.

If we're talking Asian versions of US movies/TV, then I'd say even 80% is conservative.

There's a lot of good reasons to import DVDs, but saving a few bucks isn't one of them. I wouldn't recommend it and most who do usually end up unhappy.