movieguru

Are most Region 2 UK dvd's sold unsealed even when they are new? I've placed several orders with Amazon UK and each time at least one dvd is unsealed and or has been rewrapped. Is this the norm with dvd's from England or does Amazon just not care. It would cost me more to send these back then they are worth and I'm sure I would have trouble getting a refund if I did.

BuddhaWake

so is there something actually wrong with the dvds?

movieguru

Haven't tested them yet; but I get the feeling they are returns or previously viewed copies ( as Amazon UK also rents dvd's) when I paid for new.

buckee1

very few of the DVDs I have purchased from the UK(Amazon) are sealed and they are all brand new discs. So I wouldn't worry about it.

Giles

it varies from product to product - even brand new CD's from the UK are unsealed - they are new, they just don't use plastic all the time like we American's do.

movieguru

I feel better than. It's been a few years since I've been to England and I never paid attention to the DVD's there at the time because I didn't have a player they would work on. They must have a high theft rate at the stores if they're all not sealed.

steelpotato

discs get kept in drawers, not the cases. commonplace in many countries around the world for retail product.

Lastdaysofrain

Yeah almost none are sealed, and almost none of them have all those seal stickers on things.

Dazza

Interesting. In all the years of buying DVDs from Amazon UK, I don't ever recall getting an unsealed disc.

In countries like the UK this is now less common... while still practised in smaller, independent shops, the big chains such as Virgin (sorry, Zavvi), HMV etc sell sealed product with a security device of some sort - because obviously there isn't the space to display the case and keep the disc in a drawer, let alone dealing with the time factor such a system requires. It's a moot point regarding Amazon, as obviously they aren't a B&M retailer so their product isn't on display to the public anyway; so they've no need to keep discs & cases apart...

Dazza.

Apone

Same here. I always receive mine in sealed condition and whether it was repacked or not - it looks new, not wrinkled (unlike many from states) and more importantly plays fine.

Yakuza Bengoshi

Nearly all the discs I receive from Europe are sealed, but very few (none?) include the security stickers found on R1 releases.

benedict

I doubt that Amazon would sell used DVDs as new but it happens that they are now selling their rental business to Lovefilms so, if it was ever a problem, it should soon cease.

JWAR

I just received my copy of Mother of Tears R2 from Amazon uk and it was sealed. It would irritate me to get one not sealed. When I went to the Virgin Mega store in Scotland everything there was sealed up.

movieguru

Here's another question I have that doesn't really warrant another thread. When buying from Amazon Uk to have dvd's shipped to the U.S.; when I go to checkout, some titles willl be cheaper than listed because the VAT tax is removed since they're being shipped outside the U.K.; but other titles are the same. Why do they remove the VAT from some titles and not others. Don't all the titles have a VAT tax or is it more selective. Most of the titles I order are Britcoms so they are in the same category.

Alkaline

The majority of UK discs I've ordered from Amazon UK, and other sites, have been sealed in shrinkwrap but without the sticky security seals along top/side/bottom like U.S. discs. This appears to be the norm in UK, and maybe even most of Europe. (I've gotten German and French discs packaged the exact same way).

calhoun07

Yeah, because American shoplifters just don't know how the heck to get around that thin layer of plastic on the DVD.

Actually, I heard the opposite is true. (I looked into this a few years back when I first started ordering region 2 DVDs and had this question...I guess the shoplifting rate is much lower in the UK, even though they don't seal up a lot of their DVDs and put 3 stickers on them and sensor tags and all the crap we do to them here.)

calhoun07

I guess that explains the lower rate of theft!

calhoun07

The ones that aren't lower when you check out are from amazon Jersey, or something like that. I don't know the difference, only I don't get a lower price on those items. I emailed them the first time it happened and they adjusted my price to take off the VAT and the second time it happened they refused to do anything and insisted I wasn't charged VAT.

Dazza

That sounds about right - what was once Amazon Jersey has now been replaced by Indigostarfish, and if you look at the "despatched and sold by" bit on the details page it tells you if it comes from Amazon UK direct or the Jersey-based Indigostarfish. There is no VAT on goods sold in Jersey, therefore Amazon won't be able to knock anything off these titles...

Dazza.

calhoun07

That explains it. The first time I ordered something from them and got them to lower the price, the whole Jersey thing was new. The customer service rep probably thought it was a legit glitch and gave me the adjustment on my order, but they must have wised up.

Though I wish the csr who emailed me back after I emailed them more recently about it had explained it better.

Seashellz

in the 70's and 80's new LPs from the UK were NEVER wrapped. why im not sure

dvd-4-life

I received Fargo from them many years ago and it was unsealed with more than enough finger prints on the DVD.