Did Amazon just raise their prices on all catalog titles?
 

I keep a list of DVDs I'm interested in getting someday, including Amazon's prices. I recently placed an order for LOTR 4-disc @ 25.99 and Firefox @ 14.99 without STL but with a $5 coupon. Hearing the coupon was still working I was thinking about asking for STL on these 2 titles and redoing my order with STL and the coupon. Needless to say I abandoned that plan when I saw Firefox was now $16.99.

So I typed in some other titles from my list. EVERY ONE of them was higher... for example:

Real Genius from $18.71 to $21.49
Seems Like Old Times from $18.71 to $22.46
Innerspace from $16.99 to $17.98
Mysterious Island from $18.71 to $21.99
Monkey Business from $14.98 to $17.98
Iron Giant from $14.98 to $16.99

I have not found a single already-released catalog title on my list that isn't $1-$4 more expensive now.

Let's see. Most or all of the coupons have expired so in order to boost DVD sales during the holiday season in order to compete with Walmart and Best Buy B&M stores, Amazon decided to significantly raise the price of catalog all DVDs except preorders? Well, if I wasn't willing to buy these so-so DVDs at their previous prices, I'm sure not going to buy them from Amazon at higher prices.

It looks like Amazon is saying "hey, we're only good for preorders now and only if you use STL or a coupon". Even with that their prices still don't beat B&M on popular new releases. $15.99 delivered is my limit on any DVD. No wonder I've placed so few orders with Amazon this year compared to last year.

Did these price increases just happen today and if so does anyone know what sort of a strange strategy this is?

For a few years now, amazon.com has always had one of the highest prices on the net on DVDs.

I do wonder how amazon stays in business with these kinds of prices. And do people actually buy from amazon?

With coupons, STL, and free shipping it HAS been worth it.

But no coupons right now, and if the prices are going up...

Sure, people buy from them. Even with their higher prices, more people buy from them because they recognize the name.

Me personally, I'll only use them for DVDs if I have a GC or for some promotion. But for other products, I might buy from them. A lot of people either don't care about saving some money or just find their customer service worth the extra price.

AOL charges more than a lot of ISPs and a whole lot of people still use them. It's the name and familiarity, I suppose.

This has happened before. And sometimes, they'll change, and go right back. Very weird pricing tactics. More annoying than weird. I don't think it's cool to price the "what hollywood deems the top movies" at 35-40% off but put the rest at 10% off. I mean really...10%??? Assuming you pay for shipping, you'll pay more than MSRP on some titles.

Name recognition, and people who don't realize there's anything better out there.

exactly. a kid i know thought amazon was gods gift to dvd's, till i set him str8.:)

Exactly. I've done a lot of preordering from Amazon in recent months because the combination of their preorder discount, $5 off $35 coupons (all gone right now), Share the Love 10%, Free Shipping, no sales tax, and 5% back from eCard VISA made them the best deal for me on most DVDs. Plus there is the occasional Amazon GC for filling out a survey or something.

But without all those discounts you can usually find a better deal elsewhere.

For me it's simple. If Amazon wants to keep getting my business they'll have to keep offering these incentives to the savvy shopper. I'm hoping that the coupon lull and price jack-ups are a temporary thing related to the holiday season.

In the last 2 years, I only made 1 DVD purchase from amazon. Considering that I amassed the majority of my DVD collection in the last 2 years, that's how bad their prices have been.

I tend to buy my catalog titles from DDD, they are generally cheaper.

Case in point: Firefox and The Iron Giant are both $14.39 no shipping/no tax.

Matt

How many people actually got in on the STL deal, and even with the 10% off from STL and the $5 coupon, amazon's outrageous pricing is still more expensive than most other places.

Case in point, amazon charges about $63 for mobile suit gundam movie trilogy. I got mine elsewhere for about $39.

No amount of coupons can turn me back to amazon.

I've never really understood why Amazon would be anyone's primary source for DVDs. I really don't feel committed to any single etailer or B&M - I just want the best price I can find - and out of about 900 DVDs that I own, not more than 10 have come from Amazon.

It's like this -- I buy the titles I want from any reputable source (e-tailer or B&M) that will give the lowest price.

With all the discounts, that source has usually been Amazon.com in the past several months. But it's always a preorder, since their price usually goes up after street date.

Anybody can by signing up here: www.dvdtalk.com/stl. Then you'll get "love" from lots of friends.

But AMAZON does carry every dvd release, where other places don't.

The discounts on Amazon's catalog DVDs has hovered around 10-15% off for a long time now.

They'll offer pre-orders at a modest discount -- usually around 25% off -- and then, after they're released, reduce the discount to between 10 and 15%.

hi,
is this a temporary phenomenon or will the prices continue to be higher than other places through christmas even i have noiced this in all their world wide sites except uk
and why do they do this they must be getting the same margin as other e-tailers
on dvd they could easily lower their cost by 20 percent right now and would not make any difference as a sop they have offered free shipping locally from their sites but raised the prices of their dvd to cover the shipping i feel .

any opnions.

lakshman

amazon has been consistently the cheapest way to get some preorders IF you combine promo certificates with stl and free shipping. Example: I just ordered the complete monterey pop festival for $48.96 shipped. Unless I am missing something, that IS the cheapest price anywhere. Sure, some of their prices are very high, but then just order those elsewhere. You have to spend a few extra minutes finding the current promos and juggling the stl - It ain't brain surgery.

You can definitely get better deals at most other online sites, but I have to say that Amazon does have a hell of selection and in-stock product. That's about the only reason I occasionally pick stuff up there.

I only pre-order from Amazon - using STL, coupon and free shipping whenever possible. Catalogue titles, I'll still look up, to read reviews or whatever but they're just too expensive there.

My observation in recent days is that prices are dropping at Amazon. Many of the older $19.99 WB titles are now 20% off (example: "Rebel Without a Cause") or 30% off (example: "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"). While one can usually get these cheaper elsewhere, a blanket statement that prices are just going up at Amazon is incorrect.