isomjr

I went to Blockbuster tonight and rented MIB 2 and noticed on the reciet that if I would later like to purchase this title it would be $11.99 to buy it. Somehow me thinks someone be trying to gets more me gold. I for one certainly will not purchase a used movie for $12 when you can get new for $15.

mookiemeister

Yup. Don't forget to add in the rental cost of the movie to the $12. Turn out to be more than $15.

Iron_Giant

That is only if you like it. If you do not want to watch it over and over again, then you will have saved $12.

It is a rip when they do have sales for $9.99 for DVD every 4 months or so. I wonder if they will stop selling DVDs for $9.99.

I do believe this plan will not be in the works for very long, most people know if they want to buy a movie or rent it. I do not think I have ever rented and then bought later.

cgraziat

What an amazing deal for more money you get no insert and a crappy blockbuster case. Plus you get to pay more money then if you bought it brand new but hey you got to rent it first.

Mikey

good lord! Blockbuster seems like their only purpose in life is to constantly change their policies so that their customers will get confused and that they won't get a very good deal. I hate it how they seem like they change a new policy or price change nearly every week. Now, since they apparently changed their 9.99 price, tons of customers will have to face confusion and anger when they realize that BB changed their policy.

Tarantino

That deal 'f'ing' sucks anyway.

Blockbuster needs to learn how to compete in the land of DVD's. No one in their right mind should hit this "deal" up.

$9.99 wasn't even really a deal, considering it's 4 bucks to rent.

mytzplyx

The sad thing is that even though you're right, Blockbuster still wins. Why? Because the average Blockbuster renter isn't in their right mind.

Tarantino

Joe 6-Pack.

AudioWizard

trust me as a person who works at bbv alot of people are stupid enough to REALLY LOVE the rent-it, like-it, buy-it. I get hundreds a weeks.

workwilliam

Ah yes,

I agree - it's not a good deal on its face. BUT, I have free rentals via openig bank accounts / being with MCI and getting some 'reward' coupons for free rentals, etc. The receipt you get from the free rental still has the, rent it, like it, buy it at $9.99 (or I guess $11.99 now).

So it's not a bad deal in that scenario - I rented Spideman (for free), got the reciept, and will wait until they put it up for sale. The Blockbusters in my area still sell the used DVD in its keepcase, and I haven't noticed any stickers on the DVD itself (I haven't really looked for them either, but the DVDs have played fine...). I also ask the guy if I can check the DVD right there b/c I've gotten scratched up ones (usually when it's not all crowded on a Sat. night...), and usually the guy will bring like 3-4 DVDs over and start opening all of them to let me check them. I've gotten Pearl Harbor, Blackhawk Down, Unbreakable and Monster's Inc. this way...


William

chanster

Spiderman was selling for something like 16 bucks new. Why on earth would you waste your time going to blockbuster renting the movie, returning it, coming back at a later date to purchase, waste time checking discs, hopefully getting a non scratched up disc with NO insert for 10 bucks. Even with the "free" rental - its not worth the time or the hassle.

This plan has always sucked..now it has gotten much worse

Tim K

to each his own, but I would never buy a used DVD from Blockbuster. I've rented so many DVD's that froze or pixelated I lost count.

Not only that, but its hard to believe anyone thinks its a "good deal" to pay $4 to rent a movie and then another $11.99 to buy it used? So you are paying $16 for a used DVD? Even if it was still $9.99 thats $14 for a used DVD. Top sellers can be purchased NEW for that price on their release day. I guess the exception is what "workwilliam" did which is use free rental coupons, but the DVD's are still in pretty bad shape.

In MY OPINION, what Blockbuster ought to do is this...
RENT a new release for $4 or whatever....if you LIKE it, they apply your rental fee towards the PURCHASE of a NEW DVD of that movie. At least that would make their pricing almost competitive. Right now they sell Spiderman for $19.99. Suppose you had never seen the movie and don't know if you want to buy it. So you rent it for $4 and if you like it you give them $16 and get a new movie. Its like a free preview. I think it would work b/c people would think the were getting a deal on the DVD b/c they only "paid" $16 when in reality BB still gets $20. In this scenario though, BB would have to make this valid for PAID rentals only, not freebies.

Just my $0.02

-tk

nemein

I guess really to each their own, I've used it a few times now (esp from rentals from the 10 "free" w/ DVD cards). Most of the time it's with titles I wasn't sure I wanted but I was at least interested in seeing. So far it's been worth it to me since I've saved money on movies I didn't really like but I may have otherwise purchased blind. WRT the cases occasionally they'll have the trash sitting out at the BB I go so I'll swipe some of the real cases they are throwing out from the new shipments coming in (Mon/Tues night are the best for this ). I also have to say I actually prefer WB/snappers for this program though since they usually hang on to those

tonyj

I got it for $12.50 new at BBV. Price matched to target and got an extra $5 off with the $50 gift card. (Got Ice Age at the same time for $12.50...) They also gave me two free rentals for buying new movies.

You just have to know the system...

workwilliam

First of all, I had never seen Spider-Man (yes, not everyone sees every movie when it comes out in the theaters, since it's a complete rip-off and finding the time is always a challenge...), so I actually did rent it to see if it was actually a good movie. If not, no harm done, with the free rental.

Secondly, checking the discs took literally, 30 seconds. The 1st disc (this is with Blackhawk Down) was scratched, the second looked fine.

Thirdly, the insert? I understand some people like having the 'whole' package, but I didn't spent all this money on a HT system to look at an insert. I may watch a DVD many times over, but I've NEVER looked at an insert more than once - that's a waste of time.

Lastly, to me, it worth an extra couple of trips to BBV to save $4-6 on a DVD. It may not to you, that's cool, but some of us are actually tryng to save money.

William

Heat

$4 to rent? It's only $2.99 here, I guess because Blockbuster is a distant second in the rental market here (way behind Family Video), and Family Video only charges $2.99, so Blockbuster has to charge less to compete. Not to mention the several grocery stores here with a large number of titles that rent for $1, including new releases.

As far as actually paying cash for anything at Blockbuster, no, I can't bring myself to do that, especially since the "rent it, like it, buy it" offer is dubious to begin with (see above posts). I do rent movies at Blockbuster once a week, but only because I have a free rental card (good through next March), good for one rental per week.

El Scorcho

Keep in mind that most of us bargain-hunters are in the minority -- we can do simple math and we can differentiate between a good deal and a bad deal. The common shopper, unfortunately, can't and will have no problem shelling out cash when they really shouldn't be.

datagirl7

$4.29 rentals here, plus about 40 cents tax. Doing the try-it buy it is terrible. Especially when most BBs seem to always have buy 2 used get one free or something like that going on.

nemein

Yep $2.99 here too. I'm not sure where they are charging $4 anymore... maybe it's been awhile since people have been. Aside from the case/insert issue (which I can somewhat understand) they do offer a 30day return on everything so it's not like you're stuck w/ it if the DVD is bad. I usually find a good cleaning is all that is needed but that's generally it. So far I've picked up maybe 1/2 dozen this way and haven't had any problems w/ any of them yet.


I'm not sure if all of them do it but I've been able to use both of them at the same time (the T/L/B and the 3 for 2)

SLOmade

ive always bought used dvds from bbv that came in the snap case. the bbv by my place carries every title at 9.99 so the snap case ones are a good deal when they come out since there are no inserts and they sell them in the original case. plus, its a small store with friendly associates who know me by name and my frequent stops there. they have always given me the discs that looked pristine with no scratches and actually let me check all of their copies, including rentals to pick out the one that i like...i have never gotten a scratched disc from them.

they also let me switch out the keep cases so i can get the one without the security zipper and they get the inserts from the back to the movies that don't have them. again, ymmv on this, but no qualms with my particular bbv. may the luck be with you.

chanster

When you look at the math. You aren't saving any money. You take your free rental - which you can use on any video at Blockbuster and use it for a title that WILL be 9.99 at some point. All the titles that I have seen in the "RENT IT, BUY IT, TRY IT" are titles that through (a) sales or (b) glut inventory WILL EVENTUALLY BE 9.99. Sure there are some wack stores that will try to charge you 16.99 but you can't do anything about that anyway.

So at that point, you have spent your "FREE" rental + 9.99 for a title you could eventually own at 9.99 without the free rental. Free Rental then becomes an opportunity cost - you could have used the rental on a movie you have not seen and will not go the way of a PVD sale.

Also, a thing about the multiple trips. My time is money, and I don't consider it free time to go in to Blockbuster rent an item, return it, come back again. If you drive there is gas money as well..

Secondly, having case and inserts may not be important to you, but it is a lot of people. For many people, it is for a collection. For others, it is for the RESALE value of the disc..

workwilliam

Chanster,

Well, I suppose we can only take this discussion so far without people getting totally sick of us , but:

The DVDs that will "eventually be $9.99" anyways, while that may be true, but to wait for that is another thing. I think in IL, BBV has only (to my recollection) had one "every previewed DVD is $9.99" sale. They've had the buy two, get one free as well as the buy 2 for $20 sale (unless I'm confusing that with the Hollywood Video sale...). With the deal, whenever it comes out, I can get it for $9.99. Well, you might say, aren't you waiting for the DVD to be put on sale as a previewed DVD anyways? Yes. But I suppose we all have our limits of how much we can wait before it's a diminished return proposition. There are certain DVDs that were never $9.99 (besides, obviously, when they had the 'every used DVD is $9.99 sale). Lord of the Rings is one of those DVDs. I stand my view that in fact I am saving money. You don't seem to think so, I can see why you think that, points well made.

Time is money - I definitely agree with you there. Gas is money - double that sentiment (I see that you live in IL as I do, and gas sure ain't cheap...). But I pretty much go to the BBV that's on the route home from work, so no big out-of-the-way trip or extra gas there...

Ok, I'm done - sorry everyone, you know us have to have the last word, heated discussion types...hey, bottom-line, if you think it's a good deal and enjoy the used DVDs great! If not, there are certainly other good deals to be had as well.

Peace,

William

chanster

William-

Welcome to the forum, I am not trying to bash you or anything..just interested in the discussion! In IL, Chicago specifically, prices are all over the place..2 blockbusters within 2 minute drives of each other each price differently. I have seen LOTR anywhere from 9.99 to 16.99 regular price just at those 2 stores within a span of months (excluding sales)

SLOmade

i enjoy them, especially when i get to pick my discs, get the inserts and the original case during their b2g1 free deals. comes out to around $21 including tax for three dvds that pretty much look new...no stickers on them either.

only bad thing is that you have to wait about a month after the dvd is released before they put them out on the racks to sell.

5th_Wheel

Yep, my local BBV is charging $3.99 for rentals plus 8.75% tax = $4.34 a wack. The T/I/B/I is not a deal unless you happen to find a title you wouldn't have purchased unless you rented it first and then found out you liked it. At $11.99 they can keep their PPV titles.