DVD Soon's prices seem to change almost every day, with no apparent rhyme or reason.

I'm wondering if anyone has noticed any patterns as to when they have prices the lowest so I can plan my ordering?

The prices do fluctuate wildly. Patterns seem to me pretty nonexistent except that prices will go up when there is a coupon available or like when they recently reinstituted free shipping. Still, after awhile, prices do come down again. My suggestion is to wait until the prices are at least decent (e.g. $20-$24CAD for first release preorders, $12-$16CAD for rerelease preorders that list for $20US) and order them. If the prices go lower, cancel your order and reorder at the lower prices and use the credit you get toward something else. For DVDs that are already out you have to be more careful because they may enter the packaging stage before you can cancel them. And get the Fidelity membership and you'll always get at least 10% more off. If you're going to order a lot it's well worth it.

It makes it very difficult to be loyal to a company that changes it's prices on a sometimes hourly basis. This makes it tough to compare them with their competitors. At present, their prices are much too high; I'd use them when you get a tradeoff between price and service. Right now, there are many stores with much better customer service and order lead times who are cheaper.

I've seen this many times before. Their order volume will drop like a stone, followed shortly by a pricedrop.

They've raised prices again this weekend.

One title I was interested in has gone up by over 500% in one week. That's just silly.

I am the first to admit my loyalty to DVD Soon extends only to when their prices are good. I didn't order from them between April and December, 2004 when they had no coupons and their prices were, at best, decent. What got me back was the December/January 25% off with Fidelity membership. What kept me was the Valentine 14% off followed by the even better 20% off. That was followed by the 10% off coupons that, at first, you could combine with a 10% off (or more) Fidelity discount.

Right now, their prices absolutely stink. About a week ago the 3-disc Million Dollar Baby was $32.64CAD which I thought was too high, even with my Fidelity 12% off. Now it's $42.24CAD. Fortunately, by early May I had all my preorders already made through June so I can afford to wait for prices to come down on M$B and some others I want that are being released in July and after.

I can only assume that, as you said, their order volume must be horrible right now because of the prices, regardless of having brought back free shipping. The prices will come down again. I'm patient.

As far as their service, I think it's been pretty good as of late. I get almost all my preorders between the Saturday before release and the Saturday after. That's not so bad. For one that was apparently lost in the mail, I used their system to report my having never gotten it (had to wait about six weeks to do so) and finally got a replacement about two months after the original shipping date. That was annoying but the system did work.

I've noticed a steady increase over the last couple of weeks. Since just before the free shipping was reinstated. A couple of the items I have on order are significantly more now than they were when I ordered them.

Still, slow service and all, I still order from them when the price is right.

Oh, one other thing that's odd... loads of their dvd's list with a higher suggested list price, while at amazon.ca, the list price is lower. Eg. Kill Bill vol 1. Amazon.ca list price is 27.95, selling price is 23.76, while DVDsoon has list price 49.98 selling price 19.94.

You may think that's too high, but that price is below distributor cost. DVDSoon raised it as they are perhaps losing too much money?

FYI, Million Dollar Baby 3 Disc has a $49.98 MSRP here in Canada. But when was the last time anyone paid MSRP for any DVD?

DVDSoon does that so the discount/percentage off MSRP seems significantly more than their competition.

Christian

Well, I've been used to getting DVDs from DVD Soon at around half of the U.S. list price (sometimes even less) and, even with my Fidelity 12% discount the M$B 3-disc at $32.64CAD came to about $23USD ($40USD list).

I've been spoiled by DVD Soon lately.