quote:<HR>What is bothering the retailers is the reaction
from the Internet community. People are absolutely
going ballistic and posting very nasty messages
against some of these companies because the
discounts are no longer there.<HR>

GROUP HUG!!!

quote:<HR>While you may walk into a COSTCO/SAM'S CLUB, etc.
and find DVDs at an extremely low price, you
should know that these are not DVD-only retailers,
and that these retailers can afford to lose money
on their DVD titles to bring you into the store.<HR>

BULLSH%$!! One employee told me that Costco sells at a fixed 7% markup, so they are not losing any money. I know that when you see markdowns at Toys R Us for Star Wars figures, it is not just because Toys R Us is getting rid of them, it's BECAUSE THE DISTRIBUTOR IS SELLING TO THEM CHEAP!!

quote:<HR>The annoying thing with most CD's (except new albums) and all DVD's is that the marketing has already been done - I'm buying a product that I already want. I like Billy Joel's Piano Man and I buy it. I enjoyed Get Shorty in the theatre and I buy it. No previews, no Burger King tie ins - just put it in your real or virtual store at a reasonable price and I'll buy it.<HR>

Open an account at Well's Fargo and you can get both the Get Shorty DVD and Piano Man free. :rolleyes

So I guess for catalog titles, there's not a whole lot of overhead except for PRESSING THE DVD.

WHere to start...
FIrst off, you have to remember who wrotethe original letter: Ronald Epstein He is the admin for HOME THEATER FORUM, a forum many of us have visited, and if not, you ned to its a very good example of what I dont want the DVDTalk forum to become....an elitest "my sub is home made, and yours ist so you cant play" type of Home theater forum. This is just another example of that forums elitist attitude. I honestly believe that Ron and the other "die hard" HTF memebers would prefer that DVD remain a small market much like laser disc. They dont like us "low class" people moving in on their exclusive territory.

WHat does this have to do with the price of DVDs going up......not a damn thing. Most likely ROn felt presure to say something about all the negative press his advertisers were getting on his forum.
As someone stated above, its our right to whine and complain about the price of DVDs going up. If some of the owners of DVD sotres dont like that, get a thicker skin!

I agree with most post esp. with messages that consumers are king. Their businesses exist because of us and the e-tailer or B&M with the best price, service and quality products will almost always win.

The customer is always right. If dvdtalker#69 doesn't want to pay more than 10 bucks for his dvd, no one is forcing e-tailer x to sell it below 10. I'm glad I struck the iron while its hot.

weapon_x11

i think that this proves that the internet companies not buying direct but just taking orders and letting outside fufillment houses send them out is flawed.major chains like best buy purchase the dvd's direct from the manufacturer and save the fees charged by the distributors.of course distributors do get better pricing if they buy more. to believe that the studios sell dvd's at the same price to a mom and pop store who buys one copy of the matrix as they do to best buy that buys 100,000 units is to be suffering delusions.this is not true. Distirbutors add from 5% on up to the price of goods they sell. They also will markup goods less to a larger client than a smaller one.If the markups at online stores shrink to the same or higher than B&M stores why buy from them? I believe the B&M stores smell blood and are finding that they can sell items on sale to consumers at cost or near cost short term and crush the remaining life out of many of the online stores. lately many of my friends are finding it amusing that they are getting better prices at best buy, fry's or curcuit city than i am with my "deals" online . The only option the online stores have is to try and get the dvd's from the best source(the studios) and see if the savings can save their business. I do not think many of the online businesses that do not have a B&M tie in will survive long term and this includes amazon.

------------------
my DVD's

quote:<HR>Originally posted by WildcatLH:
You're kidding yourself.

As the online DVD buying community, "we" probably make up less than 5% of the total DVD-buying community. The other 95% have seemed perfectly happy paying full retail price for DVDs at stores such as Suncoast and CompUSA. Most people are blissfully unaware of the "deals" available on the internet. I doubt that if we were to curtail our DVD buying habits, it would make any kind of significant dent in the overall DVD market.<HR>

You're right! When my wife shops at Target, I'll check out the DVD section and the stock is depleted every week even though most titles are high priced. Two of my neighbors pay full price for all of their DVDs even after I offered to help them save money online!

quote:<HR>You must understand that companies like REEL
(now deceased) and a few remaining mega-giants came
to the scene for the sole purpose of putting sites
like Digital Eyes, Ken Cranes and DVD
Express out of business. <HR>

Actually, if I remember correctly, it was DVD Express that created the 30 and 40% off pre-orders price war.

DVDexpress brought about the demise of reel. DVDexpress never did coupons after price matching, freeDVD coupons, and has not done general coupons for a while. And dvd express avoided the affilliate program for a long while. And while thier shipping is inexpensive, it's per shipment and not per order.

Doesn't mean they are cheap. DVDexpress did give away a batch of individual coupons for dvdtalkers a long long time ago. they play the quality game. They have the best availability tracking.

They obviously have someone with $$$$$ behind them. They are no longer selling at a loss, and I bet that they probably didn't sell much at a loss (buying thousands of copies with CASH, will get you a big break, no matter what dealer cost says).

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Aaron Campagnone:
WHere to start...
FIrst off, you have to remember who wrotethe original letter: Ronald Epstein He is the admin for HOME THEATER FORUM, a forum many of us have visited, and if not, you ned to its a very good example of what I dont want the DVDTalk forum to become....an elitest "my sub is home made, and yours ist so you cant play" type of Home theater forum. This is just another example of that forums elitist attitude. I honestly believe that Ron and the other "die hard" HTF memebers would prefer that DVD remain a small market much like laser disc. They dont like us "low class" people moving in on their exclusive territory.<HR>

I think what you said about Ronald Epstein will hurt him a lot. His forum is one of a different kind and not aimed at the so-called 'elite'. I own a Laserdisc player for four years and have a high-end setup. Does that make me elite? Does that make me want 'low class' people NOT to move in?

Of course not! Laserdisc were - are- exclusive but expensive! The average disc did cost around $35 and up so building a nice collection was just too expensive. Besides that, the DVD-format offers various advantages above Laserdisc of which improved quality (anamorphic widescreen) and availability are the most useful ones.

IMO Ronald has some personal friends which run a DVD business and that's why he's personal involved. That has nothing to do with the 'elite'.

I don't think neither 'us' nor the retailers have any reasons to complain: if the prices are more attractive in the stores it's plain simple: we just buy them there and if retailers wants us to buy DVD's on-line they have to make sure there's an advantage for the buyers (= less $$$ for most of us).

[This message has been edited by exm (edited August 24, 2000).]