Canadian Prices Compared to US Prices...

[Rhylliam]

I just got back from a lil road trip to Chicago & seeing the in-store blu-ray prices down there is just astonishing! We have it incredibly good here in Canada when it comes to blu-ray markdowns, bins & heck even many new release prices. I was expecting to buy a few more discs than I actually did down there, but refuse to pay those prices since we do have it pretty good here in Canada deals-wise. Amazon.com seems to be the only place I would buy from in the US, honestly.

[chaingunsofdoom]

Last time I was in the US at a Best Buy on a Tuesday, all the new release BRs were $19.99. I can't complain about that. I've also successfully PM'd with Amazon in-store there and never have here.

[Rhylliam]

No one had any new releases for 19.99, but I wasn't in a store on a Tuesday. Not everyone buys discs on the 1st day of release. Most catalogue titles are more expensive than they are here (pretty much any disc released by Alliance in Canada is cheaper).

[Rebelwithoutacause]

I don't know about that. Blu-ray Disc movies in Ontario aren't very cheap to say the least and the big retailers (Best Buy and Future Shop) here that sell them don't offer competitive prices to consumers. Retailers in the US on the otherhand have some great deals and I wish that retailers in Canada would match their prices but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

That's just my two cents.

[Daaark]

Originally Posted by Rebelwithoutacause

I don't know about that. Blu-ray Disc movies in Ontario aren't very cheap to say the least and the big retailers (Best Buy and Future Shop) here that sell them don't offer competitive prices to consumers. Retailers in the US on the otherhand have some great deals and I wish that retailers in Canada would match their prices but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

That's just my two cents.

I load up Best Buy, FutureShop, Wal-Mart (their bin in Ottawa this week was crazy), and HMV. Different shops have different prices, but between all those, there is always good deals.

Even Loblaws lately has a nice BD bargain bin. Giant Tiger too (depending on location).

The nice thing though is that people are starting to match up on some of the deals. A price drop at one store means all the others have a 50/50 chance of matching it, or throwing into a 2/20 sale.

Also a lot of other random titles have been permanently dropped to $14.99.

But I guess it depends on what titles you're looking for. There is still a lot of them I want to pick up, and when I do, it's hard to pick which ones. But if those titles don't interest you, then I guess they aren't good deals.

[VanDammage]

Ya, you deffinately have to be a savy consumer and shop around for the best price. Stores are constantly having sales on certain Blu-Rays and HMV tends to spoil us with its 2/20 or 2/25 blu ray deals. Also it's probably a good idea to buy Blu-Rays on release day as they tend to have special 1 day pricing.

[Rebelwithoutacause]

You make very good points Daaark.

My issue is that a lot of the releases that I want, I can obtain them state side for sometimes a fraction of the cost that I would here.

By the way, and this is a bit off-topic, but does anyone know if HMV is still running their Blu-ray Disc Upgrade program? I was really fond of that program and used it a few tmes to obtain a couple of movies.

[VanDammage]

Yes they are, at least at my local HMV. Selection is small but you can still save $5 by trading in your old DVD's.

[Daaark]

Originally Posted by Rebelwithoutacause

By the way, and this is a bit off-topic, but does anyone know if HMV is still running their Blu-ray Disc Upgrade program? I was really fond of that program and used it a few tmes to obtain a couple of movies.

It would help if you put your proper location. Ontario is a big place. I'm pretty sure prices vary from region to region.

I see the trade in 5$ sticker here, it's on a lot of random movies and video games.

I make it a point to check the FutureShop, Best Buy, and HMV websites daily. I also peek around any other shop I might be in to see what they have. So I see a lot of things dead cheap.

I got Benjamin Button and Beetlejuice at a 2-for-15$ sale at Wal-Mart while they were both 30$+ at the other stores. It was unadvertised and unexpected. I just got lucky that day.

I also see strange things happen. A lot of movies follow this trend. but sometimes it's a whole run of movies from a single studio.

• Resident Evil is 2/20$ at HMV for a few weeks.
  
• Future Shop notices, and lowers the price to 9.99$.
  
• HMV removes it, and it's back to 20$.
  
• HMV notices the new price elsewhere, and has lowered it to 14.99$. Also, Resident Evi l2 is back in the 2/20$.
  
• FS fires back, Resident Evil: Degeneration is now only 5$ on DVD.
  
• Walmart enters the fight, 19.99$ for Resident Evil Trilogy on DVD.

Because of this, I've gotten to pick up a lot of things cheap. I tend to wait until the above happens, then I clean up with a few titles at a time.

HMV also has a lot of titles that just dropped to 14.99 with the trade in 5$ sticker. Fifth Element, Crank, ZombieLand, stuff like that.

Walmart has a 2/15$ section here, but they fly off the shelf.

When people say there are no good deals, I don't know what to say. Every week more and more movies get priced to clear to make room for the new releases. And I watch everyone try to compete with everyone else's deals on the same of similar titles.

[Hayabusa85]

I think it works both ways and all comes down to the studio. Have noticed most Universal releases are now releasing around $19.99 here either being equal to or cheaper than the US. Picked up Alpha Dog the other day for example for $19.99 compared to $24.99 at Best Buy in the US. And the one thing I have always given Alliance credit for is their pricing even if they can be hit or miss with the releases. And it is especially nice when you can get a repackaged US release like In Bruges for $14.99! But then I also purchased White Collar Season 1 from Fox for $59.99 while that is $10 less in the US at Best Buy. Criterion are the main one I have noticed you can get much cheaper in stores in the US versus the prices in stores here if you don't order them online.

But at least this can actually be debated. Unlike games where we are still getting screwed over

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by Rhylliam

Most catalogue titles are more expensive than they are here (pretty much any disc released by Alliance in Canada is cheaper).

You have to compare the same release. Alliance tends to charge less, that is why they are cheaper. If they also distributed in the US then you could compare their titles here and there.

[Rhylliam]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

You have to compare the same release. Alliance tends to charge less, that is why they are cheaper. If they also distributed in the US then you could compare their titles here and there.

Alliance, even with DVD, have always marked down titles like crazy. For this we should be incredibly pleased with their service here in Canada. Well that, & the fact that they take on sooo many titles to distribute here as well.

But our Warner & Fox catalogue titles tend to be cheaper as well. A lot of those Fox Blu/DVD combo sets we have for $10 here & there, were going for $15+.

[LordoftheRings]

Also, because of the closure of all Rogers Video & Movie Gallery in Canada, you can now (for the last 4 weeks or so) buy previously viewed Blu-rays for as low as $5 each. ...That's the average price of a rental!

* Guess how many I got from them?

~ And next is BlockBuster!

[Rhylliam]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRings

Also, because of the closure of all Rogers Video & Movie Gallery in Canada, you can now (for the last 4 weeks or so) buy previously viewed Blu-rays for as low as $5 each. ...That's the average price of a rental!

* Guess how many I got from them?

~ And next is BlockBuster!

Was there an official announcement of this? Two stores that I know of closed recently here in Winnipeg, but the others are still doing alright & are not advertising a closure...

[blurayjunkie]

Originally Posted by Rebelwithoutacause

I don't know about that. Blu-ray Disc movies in Ontario aren't very cheap to say the least and the big retailers (Best Buy and Future Shop) here that sell them don't offer competitive prices to consumers. Retailers in the US on the otherhand have some great deals and I wish that retailers in Canada would match their prices but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

That's just my two cents.

I feel your pain, We get raped if you want to buy a new release movie on blu-ray the first week. I have found blockbuster and Wal-Mark have great deals on older blu-rays these days. Witch is awesome, I love buying $10 BLU-RAYS. I guees a cheap price does that to me.

[mugen]

all new releases in vancouver are a ripoff as well. i'll stick with amazon.com (and no french text on the coverarts--yes, i'm one of those people who is anal about how it looks)

[Desilvio]

Originally Posted by Rhylliam

Was there an official announcement of this? Two stores that I know of closed recently here in Winnipeg, but the others are still doing alright & are not advertising a closure...

That's definitely not the case. I've heard Movie Gallery is gone, but I work at a Rogers location and we're definitely not closing. Maybe he's referring to the rebranding of Rogers Video to Rogers Plus? That's the only thing I can think of..

[Rhylliam]

Originally Posted by Desilvio

That's definitely not the case. I've heard Movie Gallery is gone, but I work at a Rogers location and we're definitely not closing. Maybe he's referring to the rebranding of Rogers Video to Rogers Plus? That's the only thing I can think of..

That sounds about right. We only had 1 movie gallery in Winnipeg & it closed last summer (& I bought a bunch of racking from there!).

[LordoftheRings]

Originally Posted by Rhylliam

Was there an official announcement of this? Two stores that I know of closed recently here in Winnipeg, but the others are still doing alright & are not advertising a closure...

Sorry my bad, you're quite right; some stores (Rogers Video) are now closed,
but others still remain. ...But for how long though?

* I guess the cell phone business (Rogers Plus) is what keeps them afloat.

[Wishart]

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