What is the best retailer for secure packaging?

[cuzzin]

We all know it's not Amazon. But who do most people here turn to when they want to be rest assured that their purchase will arrive in pristine condition? This is probably especially important to those who order limited, boutique releases fairly often. As a bonus: which retailer's shipments tend to arrive ahead of street date?

[siavash1996]

OrbitDVD, DiabolikDVD, and Grindhouse Video are all equally great at packaging from my experience.

Grindhouse and Orbit seem to have the fastest delivery for releases ahead of release date, but only GHV offers preorders.

[cuzzin]

Originally Posted by siavash1996

OrbitDVD, DiabolikDVD, and Grindhouse Video are all equally great at packaging from my experience.

Grindhouse and Orbit seem to have the fastest delivery for releases ahead of release date, but only GHV offers preorders.

I've been comparing pre-order prices of some of the retailers you mentioned to those of the big box stores. It looks like you're paying something like $15 more at Grindhouse and Diabolik vs Best Buy. Is this standard, or do you have to get in early or during a certain window to lock in a better price? I wouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks for the better packaging, but fifteen extra dollars is a hard trigger to pull. Also, do any of these other retailers have a reward points system like Best Buy does? Criterion is the only company I know of at the moment that has a points system, but obviously you are limited to Criterion titles on their website.

[siavash1996]

Originally Posted by cuzzin

I've been comparing pre-order prices of some of the retailers you mentioned to those of the big box stores. It looks like you're paying something like $15 more at Grindhouse and Diabolik vs Best Buy. Is this standard, or do you have to get in early or during a certain window to lock in a better price? I wouldn't mind paying a few extra bucks for the better packaging, but fifteen extra dollars is a hard trigger to pull. Also, do any of these other retailers have a reward points system like Best Buy does? Criterion is the only company I know of at the moment that has a points system, but obviously you are limited to Criterion titles on their website.

If something is Best Buy exclusive, you have no choice but to buy it through them. Those three stores I mentioned are the most reliable for buying boutique stuff like Arrow, 88 Films, Severin, Eureka, Second Sight, etc. Most of their sales come from things that Best Buy doesn't carry.

If it's something widely available like a Vestron blu-ray or just a standard release from a major studio, of course it's going to be cheaper ordering it through Amazon or Best Buy since they buy much larger quantities and can afford to sell at almost-zero profit. With that being said, I'm not quite sure how you're arriving at the $15 difference. For example, the 4K Dead & Buried releases from Blue Underground are all cheaper on GHV than at Best Buy.

[cuzzin]

Originally Posted by siavash1996

If something is Best Buy exclusive, you have no choice but to buy it through them. Those three stores I mentioned are the most reliable for buying boutique stuff like Arrow, 88 Films, Severin, Eureka, Second Sight, etc. Most of their sales come from things that Best Buy doesn't carry.

If it's something widely available like a Vestron blu-ray or just a standard release from a major studio, of course it's going to be cheaper ordering it through Amazon or Best Buy since they buy much larger quantities and can afford to sell at almost-zero profit. With that being said, I'm not quite sure how you're arriving at the $15 difference. For example, the 4K Dead & Buried releases from Blue Underground are all cheaper on GHV than at Best Buy.

Best Buy carries plenty of titles from boutique labels. Surely not to the extent of some of these stores, but I buy Arrow and Scream Factory titles through them all the time. Their prices for the upcoming Arrow 4K releases of An American Werewolf in London and RoboCop are $32.99 and $27.99 respectively (pre-tax). Diabolik has both of these titles going for $44.99 ($49.99 after their flat shipping fee), while Grindhouse is charging $42.99 (>$52 if you choose their preferred shipping method. They seem to strongly discourage the cheaper media mail option.)

[JurassicBD]

Originally Posted by siavash1996

If something is Best Buy exclusive, you have no choice but to buy it through them. Those three stores I mentioned are the most reliable for buying boutique stuff like Arrow, 88 Films, Severin, Eureka, Second Sight, etc. Most of their sales come from things that Best Buy doesn't carry.

If it's something widely available like a Vestron blu-ray or just a standard release from a major studio, of course it's going to be cheaper ordering it through Amazon or Best Buy since they buy much larger quantities and can afford to sell at almost-zero profit. With that being said, I'm not quite sure how you're arriving at the $15 difference. For example, the 4K Dead & Buried releases from Blue Underground are all cheaper on GHV than at Best Buy.

Are you insinuating that big box stores sell at zero profit routinely? Even if they could really afford to do such on a regular basis, it'd be such bad business sense that they'd rather eliminate those product lines from their inventory before doing so. Even at black friday, "loss leader" doesn't mean the store actually loses money on anything being discounted. This is no doubt an over-simplification of a more complicated system that varies by product and even brand, but big box retailers negotiate deals with the manufacturer, who is really the one cutting the deal. MAP (minimum advertised price) which all movies have to adhere to, means stores aren't even permitted to advertise below a given point without express permission from the manufacturer. For movies from major producers this is usually only enforced for a limited time, where others, like Shout Factory apply it more rigidly, often for the life of their license.

Being in business in the US is EXPENSIVE, with all the government regulations you have to adhere to alone! BF profit margins might be too low to sustain viability considering a stores overhead, but the term loss leader shouldn't be interpreted as if they're actually losing money on anything sold at that price. In large part, when it comes to media, BF has been something of a first stage of surplus liquidation by the studio. But that is changing as there is less surplus being made each year. But nobody is actually losing money, at least not until it goes to end of the line liquidators, like those that sell on ebay, amazon marketplace, or the likes of Big Lots and Dollar Tree. Do you think Dollar Tree has been losing money all these years selling movies for only a buck? The producer might be, but even that's entirely relative.

[thelwig14]

I would gladly pay a 20 percent surcharge to get something mint.

My damage rate across all retailers is easily over 75%.

I’ll check out some of these suggestions.