The Criterion Collection

[traths]

Originally Posted by jw007

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've officially gone apeshit!

On a whim, I drove down to my local Barnes & Noble (literally 1.2 miles from my apartment - took 6 minutes to drive there) and lo and behold I noticed 1 DVD and 2 blu-ray copies of Rosemary's Baby, 1 DVD of Harold and Maude, and 1 DVD of La Dolce Vita. I bought all of them on my credit card! (about $153 after 10% off $170). I'm hoping to hold on to these for a year or so and then try and sell them on Ebay when they're scarcer for under $100 each to make a bit of a profit.

What a score!

[Show spoiler]

What kind of reaction did you get from the B&N employees when you bought those?

[ShellBeacher]

Originally Posted by ravenus

You need to also factor in the fuel costs of driving down and back.

I can't tell if they're being serious or not...

Copies of 'La Dolce Vita' Blu are still sitting at Amazon for less than B&N...so one could make more of a profit......without the gas...
...if one wanted to do such a thing.

Me? I've lost patience for that sort of thing...

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by jw007

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've officially gone apeshit!

On a whim, I drove down to my local Barnes & Noble (literally 1.2 miles from my apartment - took 6 minutes to drive there) and lo and behold I noticed 1 DVD and 2 blu-ray copies of Rosemary's Baby, 1 DVD of Harold and Maude, and 1 DVD of La Dolce Vita. I bought all of them on my credit card! (about $153 after 10% off $170). I'm hoping to hold on to these for a year or so and then try and sell them on Ebay when they're scarcer for under $100 each to make a bit of a profit.

What a score!

I tried this once with Ran back in the day(fell upon multiple copies in a brick and mortar after it was officially OOP) but only wound up getting roughly MSRP for each copy oddly.

[mande2013]

Originally Posted by jw007

Wow.

I've been gone from the thread for 36 hours and come back and realize just how much news I missed.

Meanwhile, I spent yesterday tracking down the 6 Dr. Seuss books that are now out of print and couldn't find any in local bookstores.

And today I find out another 6 Criterions are now out of print.

Is the number 6 a special number all of a sudden when it comes to batches of books/movies going out of print?

Amazingly I own 5 of the 6 OOP Criterions, one of which is still sealed (La Dolce Vita), except Don't Look Now, only because I hated the ending to the film. But now I'm going to track down a ridiculously expensive copy most likely. Wish me luck, boys!

I'd frankly recommend importing the 4K Studio Canal release of Don't Look Now at this point, as it surpasses the Criterion, assuming you've either gone 4K or are region-free for 1080p blu-ray.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by jw007

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've officially gone apeshit!

On a whim, I drove down to my local Barnes & Noble (literally 1.2 miles from my apartment - took 6 minutes to drive there) and lo and behold I noticed 1 DVD and 2 blu-ray copies of Rosemary's Baby, 1 DVD of Harold and Maude, and 1 DVD of La Dolce Vita. I bought all of them on my credit card! (about $153 after 10% off $170). I'm hoping to hold on to these for a year or so and then try and sell them on Ebay when they're scarcer for under $100 each to make a bit of a profit.

What a score!

I can only think of the people who might find out they would like to buy these titles and can't because you bought them with the sole purpose of scalping them off on eBay.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

I can only think of the people who might find out they would like to buy these titles and can't because you bought them with the sole purpose of scalping them off on eBay.

Get your point. Budgets (for most of us) are limited, and we have to prioritize purchases. But conversely, there has been ample opportunity to pick these titles up.

Like when TT went out of business. People were suddenly desperate to pick up "must-own" and "favourite" films that had been readily available - and frequently discounted in sales - for years.

[CinemaBlu]

Originally Posted by UnionJackMix

I can only think of the people who might find out they would like to buy these titles and can't because you bought them with the sole purpose of scalping them off on eBay.

Me too. I can understand wanting a backup copy for yourself, but buying up copies just to scalp them later just makes you an a**hole.

Sorry jw007, I still like you, but that was kind of a dick move

[CinemaBlu]

Originally Posted by ShellBeacher

I can't tell if they're being serious or not...

Copies of 'La Dolce Vita' Blu are still sitting at Amazon for less than B&N...so one could make more of a profit......without the gas...
...if one wanted to do such a thing.

Me? I've lost patience for that sort of thing...

As long as the Essential Fellini set is still in print, where Blu-ray editions of La dolce vita and 13 other films can be bought for just $125, I don't see how anyone can't make much of a profit on an OOP DVD edition.

[Strangerbyday]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

Just looked at my last UPS label and there's no value listed on the address label or box. I'm not aware that USPS labels would have the value on the label unless there is extra insurance applied.

I'm not sure how the reshipper would know the value unless they have an arrangement with certain warehouses which seems unlikely, they open the package to check contents or repackage before reshipping, or you told them the actual value

Nah, I don't contact them in advance. I suppose its possible that they opened the package before shipping it forward & checked the price in the box & that I might have just gotten lucky with all past orders from Shout etc. that passed through without issue & got stung this time. Pity.

[BaronVH]

Originally Posted by CinemaBlu

Me too. I can understand wanting a backup copy for yourself, but buying up copies just to scalp them later just makes you an a**hole.

Sorry jw007, I still like you, but that was kind of a dick move

I have never done this, nor will I ever (I like to hang on to all my valuable OOP rare books and movies), but isn’t that what every person that buys a stock does every single day?

[klauswhereareyou]

Well this kind of gave me the kick in the butt to go ahead and purchase Seconds and War of the Worlds.

[t4t3r]

People are free to do what they want with their money and the items they own, but coming to a place simply to gloat where people collectively discuss those items because of their shared interest in such a hobby is absolutely cringe-worthy.

[UnionJackMix]

Originally Posted by Reddington

Get your point. Budgets (for most of us) are limited, and we have to prioritize purchases. But conversely, there has been ample opportunity to pick these titles up.

Like when TT went out of business. People were suddenly desperate to pick up "must-own" and "favourite" films that had been readily available - and frequently discounted in sales - for years.

I didn't want to write a longer post but yes, that is the point that is valid but only for some people. You are forgetting that there are younger people, or people who are not yet movie buffs enough to know they will be interested in these titles, so the way I think, the market should still be there for those who in due time will come to desire those titles. You know what I mean?
For example, I had a newly-found interest for blind buys when TT went out of business, and the hysteria around them going out of business ignited an interest inside of me for movies I had never any interest in, simply because there were multiple factors that made me want to buy them (Fox titles that will never be reissued, crime movies I had never been interested before). And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Once I bought up the dozens of titles, I moved on to Eureka and Indicator, where I bought up all titles I had a remote interest in.
But I could afford it. Even then, there were already some titles that were OOP, because others wanted them, but clearly also because scalpers bought them up when they were in low numbers (scalper lurkers on here, or fans on here, or alerted by tweets and instagram posts).

Even now, there are titles I might enjoy, and would blind buy at retail price, but I can't because of the reasons above, so in the end it's my loss, for not maturing fast enough to know I'd want them, but also because of scalpers. So if someone says they are going to buy them up for scalping purposes, well, other posters have given already an appropriate response

[klauswhereareyou]

I do find it kind of funny how we always hear "Physical Media" is dying/dead, and then Paramount's like hey it's 2021, all aboard the physical media train when they've basically spent the last 8 years not really bothering with putting out their catalog films on Blu-ray.

[Member-222782]

Originally Posted by klauswhereareyou

I do find it kind of funny how we always hear "Physical Media" is dying/dead, and then Paramount's like hey it's 2021, all aboard the physical media train when they've basically spent the last 8 years not really bothering with putting out their catalog films on Blu-ray.

Well, I'm glad they woke up and smelled the coffee (better late than never) but how smart is it to price these (mostly) barebones reissues at $22.99? How many people who for whatever reason skipped the Criterion editions are going to spring for these at only a couple bucks less?

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by Cinema84

Well, I'm glad they woke up and smelled the coffee (better late than never) but how smart is it to price these (mostly) barebones reissues at $22.99? How many people who for whatever reason skipped the Criterion editions are going to spring for these at only a couple bucks less?

I have to assume these will show up at places like Wal-Mart for 15 bucks or less.

[BluProofie]

I wish we knew if a Kurosawa boxset was likely. There are still a bunch I need, but I don’t want to buy anymore if something is coming.

[koberulz]

Originally Posted by DukeTogo84

I wonder how in danger some of the Fox titles are in terms of going OOP? Wonder if Disney will allow Criterion to renew those. Otherwise, Kagemusha might be gone soon.

Disney has refused to renew every other licensing deal that's come up. Doubt Criterion will be an exception.

Originally Posted by Strangerbyday

Well, that'll be my first & last time ordering from the Criterion Store.
Didn't realize they put the order total on the shipping label, so have been stung twice for customs by the reshipper on the 2 orders I placed from the sale.

You're upset because they wouldn't help you commit fraud?

Every reshipper I know of insists on being sent proof of the value of the items to be reshipped before they'll lift a finger.

[DukeTogo84]

Originally Posted by misterlibby

Stops completely, no way to get past the freeze through chapter stops or fast forwarding or anything like that. Suuuuucks.

Sucks, and there is no signs of damage on the actual disc or disc rot? If so, that's strange.

I've checked mine like three times in the last few days and it's fine, so I'm just hoping it was pressed at a different plant or at a different date.

[theater dreamer]

I am not a happy camper this morning. It’s only dumb luck that I have all but one of these films that just went OOP (assuming Medium Cool is truly going to be back in stock. But everybody is already scalping their copies on EBay, and for those of us who can’t sit at the computer spam refreshing F5 every ten minutes to see if it’s back in stock come April so they can get one of the ten copies Criterion.com gets in, we’ll be shit out of luck there, too).

You would think that Criterion might float some kind of a heads up to their most loyal customers that they “might want to make sure they have the Criterion Paramount releases they wish to own.” Instead, the carpet gets pulled out from under us. Great.