The Criterion Collection

[octagon]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ok kids.. back with some more semi-obscure completely cheapskate tips for everyone. since now I am on a quest to be fully Jean Pierre Melville blu-ray equipped, I bought Leon Morin, Priest at Amazon in "Like New" condition for 19.99. I bought 5 discs this week which, for me, makes me a bit uneasy. anyway, I was determined to NOT pay $4 for shipping and tried to think of something else that I need in order to make it to $35. I am happy to report that you can purchase a (non-Amazon) gift card to help you get to $35 and get free shipping. So that's what I did - I bought a $25 subway gift card. I'm all about 5 dollar foot longs, so this will CERTAINLY be used.

and best part... I didn't pay the $4, so I feel like I got a deal.

Phineas J Freaking Whoopee, you're a freaking genius.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by octagon

Phineas J Freaking Whoopee, you're a freaking genius.

thanks, Octagon! when I'm mocked by Octagon, blu-ray.com's resident king of sarcasm, I feel truly special.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

thanks, Octagon! when I'm mocked by Octagon, blu-ray.com's resident king of sarcasm, I feel truly special.

Mocked??????

Not at all. I didn't think I was going to care all that much about the super saver increase to $35 but I've freaking hated it.

No, I was totally serious above.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by octagon

Mocked??????

Not at all. I didn't think I was going to care all that much about the super saver increase to $35 but I've freaking hated it.

No, I was totally serious above.

yeah, the increase to $35 does kinda stink. is teased a better word? you ARE pretty sarcastic, though, you might as well own it.

On the other hand, you've provided helpful info to me on more than one occasion and I thank you for that.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

yeah, the increase to $35 does kinda stink. is teased a better word?

I was giving a genuine thumbs up to a genuinely good idea.

[Mansinthe]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

Assuming Breathless was last month; I know there was at least one other actual upgrade last month. See above. Can we really call The 400 Blows an upgrade? I'd just hate to see this become a trend.

well even Criterion has to save money every possible way. a lot other labels are doing dual format releases for the same reason. so its probably a good thing for us as well. sales at B&N are not so good this year as well, so no idea how long that shop will be around.

i never saw a B&N from the inside but these dual format releases must save some space on the shelfs as well that can be used for some other stuff.

and finally some people that are still DVD only will be forced to support bluray and will maybe get a bluray player as well.

the line up for next few months makes me already really happy and my wallet wants to cry ;D im gonna a lot of the stuff that will be released in the next 4 months. Persona and the lars von trier movie are 2 of them.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by octagon

I was giving a genuine thumbs up to a genuinely good idea.

oh, ok. got it now.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

ok kids.. back with some more semi-obscure completely cheapskate tips for everyone. since now I am on a quest to be fully Jean Pierre Melville blu-ray equipped, I bought Leon Morin, Priest at Amazon in "Like New" condition for 19.99. I bought 5 discs this week which, for me, makes me a bit uneasy. anyway, I was determined to NOT pay $4 for shipping and tried to think of something else that I need in order to make it to $35. I am happy to report that you can purchase a (non-Amazon) gift card to help you get to $35 and get free shipping. So that's what I did - I bought a $25 subway gift card. I'm all about 5 dollar foot longs, so this will CERTAINLY be used.

and best part... I didn't pay the $4, so I feel like I got a deal.

Thanks for the tip. I passed on several Amazon deals over the holidays because I couldn't think of something I really wanted/needed to reach the magic $35 number. But on the positive side, it saved me money. I'll have to remember Subway (or other) gift cards from now on.

EDIT: So that's (at least) 2 thumbs up now.

[The Great Owl]

Check out what arrived in the mail today...



Naturally, the first thing that I did was place the booklet and disc in one of my spare single-disc Criterion cases...



The case for this "Used - Like New" Blu-ray of The Third Man that I ordered for $75.99 looks great aside from a minor corner imperfection on the outer sleeve that I'm not going to quibble about, since these early digipacks seem to take abuse simply by sitting on store shelves.

I'll withhold final judgment until I watch the Blu-ray in its entirety tonight, but the early indication is that this is a great day for The Great Owl's collection.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Check out what arrived in the mail today...

[Show spoiler]

Naturally, the first thing that I did was place the booklet and disc in one of my spare single-disc Criterion cases...

[Show spoiler]

The case for this "Used - Like New" Blu-ray of The Third Man that I ordered for $75.99 looks great aside from a minor corner imperfection on the outer sleeve that I'm not going to quibble about, since these early digipacks seem to take abuse simply by sitting on store shelves.

I'll withhold final judgment until I watch the Blu-ray in its entirety tonight, but the early indication is that this is a great day for The Great Owl's collection.

the back of the disc looks clean, Owl?

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

the back of the disc looks clean, Owl?

The back of the disc looks perfect. I'm going to put it in the player soon.

The booklet looks brand-spanking new.

The seller took good care shipping this. It arrived cushioned inside a box that was taped about 8 times over with clear tape that took me a couple of minutes to remove.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The back of the disc looks perfect. Woo hoo!

I've had no problem with 'Like New' purchases in the past. 3 of the 5 discs I bought this week are in that condition.. I'd say I'm waiting w/ fingers crossed, but I'm not. I'm sure they'll be fine. Looking forward to your commentary on the transfer itself and how it compares to the Studio Canal release!

[octagon]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

The back of the disc looks perfect. I'm going to put it in the player soon.

Budget some additional time for Shadowing the Third Man.

It's really good.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

Budget some additional time for Shadowing the Third Man.

It's really good.

That is a good documentary. I watched it when I bought the Criterion DVD several years ago. I'm going to watch it again tonight on the Blu-ray, though, while I check the disc.

I'm planning to sell the DVD this week, so that I can get some of that cash back from this Blu-ray purchase.

I'm going to keep my StudioCanal Blu-ray of The Third Man for the extras, so that I'll have the best of both worlds with both Blu-rays.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

...since these early digipacks seem to take abuse simply by sitting on store shelves.

Originally Posted by bwdowiak

I've had no problem with 'Like New' purchases in the past. 3 of the 5 discs I bought this week are in that condition.. I'd say I'm waiting w/ fingers crossed, but I'm not. I'm sure they'll be fine. Looking forward to your commentary on the transfer itself and how it compares to the Studio Canal release!

I passed over The Last Year at Marienbad time and time again because every copy I had ever seen instore was pretty beat up. Once it went OOP I decided to grab a 'like new' copy via Amazon and was very pleasantly surprised at its condition. It wasn't mint but it was at least as good as any of the copies I had seen at B&N over the years and better than most.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

I'm going to keep my StudioCanal Blu-ray of The Third Man for the extras, so that I'll have the best of both worlds with both Blu-rays.

lalalalalalalalalalalalalalaI'm not buying the Studio Canal, that would be excessivelalalalalalalalalalalalalalala...

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by octagon

I passed over The Last Year at Marienbad time and time again because every copy I had ever seen instore was pretty beat up. Once it went OOP I decided to grab a 'like new' copy via Amazon and was very pleasantly surprised at its condition. It wasn't mint but it was at least as good as any of the copies I had seen at B&N over the years and better than most.

I've got that original digipack case of Last Year at Marienbad as well. Fortunately, I was able to buy the replacement plastic case while it was still available. This digipack of The Third Man will go into the protected "digipack museum" in my closet, and I'll keep the disc and booklet in the replacement case pictured above as I store it with my other Blu-rays.

For my Universal Monsters UK set, I keep all of the discs stored in Amaray cases so that I will not have to flip through that awkward package whenever I want to revisit a movie. Replacement cases are good for this sort of thing.

[Jr7936]

i traded someone my plastic case version of the third man for the digipack version since they didn't like the digipacks and I wanted the original case

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by jayembee

I'm not sure what "two months in a row" you're talking about. The April announcement is the first time that they've announced a Dual-Format repackage and no upgrades.

January: Rififi and Throne of Blood
February: Jules and Jim
March: George Washington and The Hidden Fortress

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

Assuming Breathless was last month; I know there was at least one other actual upgrade last month. See above. Can we really call The 400 Blows an upgrade? I'd just hate to see this become a trend.

Breathless was a February announcement, so there was no repackaged title announced for March.

And, no, neither Breathless nor The 400 Blows are "upgrades". But so what? They're being announced along with the new releases because they are being reissued in a new format (Dual-Format) with a new SKU, and therefore in a commercial sense, they are new products. And given that those specific titles are currently OOP, the announcement tells us that they are becoming available again.

And, yes, it will become a trend, because as their current stocks of separate DVDs and BDs of various titles dwindle, they'll be reissuing those titles in the Dual-Format, and will undoubtedly be announced like these two were. Live with it.

[Ausjdm]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Check out what arrived in the mail today...



Naturally, the first thing that I did was place the booklet and disc in one of my spare single-disc Criterion cases...



The case for this "Used - Like New" Blu-ray of The Third Man that I ordered for $75.99 looks great aside from a minor corner imperfection on the outer sleeve that I'm not going to quibble about, since these early digipacks seem to take abuse simply by sitting on store shelves.

I'll withhold final judgment until I watch the Blu-ray in its entirety tonight, but the early indication is that this is a great day for The Great Owl's collection.

Loving that Third Man Blu sir! I still have the og CC dvd version. Such an amazing movie the use of light and shadows is first class stuff! I'll upgrade one day def.

I've only had good experiences with buying 3rd party used movies on amazon I'll take picture later of some I got. Their rating scale is great I'm like this is used? It's like brand new wow ok sweet!