Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[thatguamguy]

I interpret everything in that sentence that isn't a title to be marketing.

[plateoshrimp]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

I interpret everything in that sentence that isn't a title to be marketing.

It seems that normally this late in a sale they have specific titles and numbers. The vagueness doesn't put that same sense of urgency in me. I'm glad though. My wallet has taken a beating this month.

[thatguamguy]

Yeah, especially if (as hari said above) they aren't actually backed up with the sale the way they always used to be, they'd really have zero reason to not tell us specific titles that were low stock.

[SeanJoyce]

I have to wonder, if there's any merit there, if Inferno is sitting at a low quantity. I just can't see how Gun Fury would get there but Inferno wouldn't.

That's the one that I REALLY want from TT, but I'm hoping to hold out until it hits the $20 price range.

[Twilight Time]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

Yeah, especially if (as hari said above) they aren't actually backed up with the sale the way they always used to be, they'd really have zero reason to not tell us specific titles that were low stock.

While we understand your cynicism - just for clarification purposes, we do not know sale numbers until after the sale has ended. As you know, SAE is a completely separate entity and the TT portal is also managed by a third party company, so we receive sales figures on the next date that numbers are due in a monthly cycle.

When we mentioned on FB around 50 titles are very low, that is true. And yes, many of the titles that we've had for years do eventually run out - using Oildude's page 1 guide, you can deduce that pretty much everything released through the end of 2014, are now getting scarce. Few of those titles have more than 100 copies left at this point, so while there may be no rush on them, they will be gone soon.

Then, there are the newer titles that are also in the same boat - 9 To 5, Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte, Miss Sadie Thompson, Cat Ballou, To Sir, With Love, Exodus, Hawaii, The Last Detail, Remo Williams, Runaway Train etc - that we know from last month's sales figures how few there are remaining. U-Turn less than 40 for example.

Sorry we can't be more exact, but we are always left with the same mantra - if you want a title, why wait till the last call?

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

Sorry we can't be more exact, but we are always left with the same mantra - if you want a title, why wait till the last call?

First off, thanks for responding, I apologize if any of that seemed unfair. The logic behind what I said is that, in past sales, there have been multiple announcements about specific titles all through the month as they went low-stock. This specific sale, we've already been talking in the other thread about our surprise at how few titles sold out or even got officially announced as "low stock".

As to why people wait, I think the question misunderstands collectors. I grant you that for people who want a single title, the question makes sense. But I have a wishlist of 20 titles that I am interested in from Twilight Time, and it was almost at 30 before the sale. (Not counting titles which have sold out, a separate list.) These are titles that I am less interested in than the 93 I already own. These are not titles that I need to own. They are certainly titles that, if it's announced that they're out of print, I will shrug and say "Oh well." I don't want to buy any more right now, because of competing Black Friday sales, but if a specific title which were on my wish list were announced as low quantity, I would likely scrape together the cash to buy it now, while it's still on sale.

[cakefactory]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

Sorry we can't be more exact, but we are always left with the same mantra - if you want a title, why wait till the last call?

Triage.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

First off, thanks for responding, I apologize if any of that seemed unfair. The logic behind what I said is that, in past sales, there have been multiple announcements about specific titles all through the month as they went low-stock. This specific sale, we've already been talking in the other thread about our surprise at how few titles sold out or even got officially announced as "low stock".

As to why people wait, I think the question misunderstands collectors. I grant you that for people who want a single title, the question makes sense. But I have a wishlist of 20 titles that I am interested in from Twilight Time, and it was almost at 30 before the sale. (Not counting titles which have sold out, a separate list.) These are titles that I am less interested in than the 93 I already own. These are not titles that I need to own. They are certainly titles that, if it's announced that they're out of print, I will shrug and say "Oh well." I don't want to buy any more right now, because of competing Black Friday sales, but if a specific title which were on my wish list were announced as low quantity, I would likely scrape together the cash to buy it now, while it's still on sale.

I think that's the mentality of a lot of collectors.

If a film is released that I deem to be a "must-own" I will buy as soon as I can and pay full price. But I have so many titles on my wishlist and there are plenty more that aren't but get awfully tempting to buy at the right price. This last sale I picked two titles from each of $19.95, $14.95 & $9.95 pricepoints where I had a sort of mental venn diagram where the interest in the title overlapped with the right pricepoint. Then, of course, after I completed that order, I gave in to temptation and ordered two more!

If a movie winds up on the LQA and I don't already have it, then it's one I don't mind missing out on.

[JoeDeM]

Wow! my 2 SAE orders showed up today, I think that's the fastest I've ever gotten something from them, they must be working overtime to get all these sales orders out.

[Twilight Time]

Originally Posted by thatguamguy

This specific sale, we've already been talking in the other thread about our surprise at how few titles sold out or even got officially announced as "low stock".

Which other thread was that? Generally speaking we've been wondering the same. It might be that we very rarely put pretty much the whole catalogue on sale - this time 190 titles - we think that when there's that much choice the numbers are amortized and consequently are weaker across the board - hence fewer sell-outs. Also, when the sales are offered at both sites - like this one - that amortization is even more pronounced. Our sales are much more successful when tightly focused on a particular studio, or when we have our 10 day flash sales that focus on 20-30 titles. But, we live and learn - we are hardly retail experts - but we do try our best to be competitive in an increasingly difficult environment.

[thatguamguy]

(responding to Rochester)
It took me a long time, but I am finally patient enough about these things that I rarely buy anything Day One anymore. The X-factor is that sometimes, a new release will wind up so cheap immediately that it's worth it; I bought "Glengarry Glen Ross" because it was listing for under $10 the week of release. I'm trying to maximize my dollar value.

But the Venn diagram thing, I totally agree with that, in any sale from TT or Kino, there's always at least one title that I buy mainly because "at that price, why not?"

[thatguamguy]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

Which other thread was that? Generally speaking we've been wondering the same.

If you want my two cents, November is a crowded month for sales -- you not only have Black Friday looming, but Barnes and Noble consistently has its 50% off Criterion sale (edit because Rochester's post reminded me of Kino's big sale as well). I doubt I am the only one who would've bought more from a line-wide sale in, say, February. I don't mean that as a complaint or a criticism on the sale itself, I just think the timing of it probably had an impact on the sales.

"other thread" -- this blu-ray.com forum has a lot of sub forums... *this* thread is in the forum specific to conversations about blu-rays, but there's a separate forum for Sales and Deals, and as soon as this sale started a thread got started over there (by me, as it happens). If there's a sale going, there will generally be an active thread in that forum, in addition to this thread, and the threads for individual titles -- sometimes it can get confusing where a conversation you want to get back to actually is!

we think that when there's that much choice the numbers are amortized and consequently are weaker across the board

That's an interesting thought which hadn't occurred to me, and I would not discount that as a big factor.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

Which other thread was that? Generally speaking we've been wondering the same. It might be that we very rarely put pretty much the whole catalogue on sale - this time 190 titles - we think that when there's that much choice the numbers are amortized and consequently are weaker across the board - hence fewer sell-outs. Also, when the sales are offered at both sites - like this one - that amortization is even more pronounced. Our sales are much more successful when tightly focused on a particular studio, or when we have our 10 day flash sales that focus on 20-30 titles. But, we live and learn - we are hardly retail experts - but we do try our best to be competitive in an increasingly difficult environment.

Do you consider a sale a "success" when there are more sell-outs?

If numbers are a bit lower this time around in general (and I don't know that they are, I'm just assuming), don't forget that Kino Lorber had a sale at pretty much the same time, plus a lot of people were probably holding out for Black Friday.

Personally speaking, I prefer it slightly when you have a big sale like this with more titles to choose from.

[thatguamguy]

I prefer the line-wide, and I think I spend more on the line-wide sales (generally), but I also see the logic of the studio-specific from the company's perspective because I have to confess that I go deeper into my wishlist in one of those sales, buying titles that I would probably not buy during a line-wide sale. (What I mean is, the 5th title I buy in a studio-specific sale might not crack the top 10 titles I'd want in a line-wide sale.)

[noirjunkie]

Originally Posted by Twilight Time

Sorry we can't be more exact, but we are always left with the same mantra - if you want a title, why wait till the last call?

Here are a few reasons: prioritization of purchasing other titles from other labels, personal budgeting, waiting for a workable price point, various levels of desire for different titles (which impacts the amount of money I'm willing to spend on different titles), etc.

[Twilight Time]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Do you consider a sale a "success" when there are more sell-outs?

If numbers are a bit lower this time around in general (and I don't know that they are, I'm just assuming), don't forget that Kino Lorber had a sale at pretty much the same time, plus a lot of people were probably holding out for Black Friday.

No, the numbers are not discernibly lower, merely spread thinner across the greater number of titles.

[JoeDeM]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

I think that's the mentality of a lot of collectors.

If a film is released that I deem to be a "must-own" I will buy as soon as I can and pay full price. But I have so many titles on my wishlist and there are plenty more that aren't but get awfully tempting to buy at the right price. This last sale I picked two titles from each of $19.95, $14.95 & $9.95 pricepoints where I had a sort of mental venn diagram where the interest in the title overlapped with the right pricepoint. Then, of course, after I completed that order, I gave in to temptation and ordered two more!

If a movie winds up on the LQA and I don't already have it, then it's one I don't mind missing out on.

That's pretty much me as well, I never wait on my "must own", or anything I'm very interested in, but if I'm mildly interested they get put on the wait list, for a later date. The low quantity alerts, make me re-evaluate my wait list, the sales are just a bonus where anything goes if the price is right.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by plateoshrimp

It seems that normally this late in a sale they have specific titles and numbers. The vagueness doesn't put that same sense of urgency in me. I'm glad though. My wallet has taken a beating this month.

Tell me about it. I've already placed two orders each from TT and SAE, over 40 titles combined (I might order some more this Friday). I've also ordered a boatload of Warner Archive titles from WBShop's 4-for-44 sale, and picked up several Criterions from B&N.

Other than a handful of new releases in the next few months, I think I'm tapped out until after the New Year.

[Snl40boi]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Received an e-mail from Twilight Time stating the following:

"A Special Black Friday Promotion For You
While many of you have already taken advantage of our November Blowout sale, we're discounting our UHD Blu-ray discs and extending an extra special Black Friday coupon code that expires tonight at midnight. If you've been on the fence about ordering any titles from our website, please don't miss this limited time promotion.

Here are the details:

If you order $50 worth of products on TwilightTimeMovies.com on Friday November 24th between receiving this email and midnight (Pacific Time), you can use the below coupon for a one time $5 shipping discount.

Additionally, any customer who orders two or more UHD titles will receive $10 off, while anyone with three or more UHD titles will receive a $15 discount.


Low Stock Update - Mississippi Burning

We now have fewer than 15 copies of Mississippi Burning remaining, so please don't miss your last chance to own this title on Blu-ray, as after these go it will be officially sold out!"

There is a coupon code for the promo which I have deleted from this posting. I don't know if it's a unique code or not, but if it is and someone wants to take advantage of this and haven't received one of their own, PM me and I'll give them my code to use.

Wait twilight time did a 4K UHD disc release? When and what movie?

[thatguamguy]

They aren't Twilight Time titles, but the Twilight Time store carries a few random ones. "Deadpool" was the first one I saw checking the site just now, so that's the example I'm going with.