Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[JohnCarpenterLives]

I missed out on Birth of Nation, but that's alright.

[Reddington]

Just got a shipping confirm email with tracking info. Ordered Sunday, and out the door Tuesday - with delivery estimated for Thursday. Certainly wasn't expecting that!

[Gacivory]

Originally Posted by Reddington

Just got a shipping confirm email with tracking info. Ordered Sunday, and out the door Tuesday - with delivery estimated for Thursday. Certainly wasn't expecting that!

Aren’t you lucky, mine still says awaiting payment. I ordered Monday though, so there could be a backlog.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by hariseldon

The main value they have is they are currently the sole owner of approx 120 (and increasing) titles.

I think the big scalper advantage is that many people who go crazy over "Clearanced OOS Going out of Business OOP" labels Ebay throws onto them is many BD buyers to this day have no idea about TTM or SAE websites and have been paying Ebay or Marketplace 40-300% markups for instock discs even during sales. There are long time members of this forum who occasionally have shown up in the last year or two who never heard of the 2 sites that sell TT discs

If it's not on Amazon it just doesn't exist in their minds.

I think a few Indie B&M stores could probably do OK as long as they don't try to sell them for $50 ea. Many of their customers who may not like to shop from the Internet rely on the Owner/Employee recommendations and seeing it in person kicks in a buyers reflex. I think there are quite a few reports even in this thread of seeing groups of New TT disc on the shelf at various Local or Region type Movie Stores.

I actually don't have as much problem with those type stores as the pure Ebay huckster scalpers. That's the typical Overstock Stores business. I'm actually thinking some of the Bulk Buyers pillaging the inventory don't understand that another store will still have TT Disc in stock to sell are "normal" or normal sale prices. They see TT closing shop and clearancing discs thinking they'll soon have the monopoly on a bunch of titles, but if SAE did actually control 1/3-1/2 the remaining stock in March, they still have a ton of merchandise which is going to cap any planned gold-mine in the near future other than preying on those who don't know about SAE. I'm just not sure how TT/SAE contractually divvied up the 3000 disc/release.

re: the bolded part... spot on, but playing devil's advocate, who's fault is that? maybe there are other aspects involved that I'm not aware of, but why couldn't TT have set up a eBay store front like blowitouttahere or other sites have?

I ain't mad at them. I love their product and am sorry they'll no longer be around, but I'll always maintain that it's the "scalpers" who are the ones providing the service to people by making titles available there.

As an interested potential buyer, the best thing you can do to combat the high prices is to exercise restraint and not throw ridiculous money at them.

I love in the 3rd largest metropolitan area in the United States and I have no idea where there is a b&m store where I can pick up a TT title. eBay, on the other hand, I know where to find them.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by Gacivory

Aren’t you lucky, mine still says awaiting payment. I ordered Monday though, so there could be a backlog.

I did order shortly after the announcement, which may have been "lucky" timing as I learned of the price reductions here before I even got the email. Don't worry, though. I'm usually the guy who gets his pre-order from Amazon cancelled when they oversell a title.

[fulano7]

Call me nuts (or communist), but I think they should limit the number of units of a same title that a customer could purchase. (let's say, a max of 2 units of a product per customer). Without limits, we all regular customers are in disadvantage.

Very obscure and vintage titles have sold out too fast. It can't be just regular customers. It's probably eBay speculators building their stock of future rare products. In the next 5 years or so, we'll only be able to find many TT titles in eBay for ridiculously inflated prices.

[The Screaming Feces]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

That's what credit cards are for.

Not when your credit card, used for online transactions only, is nearly maxed out from other Blu-ray sales/purchases. (thank god it's a small amount) If some sell out before Friday, I'll live--I do have most of the films I've really wanted from TT already.

[trentdiesel]

Originally Posted by mja345

"The Chase" and "Broken Lance" are great, "The Chase" is a real personal favorite of mine. "Bandolero" is a solid late Jimmy Stewart Western and "The River's Edge" is a flawed but highly enjoyable film with Milland and Quinn squaring off. Those four are easy recommends at sale prices.

Thanks, ordered

[bdgking]

Earlier today SAE had 210 titles for twilight time now there is 209 . 1 title sold out anyone know what that title was I cannot figure it out ?

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by fulano7

Call me nuts (or communist), but I think they should limit the number of units of a same title that a customer could purchase. (let's say, a max of 2 units of a product per customer). Without limits, we all regular customers are in disadvantage.

Very obscure and vintage titles have sold out too fast. It can't be just regular customers. It's probably eBay speculators building their stock of future rare products. In the next 5 years or so, we'll only be able to find many TT titles in eBay for ridiculously inflated prices.

To be frank, the real issue is that a lot of the "regular" customers didn't want to pay $29.95 for a TT title, and instead decided to wait for a sale. These became fewer and farther between, and the sale discounts became smaller. Most TT titles never came close to selling out quickly, meaning the opportunity to buy existed for quite some time. One can argue against the SRP all day long, but scalpers haven't really prevented people from buying TT titles.

[lilboyblu]

Then there are the bozos that scooped up Night of the Living Dead 1990 in droves for the sole purpose of flipping (some are still listed at anywhere from 2-4 times MSRP). When the changed color timing issue was revealed, they were stuck with them.

[fulano7]

Originally Posted by Reddington

To be frank, the real issue is that a lot of the "regular" customers didn't want to pay $29.95 for a TT title, and instead decided to wait for a sale. These became fewer and farther between, and the sale discounts became smaller. Most TT titles never came close to selling out quickly, meaning the opportunity to buy existed for quite some time. One can argue against the SRP all day long, but scalpers haven't really prevented people from buying TT titles.

The scalpers had no reason to sell the $30 titles, but right now they have very good reasons to mass-buy the $10 titles. In the next years they won't sell these $10 titles for $30. Instead, $100 (at least). Future customers that would pay $30 if the titles were still available via TT will have eBay as the only option.

It's a matter of being fair with your customers. After all, TT isn't going for profit anymore. It's impossible and even illegal to prohibit the scalpers from acting, but giving priority to customers that buy less units of a same product (that is, those that aren't building stock) mitigates the effects of the future "scalping market".

[captveg]

Originally Posted by lilboyblu

Has anybody here seen Woman Obsessed? Premise sounds interesting, but that DVD has been around forever. Wasn't sure if that's because it's SD, or because the movie sucks.

The latter, as far as I'm concerned. I grabbed it a few years ago when it was around $10 and this was my quick review:

The key to a good old school melodrama like Rebel without a Cause or a Douglas Sirk film like All That Heaven Allows is the subtext beneath the emotive outbursts. Woman Obsessed lacks all such subtlety, and presents a world wherein characters have a singular personality with just one outward emotion at a time, with such radical shifts between love, hate, fear, jealousy and empathy as to defy human complexity. It also takes in stride heavy themes like verbal/physical spouse abuse, presumably a rape, and attempted murder by an angry child, but fear not - all is forgiven and overcome in the end once everyone understands each other. 3/10

[Page14]

Originally Posted by somethingblu

I picked up a copy in my last order.

It pains me to see these rare Grable blu-rays (I don't know of another company who put them out) still on the block. I did think it encouraging 2 of the 3 Alice Faye vehicles sold out (State Fair and The Gang's All Here) but Hello, Frisco, Hello is a wonderful film. Its still in stock. I guess we will see what the coming weeks will bring...or take away I should say.

I was so happy to see Twilight Time release these kinds of films. I guess Kino might now be the "go to" company for similar titles. Maybe even Criterion and Indicator to some degree.

[lilboyblu]

Originally Posted by captveg

The latter, as far as I'm concerned. I grabbed it a few years ago when it was around $10 and this was my quick review:

The key to a good old school melodrama like Rebel without a Cause or a Douglas Sirk film like All That Heaven Allows is the subtext beneath the emotive outbursts. Woman Obsessed lacks all such subtlety, and presents a world wherein characters have a singular personality with just one outward emotion at a time, with such radical shifts between love, hate, fear, jealousy and empathy as to defy human complexity. It also takes in stride heavy themes like verbal/physical spouse abuse, presumably a rape, and attempted murder by an angry child, but fear not - all is forgiven and overcome in the end once everyone understands each other. 3/10

Gotcha. The few reviews I found on Letterboxd basically said the same. Easy pass, then.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Gunsnroses092789

But also the tickets would not have sold out in 60 seconds if not for the scalpers, necessarily. You could say the same about the TT scalpers... Now that a lot of these titles are sold out, you can still get them through the scalpers.

I'll just say I really miss the days before the internet ... when everybody had an equal chance at getting tickets ... when people stood in line, even camping out the day (or days) before tickets went on sale. (That's all for me about that).


EDIT: After further review, "when everybody had an equal chance at getting tickets" might not be accurate ... but I still miss those days.

[Reddington]

Originally Posted by fulano7

The scalpers had no reason to sell the $30 titles, but right now they have very good reasons to mass-buy the $10 titles. In the next years they won't sell these $10 titles for $30. Instead, $100 (at least). Future customers that would pay $30 if the titles were still available via TT will have eBay as the only option.

It's a matter of being fair with your customers. After all, TT isn't going for profit anymore. It's impossible and even illegal to prohibit the scalpers from acting, but giving priority to customers that buy less units of a same product (that is, those that aren't building stock) mitigates the effects of the future "scalping market".

I'm not defending the speculators, but my point was simply that people have had plenty of time to buy these films if they really wanted them. I'm not saying they could always afford to (I couldn't), but the opportunities were there. And with TT going out of business there are no "future" customers to consider. Likewise, it's really not TT's responsibility to mitigate against the scalping of their product after the business has closed.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by Professor Echo

All hail Hariseldon and Aclea and everyone else for generously helping me make smart buying decisions throughout the two months of this sale. The contributions here by so many have been invaluable.

I guess I’m finally done, my last buy including what I’m sure for many will seem a strange choice. It came down to THE GLORY GUYS or BENEATH THE TWELVE MILE REEF. Well, after some consideration, I chose REEF. But this is what might make it seem strange: I already have the TT Blu of REEF in my collection. After reading everything I could on GLORY GUYS, I just couldn’t get into it and so chose instead to buy a BACKUP copy of REEF, which is one of my favorites and quite simply one of the most beautiful Blu-rays I’ve ever seen. Strange? You decide.

In an unintended way, I ended up with 3 copies of Journey to the Center of the Earth. The first copy was one of those Pat Boone autographed promos from the early days of TT. I wanted to save that copy as it's one of my all time favorite movies, so I bought a 2nd copy to actually play. Then TT came out with another release with a better transfer, so I bought that one too.

[xochipilli]

Yeah, we all knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time and, I assume, getting everything in place for the current blow-out, looks like it's a real free for all over there. Again, many thanks to misters Redman, Jamieson, Kirgo and company, for their love of classic film and music and all the great titles they put out.

I think what stings many here the most is that TT probably had the strongest relationship with FOX, which is now under what seems to be an uncaring bloated giant. Hopefully the current situation knocks Disney down a few pegs so we may get to see them either selling the catalog to someone else (I don't think I'm the only one to find it just plain stupid to buy one of the biggest studios in existence just for distribution rights to a 70s sci-fi flick and two or three comic book properties, just a reckless display of unchecked power that seems to have shot them in the foot), or maybe become more open to licensing. Who knows?

Aaaanyway... Wound up with these from the 10 for 115 selection:


The first nine were from my must-have list, and Untamed was from the lesser priority list. I still have another nine must-haves, and after that I'll still try to get some titles I'm interested in (mostly FOX stuff). I still have a bunch of sold out titles i hoped to acquire from secondary sellers, but some comments here make it sound like that will only get much harder going forward. Oh, well...

[Flapperdame16]

Originally Posted by hockeyshark91

Waited too long and I missed out on Pretty Poison.

I know how you feel- I missed out on Anne of the Thousand days. If I could only have 1 T T title: it would be that one. Especially because I pre ordered Mary Queen of Scots 1971.