Twilight Time Discussion Thread

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

Given the nonsensical TT fanboys that would buy abosolute garbage films over the years at full retail and comment on how great the packing was "blubble wrap and a box"

The praise for the packing was for Screen Archives, not the Twilight Time website.

[ChristianB]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

The praise for the packing was for Screen Archives, not the Twilight Time website.

I don't get the complaints about the horrible shipping costs - from a European perspective. The shipping cost SA charges for overseas shipping are nothing compared to other sites like for example diabolik. Just saying ;-). And I had never ever received any damaged items from SA. And the few items I ordered from TT directly also arrived very well protected. Screen Archives has a "disclaimer" that if you order "untracked" they refuse to refund you if something doesn't arrive. It never happened to me. Not one time. Sure: It takes time, somethimes a month or more. But it always arrived.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by ChristianB

I don't get the complaints about the horrible shipping costs - from a European perspective. The shipping cost SA charges for overseas shipping are nothing compared to other sites like for example diabolik. Just saying ;-). And I had never ever received any damaged items from SA. And the few items I ordered from TT directly also arrived very well protected. Screen Archives has a "disclaimer" that if you order "untracked" they refuse to refund you if something doesn't arrive. It never happened to me. Not one time. Sure: It takes time, somethimes a month or more. But it always arrived.

I imagine the complaints originate from the fact that just about every other website / label (Kino, Vinegar Syndrome, etc.) offers free shipping at some point for domestic US shipments whereas Screen Archives does not. I do not live in the United States either so it's not a complaint I have ever made.

[ChristianB]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

I imagine the complaints originate from the fact that just about every other website / label (Kino, Vinegar Syndrome, etc.) offers free shipping at some point for domestic US shipments whereas Screen Archives does not. I do not live in the United States either so it's not a complaint I have ever made.

Yes, I thought so. For example: KINO for no apparent reason to me - doesn't ship to the EU at all (of course, wowhd, amazon etc. ship those releases without a question). The only company I know of that does the same is Scream (which get shipped to Europe by Wow, Amazon etc.). They both let you to register, make your whishlist, but shipping? Noooo way ;-). Is this really because of a contract? Or maybe they don't want the hassle? If it is... why allow register at all? If a company like Vinegar Syndrome (which I guess is a lot smaller than Scream, not so sure about Kino) has the most generous shipping policy for Europeans I have ever seen (and I guess lots other regions) for subscribers, why are labels like Scream and Kino just: No, we can't we are not allowed to and will not ever (with Kino it's ok for me, because most of their releases are trumped by the Europeans, not so much with Scream)?

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by ChristianB

Yes, I thought so. For example: KINO for no apparent reason to me - doesn't ship to the EU at all. The only company I know of that does the same is Scream. They let you to register, make your whishlist, but shipping? Noooo way ;-). Is this really because of a contract? Or maybe they don't want the hassle? If it is... why allow register?

Kino does ship to Europe, it's just that the bulk of the titles in their Studio Classics line are limited to the US and Canada only because of contractual reasons. Many of their more obscure or art house titles can be shipped worldwide.

[ChristianB]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

Kino does ship to Europe, it's just that the bulk of the titles in their Studio Classics line are limited to the US and Canada only because of contractual reasons. Many of their more obscure or art house titles can be shipped worldwide.

What I really don't understand: US companies are nilly willy sending those movies to Europe (wowhd, amazon), but KINO which did the release in the first place is not allowed to do it? Where's the reason in this? I have never seen this kind of restriction for German or French companies (yes, with "world premieres"). I doubt this is even legal from a perspective of free trade (which the EU and US are based on since years). I think, they (Kino, Scream) just don't want to. Which is fine. But they shouldn't make excuses about it that they are not "allowed" to ;-). Of course, I could be totally wrong, just my thinking about this - maybe someone with more knowledge could educate me.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

Given the nonsensical TT fanboys that would buy abosolute garbage films over the years at full retail and comment on how great the packing was "blubble wrap and a box"

Hoestly you can't be too sure about the "humor" of it.

There have been a number of postings lately (in other threads, not just this one) where they are said so obviously tongue-in-cheek, and generate replies from folks who take them completely seriously.

I saw TheHistorian's post, and chuckled. Didn't have to even think about whether he was being serious or not.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by ChristianB

What I really don't understand: US companies are nilly willy sending those movies to Europe (wowhd, amazon), but KINO which did the release in the first place is not allowed to do it? Where's the reason in this? I have never seen this kind of restriction for German or French companies (yes, with "world premieres"). I doubt this is even legal from a perspective of free trade (which the EU and US are based on since years). I think, they (Kino, Scream) just don't want to. Which is fine. But they shouldn't make excuses about it that they are not "allowed" to ;-). Of course, I could be totally wrong, just my thinking about this - maybe someone with more knowledge could educate me.

It may seem nonsensical to you, but there is a rationale behind it. Kino Lorber makes a deal with a studio, and the contract specifies that KL is only allowed to sell the releases to people in the US or US & Canada. That's generally because a different studio owns the rights to the film in other world markets.

A retailer like Amazon is under no such restrictions, because they didn't sign any such contract with the studio. Kino is selling discs to Amazon, an American company, so they are not breaking the contract. What Amazon then chooses to do with them is none of Kino's business (unless it interferes with Kino's copyright or trademark rights).

A label that sells directly to consumers can decide whether to obey the contractual agreements or not. But if the studio they deal with takes issue with that, the label might lose any future business with that studio.

I would assume that the same thing applies going the other way. Labels like Eureka and Indicator seem to have no problem selling directly to US customers, even though they obviously are under similar market restrictions (based on their region-coding practices). But that's their business.

On the other hand, the UK etailer Base had announced (via email) in late September that they were no longer shipping to the US. There were several reasons for this (among them the increasing number of lost shipments), but one of the reasons cited was that they were getting pressured by the labels whose products they were selling who didn't have US rights to some of their films.

Now how much of that is true I don't know. It's not clear to me how the labels would know to whom Base were selling their titles. But there you have it.

[Dollar Colonel]

Screen Archives has a 20% off TT sale with code TWILIGHT20:

https://www1.screenarchives.com/disp...DVD&perpage=25

I guess we now know why the prices crept up.

[jmclick]

Not much of a sale since items are still more expensive than they were two weeks ago before the price increase. But here you are, as info:


TWILIGHT TIME END OF THE YEAR SALE!

20% off with code TWILIGHT20 at checkout.

LIMITED STOCKS ON MANY TITLES - BUY NOW AND DON'T BE DISAPPOINTED BY MISSING OUT ON GREAT TITLES!


Only orders placed during the sale period will qualify for the promotion. No previously placed, currently pending or future orders will qualify. Code must be applied to the order at checkout to receive the discount.

PLEASE BE SURE TO PLACE YOUR ORDERS WITH THE PROPER DELIVERY ADDRESS, SHIPPING METHOD, ITEMS OF YOUR CHOICE AND THE DISCOUNT CODE.
WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AMEND ORDERS DURING THE SALE.
CLICK HERE FOR THE TWILIGHT TIME CATALOG!

[chad_1138]

(insert (he who shall not be named)'s 2 paragraph rant about Screen Archive’s pricing structure .)

[SeanJoyce]

^Do not invoke its name.

[78deluxe]

Originally Posted by RCRochester

The praise for the packing was for Screen Archives, not the Twilight Time website.

They used the exact same packing materials and method in my experience. Bubble wrap cases then in a box.

This assumes you bought enough to fit in a box or you put in the notes requesting a box if you only ordered a title or two.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by 78deluxe

They used the exact same packing materials and method in my experience. Bubble wrap cases then in a box.

This assumes you bought enough to fit in a box or you put in the notes requesting a box if you only ordered a title or two.

I only ever ordered direct from Twilight Time once or twice, most of my orders were from Screen Archives and, yeah, they always came firmly wrapped in bubble wrap and in a box. Never had to complain about anything being damaged en route. I don't know why that merits snide comments - compare it to what you get from Kino Lorber (comparatively flimsy box with no padding whatsoever), Arrow (some shitty cardboard wraparound thing where the ends easily pop out) or Amazon (inappropriately sized bubble mailer envelopes that allow the items to slide around inside).

[xochipilli]

I'll try not to come off too negative, since that might bring back some bad memories of a certain user that got banned from this thread, but this offer, and screen archive's actions are really disappointing. Raising the prices back up just to offer a discount code that amounts to less than the previous reduction would be offputting at the best of times, but doing it like this just seems kind of incompetent. If they wanted to raise them up they should have done it any time in the past 5 months, but a week before this sale just seems silly. When most items were 14.99(with a smattering of 8.99 ones) I don't think anything has sold out since August at the latest, so I'm not sure this will work out great for them. I'd wager screen-archive's audience has probably kept up with the pricing lately, so I don't see a ton of them rushing to take advantage. Again, I still have a ton of cash saved up exclusively for TT titles, so I'll sit this one out until there's a better offer.

[TheHistorian]

Given the sale prices when TT was ending, and the pricing at SAE then too, I wouldn't really expect to see great prices again on these for a long time. My guess is that they feel they've sold to the heavy collectors already, so they may as well raise prices for the occasional person looking for one or two titles, who will pay $20 as quickly as $9-15.

[Brandon K]

Well, a couple weeks ago my 101st TT release finally safely arrived, a sealed eBay pickup that had been waiting for months at my US mailbox. I still have a good number of releases on my wishlist, but they're all priced outside what I'd like to spend at the moment, and the few that were released by other labels I've already picked up. Thus I can now officially consider my collection concluded... for now!

[klauswhereareyou]

Originally Posted by Brandon K

Well, a couple weeks ago my 101st TT release finally safely arrived, a sealed eBay pickup that had been waiting for months at my US mailbox. I still have a good number of releases on my wishlist, but they're all priced outside what I'd like to spend at the moment, and the few that were released by other labels I've already picked up. Thus I can now officially consider my collection concluded... for now!

I just looked it up and I have 138. I didn't even realize I had that many.

[quickdraw]

As much as I've been tempted by TT releases, I had a bad experience with their "customer service" a couple of years ago after getting defective disks back to back. I won't go into details, but let's say they were pretty snarky with their responses instead of taking ownership of the problem and tried to make me feel like I was being unreasonable. I remind myself that nightmare every time that temptation creeps in.

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

As much as I've been tempted by TT releases, I had a bad experience with their "customer service" a couple of years ago after getting defective disks back to back. I won't go into details, but let's say they were pretty snarky with their responses instead of taking ownership of the problem and tried to make me feel like I was being unreasonable. I remind myself that nightmare every time that temptation creeps in.

Was it Twilight Time or Screen Archives you dealt with at the time?