Prices to stop your collection of Blu Rays

[Blu MacReady]

First off I know most if not all preorder prices drop to £13 - £15. But I am noticing when they do first pop up on amazon or Zavvi (not many places left now) they can be £21-£24

I was still into DVD when Blu Ray first come along and recall seeing titles at around the £20+ prices and thought no way, not for me.

If they were to return to those prices would this stop you collecting, stop the day one buys (mostly all drop within a few months but you can see titles go OOP) or drop the blind buys? Return to DVD to save ££s

I've caught myself picking up the odd zavvi steelbook (which seems an endless conveyor belt) paying £15 on a title I could get for £6. Same discs. I've picked up ones I want and wouldn't want to miss due to this limited run theme. But has started to make me consider stopping the SBs

So would a price rise, as mentioned stop you guys. I guess we're all a little stuck with retail options

A few examples for this post/question I noticed just starting to seem high prices

A Paul Walker straight to video effort Brick Mansions £24.99 amazon
Sabotage £22
Noah £17
Wolf of wall st& Robocop SB £21 each

[josuv22]

is that not the RRP price set by the publishers. when they first submit them for sale on amazon etc.

[Natty]

I buy the majority of my Blu-Rays second hand for this reason. They are way too expensive. I started off buying all on pre orders and realised I was being taken as a mug. Why pay launch prices when they'll be £6-7 in a few months time? It's ridiculous.

[Dickieduvet]

Very rarely pay any more than £14-15 for a disc. I've noticed that prices have generally been coming down as of late with the exception of the Hammer releases which remain high. Plenty of good offers about though.

There aren't that many new releases I go for, I'm a catalogue release chap and import a fair bit from all over Europe and US.

Said it before though, I was a Laserdisc buyer back in the 90's and regularly paid £35-100 for new/ special releases.

Don't have any other vices (at least none I pay for ) so don't mind forking out if there's something I want.

[Jezza]

Unless it's something I really want upon release then more often than not I just wait for the price to drop.

I recently sold off a ton of Blu-rays because I just wasn't watching them, so now I tried to be far more selective over what I buy, otherwise I'm just wasting money.

I also gave up buying premium or collector's sets, such as steelbooks, because really it's the content that matters and if I can save money by buying the standard version then I have more money left over for other stuff. At the end of the day for me a steelbook is now just a fancy case and collector's set more often than not contain stuff you're only going to look at once and a lot of the time is just impractical packaging as well.

[Refused]

£15 is my limit for new releases. Won't pay any extra for fancy packaging unless it actually means I get more content - not interested in having my discs in a tacky tin.

A lot of preorder prices are strange on Amazon. Toxic Avenger was £24.99 when it first went up, preordered mine at £14.29, and it's currently on sale at £16.25.

I find it's best to preorder films you want straight away on Amazon, then decide before release if you want it - thanks to the price guarantee it's usually a decent price in the end.

[Blu MacReady]

Originally Posted by Refused

£15 is my limit for new releases. Won't pay any extra for fancy packaging unless it actually means I get more content - not interested in having my discs in a tacky tin.

A lot of preorder prices are strange on Amazon. Toxic Avenger was £24.99 when it first went up, preordered mine at £14.29, and it's currently on sale at £16.25.

I find it's best to preorder films you want straight away on Amazon, then decide before release if you want it - thanks to the price guarantee it's usually a decent price in the end.

That's what I've started doing. I am considering dropping Robocop SB and going for the amaray saving £8. It is just the content. It's a blind buy. It will just sit on the shelving system I have and £8 is another film, probably one from Arrow in their summer sale.

[Buddy Ackerman]

Originally Posted by Blu MacReady

That's what I've started doing. I am considering dropping Robocop SB and going for the amaray saving £8. It is just the content. It's a blind buy. It will just sit on the shelving system I have and £8 is another film, probably one from Arrow in their summer sale.

I've started doing this as well - when steelbooks are going for anything over a fiver more than the regular version then it's not worth it to me.

As for pre-oders - £15 is my limit for anything non-3D (and £20 for anything 3D) but even then it has to be for something I really want straight away. Anything else, I'm slowing down on them and waiting until they move into the inevitable sale.

[Vashetti]

£15 is my limit.

Though I will pay ~£30 for Game of Thrones.

IMO, pricing needs to go like this:

£9.99 - DVD
£12.99 - Blu-ray
£14.99 - 3D Blu-ray

3D Blu-rays are far too expensive. There are many I still want to add to my collection but simply refuse to until the prices drop. They are just too expensive for one film.

[Blu MacReady]

Originally Posted by Natty

I buy the majority of my Blu-Rays second hand for this reason. They are way too expensive. I started off buying all on pre orders and realised I was being taken as a mug. Why pay launch prices when they'll be £6-7 in a few months time? It's ridiculous.

Totally agree and I'm trying to adjust to that way of thinking. I still have Enders Game to watch and that has already price dropped. I watched Homefront on arrival but that has dropped too. Just these two is £6.

I will add I enjoy collecting and having a collection, I do have a fear factor on seeing titles vanish to then appear on eBay for £40....fortunately I have managed to grab the Arrow titles, HMV/Play SBs when they came out, that this has happened with.

[Blu MacReady]

Originally Posted by Buddy Ackerman

I've started doing this as well - when steelbooks are going for anything over a fiver more than the regular version then it's not worth it to me.

As for pre-oders - £15 is my limit for anything non-3D (and £20 for anything 3D) but even then it has to be for something I really want straight away. Anything else, I'm slowing down on them and waiting until they move into the inevitable sale.

This is the thing. I'm happy to order a film I want or blind if its all the ingredients of a movie I'd like. £15 is my max although with so many now around £13, £15 starting to seem high.

I'm just thinking that with HMV the way it is/going and it's really amazon Zavvi. I can just see soon £16.99 or £18.99 becoming the prices, especially for say Marvel. Don't know why just have a feeling.

[Michael1989]

£5 - £7 Tops. I used to pre-order a few years ago at the full price but was finding I'd watch them once and wouldn't see them again for a couple of years. I know some people have well over 1000 blu's in their collection but I can't find the time to watch my approx 350 titles every year so it's not worth it. I bought Speed in 2009 and havn't watched it since. That was 5 years ago! I'm not getting my moneys worth if I'm barely watching them.

[chip75]

I try and pick up the new releases I want but I miss Blockbusters, they had ex-rentals 3-4 weeks after release and I usually managed to get decent titles for 3-4 pounds if they had a multi-buy promotion or voucher offer.

I don't go to the theatre very often so nearly all my first week release buys are blind-buys and something I think I'll watch multiple times. I think if you've seen a title before it's BD release you may as well wait until it hits £7.

[Indiana Jones]

If it's a film I really want then I tend to get it from DVDWorldUSA which will cost around £22 delivered but then US releases tend to come with DVDs and UV copies unlike their UK counterparts and once these are sold off the price is lowered by around half sometimes more.

[derek_1999]

£15 is pretty much a limit for normal movies... an exception comes every now and again ie Aguirre SB - but I think my pre-order of that was around £14 anyway

I really only go for new release movies if I plan to watch straight away (or within the week). This way, I make sure the more expensive new release is opened/viewed, as it's a way to warrant the price.

My habit is then picking up stuff when they price drop from Amazon (it happens more than you'd think) and in 3 for 17 or 2 for 10 sales. It's these movies that are the ones I add to the collection - and some remain unwatched... until I go on a movie 'rampage' (as the other half calls it!) were I'll watch 2 or 3 films for 2 or 3 nights - or sit down and watch lots over a weekend (or Bank Holiday etc).

I go in cycles, my recent one has been Hong Kong/Chinese/Korean movies (modern and historical genres). This was kicked off by getting Shinjuki Incident and The Front line for 3.95 each from Amazon. I then started getting more from HMV 3 for 20 - especially when I realised Cine Asia was gone. So that became a bit of a quest to get OOP movies like 71 Into the Fire (managed to find one hiding in HMV - internet prices are mad £50 and more!).

So, no doubt I'll latch onto Italian neorealism next (that'll be expensive!).

I agree with Vashetti's prices, if all 2D's were £12.99 or even £10.99, I'd go for more new releases, rather than waiting for them to appear in promotions and sales.

[Mansinthe]

i hope prices for blurays go up again. these price drops make problems for small labels that cant keep up with the major labels, the new BBFC fees are another problem that keep costs high for small labels in the UK , and that makes it even more impossible to keep up with major labels that sell their movies for 6-8 GBP all the time.

i want more releases with bonus features and booklets and better video/audio quality etc.. so im fine if prices go up instead of down !

10-12 GBP for a season of a old TV show sounds fine.
20-30 GBP depents on the show, but stuff like game of thrones or true blood is worth it !

2D bluray releases of major labels 10 GBP sounds fine here
3D (i do not collect these) but adding another 2-5 GBP sounds resonable if there is a second disc involved.


if you do not wanna pay 15-20 GBP for preorders like wolf of wolfstreet keep an open eye at shops like zavvi etc.. or order the US single disc release for 10,49 USD , or wait just a month or 2, prices will drop over time.

[Vashetti]

Originally Posted by derek_1999

I agree with Vashetti's prices, if all 2D's were £12.99 or even £10.99, I'd go for more new releases, rather than waiting for them to appear in promotions and sales.

I'm noticing a lot of new releases coming out now are releasing at the £12.99/£13 range. So it is happening to an extent.

These often drop to £10 quickly too.

[adamhopelies]

I don't mind paying upwards of £22/£24 for a Criterion. I will always pay what Eureka are asking for their discs too. I have a budget that I keep to every month, so it's not like it can get out of hand.

[Ozu Teapot]

I know I'm finding it harder to buy all the Blus I want. A couple of years ago it seemed pretty easy to keep on top of all the new releases I was interested in but not so now.

I don't think new releases are particularly unfairly priced or anything, it's more to do with my own personal circumstances (not having so much cash to splash around), AND the fact that it seems there are actually loads more Blus I want being produced, which of course is good news really!

Anyway I know I'm pre-ordering less and hunting for bargains more.

[Troy Perkins]

Most of my collection is back catalogue stuff so is normally around £6 or £7 new anyway.

The most I have paid for a blu ray was £25 for Shooter back in 2007 when it was oop or withdrawn from sale by Paramount so I grabbed the last one off the shelf in Asda.

Since then I paid £17 for the Jaws steel book on release but my most recent purchase was the US import of Conspiracy Theory from Amazon.co.uk for around £9 including postage.

That was more than I normally try and pay nowadays as I've got around 300 blu rays and have only watched a couple of them more than once.