2016 will be a bad year for Canadian Blu-ray consumers!

[kingDeeCee]

Originally Posted by ziggy66

You folks just need to start Swagbucking You can fairly easily make $25+ a month in Amazon.ca or .com giftcards....i do it all the time.....all my amazon titles these days cost me $0 out of pocket.

Ehhhh, it's to the point where using swagbucks isn't worth my time anymore. To get $25+ a month, you have to get 100pts/day. That's at least 30 minutes worth of surveys a day if you're lucky enough to pass them all. If you work wage, why not just ask for another shift and make way more than $25 with the time spent.

Getting points through search is a joke also, so "fairly easy" is a very big overstatement.

[ziggy66]

Originally Posted by kingDeeCee

Ehhhh, it's to the point where using swagbucks isn't worth my time anymore. To get $25+ a month, you have to get 100pts/day. That's at least 30 minutes worth of surveys a day if you're lucky enough to pass them all. If you work wage, why not just ask for another shift and make way more than $25 with the time spent.

Getting points through search is a joke also, so "fairly easy" is a very big overstatement.

It actually is....there's 6 different mobile apps, which will get you 60 pts a day right there....i just favourite about 3 or 4 of the shortest clips i can find and then play them on a loop. If i'm surfing on the net, i'll just play some short videos off my browser for a few points here and there as well. I don't even waste my time on surveys. Also, to get a $25 Amazon.com GC(2200 sb's) these days is the equivalent of $35 Canadian.

[antimatter]

I'm not to sure you guys up north are the only ones suffering. We haven't been hit hard YET in America, but a lot of experts claim there is a global depression coming. Let's hope not but regardless I'm sorry it is that rough up there. I now know why my Disney wow was so cheap from Amazon.ca. Good luck brothers to the north.

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by antimatter

but a lot of experts claim there is a global depression coming.

At this point, the world could use a depression, reboot the system.

[Hayabusa85]

Originally Posted by antimatter

I'm not to sure you guys up north are the only ones suffering. We haven't been hit hard YET in America, but a lot of experts claim there is a global depression coming. Let's hope not but regardless I'm sorry it is that rough up there. I now know why my Disney wow was so cheap from Amazon.ca. Good luck brothers to the north.

The whole world is already hurting because of the oil industry. The difference is most countries were smart enough to have other industries to fall back on. One of our other big industries also had one too many cases of mad cow disease for the rest of the world to trust that. Alberta also has the worst case provincial government in power now in terms of dealing with the oil industry (The farmers don't seem to be liking them much either) and if Alberta doesn't rebound we take the whole country down with us. We are basically depending on YouTubers Try Canadian Snacks For The First Time now

[schan1269]

Not to rub salt...

I've been importing more BD out of Canada lately. Bought Ant Man and Sleeping With Other People for a total of $25(USD).

[Hayabusa85]

Originally Posted by schan1269

Not to rub salt...

I've been importing more BD out of Canada lately. Bought Ant Man and Sleeping With Other People for a total of $25(USD).

Can't blame you. I am sure this summer (Especially around Stampede) I will be giving directions to more Americans than normal too. They will be travelling cheap so my horrible sense of direction will be a small trade off

Unfortunately for us Haiti doesn't have much of a Blu-ray market

[tiger_qc]

Originally Posted by antimatter

I'm not to sure you guys up north are the only ones suffering. We haven't been hit hard YET in America, but a lot of experts claim there is a global depression coming. Let's hope not but regardless I'm sorry it is that rough up there. I now know why my Disney wow was so cheap from Amazon.ca. Good luck brothers to the north.

Well experts are saying it's gonna be much worse than 1929, 2000 & 2008 combined.
I just started to read The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America (2013) by Thom Hartmann a few days ago and I'm pretty scared for the future...

[zeze]

HMV has already raised the price of some 2015 Kino titles from $20 to $30.

[cfraser]

I really stocked up on BDs in the last few months, including games (which seem to have been really going up too, even used copies of "good" stuff, probably due to more demand).

The last week of the year was unusually disappointing, I guess at least partly because of the way our $ was going. I doubt I will even get around to watching all the BDs I got in the last 2-3 months of 2015 in 2016, I did overdo it a bit, but probably just as well in the end. Even the X Files BDs alone are a "major" commitment.

The way I see it is BD shelf space is shrinking in major B&Ms (but not HMV). It is more subtle in some stores, but when you're like me and only go every month or two to some stores, it stands out more. They can make a buck on BDs, or make nothing at all. Most of the relatively few people who still buy them won't buy if the price is too high. (Good luck with the 4K UHDs...)

So the pressure is on the "studios" too. It's not like the cost to manufacture these discs is much more because of Canada's share, so they can either choose to move product, or not, they have a lot of price leeway. B&Ms have to decide if the space is worth it re margin. I still think the price of discs in general will decrease, even here with our $, we are too small to reverse that trend as the market dwindles, it just may not be as large a decrease as in the U.S. We have actually done quite well re pricing in Canada, in general, in the last while IMO, with our $ already quite weak. I have noticed the prices in some other countries at their amazons seem to have been going up for quite a while, while ours remained reasonable.

[murphywmm]

Originally Posted by Hayabusa85

The whole world is already hurting because of the oil industry. The difference is most countries were smart enough to have other industries to fall back on. One of our other big industries also had one too many cases of mad cow disease for the rest of the world to trust that. Alberta also has the worst case provincial government in power now in terms of dealing with the oil industry (The farmers don't seem to be liking them much either) and if Alberta doesn't rebound we take the whole country down with us. We are basically depending on YouTubers Try Canadian Snacks For The First Time now

At this point, it doesn't matter who's in power. Alberta has little impact on the world oil industry. The problem is OPEC's (Saudi Arabia in particular) decision to flood the market with oversupply.

[Hayabusa85]

Originally Posted by murphywmm

At this point, it doesn't matter who's in power. Alberta has little impact on the world oil industry. The problem is OPEC's (Saudi Arabia in particular) decision to flood the market with oversupply.

I am aware of what is causing the problem and it is about to get even worse with Iran back in play. But nowhere did I say the Alberta government has any impact on the global oil market. I agree it has no impact on that. It does however have an impact on the Albertan & Canadian economies. Actually what you posted is exactly why the NDP are a problem right now. If the oil industry was fine the NDP wouldn't be as big of a problem really. Although even then they have a horrible track record of the trail of deficits they have left other provinces in. But more than anything with the state of the oil industry it was a bad time to give power to the branch of government that is the most about higher taxation of companies like that. The absurdity of the royalty review with the state of the oil industry is mind numbing not to mention the other stuff like the carbon taxes that impact the oil industry the most. Stuff like that has already and will continue to lead to even more companies pulling out of Alberta and more layoffs in Alberta. The more that happens the more the Alberta economy suffers. The more that happens the more the Canadian economy suffers. So yes while the global problem has nothing to do with that it is a case of pouring fuel on a fire. We need a government that will work with the oil industry to keep what jobs and companies we can here. Instead we have a government more concerned about how they can tax them the most all while somehow managing to piss off our second biggest industry just as much. The Alberta NDP have no concept of the economics of the industries we depend on. Not to mention as a whole they lack experience since it isn't even like they were the opposition. They were nobodies that suddenly got power.

To be fair when they took power I don't think the average voter realized just how bad things were about to get. I also don't think Wild Rose had enough time to restore faith after what Danielle Smith and company did with their political career suicides. A few months later and that vote probably changes drastically to a Wild Rose victory. For that matter I would say the Liberals have the Alberta NDP to thank for the outcome of the federal election. Who knows how a Wild Rose government would have gone either since Alberta politics in general was a mess. But it serves as a reminder of the dangers of voting simply for change. After all Greece once voted for the sake of change too

[murphywmm]

I don't think we're allowed to get too political on this forum, so I'm just going to say I disagree with everything you posted there

Back to the subject at hand - I am probably going to slow my purchases this year anyhow, as I have done some mega purchasing the last two years and I mostly have what I want now. I feel lucky to have gotten most of my collection for between $5-10 each, which is much less than I used to pay when I really got into DVD's. This was mostly thanks to HMV and Giant Tiger. I do hope Amazon has another Kino sale sometime soon, though.

[Hayabusa85]

Originally Posted by murphywmm

I don't think we're allowed to get too political on this forum, so I'm just going to say I disagree with everything you posted there

Back to the subject at hand - I am probably going to slow my purchases this year anyhow, as I have done some mega purchasing the last two years and I mostly have what I want now. I feel lucky to have gotten most of my collection for between $5-10 each, which is much less than I used to pay when I really got into DVD's. This was mostly thanks to HMV and Giant Tiger. I do hope Amazon has another Kino sale sometime soon, though.

Yeah they tend to frown on politics and religion In general this thread is a weird thread for the deals section though so not expecting it to last.

But not agreeing with me?

[C.C. 95]

Originally Posted by sacd-man

Well, this is going to be one sad year for blu-ray consumers like myself in Canada. Our dollar is dropping and seems to be continuing to drop. Prices for blu-ray products on amazon.ca have spiked sharply.

Kino Titles have jumped to $35 and $40 dollars each. We are going to feel the crunch this year and online retailers don't seem to be willing to make any effort to induce us to shop.

I buy Kino, Shout an Criterion titles, as well as Warner Archive. Buying from the states just feels like being punished just because we live above the borderline.

I am hoping that someone out there can point me in the direction of some online retailers who have decent prices on products. Right now, the futuer seems grim indeed. Retailers better be willing to make some kind of compromise or blu-ray sales will continue to slump.

With the cost of everything from gasoline to groceries, how many will even consider going to 4K UHD blu-ray discs?

Don't worry about UHD 4K. Unless you have a bigger than 65" TV the upgrade is not visible. And furthurmore, almost zero movies are in 4k. They may be SHOT in 4k (or 5K or even 8K) but so far, 99% of DI's are done in 2K...so there literally almost ZERO 4k content. It is a sucker's buy.
Sorry about the Canadian Dollar. That does suck. Adding insult to injury, you now have Socialist PM- so it ain't gonna get better, I'm afraid....

[murphywmm]

^ Anybody who is not conservative is also not automatically a "socialist". The Liberal Party of Canada is definitely not socialist but I see you are from the states so I will have to forgive your ignorance about our politics. The Canadian dollar was already in the toilet long before the election.

I do agree that Ultra HD Blu-Ray format is a non-starter though. It's going to be even more niche than 3D. The market has changed since Blu-Ray was introduced ten years ago.

[HD Canuck]

Originally Posted by Hayabusa85

O'Leary is Donald Trump, but without the overcomb!

I'm gonna cut back on my purchases this year. The only three spring releases I really want are Hunger Games 4, Spectre, and Star Wars 7. Maybe Revenant as it was filmed here and I'll be supporting some of my friends that are employed in the local film industry, and worked on the movie.

I still got 5 gaps in my Disney DAC collection, but who knows if Disney will be releasing the final 5 DACs this year when they are rebooting this month with Snow White.

Would still like to fill some of the gaps in my Best Picture Oscar collection, but only if I can find them on sale. I can hold off and wait for sale days like Boxing Day - found a number of decent deals a few weeks ago.

Gonna be a tough year for sure. Just saw an article on CBC today that Alberta is shedding 31,000 jobs in the construction industry. A friend of mine got laid-off today. Ouch.

[HD Canuck]

I should start checking out pawn shops around here. CBC reported a few months ago that they are overloaded. See what Blus they have. Got two pawn shops just down the street from me.

[GreatGreg]

I go to pawn shops rather regularly. Blus are okay and usually $5.00 used. DVDs are a steal though at $2.00 and I often get DVDs which are no longer in print or which may never get a Blu transfer.

[ilovedealsonmovies]

Originally Posted by corey31

the days of the $84.99 game are starting to appear: http://www.amazon.ca/nights-of-azure...705328&sr=1-10

i know it's a fairly niche game, but it is $59.99 in the us and is currently retailing for $84.99 cdn.



A forecaster just predicted we see a $0.59 loonie later this year... It's low but it looks like it will probably go lower. Whether that be $0.65, $0.60 or perhaps even lower. Only time will tell.

60.00 usd = 82.6035 cad