Did the buy-a-thon kill Amazon?

[atomik kinder]

I ordered two movies that are in stock and neither has shipped. They have been sitting in the getting ready to ship status for the last two days.

[MOONPHASE]

this is not something new i ordered a dvd box set used on amazon and it took 4 days longer then the allowed delivery time it told me for it to arrive

[Zyclone]

i normally just pay for the basic shipping and i normally get my orders (to Aus) in just over a week i guess the sudden increase of traffic has slowed them down.

[Bond007]

I think they must have beefed up their work staff yesterday. I order 3 movies around 3:00 pm and chose the free shipping option. They emailed me last night and said that my items have shipped!!!

[CYMBOL]

I ordered 3 things. Dave Matthews on Blu-ray, Flaming Lips DVD Zoo Concert (had to get since I was there), and a PS3 keyboard.

Only the keyboard was sent.

Neither of movies have shipped. I guess that's what you get when you select "free" shipping. You get what you pay for.

[jaymzbo]

I ordered 6 movies on the 18th and received e-mail on the 19th that all 6 have been shipped using standard shipping;

[The Shrike]

Originally Posted by Joe Cain

Foot-in-mouth time...

Is this the proper time to question the efficacy of the buy-a-thon tactic, if it has in fact had the opposite effect on sales figures from what was intended? BD still has an overall historical sales margin weighing heavily in its favor; there are more players, more titles, more studio support and more manufacturing support. Might we not be better off behaving like ordinary consumers, buying what we want when we want, and letting the market take care of itself? Because instead of giving everyone a reason to clap themselves on the back, it seems there's now just more reason for the faint of heart to worry.

If Amazon pre-orders don't count towards sales totals (and I'm not sure why they would, since no money has changed hands and there's nothing to keep the purchaser or the supplier from cancelling before fulfillment), then surely delayed orders wouldn't count until fulfilled---in which case the massive Warner distribution snafu for the week has certainly had an impact on the numbers as well. And if pre-orders DO count, I could easily believe the rabid HD-DVD fanboy contingent might consider placing a large volume of pre-orders they have no intention of honoring just to mess with an organized BD buy effort.

Ultimately it's the sales for the quarter that matter, right? It's still a long way to Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa.

Really, considering how strange the internal workings of Amazon seem at any given moment, is there any way to get a realistic assessment on the buy-a-thon until the Nielsen figures are released anyway?

I think these are all excellent points. Points I think people should take into account the next time they decide to "rally the troops".

[kamiller42]

Originally Posted by The Shrike

I think these are all excellent points. Points I think people should take into account the next time they decide to "rally the troops".

"The truth is out there." We'll know when the real sales figures for the week are released.

[kamiller42]

Originally Posted by atomik kinder

I ordered two movies that are in stock and neither has shipped. They have been sitting in the getting ready to ship status for the last two days.

My order's ship status did not change until 2 days after the order. Yours might ship today.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

For all of those concerned about the Amazon numbers there is a couple of things to take into account.

#1. I would imagine that the numbers only change with ACTUAL SALES FIGURES. This means that pre-orders and "to be shipped" orders do not count towards the numbers. In any business tracking system they will only consider the number of items already paid for. So, for all of those who PRE-ORDERED, you are creating mini BUY-A-THONs across the board at later dates. And for those who haven't received the "Items have been shipped" e-mail, those haven't been included yet either.

#2. Since it seems that the major releases (Smallville, Troy, etc) are having stock issues everywhere, that has to be taken into consideration with #1. If there is no stock to send, there is no stock to sell. If there is no sale, they can't take your money. If they can't take your money, they can't post your REQUEST as an official number.

So, even though there may be greater demand for BLU titles, it seems that HD-DVDs numbers are benefitting from a simple case of "being more readily available" for the formats consumers.

[TorpedoShockwave]

Originally Posted by rdodolak

The same deal is only available for the PS3 and not the standalone blu-ray players. The HD DVD deal does include the standalone players.

The highdefdigest numbers only show that more of the same HD DVD titles are currently being sold then previously before at Amazon. The 2 free discs offer started around the time HD DVD started to show an upward trend in the HDD charts.

With the exception of Transformers the HDD charts show that more people are once again buying 300, Batman Begins, and Planet Earth on HD DVD with the first two being elegible in the Amazon deal.

There are two scenarios to keep in mind. The top 10 charts are easily affected if say everyone where to purchase the same ten titles vs. everyone randomly purchasing various titles in the 400+ catalog. In terms of the top 100 titles, it's also much easier to affect the charts when you're starting from an average sales rank of 6000 vs. 2000.

Blu-ray tends to have more of a steady but upward trend on Amazon, while HD DVD tends to have violent upward and downward swings. Again, these charts only show the Amazon sales rank and not necessarily the actual number of copies being sold.

The same thing happened the last time Amazon offered these deals.

But why buy a standalone, if PS3 is much cheaper and expandable. PS3 gets timely updates and you can also play games on it. What more can you ask for, PS3 is a steal and is far better than any other BD player. It loads movies much faster and unlike another BD player it can be updated with the latest features.
Yes that was unfair of Amazon to exclude the standalone BD players, but it is not that bad, PS3 is far much better, and I bet they see potential in the PS3.

[TorpedoShockwave]

Originally Posted by Manco

Uh...Yeah... Well we talked about the buy-a-thon endlessly for like weeks on end and the threads were pasted all over the internet at AVS and elsewhere.

No real surpise. They knew we were coming. And they mounted a successful counter attack.
It's called...WAR!

Therefore it was pointless to have a Blu-Ray buy-a-thon.

[patrick99]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

For all of those concerned about the Amazon numbers there is a couple of things to take into account.

#1. I would imagine that the numbers only change with ACTUAL SALES FIGURES. This means that pre-orders and "to be shipped" orders do not count towards the numbers. In any business tracking system they will only consider the number of items already paid for. So, for all of those who PRE-ORDERED, you are creating mini BUY-A-THONs across the board at later dates. And for those who haven't received the "Items have been shipped" e-mail, those haven't been included yet either.

#2. Since it seems that the major releases (Smallville, Troy, etc) are having stock issues everywhere, that has to be taken into consideration with #1. If there is no stock to send, there is no stock to sell. If there is no sale, they can't take your money. If they can't take your money, they can't post your REQUEST as an official number.

So, even though there may be greater demand for BLU titles, it seems that HD-DVDs numbers are benefitting from a simple case of "being more readily available" for the formats consumers.

The Amazon "sales" rankings clearly include pre-orders on titles that are not yet released.

[Tee]

I just got my BD today!

[atomik kinder]

Originally Posted by kamiller42

My order's ship status did not change until 2 days after the order. Yours might ship today.

I actually ordered on Monday, Now it is Thursday and they are still in shipping soon status. It seems to happen to me all the time. Amazon never ships stuff very quickly for me.

[Paradiso]

Originally Posted by CptOzone

I ordered 2 blu-rays on the 18th from Amazon:

Lethal Weapon
Lethal Weapon 2

Both were in stock.

Neither has yet shipped.

I used to have great success with Amazon, but anymore the service seems to be lacking. I guess I am going to have to find a new place to order from. I still have several titles on pre-order, so I will see how those are handled.

What online sources do others use for ordering blu-rays besides amazon?

Try www.Deepdiscount.com or www.dvdempire.com. They usually have some good deals...

[kamiller42]

Originally Posted by TorpedoShockwave

But why buy a standalone, if PS3 is much cheaper and expandable. PS3 gets timely updates and you can also play games on it. What more can you ask for, PS3 is a steal and is far better than any other BD player. It loads movies much faster and unlike another BD player it can be updated with the latest features.

As I wrote on another forum:

The players have the following advantages over the PS3.

1. Faster drive units.

2. Informational front panels.

3. Runs cooler. (They use less power. That's why they are cooler.)

4. Runs quieter.

5. Comes with standard design remote.


Amazon Update: Blu is ahead again.

[Copywriter]

My Planet Earth was shipped. I can't wait!