Pricing oddness

Just checking Amazon.com for reference purposes here. The following prices are the full MSRP:

DAWSON’S CREEK, Season 1: 13 episodes, $40
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, Season 1: 13 episodes, $40
HOMICIDE, Seasons 1 and 2: 13 episodes, $70

Yup, you know it’s a good quality TV show when the price is nearly double that of anything else in a similar category.

For goodness’ sake, you can get the first season of FELICITY for $60, and that has 21 episodes plus the pilot.

I imagine that A&E/NBC aren’t expecting to sell many copies of HOMICIDE. That’s a shame. It’s the best cop show I’ve ever watched on network television.


This entry was posted on May 29th, 2003 and is filed under DVD. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

 
« Looking back…
Fame »
 
 

5 Responses to “Pricing oddness”

  1. Jeff
    29. May 2003 at 07:28

    I hope they sell enough copies of homicide to do more seasons. Its was a great show. I watched the first episode last night and I had forgotten how good it was.

  2. James Dracoules
    29. May 2003 at 08:00

    Who pays ful MSRP, though?

    I’m surprised that someone as into DVDs as you would even bother checking Amazon. They rarely have the cheapest prices; Dawson’s Creek is the only recent purchase I can think of where they did. I got my copy of Homicide from http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com for $37.21 shipping included.

  3. Augie De Blieck Jr.
    29. May 2003 at 09:38

    Hey James –>

    I don’t pay full price, either. I just used those to show the disparity in pricing from the manufacturer. Still, even the discounted prices are going to vary that wildly.

    Those are three shows presenting 13 episodes across 3 or 4 discs for, in my opinion, wildly different prices.

    X-FILES is the worst, but that’s a full 22-24 episode season per box, and that came out first before the market was set. Still, the new seasons are getting $120 or $130 per season, MSRP. Similar full-season BUFFY seasons go for half that. It’s weird.

    -Augie

  4. The Blue Spider
    3. June 2003 at 16:04

    Let’s see… 7 seasons of Star Trek: the Next Generation at roughly $100 dollars a season… makes it around $700 per Star Trek series as both DS9 and Voyager decided to make a seven-season-stretch a tradition, and the DS9 DVDs roll out and I expect the Voyager seasons subsequently.

    $700 x 3. I have a college education to pay off. Some people have children. If the prices remain this insane, Enterprise might boost the cost to near $3000 around four or five years from now.

    And this isn’t taking into account the ripoff of ST:TOS DVDs a few years ago. Two eps per DVD for $26 each? Screw Paramount. Screw Viacom. No wonder I became a criminal.

  5. Augie De Blieck Jr.
    3. June 2003 at 21:47

    In all fairness, the DVD world didn’t realize people liked season-by-season boxed sets until X-FILES did one and had a smash hit. Before then, VHS tapes were always sold separately, or maybe three to a box. And by the time Paramount saw that season-by-season was preferred, it was too late to stop the episode-by-episode releases. Once they realized it, though, they went to the boxed sets with all their other series.

    The trick is — buy only what you want, and don’t spend a penny more. If you can’t afford ‘em, don’t buy ‘em.

    -Augie