22 June 2006
DVD Extravaganza
Now is the time to buy DVDs. It is like DVD heaven out there. Wow. DVDs. Half price.
DVDs are on the endangered species list. The new formats (HDVD and Blu-Ray) are currently testing the waters. Luckily, good old DVD format is putting up a fight. Intead of rolling over DVD has gone on the offensive.
Every DVD is a special edition out of the gate and every DVD either releases with an even special-er edition (for more money) or the director’s cut arrives later on (for more money). Not to worry. If the movie you liked in theatres came out on DVD more than 6 months ago it will soon have it’s own special edition too. There’s bound to be something in all those editions to appeal to any consumer. The other good news is these new editions are reasonably priced.
If the new all special edition craze isn’t your thing the plain jane DVD edition of your beloved movie will fill a bin at your local Blockbuster, Wal-Mart or gas station. Hey a DVD for five bucks is a pretty good deal. I got Oscar that way. Yes, I paid money for Oscar. It’s funny. Shut up.
DVD boxsets are selling for less than the price of new release DVDs. It’s ridiculous. I used to feel like a bigshot owning so many boxsets now anyone can sport such a collection. The impressiveness of the amount of investment I put into such boxsets as the Superman Movie Collection, now $24.99 at HMV, is severely lessened. By the way, the Superman Movie Collection is barely worth $24.99. I believe I paid over $80. On the bright side, I scored the Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus for $59.99 at a local bookstore. It’s not the new special-er edition but I can use the hundred and forty bucks I saved to buy the DVDs that I’m missing for about forty bucks. Net savings to me a cool $100. I sure could go for a hundred tacos right about now.
Some DVDs retain high prices but give you lots of stuff. I waited long enough to buy Big Fish that I got the special edition that came with a nice picture book and in a fancy slip-sleeve. Not a bad deal. (I’m trying to sound impressed with myself but it’s not translating into writing very well.) Also, I didn’t realize it before but now I need to have a bowling towel with my copy of Big Lebowski.
The time is right to reap the benefit of this tech war (no not TekWar. It’s only on Laserdisc so far.). Hopefully, studios continue to flood the market with multiple editions of movies. This will drive the prices even lower. There’s also a lot of ways to find the specific edition you want. If all the DVD retailers (so every retailer) are out of your choice then you’ll likely find it on the internet somewhere. Now is the time to amass even more DVDs for my collection. If only I had more money to spend.
