Amazon's Great, But I See No Reason To Preorder Blu Rays From Them, Am I Wrong ?

As long as brick and mortar store doesn't have an exclusive edition than Amazon is ALWAYS the way to go.

No Taxes, No Shipping.

You're not wrong. It's exactly the reason why I'm not pre ordering Jaws.

I prefer Amazon for more obscure and catalog titles which often don't show up at local brick and mortar stores and are often higher priced when they do.

For new releases, I agree that prices are pretty much the same between Amazon and the B&Ms during the first week; after that Amazon tends to remain a bit lower however.

Personally I am patient and other than say Disney/Pixar films for example all movies are eventually cheaper down the road. Also, UNLESS you somehow get Prime for free then you are paying for shipping actually no matter how you want to spin it. Also the days of no taxes will almost certainly be going away eventually on Amazon. If you are like me for example, in Illinois you have to pay taxes on your internet pruchases and unless you save your receipts you then have to pay a flat amount of extra internet purchase tax on purchases that do not charge you tax. There are definitely other states that are starting to do this as well.

From what I've seen, Blu ray prices are remarkably resistant to price drops within the first year or so of release. Take Star Wars for example; this boxset has increased in price since it's release at $80, to around $85 or 90 after the holidays.

And very often, blu ray prices can increase, often sharply, within this first year of blu ray release.

The only time when blu ray prices drop sharply is around the holiday season from late november to early january.

Blu prices will often drop after the first year of release, but many of these declines are very gradual over the course of several years.

Quite frankly, if it's a title you are really interested, you are usually better off buying first day. After that, there will be major and very unpredictable price fluctuations over the course of at least 10 months.

I have done a number of pre-orders from Amazon in the past. Only twice was a regretting it because I wouldn't have the disc day-1, but that was because I didn't know that I would have friends over or some "pressing" opportunity to watch it right away. I have, however, regretted the last 3 (not for that reason) because they ended up being cheaper in-store locally, even after tax. Maybe by a nickel, but then I tell myself, I could have had the movie today, in hand, instead of waiting for the "free shipping" and always having to add some other purchase to the order to get over $25.

Like others, I do buy things that have been out a little while or are more specialty from Amazon, but that is rare. I mean, do I really need to see Stargate on blu-ray? I really liked the movie, and the TV series (all of them), but even at like $6, it will just sit and collect dust.

Is it good if Best Buy goes out of business? Not at all. So they are getting special help from studios and manufactures and Amazon has to "back off".

There has been a HUGE seismic shift at Amazon.They have raised prices drastically for the majority of their products. Many expensive electronic products like front projectors are listed as sold by Amazon, but in reality are not - availability in 3-6 weeks! Return privileges are vague, with many vendors charging a restocking fee. There is good evidence of an increasing number of counterfeit goods being sold by spotty vendors. Consumers Beware!

Amazon is hiring web/software engineers and want to make money off their customers clicking on the links to other merchants. Just like Google, but better as they know more about you! I may be closing my account as they get closer to transferring my personal information (breaking my trust of them). This is why Facebook is worth so much. They sold out their customers too.

What I usually do is add the preorder to the "saved for later" area in my Amazon shopping cart.

Sometimes I eventually get the item as a Gold Box Quick Pick with a discount applied. I don't know for sure if this happens because I have the item in the "saved for later" area of my Amazon shopping cart or not but it does happen quite often.

I then purchase the item with the discount and with Amazon's Pre-order Price Guarantee I will save more money if they lower the price prior to the release date.

This happened to me recently with Mission Impossible-Ghost Protocol.

Amazon's price was $21.99
Gold Box Quick Pick Price was $20.89 ($21.99-$1.10)
Amazon reduced the price to $19.99 prior to the release date so my final price will be $18.89 ($19.99-$1.10)

I don't pay for shipping since I am a Prime member.

I received the movie on Monday, 4/16/12, one day prior to the release date.

I've only ever pre ordered one time. It was for Uncharted 3. I saw no purpose in it and I ended up getting it a week after it had been in stores. Will not pre order again.

A good illustration of rising prices is the LOST bluray set that I got through Amazon for $125. Two years later...it's at $185 and used copies are still at $140. I wouldn't sell if it doubled in price though.

Well, Amazon usually price matches other stores so they are the lowest price. Compare that with their deals discounts, and it can be worth it to pre-order.



True, but I split my Prime amongst 4 other people, and I order over a hundred orders a year from them. So each order is about $0.15 in shipping for two day shipping.




Yup, but not all States do this.

Everybody has different preferences. If you absolutely have to have it on release day then your only guarantee is going to some B&M. Other than that, Amazon is probably the best way to go. Sometimes Amazon will ship it early so Prime members get it on release day. But there's no guarantee. And as far as state taxes go, I never heard of the internet.

larry

I got burned and learned my lesson when pre-ordering from Amazon on more than one occasion. It might be my luck or something but when I pre-order Amazon usually drops the price the day after release, only a buck or two but since I do pay taxes it makes a difference to me. So, I stopped pre-ordering and wait, if the price doesn't change then I pull the plug.

They usually refund the difference when that happens. At least in my experience.

I live in Canada and I do pre-order from Amazon.com more often than anywhere else. The only time I don't pre-order from them is when I want to watch the release day 1 and I will pick it up at a store. But I've only done that twice with Avatar and Real Steel.

Even with shipping over the border, with Amazon's pre-order prices, it is still cheaper than buying retail from anywhere here in Canada. A good example is when Game of Thrones season 1 was released. Amazon.com pre-order price was $34.99 and the cheapest you could find it in Canada was $59.99....and that was Amazon.ca.

As long as things cost nearly double in Canada, I'll be buying from the US as much as I can. Especially with electronics.

My experience as well. Many times they are price matching BB and the price on release day stays the same (or goes down) for the first week.

larry

For the most part, I don't by blu-rays in any other way than on Amazon. With Best Buy, it's very unpredictable that something will be in stock, and in my experience, Amazon is almost always cheaper, even after shipping. Also, Amazon has gotten very good at getting pre-orders out to you on or before release day, and they do refund the difference if the price drops before they ship.

For me, I hate going to Best Buy so I order all my movies from Amazon. I can't think of a single instance where I NEEDED a movie on release day.

I don't think we ever NEED a blu ray disc. It is more about WANT than NEED as this is all for entertainment anyway.

But I wanted Season 4 of Breaking Bad on Tuesday so I picked it up at my local Best Buy for $24.99 at lunch as it is only two blocks from work.

Watched a couple of episodes last night, picture quality is great. DirecTV didn't upgrade to AMC-HD until halfway thru season 4 so this is the first time I'm seeing some of those epiosodes in HD. I did have the last five episodes of S4 in HD saved on my DVR but now I can erase them.

Usually I wait until Black Friday to pick up old Mad Men and Breaking Bad seasons on blu ray for $8, but I wanted season 4 now. It was an awesome season!

As noted in another thread, Amazon was offering a free theater pass for PROMETHEUS to the first 5000 that pre-ordered the movie on disc.

with the amazon preorder, you get the guaranteed lowest price. I just received game of shadows and amazon credited me $7 because the price was lowered at some point prior to release.

And when Best Buy is out of business... Amazon's prices will soar.

You want some competition, even if they don't.

California also charges state sales tax for online purchases.

If we are talking a new BD - let's say when Avengers hits home video later this year - I will surely grab it @ a local store on release day/week. If Amazon is gonna charge me tax, then why not just get it locally right then & there - the small state tax you pay does support those roads you drove on to get to the store in the first place.

OTOH, I recently picked up the ALIEN BD boxset via a one-day Amazon sale for under $30 shipped. No store was gonna match THAT price.

Unless there is some sort of premium or upgrade that a pre-order will net you, I see no reason to preorder anything. It is not like that Avengers BluRay is gonna be a super limited editon product - store shelves will be full come release day.

The last times I preordered media items:

The Beatles Rock Band game - GameStop preorder netted you 3 free downloadable tracks for the game.

2004 Star Wars DVD set from Blockbuster - back when their stores were everywhere, preorder of the SW DVDs got you 12 free movie rentals as well.

It depends on how close you live to an Amazon distribution center.

I pre-order everything from Amazon for these reasons:

1. I always get it the same day as it is released. Already released movies that I order with the 2-day Prime shipping are usually in my mailbox the next day anyway.
2. Any price change that makes it cheaper than my pre-order price is refunded to me as credits for later purchases.
3. Sometimes a disc purchase also includes free Prime viewing of the same title for a limited time, ie... one month.
4. If for some reason I am disappointed by the film or just don't see the need to keep it, I can sell it back to Amazon.

The cost of Prime for me is easily recouped quickly as I have two in college and I buy their textbooks through Prime, I have shifted a lot of my online shopping to Amazon, and we watch the instant streaming regularly.

If I run to Target for a new release, that $2 in gas, to Best Buy is $5 in gas. Yeah I could plan the trip to coincide with coming home from work and save some gas but why when I can just pull into my driveway after work and the new release is already there.

Why I sometimes pre-order:

1. Some (catalog) movies I just love (and probably already have in multiple formats) and am simply unwilling to wait for the inevitable price drops or for the holiday sales. Whatever reasonable price premium I pay is worth it compared to the minor aggravation (but aggravation nonetheless) of not watching the movie now and waiting and fretting over when/if the disc goes on sale
2. With the pre-order price guarantee I'm assured of Amazon's lowest price up through launch date. And sometimes if Amazon offers a lower price after launch date but during launch week, I'll get a refund for that, too.
3. Amazon almost always price-matches Best Buy and Walmart and other national chains during launch week for blockbuster movies.
4. With Prime I'm assured release day delivery. On some items (Back to the Future trilogy most notably) since a distribution center is in a neighboring state, I'll get the movie the day it is shipped, which means either a Friday or Monday before a Tuesday release.
5. Returns are trivial, with no questions asked.
6. If you want the latest and greatest Disney/Pixar 3D releases and if you pre-order very early, then you can bet some great deals! On their most expensive multi-disc packs, Disney offers Amazon coupons (usually $8 or $5 but has high as $10) that you redeem at checkout. Given the aggressive price-matching that goes on near release, you can end up with some sweet deals by pre-ordering, granted there may be printable coupons (if you're part of Disney Rewards) that can be used at Best Buy, etc. As an example, Pixar's Brave currently has an $8 coupon available.

Off topic, there are things I won't pre-order: high-end cameras and lenses, and certain other pricey electronics. Canon seems to have established a deliberate policy of supporting local B&M stores over internet giants like Amazon by getting the local guys new product first, sometimes by many weeks. Plus on these items in excess of $1K I end up paying "use" taxes anyway when I file my income tax return. For some things it just makes more sense to establish a relationship and support local specialty shops (if the price is right, of course).

Now that Amazon is charging tax, the pre-order party is "dead" (not that there's anything wrong with that). I just hope that the B&M folks (I usually go to Best Buy) don't abandon their long-standing new-release pricing sales (not to mention stay in business).

Is it limited to certain states? I'm not seeing tax.

I always want to purchase the blu-ray special offer, but I hate the high shipping fee!

I'm in MO and I'm not seeing tax either. I have prime so new releases are delivered on release day. Jaws was on my porch at about 12:30pm on Tuesday. Nice.

Exactly. The Jaws release pretty much answers the question of this thread. Some people are driving around to B+Ms, finding them sold out. The UPS driver handed Jaws and The Raid to me, and Amazon sent me a $5 refund on The Raid. No tax, and no extra gas money spent.