Info and forum posts by 'Richard Lloyd'

Now 104.98 at Amazon UK, so try base.com at 17.95...

I ordered this set when it dropped to 14.97 quid on Amazon UK (with free postage), which is a total bargain. The one minor snag with double-sided hybrid DVD/HD-DVD`s is that the inner ring is the only place they can write any info about it (and on one side of each disc only!), so the tiny writing is tough to read to find out which disc is which :)

Amazon UK have raised the price of this, first to the 24.97 pounds price the original poster quoted and now to a frankly ridiculous 104.98 pounds. If you`re still hunting for it, try base.com at 17.95 pounds.

This item was edited on Sunday, 31st August 2008, 15:42

Also available at tesco.com (but with additional P&P)

Also at Tesco`s website here, but you`ll be stung for postage (1.64 quid?) as well of course.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century Season 1 - 8.95

This is the cheapest I`ve seen it by a long way - the first (best) season of "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century" is available for 8.95 pounds at
dvd.co.uk - a very good price for a 6-disc set. BTW, don`t bother with Season 2 - it`s not only more expensive (13.99 pounds at HMV for example) - it`s also much worse than Season 1.

This item was edited on Saturday, 29th March 2008, 20:48

Blake`s 7 boxsets at 18 quid each

The RRP for each Blake`s 7 boxset is a ludicrous 49.99 pounds, so it`s been tricky to find them under 20 pounds. For the first time I can remember, a single site (dvd.co.uk) has all four seasons at just under 18 pounds each! I bought Season 1 years ago at 17.99 pounds and you can usually get one of the seasons at the moment (e.g. play.com, hmv.co.uk) at around 18 pounds, but not all four seasons at that price at one site. Here`s the links:

Season 1 (17.99)
Season 2 (17.85)
Season 3 (17.85)
Season 4 (17.95)

This item was edited on Friday, 21st March 2008, 12:02

RE: 2GB SD Card £7.49 Free Delivery

6.99 quid now - they`ll be giving them away in packets of Corn Flakes soon! As for the RRP of 59.99 quid, on Planet Who Do You Think You`re Kidding only I suspect :)

RE: Ally McBeal box sets for 8-10 quid each

It`s now 39 quid in my local zavvi.co.uk store, so I guess it can randomly vary in price, albeit still below the Web site price!

RE: Ally McBeal box sets for 8-10 quid each

Thanks for that tip. Strangely enough, I popped into my local Zavvi (aka Virgin) store this morning and actually picked up the 30-disc 5-season set for an amazing 35 pounds. Makes me suspect that the "free delivery" on zavvi.co.uk isn`t really and they bump up the Web prices compared to in-store prices to pay for the postage!

Note that the 5-season box set isn`t in any special offer area of the Zavvi store, which makes it all the more dubious that the Web price is 5 pounds more than the in-store price...

Ally McBeal box sets for 8-10 quid each

OK, it seems that poor old skeletal Calisa Flockhart (currently to be seen in the quite-good "Brothers and Sisters" US TV drama) always gets her Ally McBeal boxsets discounted at this time of year, so here`s the 2007/08 rundown:

101cd.com have Season 1 at 7.69 quid, plus Seasons 2, 3 and 5 at 9.59 quid. Note: 101cd.com and blahdvd.com are one and the same site, so you`ll find the same prices here.

Asda have Season 4 at 9.93 quid.

Looks like both sites do free delivery, so that`s 46.39 quid for the lot, more than 10 quid less than the overpriced "complete" box set of all 5 seasons.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 2nd January 2008, 18:29

RE: Aldi PC £629.99 - Blu-ray & HD-DVD 2/12/07

I guess the (combo?) Blu-ray and HD-DVD drive is the selling point here - Aldi`s Medion PCs tend to have the "kitchen sink" thrown in them :) You can, of course, get quad core base units for 500-600 quid nowadays (e.g. Mesh Computers and CCL Computers).

I personally would far rather have a quad core processor and an extra or larger hard drive than a dual core processor and a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drive any day (optical media is on its way out - flash and hard drives are the clear future).

Many Dire Straits albums - 3.99 pounds at HMV

OK, so Dire Straits might not be everyone`s cup of tea, but HMV`s October CD sale includes several of their back catalogue albums at 3.99 pounds, including:

Dire Straits (their finest, IMHO)
Communique
Making Movies
Love Over Gold
On Every Street
On The Night

Before you ask, Brothers in Arms is actually 4.99 pounds, but the one I`m actually going to buy is the double CD live effort Alchemy, also 3.99 pounds and probably the biggest bargain of the lot.

Slipstreaming XP...

Just a quick note that you could try nLite if you want to slipstream Windows with drivers and service packs - it really is quite an impressive piece of software for a free download. And, yes, it`s even Vista-compatible...

This item was edited on Tuesday, 4th September 2007, 22:08

Tesco sale DVDs for about 1.50 each

Being something of a cheapskate, I always "sort by price" with online CD and DVD sales to see if there`s any good sub 5 quid items available. Surprisingly, Tesco Direct have a shed-load of 97p DVDs (postage works out at 1.29 quid + 35p per DVD - so call it about 1.50 quid per DVD), a few of which people might find watchable.

I bought 11 (!) of them myself (15.81 quid inc. postage, though will take over 2 weeks to get shipped apparently):
Valentine`s Day, Kiss Toledo Goodbye!, The Evil Beneath Loch Ness (judging by the IMDB review of this, sounds hilariously bad!), The President`s Mistress, Beautiful Joe (Billy Connolly and Sharon Stone in this), Wes Craven`s Don`t Look Down, Yesterday`s Target, Younger and Younger, Custody of the Heart, Peter Gunn and Beat (with Courtney Love no less).

Also separately bought Howl`s Moving Castle 2-DVD version for 5.97 quid from Tesco Jersey, which is cheaper than CD WOW or play.com are selling it at.

This item was edited on Friday, 12th January 2007, 14:57

UK holiday `spread` is a mess

My biggest problem with the current UK holidays is that they tend to be "clustered" (one suspects historical religious reasons for this...), leading to the farcical situation where we get *one* holiday (the August Bank Holiday) between the end of May and Christmas Eve (the latter, remember, is not a UK holiday).

For 2006, this was 30th May (day after Spring Bank Holiday) to 24th Dec with one holiday (28th August) - a total of one work day off in 149 consecutive working days....incredible! It`s similar for 2007 too (29th May-24th Dec 2007 inclusive with only 27th August off).

The solution is to have a an additional holiday somewhere in either July (why not "We Lost The War Day" on 4th July :) ) or October/November (Hallowe`en or Bonfire Night anyone?) or maybe both and remove two holidays from elsewhere. For example, why do we need two working days off at Easter? Scrap the Good Friday holiday - it`s Monday`s that are normally taken off and we have Easter Monday for that. And what the freak are we doing with two May holidays anyway? Scrap May Day! Or, if you don`t like that, ditch Boxing Day - what`s the point in that holiday?

RE: New TV series `Dirt` looks promising

It was fairly good I thought and being on FX (home to the excellent "Nip/Tuck", "The Shield" and "Rescue Me"), it got to have some fairly racy bits in it too. Nice to see that Matthew Perry isn`t the only Friends star to finally do a decent post-Friends TV show (Matt LeBlanc, you should be ashamed of "Joey").

I do worry about the schizo photographer though - how he got through the first episode without screwing up his shots (especially when up in a tree!) I don`t know :) Now if only FX (in the US) shows were in HDTV <sigh> - is the only US channel left not airing dramas in HDTV?

RE: And the `complete universe` won`t be so complete...

I`ve requested a refund of 8.75 myself (8 pounds for the B5 set and 75p for the very good "The A-Z Of Nearly Everything" that just dropped in price and was part of my B5 order). BTW, the MSE posting included a vital link to the refunds page - without that link, you`ll have a heck of a job trying to find that page on Amazon UK`s site. I`ve still to actually find a page stating that they do indeed have a 30-day price-drop refund policy!

Update: Got my 8.75 pounds refunded on Tuesday morning! Can`t believe it was so easy and they didn`t argue or anything...

This item was edited on Tuesday, 9th January 2007, 12:36

Don`t forget that they`ve reversed their poor CD single limits too

Note that they`ve also - far too late of course - reverted the ludicrous 3-track CD single limit (above that, singles were disqualified from the chart) to 4 tracks now. The maximum running time for chartable CD singles has also finally been extended from 20 minutes to 25 minutes (remix CD singles [one song, multiple remix tracks] are still limited to 40 minutes for some bizarre reason, but can now have as many tracks as they like [I doubt many would have more than the previous limit of 8]).

I think these ludicrous CD single chart rules is why CD singles have steadily declined in recent years (yes, before downloads became popular). I used to be able to buy 4 songs on a CD single for 99p or 8 remixes for the same price - now you get 2-track CD singles (one of which is an album track!) for 3 quid and 3-track CD singles for 4 quid. No wonder people have been abandoning them in droves!

If you want to marvel at the crazily complex UK single chart eligibility chart (just revised), look no further than this official document (PDF), but be prepared to get a headache... :)

This item was edited on Friday, 5th January 2007, 21:13

And the `complete universe` won`t be so complete...

Just a note that it looks like "Complete Universe" of Babylon 5 covered by this box set actually won`t be that later this year - another B5 movie has recently wrapped up filiming apparently (yes, that link is to a BSG article, but the final sentence bizarrely switches to B5 instead). It`ll be called "The Lost Tales - Voices In The Dark" and, in one unusual twist, apparently the movie will be "direct to DVD". This presumably means it will be on DVD only for several months before airing on TV screens - note that it covers the 10th anniversary of the Interstellar Alliance, so presumably goes right at the end of the Complete Universe viewing schedule (well, maybe before the Season 1-5`s special features)?

This item was edited on Friday, 5th January 2007, 21:00

RE: L Word Starts on Freeview (FTN) this Thurs

I like "The L Word" - it seems to be getting better and better as each season progresses, though I must say that season 3 was a bit of a downer, what with one of the characters having major problems. Must say that the Season 2-onwards title sequence and theme tune are *fantastic* (way better than Season 1`s titles/tune).

For those who can`t wait for the latest in lesbian goodness that is "The L Word", Season 4 starts in the US on 7th January 2007 (available, ahem, from all good download locations) - yes, you can get a list of Season 4 episodes and US airdates in case you`re wondering.

I can`t say I like the creator (and some of the stars) of the show cashing in on its popularity by creating a lesbian social networking site though (based on the idea of Alice and her "chart")...

RE: Tesco History of Violence and other DVDs 2.84 in store

Just picked up "The 40 Year Old Virgin" and "Million Dollar Baby" for 2.84 from my local bricks`n`mortar Tesco store along with "40 Days And 40 Nights" (yes, I know it`s been on TV) for 1.97. Note that tesco.com charge postage on top (which is why you`re better off adding the DVDs to your instore grocery shopping in "real life") - Tesco Jersey don`t stock the same offer DVDs as the "normal" tesco.com DVD section, so you can`t get free postage that way in case you`re wondering.

Now 119.99 pounds...

A good job I ordered this a few days ago at 80.97 and it turned up this morning, because when I went to check Amazon UK today, the set is now 119.99 quid! So it`s now 50% more expensive if you didn`t order before today..

BTW, anyone got a tip as to the exact viewing order of the 6 standalone movies they supply (i.e. relative to the 5 seasons of Babylon 5 and the Crusade season)? There`s no "instructions" with the box set as to which order you view the 6 movies in!

Update: Thanks for the responses in this thread, but a bit of Googling found this and also this, which both seem to be in close agreement except for maybe "In The Beginning" (and complex enough that it`s not surprising viewing order instructions aren`t in the box set!). I think I`ll create a viewing order list from those pages and slip it in with the box set so I don`t forget...

This item was edited on Tuesday, 2nd January 2007, 00:50

Ally McBeal Season 1 - 7.97 at Woolworths

Possibly the box set bargain of the Xmas period this one:

Ally McBeal Season 1

7.97 quid with free postage (albeit delivery on 8th Jan - sent by a Jersey donkey or something?) for Ally McBeal Season 1 (6 DVDs!). The cheapest I think it`s ever been (I bought mine at 8.99 and that was good going...). A shame the later seasons are 15.99 though :(

This item was edited on Wednesday, 27th December 2006, 20:57

RE: 136 mixed Nestle chocolate products £10.99 delivered from Asda

Thanks for the second code - I prefer Toffee Crisp myself, so 24 * Toffee Crisp does me nicely for the choc overload. To mix the junk up a bit, I went for 12 Chicken&Mushroom Pot Noodles - the whole thing comes to 9.99 quid (one quid less than your combo, but less choc admittedly).

My garage will be rapidly turning into a junk food emporium at this rate - anyone got a third voucher yet? :) I fancy mixing in some Walkers crisp multipacks in there (Prawn Cocktail and Salt`n`Vinegar especially)...

Update: Toffee Crisps and PN`s both arrived fine. Don`t forget that the e-voucher amount (10 quid) isn`t shown as being deducted when they give you a paper invoice (so mine said 19.99 quid, but they will be charging 9.99 quid) - mighty confusing, but they do warn you about this at the ASDA online checkout.

This item was edited on Saturday, 23rd September 2006, 14:40

RE: 120 cans of pepsi for £8.99 delivered from Asda

Nice original post - I`ve put my order in, but Firefox 1.5.0.7 (Linux) gave me a DNS lookup problem when I submitted my credit card details to pay :-( I ended up booting into XP and using IE 7 RC1, which seemed to do the trick (after I checked that my order hadn`t gone through of course).

Never ordered online from Asda before - nice to see they do a 7-9pm evening slot on weekdays, so Wednesday night will be a cola buzz night and Thursday will be the dentists no doubt :) Not going to tell my friends/colleagues about this until the first order comes through properly with no substitutes (I put that in the delivery note box too as well as selecting the radio button - I want "real" Pepsi, none of this fake diet/Max stuff).

Update: I pushed my order back to Thursday 10am-12pm because "tactically" they`ll have more stock for morning orders than evening orders I suspect. Also, that 60 cans for 3.58 below doesn`t make sense - isn`t it a 2 for 3 quid offer (and 5 isn`t a multiple of 2) and how does the eVoucher work on sub-35 quid orders either? Sounds like Asda have messed up with that one...

Final update All delivered safe and sound (just before Asda put a 2-multipack maximum on the Pepsi offer - phrew!) with the right stuff included. Remember that the paper delivery invoice says 18.99 pounds because it doesn`t include the e-voucher discount - that gets taken off later. Now I`m waiting for my Toffee Crisp + Pot Noodle delivery on Saturday thanks to the second code posted in the Nestle separate thread.

This item was edited on Thursday, 21st September 2006, 14:30

Colin McRae 04 (PC) - 3.99 pounds

HMV have Colin McRae 04 for the PC for 3.99 pounds here (postage is free). Yes, Amazon UK have it for 3.99 pounds too, but it`s only free postage if you spend 15 pounds or more.

BTW, I tried it in Vista RC1 (in XP SP2 compatibility mode) and it did run with 2 issues. Firstly, the installer complains about some Windows Media components it`s trying to install that are incompatible (so I skipped those). Secondly, the game appears to crash on exit, but just cancelling that seemed to return to the desktop OK.

Game itself is pretty sweet (nice graphics) and reckoned by some people to be better than the 2005 sequel.

This item was edited on Sunday, 17th September 2006, 00:46

RE: Happy Hour

I just got my ebuyer.com Happy Hour e-mail (yes, for the 5th June offer!) a mere 2 days too late! Looks like it sat on their ebuyer.com mail server between 6pm on 1st June and 1.45pm 7th June before being delivered to me...ho hum.

So did anyone see what was on offer in the first Happy Hour - unfortunately, ebuyer.com won`t list what they were selling....

Corrs/Alanis Morissette albums - 2.99 @ CD WOW

A couple of 2.99 pounds bargains for folks out there:

The Corrs - Home
and
Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill Acoustic Version

Also, there`s some 4.99 pounds albums at CD-WOW - Enya`s Amarantine, Eric Clapton`s Back Home, and Natalie Imbruglia`s Counting Down The Days to name but a few (search for them yourself :) )...

Oh, and you can use vouchers on these, so I got the Corrs/Alanis albums for 99p each...

This item was edited on Monday, 22nd May 2006, 21:41

RE: SD 1GB prices falling - again.

Ebuyer`s "Deal of the Day" today has the Viking 1GB SD card down to 14.99 pounds - though it may go up in price after today and you have to add postage (at least 2.58 quid for Super Saver, making a total of 17.57 quid) as well.

RE: 150 Sony dvd blanks for £30 delivered

Or for 31.74 quid including VAT and (99p) postage you can get 250 Hyundai DVD+R`s or DVD-R`s from SVP (type "gerrard" by 23.59 on Wednesday 17th May in the coupon code box in the checkout to get 99p postage on orders of 30 quid or more). Yes, that`s 12.7p per blank DVD (Sonys work out at 20p per blank DVD)!

RE: The KEY to winning the lottery

This was a story in The Register a couple of weeks ago for those who missed it...

www.ebuyer.co.uk has an incorrect secure certificate

I`ve been carrying on a long Enote conversation with Ebuyer customer services about the fact that the new design of their site keeps the user on the domain they entered the site with, even when they go to secure mode where appropriate. Unfortunately, they`ve been quiet on the subject for a week now without fixing the issue, so I thought I`d post it more publicly to see what other people think.

The problem is that Ebuyer can be accessed two ways - via www.ebuyer.co.uk or www.ebuyer.com - and if you click on a link that jumps to secure mode, it goes to the https version of that address. This would be fine, except Ebuyer only have a secure certificate for www.ebuyer.com and *not* for www.ebuyer.co.uk, resulting in a secure certificate warning if you started at www.ebuyer.co.uk. Here`s how to reproduce it:

1. Start up your Web browser from scratch (so you`re not logged in)
2. Go to http://www.ebuyer.co.uk/
3. Click on "Your account" link at top of the page
4. In the Login -> email field in the left hand form, type "a[at]c.b"
(minimal e-mail address needed to submit the page) and click on
the orange "GO" in that left-hand form.
5. Watch your browser pop a secure mode warning that you`re trying to
load in a secure certificate on https://www.ebuyer.co.uk/ that
doesn`t match the actual secure certificate name
(https://www.ebuyer.com/)
6. You can accept that secure certificate and note that even at this point, you`re still on the www.ebuyer.co.uk address!

Note that before the new design was put in place about a month ago, I could start at www.ebuyer.co.uk and not see the warning (it may be that it redirected to https://www.ebuyer.com/ for secure links). Note that www.ebuyer.co.uk has 11,000-odd references on Google and the Order Notes that Ebuyer issue via e-mail (which you can view on an order page) say this at the bottom:

Ebuyer Customer Services
http://www.ebuyer.co.uk

So the "excuse" given to me by someone at Ebuyer that I should use the www.ebuyer.com address only is nonsense. Anyone else think this issue is pretty important and needs to be resolved? Surely it must be hitting customer confidence and ultimately sales to see a cert warning on their www.ebuyer.co.uk address?