Page 1 of Cheap DVD`s at Virgin & DVD pricing

I`m sure everyone knows about this already, but for those who don`t, Virgin Megastores in London are currently selling a range of DVD`s for £12.99 - most of them crappy Warners one ( Batman, You`ve Got Mail etc) that have no extras, but as there`s quite a big selection you should go down to one and check it out for yourselves. Who knows, you might find yourself a bargain.

This actually got me thinking about the cost of DVD`s in general. I`m very aware that compared to about a year ago, when almost every DVD in High street stores retailed at about £20, prices are dropping - but surely paying £17.99 or £15.99 is still too much for a DVD disc - especially for the stack of Warners titles such Enemy of the State, Goodfellas etc, which offer no extras at all. I mean, even the Bond ones should be retailing a lot cheaper than £20, regardless of their prestige value and excellent extras. Not a new argument I know, but I think paying £10 for a DVD of an older film is the correct `market` price, with between £12 and £15 for newer films or older films with new extras, being the absolute limit. Surely it`s in both the consumers AND the suppliers interests, incentive wise. And what with xmas coming up.....

Also, still can`t beleive that you have to pay about £13.99 upwards for a movie on VHS nowadays too. I mean, c`mon ! HMV are doing a sale at the moment where you can get vids from £2.99 (Men in Black Widescreen, even though it`s on TV this week). The ABSOLUTE highest the consumer should be paying for VHS now what with the advent of DVD is £8.
How long are we consumers going to keep paying over our dosh like mindless donkeys for ? EE-Ohh !!

In actual fact the best HIgh Street retailer for DVD at the moment is WHSmith.
They are flogging a lot of good quality back cat stuff for £12.99-£15.99. Even their Top 30 stuff is around £17.99 (excluding boxsets obviously). There does seem to be geographical differences amongst the big retailers - e.g. smaller Woolies Local shops (we`ll have no nonsense here, this is a LOCAL shop for LOCAL people) are generally more expensive than big city Woolies.
Similarly HMV are doing a cheapo DVD deal although their selection (at least here in Nottingham) is poor. However they do have some for around £10.
Take your point about VHS - these generally seem to be a pointer to when DVDs come out : HMV`s current three for £12 deal nearly forced me to go old skool and buy tape, perish the thought !
I think prices will come down. The big retailers appreciate the efforts of online DVD retailers and I personally congratulate Smiths for taking the first bold steps to reasonable DVD prices for the msses. And you can get pencils there too, apparently...

This item was edited on Sunday, 22nd October 2000, 21:33

I live in the rip-off capital of the UK, sunny Blackpool, where HMV keeps DVD prices at full throttle all year round. Hence, I have yet to buy a DVD there. I recently had my pre-Christmas spending spree at Virgin and WHSmiths, picking up a group of pics I`d fancied getting for ages but wasn`t about to put up £15 for, so I`m happy but as far as titles I fancied was concerned, I cleaned them out. 99percent of the Warners back catalogue stuff I wouldn`t touch with a barge pole and yet some terrific titles from other studios remain stubbornly up at the £20 mark. It would be nice if these were genuine sales, not these special buy-in deals, and we were offered real savings on disks.

Mind you, WHSmiths really got the brownie points sending me a Clubcard flyer with a £5 discount on any DVD title bought with a Clubcard. I also used the accrued points on the card to get the price down under a tenner.

Do you think anyone will tell Blockbuster their ex-rental DVD pricing is ludicrous? £14.99 for an ex-rental, budgie-chewed, s***-on-by-the-poodle disk I can pick up at DVDstreet for less??

RE : Blockbusters
What do you expect from a bunch of Yankie big time McCorporate p*ss-stains that lure the poor unsuspecting punter into their stores with the promise of blinding pictures of JP/LW (it`s the roars of the dinos that got me in there) only to find...NO SCREENS! What work of Satan is this ? Blockbusters can kiss my sweet English butt. Pity the poor drones who have to work there and sell tepid popcorn at £1.50 per nugget...

Smiths had a good "3 DVDs for £30" deal this weekend - but turned out it is only if you are buying a new DVD player (they have a new model in stock at £129.99 - not sure of make/model or multi-region status.)

Blockbusters - rip-offs. Cancelled my membership and handed my card in over their outrageous DVD rental prices. If your not happy with them do the same and make sure you tell them why. Might (but I doubt it) filter back to the management who might bring prices down.

If you are into rentals it may be worrth checking out the A/V section of your local library.

Blimey. mate, what forward-thinking local authority is that ?

I must say I agree with your comments on ridiculous prices on DVDs.

I got Spinal Tap the other day for 15.99 in my local WhSmith, yet but four shops away in HMV it was 19.99 - what the hell is going on?

For cheap region 1 and 2 discs get `em from www.play247.com

excellent prices - excellent service

What price range are you talking about for these "arse" rentals?. I can get any film on dvd for £3 to rent, including delivery, but thats probaly just me being nice over the phone.
Dont listen to any arguments regarding the pricing of dvds, alot of them are arse. Truth be told dvds cost under a pound to manufacture (cds cost under a pence). This is alot less than VHS, although im not sure of the price of them, but it is more (due to the cogs and spinny bits). This means that alot of bastards are being utter bastards and making a bastardingly huge amount of money purely because they think everyone is a stupid bastard. The only reason we buy them is because we are bastardly helpless. Bastards.

Steady new boy or we`ll have to mug ya and flush ya head down the loo...Like the use of the B-word, mind...

I see Pc world are selling "Jurasic Park" for £9.99 if any ones interested?