As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, we have been buying the Buffy and Angel DVD boxed sets and watching the series in order.
When first released, each set (two sets to a season, three DVDs per set, four episodes per DVD) cost over $80. More recently, some stores have been trying to move excess stock and have been selling at nearly half that price.
We managed to pick up the first few sets for under $45, and have been gradually buying them up as we find them at resonable prices.
Last weekend when we went looking, we discovered that most of the stores had almost sold out of their stocks and weren’t replenishing them. When we asked why, we found that the DVDs were being re-released in new packaging, with the old packaging being discontinued.
This, of course, is a bit of a problem if you are collecting the DVDs and want a full set that looks consistent. Time for some quick research and a bit of buying action.
We did some exploration around Chatswood on the weekend and managed to get a few more copies at cheap prices, Dick Smith Electronics (Superstore), Kmart, Target all had them going out between $44 and $48.
When we got home, I did an inventory and worked out which episodes we still needed.
Yesterday, since I had to visit Macquarie shopping centre, I did a bit more hunting and found most of the rest of what we were looking for at Myer, Dick Smith, Sanity Music, Target, and BigW. The cheapest was BigW, who seemed to have a heap of Season 5 disks, and were selling everything they had at less than $25 each (despite being labelled at just under $45) !!
By the time I got home, we were only missing Buffy Season 7, parts 1 & 2, Angel Season 4, parts 1 & 2, and Angel Season 5, parts 1 & 2. Now Angel Season 5 hasn’t been released on DVD here yet (I hope they are going to release it in the same packaging and not just in the new packaging, I will be very disappointed if that’s the case).
I found that HMV online claimed to have Buffy Season 7 and Angel Season 4, so I ordered them … nearly $58 each part, but worth it to make sure we don’t miss out. I’m a little sceptical as to whether HMV will be able to fulfil this order, but I still hope they can.
Interestingly, the new packaging comes as a slimline case with three DVDs in the one case (making the whole series much more compact than the current box set packaging), and what’s more, they are advertising it quite cheaply compared to the boxed sets. In fact, I’ve seen it as cheap as $25 per half-season, which is cheaper than what I’m paying now for the bargain-basement boxed sets.
A bit annoying really, if we hadn’t already started collecting the boxed sets, this would be a much more compact and cheaper way of buying them. Being an idealist with money to spend can be a dangerous thing sometimes.
Leave a Reply