I’ve always been a bit of a spend thrift. In this economy of I find it even harder to let go of my money. In the pursuit of our hobby along these lines, I find patience to be my best ally. This time, it guided me to an animation buy.
When the Superman: Doomsday animated movie came out, I missed out on a huge sale of prior DC animated sets at Best Buy. When Justice League: New Frontier came out, I had been planning for weeks to hit Best Buy in case it happened again. I was grandly rewarded. I picked up Justice League and Super Friends season sets at half price. I did equally well at the release of Batman: Gotham Knights.
While there were no such similar sales with Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight or Superman Batman: Public Enemies (PE), I was again rewarded last week when PE was released. I stopped into Newberry Comics, a regional mostly music and movies store and found 3 discounted copies of the Wonder Woman animated movie.
A used copy of the basic movie for 7.99. A used copy of the 2 disc set for 3.99. Another copy of the 2 disc set with a cardboard sleeve on it for 9.99. Yes, I was confused by the pricing, so I took all 3 to the counter. The cashier could not explain it either, except that the 2 disc set with the sleeve was new, not used. I decided that the huge "9.99" label might ruin the cover if I tried to remove it. Since Newberry Comics guarantees their used products, and I am cheap, I bought the used 2 disc set for 3.99. It played just fine.
Single disc – vs – Double disc
So, my fellow cheap collectors, the bargains are out there, you just have to keep looking and you will luck out once in a while. And I’ll try to keep reporting on what I’ve found for 10$ or less. (The recent and upcoming complete sets of Batman Animated, Superman Animated, and Justice League Animated should yield a number of the older smaller sets to the secondary market. )
I love these blogs from you, Erik. It certainly helps a lot of people!
Way to go, Erik. Nothing like stumbling on a good bargain!
You go, boy! In the last few years the DVD market has become very saturated and it isn’t uncommon to see used copies of recent releases selling for less than half of what they were originally priced at. Actually, I’m behind on my DVD viewing. I haven’t seen any of the DTV releases since New Frontier. Your blog has reminded me that it isn’t necessary to spend too much to enjoy this hobby.
Just wanted to mention that Amazon & Deepdiscount.com also engage on 50%-off superhero sales. So it’s not just Best Buy.
I got “Flash: The Complete CBS Series” at Deepdiscount for $14.76; so if you are looking for something in specific… it’s a good idea to keep an eye on those places, too.
The best time to look for deals is when a huge Summer Movie is about to be released on DVD. That’s usually when the big Superhero blowout sales occur. That and during the holidays (Black friday, cyber monday, etc.) There’s also a coupon site that was instrumental in helping me build my BTAS & JLU library. If anyone’s interested, here it is:
http://www.dealtaker.com/DeepDiscount-coupon-code-a1795-c.html
They have coupons for other stores as well (i.e. Amazon, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart). Anyways, and not to hijack the thread, but if anyone has a Warner Video Customer Service Number, I would sincerely appreciate you sharing it with me. My Justice League New Frontier DVD was a victim of “DVD Rot”. Basically, it has no scratches whatsoever, I only watched it twice and it’s not even a year old. I tried emailing Warner Video, but they haven’t (and I’m sure, won’t) reply. I know that there has to be some sort of warranty on these things, right? I mean, the store will only replace it during the 1st 30 days; but the manufacturer has to cover it for a year, am I right?
A couple of stores I hit often for deals are FYE and Buybacks.
For a long time I skipped FYE because things are generally overpriced (IMO), but recently they have been having random (or it seems to me) sales on DVDs. I picked up the Flash set Red Ricky mentioned for $15 there as well as the theatrical serials of Superman for $12. I was in there a couple of weeks ago and they had the Wonder Woman seasons 1 and 2 on sale for $9.99 each.
I don’t know much about Buybacks because it popped up int he beginning of the summer and I haven’t been able to find if it is a regional or national chain. They carry only used DVDs (and games and music)and I have picked up some good deals there. Was there a couple of days ago and picked up Teen Titans Season One for $5.
I’m with you SuperFriend, I’m waiting for the individual sets of Superman and Batman to start popping up used after the complete collections are released.
You will probably want to check half.com as well- its where I sell all of my movies–sometimes ones I never even watched– usually things are very cheap on there..
Actually, Best Buy DID have a DCUA sale the week of Green Lantern’s release.
All of the previous PG-13 direct-to-DVD movies were $7 on DVD and $13 on Blu-Ray.
I know this because a local BB had the Blu Ray/DCIH WW combo pack in stock, but wouldn’t give it to me for $13.
Just in case anyone is interested, I got an email from Amazon letting me know that “The Christopher Reeve Superman Collection” (Superman – The Movie/ Superman II/ Superman III/ Superman IV – The Quest for Peace) was on sale for $26.99.
It has like 8 DVDs, but it’s not as big as the Ultimate Collection on account that it’s missing the Superman II/Donner DVD, Supes Returns & Supergirl. Still, if you’ve been chasing these DVDs; then you might be able to tell if this is a good deal for you.
For me, Wonder Woman is the only DVD worth getting. New Frontier was a little disappointing while the rest were pretty awful especially Gotham Knight and Doomsday.