HMV & DVD Pricing

AVTEZ59

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Popped into HMV last night (Trafford Centre - Manchester)...just buying my 5 year old son a couple of cheap DVD's.

Then came across a couple of DVD's which, in terms of pricing, seemed a tad odd :

The Elephant Man - Classic Film = £3

Howard the Duck - Complete DUD = £13

Is it just me ???
:rolleyes:
 
HI,

This is normal. What you classify as a good film, and what you think is bad, will have no relation into how it gets priced.

Normally, the older the release, (not necessarily the age of the film, but when it came out on disc), the lower the price. But, having said that, the popularity of the film, the quality of the disc (e.g. extras, number of discs, number of versions available, et al) will also have a bearing on prices.

Retailers may also be able to obtain more copies of some titles than others, meaning they can charge the customer a lower price. Or, distributors may say to a retailer, if you buy Title X from us for X amount of money, you can have Title Y from us for half the usual price.

Or, it may simply be down to retailers trying to shift a film, to get rid of it, for one reason or another (e.g. if a new release is pending of a specific title, they may want to try and shift older releases/versions of the same film).


Pooch
 
Thanks Pooch....a reasoned answer....but tell me, how are they gonna shift Howard the Duck at £13 a pop?? (BTW...check out IEDB reviews!).

Cheers
 
It always makes me wonder how itunes etc can charge everything the same. CDs can be normal price or in the bargain bin. On line they are all the same, even the oldies.
 
What's wrong with Howard The Duck?
QUOTE]

Sorry Bri....didn't mean to cast apersions over you avatar (but geez, outa the thousands you could have chosen !!)

Best wishes,

Terry
 
Hi Again,

Thanks Pooch....a reasoned answer....but tell me, how are they gonna shift Howard the Duck at £13 a pop?? (BTW...check out IEDB reviews!).

It's down to market-forces, and/or the store trying to make as much money as possible from what it's already spent on buying the film in. For example, if HMV has bought X amount of "Howard The Duck" (not the worst film ever) at the equivalent of £7 each, then they won't want to sell it for less than say £10 each, in order to make some profit. However, if market-forces dictate that no one is willing to spend more than £5 on that film, then HMV has to decide whether to cut their losses and sell it at the lower price, or try to hang on in, until market-forces dictate that they do sell the film for at least £7 to break-even.

Having said that, it could also be the distributors saying that the film can't be sold in a store for less then X amount, until a set period of time has elapsed from the DVD's release date. If "Howard..." came out, say in April 2008, the distributors may say that HMV can't sell it for less than the absolute minimum of £13 for at least 6 months. Whether or not this kind of rule would dictate some kind of market price-fixing issue, I couldn't say.

Normally, it's ultimately down to a shop trying to make as much profit as possible where it can, on the most sale-able titles, and the less-popular ones being left to sell a few copies here-and-there, at full-price. You may even find the exact same title at two or three different prices in shops like HMV and Zavvi/Virgin, depending on if the title is in a 3 for £20 offer, part of a sale deal, e.g. £10 on X titles from X company, or whether a film has simply been forgotten about. This is fairly common on foreign-language releases and martial-arts titles, where you'll see copies of the same title available at both a sale/reduced price, and at the original, full price too. :)


Pooch
 
TBH if i had to pick one of those to films to watch it would have to be howard the duck as thats one of my favourites from my youth.

Quack-Fu and all that.:smashin:

Wouldn't pay £13 for it mind.
 
Just as a little side note , I have found , at least on the high street, that HMV seem to be one of the more expensive retailers of DVDs. Most of the time , the new realeses will be a least a couple of Punds more than say woolworths or in asada ect.
 
Just as a little side note , I have found , at least on the high street, that HMV seem to be one of the more expensive retailers of DVDs. Most of the time , the new realeses will be a least a couple of Punds more than say woolworths or in asada ect.

it down to buying power Woolies and Asda buy in massive quantities and sell shed loads more than HMV & Zavvi so they can screw the price down from the suppliers.

so they could buy for example 1000 copies of Howard the Duck for £4 where as HMV will only buy 200 copies so get charged £8

also a lot of films are bought on a sale or return basis thats why when a new film is released they have load of copies in and never sell out they then return an amount back to the suppliers who then dish them out at a cheaper price for promotions 3 for £20 etc that why Xmen and other films of that ilk are always in the sales
 
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