GETTING THE BEST PRICE ON DVDs by Jerry Colvin In my own online DVD shopping experience, I've found that the first thing you should do is to research a DVD's features before its release date. Online stores such as buy.com or deepdiscountdvd.com or even amazon.com have sections listing new releases, grouped by date. I tend to check in with dvdfile.com for daily DVD news, and make note of announcements of new releases of interest, so I usually hear about them before they appear on those other lists. Amazon seems to be the best for listing features; I often find myself checking it with one browser while shopping at another store via a different browser. Unfortunately Amazon has higher DVD and shipping prices than most. Also, sometimes they don't list the features at all -- no one service seems to be 100% reliable in this area. At that point, if you know you will want to own it eventually, in my opinion it is best to order in advance, because ALL sites have reduced prices for pre-orders. Many do after the release date as well, but not all. Also, some online retailers mail the releases up to a week early -- meaning you can often watch something over the weekend that most people can't buy until the following Tuesday. Keeping this in mind, I tend to order about one week in advance of release date -- by then, competition between online retailers usually drives the pre-order price down to its lowest point. This strategy supposes that the buyer is an impatient person who loves to collect things and can't stand to wait six months or a year or so, when the list price might drop significantly (sometimes in an effort to reduce inventory in anticipation of release of a new version of the DVD loaded with more goodies). Two or three years ago, often it was possible to 1) pre-order at 50% off (Amazon.com even did this at one point); 2) use an online coupon; and 3) look for free shipping deals -- sometimes even employing all three methods at once. To this day, I pretty much still keep on top of release dates and DVD features. I look at buy.com (sometimes they have free shipping on select pre-order titles only), Amazon.com (ditto), and deepdiscountdvd.com (they have free shipping on everything!). The days of dozens of coupons for Amazon.com and Reel.com and others are mostly over (Reel.com doesn't even sell DVDs anymore), but a few can still be found from time to time (listed at couponparadise.com and other sites). For DVDs already in release? dvdpricesearch.com and other sites will search most online retailers for the least expensive price/shipping combination. Buying DVDs in the real world? Best Buy used to have great prices, and is still okay from time to time. Surprisingly, Wal-Mart has a decent selection and great prices. All around, though, Borders bookstores seem to have the best combination of selection and prices that I have seen.	Warning: include() [function.include]: URL file-access is disabled in the server configuration in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/where_to_buy.php3 on line 34 Warning: include(http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3) [function.include]: failed to open stream: no suitable wrapper could be found in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/where_to_buy.php3 on line 34 Warning: include() [function.include]: Failed opening 'http://myenvoy.com/movies/side.php3' for inclusion (include_path='.:/usr/lib/php') in /home/bruce20/public_html/myenvoy/movies/reviews/where_to_buy.php3 on line 34
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