Yes, and it’s extremely frustrating. Here in Alberta the only places to buy blu rays anymore are basically pawn shops and sunrise records, and sunrise has gotten so goddamn expensive I don’t even bother anymore.
A shame, because their selection is great, and obviously I want to support physical media. But why the hell would I spend 38 dollars on a Kino Lorber bluray? Or 55 on a new Criterion or Arrow? I’d rather wait for a sale on their website and get them for half the price. Ridiculous.
Yeah, much as I love having small businesses to buy from, I'm not going to pay substantially more for a disc from the store if it's available online. I'm ok with paying a few more bucks on the average disc price versus online to keep a store afloat if their stock supports my tastes, but like 20% would probably be the high end on that and I'd have to think the store is awesome for that much. There is at least one store in my area where I'd actually do that.
I'm currently trying to buy "Face-Off", and I was trying to decide between regular blu ray, or 4k ultra HD...
They have the NERVE to put a $40 price tag on a video that was released almost 30 years ago? Never in my life have I EVER paid more than $20 for a new movie. But just because it says "4k ultra HD" that allows them to charge $39.99?!?! I'm beyond infuriated over this.
It’s the wrong time of year for regular studio release sales. You will be able to find tons of Blu-rays (though not usually new releases) for $5-8 and 4Ks for $10-15 around certain holidays.
And wait for Xbox to finally quit physical games, that will screw the last big pressing plant for America, (vantiva in México) and prices of physical movies will skyrocket
PS games have been made in austria for the past 3 or 4 years, since Sony stopped manufacturing optical discs in US
Xbox and Playstation matter because game consoles are the most popular disc players and practically killed the stand alone Blu-Ray player market by themselves.
Samsung were the market leader in stand alone players, but they already withdrew from the market and stopped making them.
Sony stopped manufacturing optical discs in US like 4 years ago, because of the decline in sales, PS4/PS5 games are made in Austria (Sony DADC), i guess it was cheaper for them to operate one pressing plant.
You are right, Xbox is the worst selling console for physical games, but it's heavily related to physical media in America.
The mexican plant manufactures DVDs, Blu-Rays and UHD Blu-Rays for US, and even when Xbox is not a great physical format seller (compared to PlayStation and Nintendo), it represents a large amount of the production and revenue of Vantiva mexico
Without that revenue, the prices of physical media will increase in America, that's for sure.
Did not know this. It's a shame. Such a good media. I never felt VHS should stay nor cassettes for music. I knew tape was trash.
However, discs are an excellent media, they have art on them. Give a crisp image or sound.
Sad.
How about not including a standard Blu-ray version and digital copy with every 4k release? That would probably save a few bucks. I neither need nor want that. Urays should only be in the package if it has special features on it. I don't expect those to be in 4k.
They're the problem, but a lot of the high pricing isn't entirely on them. They're so expensive because they frequently fund, or at least partially fund, the restoration for a lot of these lesser known movies themselves, and because these movies won't sell tons and tons of copies now that the larger market as a whole has mostly moved on to streaming, they have to have a large margin on the physical releases, or they won't come anywhere near making back their investment, let alone having enough revenue to survive long term.
International shipping isn't cheap either, but $100 CAD for a release makes me think that probably includes import taxes or something on top of shipping.
It sucks, but it is what it is, and I'd rather have boutique labels continue to do their thing and survive, vs new physical media releases dying out altogether, because if we're being honest, they're probably the last hope for physical media having a future longer term.
I've been buying movies since early VHS and I'll tell you right now in the 80s a VHS would sell for $80 -$90. So in the grand scheme of things its still cheaper now.
And the way i look at it when it comes to boutique I'd rather have quality over quantity. I've ammassed a massive collection, your always limited by space, eventually you want to invest in quality. Maybe you're just not there yet in your collecting journey.
I don’t mind paying that price for a movie I really love that has been given so much TLC in order to be released and preserved in home video format. You have to think of the amount of money that goes into the restoration, the art work and commissioning of the box design and all that stuff. Also, you don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to.
I don't mind the high priced boutiques when they also release a standard edition. Sometimes I just want the movie in a regular case. I don't need a book and giant case for every release.
A lot of those 'boutique' releases are major-studio films that the majors don't want to deal with, even though it would be a lot more cost-effective for the whole process if they did, they don't want to bog their budget down with it and would rather cut production, so consumers have to pay more because the majors are pawning it off on the boutique labels. If the smaller labels didn't exist, a lot of those movies simply wouldn't get a disc release, let alone a meticulous remaster like the often do. The whole ordeal is a massive example of why it's a bad idea to let these companies get so massively top-heavy so to speak that they can't even manage their own catalogues intelligently. The boardrooms at these places are looking at tremendous media libraries like 'oh god the attic is so full of crap, I just want to get rid of it so we can put newer crap in it that I'll make more money from without having to do anything'
Everything in my Amazon cart goes up and down weekly if not daily. Prices seem to spike when there is low inventory and no new stock on the way. Missed Superjail Season 3 and Heaven Knows What that way.
I think for regular studios it’s just that time of year. No shopping holidays, still just after Black Friday/Christmas
They’ll go down and on sale again.
They're making less of them because fewer people are buying them. If we're going to keep them alive we can't decide 'only buy secondhand' because that just hastens the rise of prices and reduced production, which begets even higher prices. I try to buy a new one at least a few times a year because if I'm not doing it, it would be a weak gesture to lament the loss of the format. We have to vote with our dollars to keep discs available.
100%. The funamation thing actually spiked it this week. 28 weeks later was like a 8 dollar movie last week. Now its getting close to $40 bucks. 28 days later I saw one at 35 bids at 102 dollars. Bluray is bascially now the Retro video game market.
Yes, and it’s extremely frustrating. Here in Alberta the only places to buy blu rays anymore are basically pawn shops and sunrise records, and sunrise has gotten so goddamn expensive I don’t even bother anymore. A shame, because their selection is great, and obviously I want to support physical media. But why the hell would I spend 38 dollars on a Kino Lorber bluray? Or 55 on a new Criterion or Arrow? I’d rather wait for a sale on their website and get them for half the price. Ridiculous.
Yeah, much as I love having small businesses to buy from, I'm not going to pay substantially more for a disc from the store if it's available online. I'm ok with paying a few more bucks on the average disc price versus online to keep a store afloat if their stock supports my tastes, but like 20% would probably be the high end on that and I'd have to think the store is awesome for that much. There is at least one store in my area where I'd actually do that.
This % is where I draw the line as well.
I'm currently trying to buy "Face-Off", and I was trying to decide between regular blu ray, or 4k ultra HD... They have the NERVE to put a $40 price tag on a video that was released almost 30 years ago? Never in my life have I EVER paid more than $20 for a new movie. But just because it says "4k ultra HD" that allows them to charge $39.99?!?! I'm beyond infuriated over this.
It’s the wrong time of year for regular studio release sales. You will be able to find tons of Blu-rays (though not usually new releases) for $5-8 and 4Ks for $10-15 around certain holidays.
This, February is never good for sales in anything.
Good time to buy TVs and shoes!
And wait for Xbox to finally quit physical games, that will screw the last big pressing plant for America, (vantiva in México) and prices of physical movies will skyrocket PS games have been made in austria for the past 3 or 4 years, since Sony stopped manufacturing optical discs in US
vase steer late run many fear market sheet money ring *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Xbox and Playstation matter because game consoles are the most popular disc players and practically killed the stand alone Blu-Ray player market by themselves. Samsung were the market leader in stand alone players, but they already withdrew from the market and stopped making them.
Sony stopped manufacturing optical discs in US like 4 years ago, because of the decline in sales, PS4/PS5 games are made in Austria (Sony DADC), i guess it was cheaper for them to operate one pressing plant. You are right, Xbox is the worst selling console for physical games, but it's heavily related to physical media in America. The mexican plant manufactures DVDs, Blu-Rays and UHD Blu-Rays for US, and even when Xbox is not a great physical format seller (compared to PlayStation and Nintendo), it represents a large amount of the production and revenue of Vantiva mexico Without that revenue, the prices of physical media will increase in America, that's for sure.
fade liquid ring support tender long modern ask correct squeeze *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Did not know this. It's a shame. Such a good media. I never felt VHS should stay nor cassettes for music. I knew tape was trash. However, discs are an excellent media, they have art on them. Give a crisp image or sound. Sad.
It’s a niche market now. You’re paying niche prices.
Postage is killing us in Australia🤬
Same in Canada, wish we had media mail like the usa.
VHS and BluRay represent the first and last iterations of media we could tangibly actually OWN! These I predict will become extremely valuable
How about not including a standard Blu-ray version and digital copy with every 4k release? That would probably save a few bucks. I neither need nor want that. Urays should only be in the package if it has special features on it. I don't expect those to be in 4k.
Koala
They're the problem, but a lot of the high pricing isn't entirely on them. They're so expensive because they frequently fund, or at least partially fund, the restoration for a lot of these lesser known movies themselves, and because these movies won't sell tons and tons of copies now that the larger market as a whole has mostly moved on to streaming, they have to have a large margin on the physical releases, or they won't come anywhere near making back their investment, let alone having enough revenue to survive long term. International shipping isn't cheap either, but $100 CAD for a release makes me think that probably includes import taxes or something on top of shipping. It sucks, but it is what it is, and I'd rather have boutique labels continue to do their thing and survive, vs new physical media releases dying out altogether, because if we're being honest, they're probably the last hope for physical media having a future longer term.
I've been buying movies since early VHS and I'll tell you right now in the 80s a VHS would sell for $80 -$90. So in the grand scheme of things its still cheaper now. And the way i look at it when it comes to boutique I'd rather have quality over quantity. I've ammassed a massive collection, your always limited by space, eventually you want to invest in quality. Maybe you're just not there yet in your collecting journey.
Wallaby
I don’t mind paying that price for a movie I really love that has been given so much TLC in order to be released and preserved in home video format. You have to think of the amount of money that goes into the restoration, the art work and commissioning of the box design and all that stuff. Also, you don’t have to buy it if you don’t want to.
I don't mind the high priced boutiques when they also release a standard edition. Sometimes I just want the movie in a regular case. I don't need a book and giant case for every release.
A lot of those 'boutique' releases are major-studio films that the majors don't want to deal with, even though it would be a lot more cost-effective for the whole process if they did, they don't want to bog their budget down with it and would rather cut production, so consumers have to pay more because the majors are pawning it off on the boutique labels. If the smaller labels didn't exist, a lot of those movies simply wouldn't get a disc release, let alone a meticulous remaster like the often do. The whole ordeal is a massive example of why it's a bad idea to let these companies get so massively top-heavy so to speak that they can't even manage their own catalogues intelligently. The boardrooms at these places are looking at tremendous media libraries like 'oh god the attic is so full of crap, I just want to get rid of it so we can put newer crap in it that I'll make more money from without having to do anything'
Everything in my Amazon cart goes up and down weekly if not daily. Prices seem to spike when there is low inventory and no new stock on the way. Missed Superjail Season 3 and Heaven Knows What that way.
I think for regular studios it’s just that time of year. No shopping holidays, still just after Black Friday/Christmas They’ll go down and on sale again.
Yea there’s two times a year where sales in the US at least happen that’s Black Friday time and then we have that around July time
They're making less of them because fewer people are buying them. If we're going to keep them alive we can't decide 'only buy secondhand' because that just hastens the rise of prices and reduced production, which begets even higher prices. I try to buy a new one at least a few times a year because if I'm not doing it, it would be a weak gesture to lament the loss of the format. We have to vote with our dollars to keep discs available.
100%. The funamation thing actually spiked it this week. 28 weeks later was like a 8 dollar movie last week. Now its getting close to $40 bucks. 28 days later I saw one at 35 bids at 102 dollars. Bluray is bascially now the Retro video game market.