It would be lovely to be able to preorder products from Criterion at this kind of discount, but their discounts (let alone their shipping costs) can't stand up to multiple other online retailers. We're really lucky to have such an inexpensive system in place re: MoC.

I'm surprised some of the online retailers don't give Eureka hassle though. Raro US came under some pressure from one of their big buyers to stop offering their titles through their website at undercutting prices.

Eureka never offer anything for less than what Amazon offer it for pre-order. If anyone had a beef, they'd have to have it with Amazon too.

Personally, I think the whole system – which is entirely based around Amazon - is completely shagged and unfair. The labels should be the pimps.

You're a little incorrect there, peerpee. Amazon just tend to price match others, at least in the UK, and in the majority of situations they're not the cheapest for DVDs outright. They're usually just price matching one of thehut group's stores, Play.com or HMV, which means they're very rarely the cheapest after discount codes and cashback are taken into account. It's HMV who are employing the strategy of being super competitve on pre-orders and Amazon are just matching them.

Yes, guy who worked for MoC for years, you're incorrect about how the specialty DVD market in the UK works

It's a fact that HMV tend to undercut Amazon on MoC, the BFI and Artificial Eye BDs, with Amazon playing catch-up within a day or two.

I think what Peerpee was saying is that smaller distributors cannot themselves sell product for less than what Amazon is offering, under pressure from Amazon (the threat being that if they were to break this rule, Amazon would stop carrying their product). That has nothing to do with whether other retailers can sell for less than Amazon.

Ah, I see...

Yes, very unfair.

In all this, don't forget that Eureka's prices include free shipping worldwide. If you're not in the UK, ordering directly from Eureka will be cheaper.

The overarching point is that Amazon.co.uk sell far more product than any other etailer and, as you describe, they have the power to match anybody. Nobody else has that power and labels are frowned upon if they sell directly from their own sites cheaper than Amazon's price (once it's settled).

Ultimately, the labels have the power to charge Amazon what they want for their product, but there's a herd mentality about the whole industry which seems to keep everyone in line. I don't really understand it – but I do know it could be approached more elegantly with better rewards for the labels (who take all the risk and make the products).

HMV are in shitstreet, trying to play catchup after many years dawdling, and they probably have only until Xmas for it to work. They barely got through last Xmas and are being bankrolled by RBS and Lloyds, also now both in utter shitstreet. The Russian oligarch Alexander Mamut has been circling the band of wagons for a few years. They're being asset stripped whilst still conscious. [All this is online, it's clear what's going on.]

Yes, peerpee, I think everyone would sympathise with the small producers who get bullied by the large retailers, whether that be Amazon or Tesco. Short term it's good for the consumer as it often means lower prices but long term we may rue our buying decisions if (otherwise well-run) labels are driven out of business.

What sort of pressure do Amazon put on labels to not sell their own product directly for a low price? I know Raro US received some grief and I figured only Amazon would be able to exert the sort of influence worth caring about.

As for HMV, we might as well enjoy the ridiculous preorder bargains while we can.


If you had had the decency to have read my post, you'll have seen that I was just talking about Amazon's DVD pricing in general, specifically on preorders, and nothing that required any special knowledge of the DVD market. It's been conventional wisdom for a while, as someone else noted, that that is their rough strategy and has been for a while.

I wasn't involved with that side of operations, I just heard lots of things, from other labels too. Most of it probably mind game bollocks. The industry is very blinkered in that regard. The labels have much more power than they think – they need some kind of union. Not a battle I wanted to get involved in.

New offers, most notably including a limited new pressing of the OOP Michael.

Amazing,ordered Michael right away...

Definitely just spent $60 on an OOP edition of Mikael! Worth it, but oh well.

Here's a thought, though-is it conceivable that placing dual formats in the DVD sections of stores could help sales? I know if I didn't have a blu ray player, I wouldn't bother wandering over to the Blu Ray section, which is where most (all?) Dual Format releases are placed. Could something so small make a difference?

Where is Michael? I can't find it anywhere!

I must thank whoever decided to make the small print run of Michael. I purchased a copy immediately. Now I'm just going to pray that some day they'll do the same with The Savage Innocents.

Could this be a small-scale test of the Twilight Time model of limited print runs exclusively sold directly from Eureka? Because it'd be awesome to see OOP titles reprinted in small batches, as well as new small batch releases of riskier titles.

Other than the fact this is explicitly a small print run, which will, anyway, be much smaller than a Twilight Time run, I don't really see the similarities. What's to stop MoC printing another small run, if demand is still heaviky outstripping supply? Then there's also the fact that MoC releases are often stacked and don't cost silly amounts for little apparent reason.

I've never realized this before, but are those pics on the offers main page just arbitrary images from the MoC catalogue? Was chuffed to see Vie de Jésus there, but no trace of it in the sale

Sorry for setting off the Twilight Time alarm and forcing you to swoop in here and trash them, but I was only vaguely comparing the two. Obviously, in this case, it'd be on Eureka's terms how many to print and what the pricing should be, but it'd be nice if they had some more control over a limited series of titles that'd allow them to take more risks with what to keep in print and when.

The best for me is that demand for such a title might be enough to cover the cost of a very small run, which is very impressive.

Ordered a copy of Michael as well.

To expand around my complete wishful thinking/speculation: What if MoC implemented a Kickstarter-style model for older OOP releases or more niche new releases? Say, for example, a print run of 500 copies could be justified if they could all be sold for, say, £12.99 per copy? So they could offer a risk free preorder system with a timeframe, and if the print run quota can't be met, no one is charged. That way the quality issue with DVD on demand is a non-issue, and demand can be gauged before the product is pressed.