At this point in history the high street is increasingly obsolete with respect to media like films and music. The reality is big online suppliers like amazon and play can offer pretty much everything that has ever been committed to disc and they can do it at the lowest possible price by cutting out the middle man. The convenience of ordering something to your door, with an assortment of postage options, helpful browsing and search tools, and low prices makes online shopping an attractive option. But is it without its problems? I'll have a look at the main places that I will consider getting films from online and remark on their strengths and weaknesses.
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon is frankly enormous (and many people have ethical objections to them - I'm not clued up enough to really know, but I imagine they are monsters like most other big businesses). With the exception of out of print titles, you can get pretty much anything through amazon. If you can think of it, you will be able to get it either from amazon or from a third party seller who sells through amazon marketplace. I buy the majority of my films from amazon marketplace sellers - typically good communication, products as described and prompt delivery. Look for the seller's feedback rating - if they are a big seller (thousands of sales) look for a number over 97% positive - you can never guarantee that everyone will have total success but more do than not. If it is a seller with minimal experience, i.e. a handful of sales and a rating lower than 100% you would probably do well to avoid them or at least investigate their feedback a bit further. Zoverstocks are a particularly popular marketplace seller who usually have the lowest price. Amazon is by far the best place to get blu-ray that I am aware of - I recently picked up Inception blu-ray and dvd combo brand new for £6.00, and a used mint-condition scott pilgrim vs the world blu ray for about £2 plus the standard £1.26 postage. Great. On a couple of occasions I've had issues with marketplace sellers who have emailed a few days after the purchase to say they don't actually have the item in stock - this is annoying but I've never lost my money or had to pursue claims. If you want out of print items you might not find the best price on Amazon, but its worth looking - typically out of print stuff is used and you do see a reasonable price once in a while (Third Man criterion collection blu-ray for £79 last week - I didn't buy it because its still way too much for one film). Another benefit of amazon is if you have an account you can also order from other international amazon stores. I have done this successfully with amazon.com (america) and amazon.ca (canada) - I haven't tried the others. Don't bother getting it sent to you though - Amazon.ca's estimated shipping time on a blu-ray was 30-40 weeks!! However, if you have relatives or friends in those countries, you can use their address as a shipping address and then pay standard domestic shipping rates. Then ask them nicely and they might post it to you in the UK as a gift so you avoid custom's charges. Its definitely worth looking at Amazon.ca because Canada has a unique range of lovely blu-ray steelbooks. Amazon.com is also the best place to get Criterion blu-ray and dvd. But remember - you need a multi region blu-ray/dvd player (more on this later).
Play.com/ HMV.com
These two sites are very similar in price and content - its worth checking both as sometimes one has a better price than the other. Until recently they both had a standard free shipping on products (quite slow though - sometimes 1-2 weeks. I believe play have now added extra shipping options. Both of these are big warehouse suppliers like amazon. Play also has its version of amazon marketplace called playtrade - I tried this once at Christmas to get the STar Wars sage on blu-ray. A guy was offering it for £40. It turned out he offered it for £40 for about 40 people and it also turned out he didn't have 40 copies of it - weird scam. A lot of ranty complaints from buyers later and a ranty email to play and I got my money back from the guy. It was an odd experience, but I decided to avoid playtrade as it was such a poor first experience. I think amazon is generally better than both play and hmv if you are looking for something specific or more eccentric. IF you are after mainstream and box sets then check these sites because they are always running a so-called 'sale' (its not really a sale, its just a marketing ploy) nevertheless you can get mainstream tat pretty cheap. Honestly I rarely buy from these places but they are safe and useful. Having said that play.com are flogging their own steelbook blu-rays that no one else has, so I pre-ordered their special steelbook of The Raid (brilliant film) due out in september. If you like glossy steelbooks do check play out. I also found the Japanese film 'confessions' on blu ray over at hmv.com for under £10 with free delivery - at the time this was cheaper than amazon and play. I don't think these sites are particularly good for blu-ray - amazon is better because of the marketplace. By all means check these sites out but don't be sucked into their large banners screaming 'sale ends midnight' etc.. They always have some kind of sale on and most of the products don't vary in price that much. My one regret is that play.com were selling the 8 disc Marx brothers box set for a while for £7.99. Yes that is an outrageously good price. I deliberated buying it for ages, and thought I'd get it some other time as it would likely remain cheap. It didn't. Needless to say its now over £17 on play and amazon. Rubbish! You can't always predict these things, but after a while you start to get a sense of what something is worth when you've seen it appear on enough websites for a while.
Zavvi.com/ thehut.com
These sites are basically the same and I think under the same umbrella. Some of you will remember when Zavvi briefly took over the failed Virgin megastores in our high streets. There was a short stint of their oppressive green logo facing off against HMV before they also folded. Now they exist on the internet as an fantastic example of the powers of darkness. If you google search something like problem with zavvi or the hut you will find unending accounts of people being ripped off by these sites. The two major recurring complaints are 1) damaged goods (i.e broken cases, boxes that look like they've been kicked to your front door (think the beginning of Ace Venture Pet Detective)). And 2) Items not in stock and a slew of misleading emails. I attempted to buy from Zavvi once, and never again. I was fell prey to problem 2. I tried to order Watchmen 2 disc directors cut on blu-ray. This was in their sale for about £7.50 which is a pretty good price for a blu-ray that I suspect might disappear in time (as did the ultimate cut). The directors cut is a better, longer film and has much nicer box art than the single disc edition - so I thought I'd give it a shot. Smooth transaction - great. No shipping confirmation for days, and days, and days. Eventually (9 days I think) I get an e-mail saying that zavvi were delayed on dispatches because they were moving into a bigger warehouse and that the blu-ray was awaiting stock picking. Not great. A couple more days pass and I get another automated email saying it hadn't been dispatched because they were having problems with their supplier. After googling and learning about the travesty that is zavvi and how so many other people have been fobbed off with the same automated emails I wrote a ranty message to zavvi basically demanding a quick resolution or my money back. I don't mind being given a reason and having to wait, but being given two contradictory reasons for the problem is an open announcement that they are lying in at least one of those messages. I cancelled the sale and days later got a personal e-mail from zavvi offering a pseudo-apology that i had had a disappointing experience with them. Urgh. They have a reputation for advertising things - especially in their 'sales' and just not having them in stock. This seems so clearly absurd. How can they possibly function without having a web team that updates website info as and when items sell out? Avoid.
CEX (uk.webuy.com)
You might have seen CEX (computer exchange I think?) on your high street. It is like a well organised cash convertors that deals exclusively in film, video games and tech (ipods etc). The stores have that distinct smell of stolen goods/ front for illegal activity about them, but to the best of my knowledge they are better than your average dodgy retailer -they've existed since the 80s I think and expanded, finding their way into the grotty part of most high streets. I'm familiar with Brighton and Watford's stores and they are always busy, so must be doing something right. The stores have never struck me as being particularly worthwhile, but the website is almost great! The success of CEX is that you can search or browse and they will tell you if they have the item in stock and in which store. Punch in blade runner for example and it will tell me that they have the dvd in camden, ashford, etc... They also seem to have a central supply which offers most of what they have for online purchase. The selection is much more random than amazon as it depends on whatever tat people have exchanged in their stores for drug money, but it is worth looking. I've ordered things twice from the website - and here's where it goes a bit rubbish. Having failed to buy watchmen from amazon and zavvi I finally found it on CEX site for about £8. The purchase was smooth because....they take PAYPAL - brilliant. However, they charge £2.50 delivery on a film (compare this with amazon's £1.26 standard on marketplace sellers). The dispatch happened within 12 hours of purchase - with an email notifying me - nice. The blu-ray arrived after a few days. I thought at £2.50 it was too slow - should have been first class really. I open it and to my dismay they've sent the wrong version - they've sent the two disc standard edition (not the directors cut). ARGH! This is my third attempt to buy this film online! Whhhyy! However, I open up the case to find the directors cut disc plus second disc inside in as new condition. What the heck is going on? So I got the right film in the wrong box! I was pretty irritated at this as I really like the artwork for the directors cut box, and this kills any resale value. Nevertheless, by this point I had stopped caring enough and didn't send it back. I didn't fancy the complication of trying to explain to some poor CEX worker that I wanted those discs but a different box that they probably didn't have. I gave up and watched the deranged near-masterpiece that is watchmen director's cut (the owl ship sex scene is still horribly awkward, and some of the violence unnecessary but the film is unlike anything else). My second attempt to buy from CEX was for the now out of print 2004 Marx Brothers collection (green box with their later films). The region 2 version of this box set goes for obscene prices on ebay and amazon (£50-100), so when I saw it on the CEX site for £8 I dove in and bought it immediately. I knew something was up when I didn't get the prompt dispatch email as I had with watchmen. In fact about 5 days passed and I finally got the 'I'm afraid we don't seem to have this in stock' e-mail. Really? It seems awfully like someone caught on to the fact that this box set was worth a whole lot more money than they were selling it for and subsequently cancelled my sale. This happened to me on ebay with the same marx brothers box set - a guy selling it only to email me and say 'I went to get it to send it to you, only to realise my sister had given it to my brother in law and I didn't know'. But this was the only thing he had listed on ebay! What person lists something for sale on ebay that they don't actually have, and haven't bothered to check prior to listing! Sneaks. It seems plausible that some one hastily lists something, not realising its potential value as an out of print or rare item, and then decides to cancel the purchase because they know they could sell it for more. I might just be unlucky with the Marx brothers, but I like my theory. If someone does this there's pretty much nothing you can do. I was disappointed with CEX as I was hoping they might become a regular place to order from. I'm prepared to try again if I see a good purchase on there as they have been great with payments through paypal and refunding me for the marx brothers cock up. Fingers crossed...
I've run out of steam - I still have to talk about ebay, but it will have to wait.
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