Video Warehouse: The Final Rip-Off

Posted by Faust Gertz on Wed 26 Oct 2005 at 8:00 PM

Note:

I wrote this back on 8/19/2005. For some reason I never published this final entry of the Video Warehouse trilogy (see Video Warehouse and Customer Service and Video Warehouse Update). So, with the addition of a photo of the now boarded up building, here are what I hope to be my final words on the Video Warehouse.

I dropped by the Video Warehouse “We Lost Our Lease” sale to see what I could still purchase for $10 a DVD. The place had already been ransacked and striped of more than half of it’s inventory by 5:00pm. Shocked, I ran to see if The Decalogue Box Set ($79.95/$52.51) or Three Colors Trilogy ($39.99/$28.76) was still there. Drats! They were gone. If Bride and Prejudice ($29.99/$15.79) was snatched up by noon, I suppose I couldn’t really expect that anything as good as the Krzysztof Kieslowski sets would still be there when the after work crowd arrived. As I looked around, Peter Scholl commented that he could get DVDs for $3.00 when he was in China and wondered if $10 was really a good deal for DVDs. I shrugged. It might not be a good deal in China. In Iowa, however, people were running around frantically filling boxes with DVDs.

The truth is that $10 isn’t that good of a price for many new or used DVDs, even in Iowa. The only thing I purchased was a copy of Coffee and Cigarettes ($14.95/$5.40). Although I hadn’t seen it, I wanted it because I like Jim Jarmusch films and it featured, amongst other things, a scene with Lee Marvin’s picture hanging on the wall. It turns out that I could have purchased it new at Amazon for $11.96 (free shipping) or used for $7.89 ($2.49 for the shipping). Instead, I spent nearly $11 with tax for a used copy. Of course, I didn’t know that until just now. While I am still happy with my purchase, I am even happier that I didn’t join in the feeding frenzy of the “everything must go/these prices are insane” mind set. I do, however, feel bad for many of mothers I saw grabbing arms full of the kids DVDs that actually list for $9.99 or less.

So here is a special thank you for all of those people who purchased films like Paris, Texas ($9.98/$5.39) and Dark City ($9.97/$4.43). Thanks to those who bought as many John Sayles’, John Cassavetes’, or Coen Brothers’ flicks as they could afford. Not only did you save me from buying a bunch of DVDs I probably don’t need, but you saved me from beating myself up for paying too much for those DVDs. To the person who got the Kieslowski box sets, I hope they are so scratched they won’t play. I still really, really want The Decalogue.

Not everything was a rip off. Here are some things that were still there that I might go back and see if I can still purchase today for $9.

• La Dolce Vita ($39.98/$22.33)
• Solaris ($39.95/$26.00)
• A Short Film About Love ($29.95/$20.04)
• A Short Film About Killing ($29.95/$15.00)
• Le Revenants ($27.99/$9.99)

Note: DVD the prices in parenthesis are (List Price/Amazon Used Price)

Update

I never made it back to Video Warehouse to buy those DVDs.

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