Why the Criterion Collection Rocks

[jetpack_monkey]

I just got my Criterion Collection newsletter in my email. In it, they discuss their recent move to release titles in Blu-ray. A lot of it was "Yes, we'll still have spine numbers, no we won't restart the count..." But they had two points of utter awesome.

1) For $20 (plus shipping and handling), you can send them your standard-def DVD (minus case) and they will send you the Blu-ray edition. $20 might seem high until you realize that Criterion discs usually sell (at discount) for between 25 and 45 dollars. Details here. Unfortunately, it only works for "like" editions, so I still have to rebuy The Third Man.

2) There will be no price difference between standard-def and Blu-ray versions of a film. As far as they are concerned, the price they set is for the best possible version of the film, no matter the format.

Comments

[timjr.livejournal.com]

...Yeah, the trade-in would seem like a better deal if, well, it wasn't $25 when you can prolly end up grabbing the actual Blu-Ray for close to that price and KEEP your DVD...

[midnightfae.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily.

If you wanted to replace it, it's probably going to cost you more than $25 dollars a disc, unless you're really good at bargain hunting for Criterions.

$40 dollars is, I think, what I've seen Nate pay average for most of the discs in the collection. Which means without the trade-in offer, it's an additional $15 dollars a disc if you want to switch everything to Blu-Ray. You figure Nate's got about 30 (low-ball estimate, since I don't know about the special box sets), that's $450 dollars saved in replacing the collection.

[timjr.livejournal.com]

I would totally agree, if they were costing $40.

But right now? Amazon's (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EP8EL2?tag=bluray-060-20) preorders (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EOQCLM?tag=bluray-060-20) are priced at $28 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001EP8EKS?tag=bluray-060-20).