Michael Jackson memorabilia
Filed under: CDs and DVDs
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It is sad to hear of Michael Jackson’s death this morning.
With his death, sadly there will be opportunists cashing in as they do at any sad moment. This is cautionary advice to avoid any sentimentality ruling your head today and in the coming days.
Michael Jackson CDs and DVDs will not disappear forever from the shelves unless particularly rare; though a few rarer pieces not previously on sale may be offered for sale over the next few days.
As you can see, there is no shortage of Michael Jackson items at Amazon
If you do spot a rare piece and are tempted to pay a large price for it, then be cautious. If you really covet the item and the price is a secondary consideration, then fine …. go for it. Because of other speculators, you may get the chance to buy a piece that has been under wraps for a long time.
However, if you are looking to speculate on the price increasing still further after you buy, then you may be disappointed for many, many years. The simple truth is that prices fall rapidly after sentimentality falls away and the dust settles.
I speak from experience … having been fortunate enough to fly on Concorde 4 days before it retired from the skies, I let sentimentality rule my head and several years later, the pieces that I bought are still only worth maybe half the price that I paid.
Protecting your DVD Collection
Filed under: CDs and DVDs
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If you have kids, then you will know that it isn’t cheap to build a Disney collection.
Moreover, Disney has a policy of only releasing the DVDs for a limited period and only re-releasing them every few years to a new generation of kids. Therefore, if your children are rough wuth the DVDs, then you may have tears before bedtime when you can’t replace their favourite DVD.
Now the above represents an extreme example; usually DVDs remain available once issued, but do you want to buy and buy again?
There are disc repair systems on the market such as the ‘Skip Doctor’. These work by lightly polishing the discs to remove surface scratches that affect the discs readability and are very useful if you do not have a backup disc and scratches are not severe.
DVD rental stores use machines that operate on the same basis in order to keep their DVDs usable and rentable for as long as possible.
However, you need to accept that some discs will end up unusable as the scratches are just too deep to polish out …. and the only way back will be to purchase a new copy.
However, what if you could plan ahead?
With modern PCs, it is perfectly possible to create copies of your own DVDs as backup protection (though this might be considered illegal in some countries it appears to be generally accepted that it is reasonable to backup your own DVDs for safe keeping).
You can’t backup your DVDs directly because of disc protection; however there are clever software tools on the market to help you create a backup quite easily. I recommend AnyDVD which unlocks the DVD contents; use that in conjunction with CloneDVD to help fit your DVDs onto inexpensive DVD-5 writable discs.
If you create a backup and file the original disc away, then you don’t have to keep buying a replacement original ever again when the kids trash the original disk. You can run a new copy from the original at any time.
So… if your discs are unusable and you don’t have a backup … try a Skip Doctor. Or your local Blockbuster may offer a polishing service (at a charge).
But the best option is to create backups using AnyDVD and CloneDVD before disaster strikes.
Cheap DVDs
Filed under: CDs and DVDs, Shopping
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Cheap DVDs
There are so many DVD shops on the Internet nowadays selling DVDs at heavily discounted prices. Many people just visit a couple of shops, such as Amazon or Play, and buy all their DVDs from there. However – while these are good shops, they are frequently not the cheapest places to buy.
One quick way to save money when buying DVDs is to use a price comparison service.
Compare DVD Prices
The quickest and best way to save money is to compare DVD prices at one of the price comparison sites. I recommend 123PriceCheck.com to search for cheap DVDs and will use this site as an example of the savings you can find.
123PriceCheck.com allows you to select the DVD you want to buy and will then show you the current cost at around 30 UK DVD retailers, including their postage charges. It includes the big shops like Amazon, Play, etc and it also includes many of the smaller shops to help find those bargains.
Prices change day by day, often minute by minute, so the prices in the examples below may not be correct when you read this. But they give an illustration and you can click on the links to see the current prices.
Buffy Box Set
Cheapest Price: £53.97
Most Expensive Price: £157.22
Saving: £103.25
Cheapest Shop: Amazon
24 Box Set
Cheapest Price: £97.16
Most Expensive Price: £168.99
Saving: £71.83
Cheapest Shop: Select Cheaper
Vicar of Dibley Box Set
Cheapest Price: £10.99
Most Expensive Price: £55.49
Saving: £44.50
Cheapest Shop: PowerPlay
Friends Box Set
Cheapest Price: £54.98
Most Expensive Price: £199.99
Saving: £145.01
Cheapest Shop: Amazon
Quantum of Solace Blu Ray
Cheapest Price: £17.93
Most Expensive Price: £28.99
Saving: £11.06
Cheapest Shop: LoveFilm
As you can see, there are huge savings to be made online using a DVD price comparison service and while shops like Amazon are usually competitive, they are often not the cheapest.
If you have more time you can also check eBay as you can get some bargains there. However, DVDs often sell for more than if would cost to buy a new one, or so close to it as to make it perferable to just buy a new one from a reputable store. You can also check what price your local supermarket is selling DVDs for, as for new releases they can sometimes be slightly cheaper than online stores, or at least more convenient.