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This
page is dedicated to buying DVD's from within the UK (though
most ship internationally). Listed below are various places
we have bought from.
Blackstar
A
region 2 retailer that ships worldwide. Shipping charges
apply. Please check www.blackstar.co.uk/help/help_postage
for actual charges.
To
buy a Region 2 DVD with free shipping, enter the title in
the search box below. Blackstar are BestDVD's preferred
region 2 retailer.
The
video and music club now sell DVDs too. The usual conditions
apply (you must agree to buy 6 DVDs in your first 2 years
as a member) but the special joining offer allows you to
buy 4 DVDs for the price of 1! Pay £17.99 for all
4 DVDs + p&p. Yes Britannia are more expensive than
other online retailers, usual prices are £19.99 for
most releases, but even after paying a few pounds more for
the remaining 6 DVDs, you'll still be quids in. You also
get the opportunity to buy DVDs at the 'bonus price' with
every full-price purchase you make. The bonus priced items
are usually £3-4 cheaper than the full-priced items.
We've also noticed a few £9.99 full-price discs (Chorlton
& the Wheelies Series 2 is one of them) so use these
to make up your 6 discs on the cheap!
Play.com
(formerly
Play247)
This
is a Jersey based site that ship Canadian born DVDs, but
are totally UK as far as shipping (free) and service are
concerned. This means that customs is not an issue and all
billing is in the UK. Prices are not bargain basement but
hold up 1-to-1 with AMAZON.COM. We've ordered many discs
from them now and region 1 titles arrived within 3 days,
region 2 titles within 2-3 days. Their site is nicely laid
out and split into separate regions but it's easy to navigate.
If you're Europe based (they don't ship outside) then Play247
is a very safe bet. Even for region 2 discs the prices were
approximately 25% below RRP. Our preferred region 1 retailer.
Canadian
based company - no free shipping on offer here, but low
prices and cheaper shipping with quantity. Shipping is $2.95
(USD) for 1 disc, $2.00 for each additional disc ($1 for
15+). Tried them out with a new release (American Psycho)
and an older release (Chasing Amy - which often results
in the dreaded Backorder) and received both discs bundled
together within 8 days. Have used again recently and received
order within 5 days. Some rare discs including Criterion
releases and Limited Edition's available on the site quite
cheaply. The only downside is that shipping charges can
be a bit of a lottery as they are added at time of shipping
so you have no idea exactly how much you will be paying
until you get your credit card bill! Bought the Complete
Hammer House of Horror 4-disc set and it got charged for
shipping as 4 discs - which nearly doubles the cost of the
item! Recommended.
A
UK based company that sells region 1 discs. Not only that,
their website states: "Unrestricted release: We
are up to 2 weeks ahead of North American sites, with release
of new titles - That is official." Sounds promising!
Our first order consisted of 3 out-of-print or discontinued
titles that we cant find on sale elsewhere: Life of Brian
(Criterion), Night of the Living Dead (Elite) and Evil Dead
(Elite). A confirmation email arrived the next day. Life
of Brian turned up with 2 days, NOTLD took a week and Evil
Dead took a month. Considering these are tricky titles to
obtain we're impressed so far. Shipping is £1.00 for
the first DVD, and £0.50 for any and each additional
DVD. Discs are sent by 1st class recorded Royal Mail (UK).
Site is now unavailable.
Ken
Crane's has been around a while and used to be hugely popular
with Laserdisc buyers. DVD Planet is a seperate site that
is more geared towards DVDs. We checked out their Criterion
stock and they claimed to have some pretty rare discs. We
placed an order for Robocop and Life of Brian and sat back
to await our delivery. We heard nothing for 10 days then
received the following email : "Thank you for your
order. Our standard policy for first-time orders is to contact
the issuing bank to verify the billing information on the
credit card account. Unfortunately, they are unable to verify
the information with us. Therefore, we will need for you
to fax or mail us a copy of your monthly credit card billing
statement as a form of verification."
Could
they not have told us this when we ordered instead of making
us wait 10 days? We queried by email why they needed verification
when no other site does. We received the following reply
: "Thank you for you recent e-mail message.We
will be answering your request as soon as possible but due
to an incredible increase in business since the holiday
season we are running 7-10 days behind in answering your
inquiry". Needless to say
we gave up at this point! Avoid.
CD-WOW
UK-based
company with free-shipping that ship internationally. Limited
back-catalogue but a great site to find some bargains on
pre-releases and current bestsellers as long as you have
a multi-region player. The DVDs may be from region 1,2,3
or 4 but it states on the site which region and they're
all English-language. Current deals include Back To The
Future Trilogy for just £17.99! DVD's are posted from
abroad (Hong Kong usually) but we've used them 7-8 times
and they're very reliable, discs usually arrive within a
week or so. Recommended.
DVD
Box Office
Canadian
based company selling region 1 DVD's that offer free delivery
to the UK. No minimum order necessary to qualify for free
delivery. This offer has been running for at least a year
so no need to panic buy! Pretty good prices - though not
the cheapest on the web - not far off. Added bonus of mailing
all DVD's as separate parcels, which means they fit through
your letter box and are less likely to get stopped by customs.
Most DVD's take around 8 days to arrive from the shipping
date. You will receive an e-mail when your order is placed
and another e-mail when the DVD has been shipped. Always
offered a great service but seemed to have a few delay problems
during the summer. The Site has now been fully redesigned
and since then has been very efficient, even giving you
regular updates of your pre-orders, shipped orders and back
orders. Not bad.
An
American site selling region 1 discs which usually offers
the best prices to be found. However, delivery is not free
but charged at $6.00 plus $1.95 per item - so order more
to keep the costs down. Your DVD's will arrive around 3
weeks later in a box carried by your postman, demanding
upwards of £8 for your HM Customs tax. This is thanks
to DVD Express's policy of stamping "Contains DVD -
Customs value $100 (or however much)" clearly on the
front of the box. You don't need to be an eagle-eyed customs
officer to spot that someone is trying to import DVD's without
paying duty. And should your box contain DVD's that are
banned in the UK, you may as well forget about seeing those
again. It's not all bad though, DVD Express does offer a
good service and not all shipments get stopped by customs
(roughly 50% I've found). You can also track your order
via their website. Not bad.
Hugely
popular and reputable site that stocks a massive selection
of region 1 discs. The site is well organised and you can
search for second-hand items on the Amazon Marketplace (handy
for deleted items). Shipping is pricey at $3.99 per shipment
PLUS $1.99 per item for standard shipping. Items arrived
8 days later which wasn't bad. Recommended if you're
planning on buying 2 or more discs.
Canadian
site offering DVD's at a price cheaper than DVD Box Office
- though only by a few dollars. DVD's in stock arrive within
about 8 days but a huge amount of older titles get put on
backorder. Delivery times for backorders vary from about
2 weeks to months! Delivery is free but only if you order
2 or more DVD's. If you only order 2 films and one is a
preorder, they will not be shipped until both films are
available. The films are shipped in one package, again with
a customs value stamped. Their website is improving - DVD
details are now available - you used to get the film name
and price only! If they sell the films you want, worth ordering
from but order in batches or 2-3 DVD's to avoid large parcels
through the post. However recent orders have been very unreliable.
I placed an order back in April which was put straight on
back order. After numerous e-mail's I get the reply that
it was supposedly shipped in June but I have still not had
it and they have all but washed their hands of it. Not very
impressive guys!. Think we will order elsewhere for a while
to give them time to get their act together . And one little
tip guys - How about including the names of the films we
ordered in your confirmation e-mail? This would help us
after-pub shoppers immensely the next morning. Unreliable.
A
UK site selling Region 2 DVD's. Prices are lower than those
of your high street retailer but nothing spectacular. Most
months DVD World will have special offers which can be worth
a look (Prices around £11). Postage is free and can
sometimes be quick though only once your order has been
confirmed. This is sometimes the next day but has once been
14 days later (2 orders, same disk, to different addresses.
One takes 3 days, the other 14?). Perhaps they only had
one copy in stock. Still, an e-mail confirming this would
have been nice. As good a place as any to get your region
2 discs. Not bad, but expensive.
A
mail order 'personal importer' company that has recently
started an online service for region 1 and 2 DVD's. Disc's
are not cheap, but delivery is faster and can even be arranged
for a 2-day delivery. Used to offer a courier service for
all orders, but now orders of less than 4 DVD's are sent
by 1st class recorded delivery, which is free. Orders of
4+ are sent by courier - but make sure that someone is home
on the delivery date or a calling card will be left. Prices
are in UK £ and are usually £17.99 upwards.
Friendly service, but have had problems with delivery's
not turning up. They are re-sent but this doesn't help if
you need your shipment quickly (you may as well pay 2/3rds
of the price and get them from the net). Some good offers
in this months newsletter - Southpark 1-3 or 4-6 for £30.
Phone 01438 816688 for orders or a newsletter. Can be
unreliable.
Others
There
are many other places to order from - check out the links
page for other sites. However, we have only ordered from
the sites mentioned so order with caution. We've never had
money stolen or orders gone missing that haven't been reshipped
but place your first order sensibly. Just order the minimum
amount required and wait until your order has been received
before ordering again.
If
you have ordered from other sites please let us know of
your experience with them and we'll share the details to
help others!
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