rrenault wrote:Well Lionsgate did release Contempt and Diva, which has never been released by Criterion but is owned by studio canal, so I don't think there's a complete aversion to releasing foreign films whose financial viability is dubious at best.
I can't speak for Contempt, but Diva was one of the biggest arthouse hits of the 1980s - certainly in Europe, and its presence in the US doesn't seem to have been that low-key either.
When I worked in repertory programming in the early 1990s, it was as close to a guaranteed cash cow as anything in our armoury, and I suspect if I was to tot up the individual titles that I booked most frequently, Diva would be pretty close to the top of the list.
I agree - it is one of the key titles in what came to be (sarcastically?) termed the Cinéma du look of the 80s - aggressively 'stylised over substance' (but fascinating for the way that the pursuit of style pushes everything into beautifully strange abstraction or comic absurdity) films dealing with young people involved with underground societies, doomed love affairs and corrupt but ineffectual police/authority figures in general which encompassed Jean-Jacques Beineix with Diva and Betty Blue (37°2 le matin), Leos Carax with Bad Blood and Les amants du Pont Neuf and early Luc Besson such as Subway, The Big Blue and Nikita.
Plus Diva must have been well known, at least in the UK, to have received this scathing parody!
At least back when they still carried VHS, Diva could be reliably found in the foreign film section in practically every Blockbuster. It definitely had some US currency.
Sigh, I'm selling my Criterion Blu of The Third Man on eBay and setting a price alert on Blu-ray.com for the StudioCanal edition. I feel so dirty doing it, but $100 is just too much to pass up.
Do these actually sell for the listed prices on Amazon? I sold a couple of OOP things the other day and didn't get as much as I hoped. One was the Jean Vigo collection from AE and the other was Fantoma's Fritz Lang's Indian Epic. I guess The Third Man has the huge benefits of being on the most modern format, is truly definitive and won't be bettered for a long time to come and is coming from Criterion which is very much collected.
On eBay, I've found that auction values tend to drop quickly once a Blu-ray or otherwise upgraded edition is available, or widely known to be forthcoming. I've picked up even Criterion DVDs of Peeping Tom or their two-disc M for £5 or less. (I'm not suggesting this applies to the Blu-ray of The Third Man for the reasons you state.) Also there is generally less interest in summer. I suspect that lesser-known labels like Fantoma tend to be regarded with suspicion by many, even though their Indian Tomb was excellent.
It's as much about fortunate timing as anything. If you put your new sealed copy up for £50 and it's the cheapest and someone, who happily has the money to spend, sees yours is cheapest then it'll get a good price. If you put it up for auction you're probably losing a few people who can't be bothered with auctions as the money isn't a noticeable amount to them and it's only a 7-10 day time period.
TMDaines wrote:Do these actually sell for the listed prices on Amazon? I sold a couple of OOP things the other day and didn't get as much as I hoped. One was the Jean Vigo collection from AE and the other was Fantoma's Fritz Lang's Indian Epic. I guess The Third Man has the huge benefits of being on the most modern format, is truly definitive and won't be bettered for a long time to come and is coming from Criterion which is very much collected.
I've found that (if you're one of the lower prices), things will generally sell eventually on Amazon-- even at a premium over eBay prices. Sometimes it just takes a little while. I imagine, in part, that Amazon imparts some confidence that eBay doesn't; also, almost everyone has an Amazon.com account whereas relatively few people bother with eBay (especially the older generations).
TMDaines wrote:Do these actually sell for the listed prices on Amazon? I sold a couple of OOP things the other day and didn't get as much as I hoped. One was the Jean Vigo collection from AE and the other was Fantoma's Fritz Lang's Indian Epic. I guess The Third Man has the huge benefits of being on the most modern format, is truly definitive and won't be bettered for a long time to come and is coming from Criterion which is very much collected.
I've found that (if you're one of the lower prices), things will generally sell eventually on Amazon-- even at a premium over eBay prices. Sometimes it just takes a little while. I imagine, in part, that Amazon imparts some confidence that eBay doesn't; also, almost everyone has an Amazon.com account whereas relatively few people bother with eBay (especially the older generations).
Yeh, I agree. I've regretted putting a few items up on eBay instead of Amazon in hindsight but at the same time I sold a book in not new condition for more than you could buy a new one for on Amazon or Book Despository, so it's swings and roundabouts. The only problem with Amazon is that it's not possible to list certain foreign releases as Amazon doesn't have a record of it (and some foreign ones can't be listed as New) or the listings that are there aren't very in-depth or accurate. There's also the problem of the bots that will constantly undercut you.
I said $100 as an estimate. There are two auctions on there right now that are both around $66 or so with a couple of days left last time I checked. I realize that might be all I'll get - but I prefer eBay because of the unpredictability factor and because less fees are taken than with Amazon. Plus, Amazon suspended my account because someone claimed I never sent their item (I did) and then someone claimed I only sent the disc for an item without the original case (even though I made that 100% fucking crystal clear in my listing). That brought me down below seller standards and they cut me off completely, and cut off my ability to transfer my nearly $100 balance into my bank account for 3 months until they'd completed a "review of my account". I continue to buy from Amazon Marketplace, but it is a dangerous place to sell - if someone creates a claim no matter what proof you have of their being wrong - they almost automatically side with them under the proviso of the A-Z Guarantee.
Anyway - I always list stuff on eBay starting at a penny and just see how it goes. Maybe I get a few bucks less than expected, but maybe I get a few bucks more. There have been times that two people have "gone at" an item and I've gotten far more than expected. And I have 100% feedback there thanks to a much more reasonable seller guarantee. So.
It's not like the price has suddenly spiked- it's been hovering around $80 on Amazon for months, and I'm guessing it's going to stay in that range.
I'm really mad at myself for selling my Carlos Saura set, though- granted, I got $120 for it, but it's gotten even more ridiculous on Amazon (and it's nonexistent on ebay.)
It still irks me a little bit that I didn't think to look if there was money to be had by selling the original BD case for The Man Who Fell to Earth. Right in the garbage it went.
swo17 wrote:Where are people buying just the cases? I still have mine, and I'm in the mood for some gougin'!
I sold my cases for Last Year at Marienbad and Chungking Express on ebay for about $10 each. Which is already ridiculous in my eyes but I figure you would make much more on the OOP titles.
Nah, not consistently at least- I sold Chungking, Man Who Fell, the 400 Blows, and the Last Emperor on ebay and got about $14 total. I think whoever reported getting a bunch for the Man Who Fell case was a fluke, possibly because people hadn't read the listing thoroughly.
Someone on this board (possibly in this thread?) mentioned unloading the cases for The Third Man and TMWFTE for a ridiculous amount. I haven't bothered going on eBay to see if anyone was currently selling any at that price, because that would just be twisting the knife.
I'll trade my terrible cardboard cases of Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Last Metro, and Last Year at Marienbad for either a case of Crystal Clear Pepsi or some cans of Billy Beer.
Some time after The Third Man had gone OOP, I tried selling my original case (just the case) on half.com for like $4, among all the other listings for $50+. My listing clearly stated that it was for just the case but that didn't stop some guy from ordering it and then, apparently only having read the product description afterward, immediately emailing me to say that I was the scum of the earth, how dare I do such a thing. I had to beg him not to leave me negative feedback. Just for fun, here was my listing and the guy's response:
my listing wrote:This does NOT include the movie or the booklet. It is ONLY the digipak case with the O-ring slipcover. You should only order this if you already own the Blu-ray in the clear plastic case and would like to replace it with the digipak case. If you order this, I will contact you before shipping the item to confirm that you know what you are getting. The case itself is in excellent condition!
angry guy wrote:I'm not sure why you think you can get away with this, and I hope for your sake that you haven't already sent this, but my pre-order is for The Third Man BLU-RAY in LIKE NEW condition. You fail to fulfill both pre-order conditions. Unbelievable.
swo17 wrote:Some time after The Third Man had gone OOP, I tried selling my original case (just the case) on half.com for like $4, among all the other listings for $50+. My listing clearly stated that it was for just the case but that didn't stop some guy from ordering it and then, apparently only having read the product description afterward, immediately emailing me to say that I was the scum of the earth, how dare I do such a thing. I had to beg him not to leave me negative feedback. Just for fun, here was my listing and the guy's response:
my listing wrote:This does NOT include the movie or the booklet. It is ONLY the digipak case with the O-ring slipcover. You should only order this if you already own the Blu-ray in the clear plastic case and would like to replace it with the digipak case. If you order this, I will contact you before shipping the item to confirm that you know what you are getting. The case itself is in excellent condition!
angry guy wrote:I'm not sure why you think you can get away with this, and I hope for your sake that you haven't already sent this, but my pre-order is for The Third Man BLU-RAY in LIKE NEW condition. You fail to fulfill both pre-order conditions. Unbelievable.
He does have a point though. You did in fact fail to send the Third Man CC BD in New condition.
my listing wrote:This does ... include the movie ... with the O-ring slipcover. You should ... order this ... Blu-ray.... If you order this, I will contact you before shipping the item to confirm that you know what you are getting. The case itself is in excellent condition!
angry guy wrote:I'm not sure why you think you can get away with this, and I hope for your sake that you haven't already sent this, but my pre-order is for The Third Man BLU-RAY in LIKE NEW condition. You fail to fulfill both pre-order conditions. Unbelievable.
swo17 wrote:Some time after The Third Man had gone OOP, I tried selling my original case (just the case) on half.com for like $4, among all the other listings for $50+. My listing clearly stated that it was for just the case but that didn't stop some guy from ordering it and then, apparently only having read the product description afterward, immediately emailing me to say that I was the scum of the earth, how dare I do such a thing. I had to beg him not to leave me negative feedback. Just for fun, here was my listing and the guy's response:
my listing wrote:This does NOT include the movie or the booklet. It is ONLY the digipak case with the O-ring slipcover. You should only order this if you already own the Blu-ray in the clear plastic case and would like to replace it with the digipak case. If you order this, I will contact you before shipping the item to confirm that you know what you are getting. The case itself is in excellent condition!
angry guy wrote:I'm not sure why you think you can get away with this, and I hope for your sake that you haven't already sent this, but my pre-order is for The Third Man BLU-RAY in LIKE NEW condition. You fail to fulfill both pre-order conditions. Unbelievable.
I had the same problem selling the digi cases on eBay, which I started the bidding at a penny for and put details in the subject line, sub-subject line, and description in bold so people would know what they were buying. And took pictures of the cases in detail (and obviously not the discs).
And still, fucking every single person who bought the cases was outraged when I sent them a "Before I ship these, I just want to remind you..." message and I had to relist them all. Some I had to relist again after that.
