Columbia House

I've been a member for a long, long time, and until the last year, or maybe 18 months, I rarely bought anything. Prices were too high, and even their "sales" were too expensive, when you factored in shipping. Recently things have changed though. Is anyone else a member? For at least a year CH has offered as their default deal, "Buy one at 19.95 and get unlimited at 50% off." The prices are all standard SRPs, which are a couple of dollars higher than the store. They also have been regularly sweetening this deal, by offering free shipping as well, or an additional 10 to 15% off, or even removing the required 19.95 purchase in order to get the others 50% off. If you know how to work the system, so you actually don't need to pay for the most expensive item, you can actually do really well. (Find a box set/collection that only has 2 or 3 discs, and is just barely over the 19.95, and the online system will always count it as the highest item, even if you buy HD discs that are $35.)

The reason I post this here in the HD section, is that now this deal applies to HD as well! I bought a $20 set, and got 4 HD movies for $12 to $14 each - Blu and HD DVD. That's not bad.

[Post edited by interplanetaryspy on Apr 21, 2008]

They need to do something because the iPod and Zune (cheap downloads) are kickin' their ass! I purchased an 80gig Zune about a week ago, kicked it up a knotch and got some really nice BOSE ear phones, joined the Zune download site for $15 a month and now have close to 650 albums (8,389 songs). I almost feel guily, as if I'm ripping them off, but hey, you want your music cheap then this is the way to go.

[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Apr 21, 2008]

I bought a lot of CDs (and some DVDs) from Columbia House and BMG, and always found the best deal was to keep cancelling and then re-enrolling. They always phoned me about a month later with some kind of "we want you back" special promotion. It worked out to about $4 a CD including taxes and shipping, which was way cheaper than the deals they offered after I had fulfilled my membership commitment. I was going to join Columbia House for Blu-rays, but right now it doesn't look like you can get any Blu-rays when you first enroll. If they do offer that at some point, I would probably join up.

It certainly isn't a viable option for music, but for new DVDs, I haven't found anywhere cheaper, considering that this sale applies to ALL HD movies, not just the same Blus that keep getting unloaded on every sale (Casino Royale, Fifth Element, etc.). They don't have the best selection anywhere, but it's pretty reasonable.

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They don't have the best selection anywhere . . .

Biggest reason I dumped Columbia House and BMG a long . . . long time ago. That was half the battle! If they didn't have something you wanted you'd have to go out and get it else where. Therefore, you'd spend money for something they carried AND you'd end up in local retail place buying what they didn't carry. So, you're big savings just went into the crapper.

Why do you need to buy everything at the same place? If they have 40-50% of the Blu discs on the market, you might as well get them for $12, rather than go out and pay $25 or $30. Then you can pay $25 for the other discs you want elsewhere.

All I know about Columbia House is that I somehow manage to win $1,000,000 dollars from them at least twice a year. Or at least that's what the big envelope says. They go into my recycle box.

So you're saying that for 15 dollars a month you can fill your mp3 player with unlimited amounts of music?

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So you're saying that for 15 dollars a month you can fill your mp3 player with unlimited amounts of music?

If you own a Zune, yes! On your Zune software, click on the marketplace and that's where you find music to download, or just do a search. You have to get a Zune Pass first at $15 a month, or if you want to buy credits and pay for each song (which I don't suggest) you can do that as well. And with the $15 pass, you can download as much as you want at NO LIMIT! I filled mine up over the weekend with another 4,500 songs. I now have close to 300 artists and over 550 albums.

There is a minus, though. Not all artists have everything available for download. For example, if you're looking to stock up on a Beatles collection, forgetaboutit! You can't get any Beatles material for download, as I'm sure it has something to do with Micheal Jackson being a stingy a-hole! However, at least 90% of that artists out there are available, and the $15 a month is well worth it.



[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Apr 22, 2008]

Wow I now hate my Ipod. And i just bought it like 6 months ago

Well, each unit has their pluses and minuses. iPod has been in the market longer and therefore has many more accessories at your disposal. There are dozens of stereo saddles for iPod, whereas there's only one I could find for Zune at Best Buy. However, when it comes to downloading and sharing musics with others, Zune has iPod beat hands down, and to me sharing and unlimited downloading is what it's all about. Plus, you can buy the audio jack accessoires for Zune and plug it into your sound system at home, as long as the system is able to handle MP3, which most do these days. What's really fun, and not that it's some great feature, but, if you get the audio jacks accessory, you can plug it into your red, whit & yellow aux on you home theatre system. From there, you can setup the Zune to place the display menu on your television. Silly, I know, but fun nonetheless.

[Post edited by Tim Raynor on Apr 22, 2008]

interplanetaryspy,

You don't have to be a member of Columbis House, BMG or any other "contract" company to get HDDVD prices that low. If you do a little shopping around, you can get those same $12-$14 prices on HDDVDs on Amazon.com, Buy.com, overstock.com, and other such sites, often times with free shipping.



- Josh

[Post edited by Nachtkriechen on Apr 23, 2008]

You can't get those prices on those sites in Canada with free shipping, and therefore the price isn't very good. Deep discount is really the only option in terms of American sites selling new HD DVDs without charging ridiculous shipping. I figure I saved about $5-8 on each of the HD DVDs I bought, since they aren't the ones that have been selling off under $10. You CAN NOT buy Blus for that price anywhere. I pre-ordered Twister for 10.98 on Blu! Where can you get that price with $2 shipping? With the sale, there is no Blu release (other than sets, of course) over $19. When I went out last night looking at HD discs, the best I price I found was $24 for Reservoir Dogs and a couple of others. They ranged up to $45 for Underworld Evolution. I'll take $10 - 19 any day, thank you very much.