Non-standard items on Amazon

[ejp626]

I suppose I'm simply more used to sort of grey market items showing up on eBay (like Asian DVDs not intended for the US market), but for the first time I got one on Amazon (through the used offerings). I ordered the Broken Flowers DVD and didn't get the US version. In fact the DVD plays fine and is region 1 NTSC, but doesn't have all the bonus material and the subtitles are in Chinese and Thai rather than French/Spanish. I think it is sort of legit and not simply a pirated version, but I guess it is hard to tell. I can live with this edition, and certainly the hassle of sending this back to the US and reporting it to Amazon is too high, but it is annoying. I certainly would have sent it back if the US version had a commentary track (maybe there will be a Deluxe edition later on). I suppose I will leave neutral or negative feedback.

Is anyone else noticing the spread of these these eBay tactics (selling Asian imports or screener copies) onto Amazon or other sites? I wrote somewhere else that the rising number of scams and general headaches of dealing with eBay had turned me off, and yet I just bought a great box set on eBay with no problems and got this sort of shady item from an Amazon seller, so I guess you just never know.

[Jim Alfredson]

I'm kinda disappointed that Amazon allows people to sell copies of stuff themselves. You're right, it turns the site into a sort of pseudo-eBay, rampant with potential fraud. I was very excited to get our disc on Amazon, but now that it is up, people are allowed to sell their copies used. There are 23 "new and used" copies up there now, competing with discs being sold by us. In the description for one, I noticed it said "barcode has a punch out", which means it was a promotional copy for a radio station (and it also means it is a CD-R, not a real CD... long story...) so if someone buys that, they are not getting a truly "legit" copy.

Oh well. I guess this is karma for me buying so many used CDs. At least the music is getting out there. I can't blame people for wanting something cheaper and unfortunately I cannot set the price at Amazon.

[ejp626]

I agree it's tricky, but I think the majority of people want something new (and hassle-free), and on the whole you are better of on Amazon. Plus for the most part, the free shipping Amazon offers when you bundle a couple items together is the deciding factor. It has to be a very large price differential for me to go with the used copy.

What I do like about the used items is that a fair number of things that are OOP show up there, so it's one more place to look at in addition to eBay and Gemm. (Also I can no longer order through half.com because of their payment policies.)