HMV "Imports"

MrJoeSoap

Now we all know (or should know) that HMV are the dirtiest thieving scum of the lot, but putting that aside for a minute, what is up with their "import" stickers on some CD's? Aren't almost all CD's on the shelves imported? It seems to me as though this just gives them an excuse to whack a few Euro onto an already massively inflated price.
A friend of mine who used to work for them said the prices they buy CDs for is unreal, i.e. - 3/4 Euro??? And yet we end up being charged up to 30 for some! And dont even get me started on DVDS!!! I once saw one DVD box-set go from 60 to 20 and back up to 50 in the space of ONE week.

:mad:

funktastic

They're impoted from the US/Japan where certain cd's would have extra tracks for a particular market. Its always been the case with this, every shop ups its price for import copies-specialised market,relatively low demand.

Seth Brundle

Often the imports are just normal CDs with a sticker on them. I have often seen it happen.

ambasite

HMV are unreal, 28.99 for Radiohead 'hail to the thief' yesterday, no 'import' sticker in sight, hail to HMV more like.

jonhate

Originally Posted by kbannon
Often the imports are just normal CDs with a sticker on them. I have often seen it happen.

Yeah i have seen quite a lot of this in hmv. Its a pain in the hole. I'm thankful loads of cheap cd places online!

Sleipnir

'hail to the thief' is €13.95 on the irish cdwow site.
typical.

Sleepy

So don't shop in HMV. I had completely stopped buying CD's until cdwow came about. I thought it was typical of the publishers that the thing that they think is going to kill musicians is the one thing that has me buying music again.

ixoy

Virgin aren't much better. I had a look at the Babylon 5 Season 1 boxed set - €110. On Amazon.co.uk: £27.99. Hmmmmm, I wonder who I'm going to buy off :rolleyes:

goo

I paid E38.99 for Refused's "The Shape of Punk to Come". Hopefully nobody can beat this.

ixoy

Originally posted by goo
I paid E38.99 for Refused's "The Shape of Punk to Come". Hopefully nobody can beat this.

Oh but they can - play.com have it here for £10.99, although it is temporarily out of stock.

nlgbbbblth

January 12 2004
didn't bother going down to City Discs because it was pissing rain
so went to HMV Grafton St and paid €30.99 for Crass "Best Before 1984" CD
Feel that's its way to expensive but pay it anyway as I really want to hear it again after all those years

January 14 2004
go into City Discs. See Crass "Best Before 1984" CD for €15.99 and LP for something similiar.


that'll teach me

:mad:

Jamie8292

HMV have now officially gone beyond belief....

I walked into Virgin in my local shopping centre last week, and I came across Friends, series 4, 5 & 6, on DVD for €29.99 each per series.

I then went up to HMV.... And what did I see but the exact same DVD sets for....... €109.99!!!

Unbe-fcuking-lievable!

What happened is that every year in the run up to Christmas, the price of all Friends DVDs is slashed dramatically in ALL shops.

However, Virgin have clearly decided to keep the offer going, while HMV have decided to return to the original ridiculous price :rolleyes:

HMV and their "special offers" are a fcuking joke - the biggest scam in modern-day retail!

sceptre

Originally posted by Jamie8292
What happened is that in the weeks leading up to Christmas, the price of all Friends DVDs is slashed dramatically in ALL shops. Once Christmas ends, officially the offer ends.

It was Warner Bros themselves who initiated the price slashing of the boxsets and the BOGOF offers. I don't know if they're still selling them at low wholesale prices (judging by play.com the offer has ended) but someone reported here that sales went up forty-fold when they did, which wouldn't surprise me.

Incidentally (and I'm obviously not defending HMV) were the box sets definitely from the same series? Play have series 1 to 6 at £38.99 each (RRP £49.99 for 1-5, £59.99 for 6) while series 7, 8 and 9 are £73.99 each (RRP £99.99). Might just be the few promotional sets available at Virgin if they were the same series.

(personally I reckon spending even £UK38.99 on any series is nuts - these things are now discounted regularly)

Jamie8292

Originally posted by sceptre
Incidentally (and I'm obviously not defending HMV) were the box sets definitely from the same series? Play have series 1 to 6 at £38.99 each (RRP £49.99 for 1-5, £59.99 for 6) while series 7, 8 and 9 are £73.99 each (RRP £99.99). Might just be the few promotional sets available at Virgin if they were the same series.

Yep I made a point of checking the exact same series.

dub45

Originally posted by MrJoeSoap
Now we all know (or should know) that HMV are the dirtiest thieving scum of the lot, but putting that aside for a minute, what is up with their "import" stickers on some CD's? Aren't almost all CD's on the shelves imported? It seems to me as though this just gives them an excuse to whack a few Euro onto an already massively inflated price.
A friend of mine who used to work for them said the prices they buy CDs for is unreal, i.e. - 3/4 Euro??? And yet we end up being charged up to 30 for some! And dont even get me started on DVDS!!! I once saw one DVD box-set go from 60 to 20 and back up to 50 in the space of ONE week.

:mad:

As a pathetic cd fanatic for many years I have asked people who worked in the shops about this many times. All cds are of course imported but the ones labelled as 'imports' are generally ones which are not available from the usual outlets i.e. Sony Universal Warners or whoever and are purchased from other distributors mainly in England. I dont know who the big ones are now but years ago Discovery used to supply lots of jazz titles that were only available in France. The use of such distributors adds another layer of markup to the pricing

mollser

uhh, don't be worried about HMV etc ripping you off....

you're ripping yourself off by buying the Friends dvd's in the first place - its on almost every tv channel almost every night of the feckin week! just watch it then! :cool:

watty

Originally posted by ixoy
Virgin aren't much better. I had a look at the Babylon 5 Season 1 boxed set - €110. On Amazon.co.uk: £27.99. Hmmmmm, I wonder who I'm going to buy off :rolleyes:

www.play.com don't seem to realise Ireland is outside UK. Free Delivery. They are Jersey based, often cheaper than Amazon , but http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=search&adudisc=y
shows £37.99 (Still a lot cheaper than €110) Or €60.99 Delivered if you click on the EU flag.


Golden Disks seem to slap fresh stickers on all the stock every few weeks to make it look like some kind of sale or offer. Often the prices are the same or higher.

I've almost stopped buying DVD /CD locally.

John R

Originally posted by watty
www.play.com don't seem to realise Ireland is outside UK. Free Delivery. They are Jersey based, often cheaper than Amazon , but http://www.play.com/play247.asp?page=search&adudisc=y
shows £37.99 (Still a lot cheaper than €110) Or €60.99 Delivered if you click on the EU flag.

If you click on that EU flag Watty you will be costing yourself over €5. £37.99 is approx €56.50 You can pay in whichever currency you like, personally I prefer the one that costs less...

Play do not have any geographical illusions, they just offer free delivery to all. They will deliver to most of Europe.


It is also well worth checking http://www.playusa.com as they often have better prices, their selection is completely different; R1 DVDs and different CD stock. Free delivery across Europe and USA as well, they will not ship CDs to UK but will to Ireland:cool:

watty

I've previously always paid in Sterling. I must check how much the UlsterBank Visa converson charge is.

I won't buy a R1 DVD, though my player does play them. Visually R1 DVD are inherently inferior to R2.

There is also no Gtee, that the player won't break next year and "multiregion" players become almost impossible to get. These things happen.