(Dead) 50% off Criterion Collection Valentine's Day Sale - Starts 12PM EST

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The Criterion Collection's official Store is having a 50% off sale starting 12PM EST today. It's valid on all in-stock DVD and Blu-rays, and is taken off the MSRP. Shipping is free with $50 or more, otherwise it's like $6 per movie, meaning this is only good if you're buying a few..

The Promo code for the sale is SWAK

http://www.criterion.com/

Source: Blu-ray.com
 
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nice thanks OP! Going to pick up Godzilla and Ride with the Devil.
 
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I think it'll be good, as I can pick up the replacement case I need for The Last Metro and pick up free shipping with a couple of movies.

Guess it'll be Rushmore, 12 Angry Men and some other movie, plus the replacement case.
 
Now their site is unavailable for random things. :wall:

EDIT: It's a bit choppy in response, so I recommend people get what they want, order it and get out.
 
I tried to check out with three movies and the replacement case, put in the SWAK code and it said that it's not live yet. :bomb:

And yes, it's getting hammered very hard.
 
Finally managing to put something in my cart feels like a massive accomplishment at this point. Now if I could only repeat that with a second title...

This may be telling me that I really should just wait for the B&N sale in July.
 
[quote name='arcane93']Finally managing to put something in my cart feels like a massive accomplishment at this point. Now if I could only repeat that with a second title...

This may be telling me that I really should just wait for the B&N sale in July.[/QUOTE]It's also doing the 50% off MSRP, so they're $20 titles like the BN sale, for the $40 MSRP items.

I agree, trying to do anything in this sale is more than painful.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']It's also doing the 50% off MSRP, so they're $20 titles like the BN sale, for the $40 MSRP items.[/QUOTE]

Sure, but with the B&N sale, I can also add my member discount (so an additional 10%) and whatever coupon might be live at the time. So B&N is definitely a better deal. The main reason for buying anything now is to get a few titles out of the way, so I don't have quite so many to buy come July...
 
[quote name='arcane93']Finally managing to put something in my cart feels like a massive accomplishment at this point. Now if I could only repeat that with a second title...

This may be telling me that I really should just wait for the B&N sale in July.[/QUOTE]

See I foresaw something like that happening, so I added all the items I wanted to my cart before the sale started.

Grabbed Thin Red Line, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, 12 Angry Men, and Traffic.

B&N's prices are god-awful, walked into a store the other day and the prices on everything are absurdly high...but they've got an excellent collection of Criterion Collection movies though.
 
[quote name='arcane93']Sure, but with the B&N sale, I can also add my member discount (so an additional 10%) and whatever coupon might be live at the time. So B&N is definitely a better deal. The main reason for buying anything now is to get a few titles out of the way, so I don't have quite so many to buy come July...[/QUOTE]If I didn't need a replacement case for The Last Metro and refused to pay $11 for the case with shipping, I'd probably pass on this sale.

The 10% discount works to eat sales tax, so that makes it a wash between this sale and the B&N. Coupon stacking with the sale and the member discount are the main reason for waiting for the BN sale.

I ended up with Rushmore, Fanny And Alexander box set and my Last Metro replacement case. $54.94, so I get my free shipping, and I'm done with the sale.

[quote name='IRHari']See I foresaw something like that happening, so I added all the items I wanted to my cart before the sale started.

Grabbed Thin Red Line, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, Yojimbo/Sanjuro, 12 Angry Men, and Traffic.

B&N's prices are god-awful, walked into a store the other day and the prices on everything are absurdly high...but they've got an excellent collection of Criterion Collection movies though.[/QUOTE]BN prices are usually MSRP, though with the 50% off sale, BN member discount and coupons, I usually get Criterions for about $15-$16, including tax during their 50% off sale. Sometimes less, depending on the coupons and how they're stacking.

Good choices for the ones you have listed above. I'll pick up 12 Angry Men and some others in July during the BN sale.

[quote name='ssjmichael']apparently they did have a glitch that was taking it off their current prices, and was working on pre-orders, but that's dead now.[/QUOTE]Probably explains why the site was being hammered out of existence.
 
Criterion movies is kickass & i have them all! Excepted all Criterion movies release after december 22nd till now. I may waits till july sale :)
 
[quote name='ssjmichael']I was just reading that some B&N's are starting to get rid of their movie (and music) sections from their stores and plan to get rid of them completely within 2 years. Movies will still be sold, but not in a dedicated section. None of that bodes well their Criterion sales down the road

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/b...-in-the-fight-of-its-life.html?pagewanted=all[/QUOTE]That would suck indeed, as I would think that BN is about the only place you can pick up Critertion titles at retail anymore, with Borders gone. I haven't checked a Books-A-Million store recently, though they would be the only one I could think of as well.

The only time I'm buying a movie at a BN is when they're on sale with coupons and member discounts, and I'm sure a lot of CAGs are the same way. MSRP for movie titles won't cut it, sorry.
 
[quote name='IRHari']See I foresaw something like that happening, so I added all the items I wanted to my cart before the sale started.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I had added the titles that I wanted to my cart earlier, but hadn't logged in. Then when I logged in it emptied my cart. :wall:

[quote name='IRHari']B&N's prices are god-awful, walked into a store the other day and the prices on everything are absurdly high...but they've got an excellent collection of Criterion Collection movies though.[/QUOTE]

The key to B&N is the sales and coupons. They have a 50% off Criterion sale in July and November, along with regular sales on other titles throughout the year. They also regularly have coupons that stack with the sale prices in their stores. You can get some pretty good deals if you're paying attention. But yeah, I'd never pay their regular prices for... well, anything.

[quote name='shrike4242']That would suck indeed, as I would think that BN is about the only place you can pick up Critertion titles at retail anymore, with Borders gone. I haven't checked a Books-A-Million store recently, though they would be the only one I could think of as well.[/QUOTE]

I've seen a surprising number of Criterion titles at Best Buy recently, but the prices are never very good. Hopefully if B&N stops doing the sales, Criterion will get some other retailer(s) (maybe Amazon) to pick up the slack. Though none will probably have the coupon deals to stack with it. :cry:
 
[quote name='arcane93']I've seen a surprising number of Criterion titles at Best Buy recently, but the prices are never very good. Hopefully if B&N stops doing the sales, Criterion will get some other retailer(s) (maybe Amazon) to pick up the slack. Though none will probably have the coupon deals to stack with it. :cry:[/QUOTE]It's so very hit or miss on what Best Buy stocks for Criterions that it's not worth worrying about.

It's usually the "popular" titles as well, though the last time I saw any Criterions at BB, it was a handful of titles like Rushmore, Benjamin Button and a few other random ones.

Certainly nothing like 400 Blows, La Jetee and the other titles we all pick up.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']It's so very hit or miss on what Best Buy stocks for Criterions that it's not worth worrying about.

It's usually the "popular" titles as well, though the last time I saw any Criterions at BB, it was a handful of titles like Rushmore, Benjamin Button and a few other random ones.

Certainly nothing like 400 Blows, La Jetee and the other titles we all pick up.[/QUOTE]

Might be a localized thing depending on the area the store is in. I've seen titles like The Lady Vanishes and The Four Feathers at the Best Buy near me recently. I don't really know who is buying them there, but someone must be, because they keep getting them in.
 
[quote name='arcane93']Might be a localized thing depending on the area the store is in. I've seen titles like The Lady Vanishes and The Four Feathers at the Best Buy near me recently. I don't really know who is buying them there, but someone must be, because they keep getting them in.[/QUOTE]Since they outsourced the upkeep of the media area to some third party company, at least out here, there's been some changes with what they're stocking for movie titles and how they're being displayed. Could be something to do with that, I suppose.

They're close to MSRP or at MSRP from what I saw on the shelf tags and the tags on the product, so until BN's sale dies off, I'll keep buying the bulk of my Criterions there. I think just about all of my Criterions are from BN, with a few I picked up at Borders with GCs and coupons, or on Amazon when they were out of print and they were a reasonable price.
 
Has anybody seen Tokyo Drifter? I rarely blind buy but I want to see this on Blu and Netflix doesn't upgrade their criterion DVDs to Blu.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']They're close to MSRP or at MSRP from what I saw on the shelf tags and the tags on the product, so until BN's sale dies off, I'll keep buying the bulk of my Criterions there.[/QUOTE]

From what I've seen, most of them are $29.99, which is less than MSRP, but still more than they'd cost through, say, Amazon normally. So yeah, I'm not buying any there.

[quote name='shrike4242']I think just about all of my Criterions are from BN, with a few I picked up at Borders with GCs and coupons, or on Amazon when they were out of print and they were a reasonable price.[/QUOTE]

Yup, pretty much the same here.

[quote name='DestroVega']Has anybody seen Tokyo Drifter? I rarely blind buy but I want to see this on Blu and Netflix doesn't upgrade their criterion DVDs to Blu.[/QUOTE]

I was actually considering that one (and Branded to Kill) as a blind buy, because it looks like something I'd like. I'll definitely end up buying it in July if I don't buy it now.
 
I saw Toyko Drifter a while back. I honestly can't remember a lot of specifics, but it wasn't all that different from any other Yakuza films of that time. It definitely wasn't bad or anything, and if you're into Yakuza type movies it's worth a blind buy. I know I didn't like it as much as Youth of the Beast if that helps. I haven't seen Branded to Kill yet. Outside of Criterion releases, movies like Sympathy for the Underdog, and the series the Yakuza Papers are also worth checking out if you haven't seen them (these aren't on blu however)
 
Rethinking Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, that was more of an impulse buy along with the other titles which I really wanted.

Anyone want to convince me to keep it in there?
 
[quote name='ethwang']500 Error on site...it's down.[/QUOTE]I ran into that dozens of times in my ordering process, just keep hitting the F5 key until the site comes back to the page you should be getting, and then proceed along.
 
[quote name='IRHari']Rethinking Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, that was more of an impulse buy along with the other titles which I really wanted.

Anyone want to convince me to keep it in there?[/QUOTE]

The special feature of Johnny Depp reading correspondence between he and Hunter S. Thompson is awesome. Also, the Stedman artwork in the included booklet is great...if you enjoy his style.
 
That was torturous...but I was finally able to order Godzilla and Traffic. At least all of their URLs are ReSTful so you can F5 over and over without stupid UUID tokens timing out.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']I ran into that dozens of times in my ordering process, just keep hitting the F5 key until the site comes back to the page you should be getting, and then proceed along.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Shrike--in the process of ordering from the collection now.
 
[quote name='IRHari']B&N's prices are god-awful, walked into a store the other day and the prices on everything are absurdly high...but they've got an excellent collection of Criterion Collection movies though.[/QUOTE]

That's why it's so easy to find rare titles in book stores, because of how high they price their items. But there are always people who don't know better and overpay for a movie that would cost them $10 less at Target or Best Buy. I saw someone at a Borders once who was buying the Nightmare on Elm Street box set for like $40 more than he could've gotten it at Amazon.
 
Ordered the last 7 blu rays that came out so I'm all caught up now. Also, if you signed up for that MyCriterion thing you get a $10 gift certificate, so don't forget to add that on.
 
I picked up 12 Angry Men, Fear and Loathing, Videodrome and Godzilla. While I was doing the F5 dance trying to check out, Godzilla sold out. They were going to charge me shipping twice, but I just had to go back and mark that I wanted them grouped together.
 
Just got an email from Criterion:

Dear Criterion newsletter subscribers,

It’s been a frustrating day for many of our fans—and for us. While a lot of customers have been able to successfully place orders, many have not. We apologize for any difficulties this has caused. We’ve done some work on the site, and it is functioning more efficiently, but certainly not as well as we’d like. Unfortunately, we anticipate that it will remain slow for the duration of the sale.

Many of you were on Criterion.com at the same time trying to get your orders in on certain titles before we ran out of them, which caused a major site slowdown. To alleviate this pressure, after the sale ends we will announce a separate code to honor sale pricing on any titles that go out of stock.

And keep in mind that although the site is not operating at full speed, you should be able to place your order tonight with a bit of patience. Just enter the promotional code SWAK on your shopping cart page at Criterion.com to get 50% off the suggested retail price (SRP) on all in-stock Blu-rays and DVDs before noon EST on February 15th.

Thanks for hanging in there with us. We appreciate it!
The Criterion Collection
Click to expand...

so dont worry about the sold out ones!
 
Picked up Three Colors Trilogy and Gimme Shelter. Had The Battle of Algiers and Complete Monterey Pop in there too, but there not much cheaper than Amazon. Three Colors was significantly cheaper, but I needed another movie to get to the $50 free shipping, so I went with Gimme Shelter.

Thanks OP!

By the way, the F5 thing saved the day!
 
[quote name='AshesofWake']Just got an email from Criterion:



so dont worry about the sold out ones![/QUOTE]

Unfortunately I can't get the free s/h threshold without one of the out-of-stock titles, so I'm not going to waste my time. I'm sure they'll honor the price -- but also charge $5.95 a pop or whatever it is for shipping when they do it.

I'm going to wait for the BN sale in July. Criterion really screwed this sale for a lot of folks.
 
anybody want to trade $7 paypal for $10 criterion gift certificate? PM me if interested. Might help with the outrageous shipping prices, lol
 
I couldn't help myself. I just bought 10 Blu-rays. Even with this sale, Criterions cost me about 3-4 times what I'm willing to pay for other Blu-rays, but it's worth it to me.
 
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