Help me find lower priced Criterion DVDs

September 25, 2008 1:22 PM

What is the best way for me start my own Criterion Collection on a small budget

I love Criterion Collection films, but I'm a poor student who can't afford to drop $100 on 3 dvds. I only have two options now and thats going to my local library and just make my own copies (this would make a gigantic a-hole), or through torrents (this would also make me a gigantic a-hole). I'm basically asking for any place where I can get Criterion DVDs for reduced prices, these could online or brick/mortar. I right now don't know where to go.

posted by carefulmonkey to shopping (11 comments total)

eBay, half.com, Amazon resellers... that's about all I have off the top of my head, but I suppose it's a start.
posted by box at 1:30 PM on September 25, 2008

Craigslist, if you live in a big city... I constantly see good pricing on used DVDs. A lot of people buy DVDs only to watch them once and then they sit on shelves.

Good luck, I'd like to do the same thing you're doing some day.
posted by razzamatazm at 1:45 PM on September 25, 2008

DeepDiscount.com occasionally has 2-for-1 Criterion sales; that's how I've been augmenting my collection.
posted by languagehat at 1:49 PM on September 25, 2008

I've also recently started collecting Criterions. Have you considered buying used? If you have the opportunity, keep an eye out for video stores going out of business or selling off stock. I picked up two Criterion editions of Akira Kurosawa films (Hidden Fortress and Sanjuro) for $5 each at a video store closing sale last year. I've also snagged a few good ones on eBay for between $10 and $15, shipping in (Fritz Lang's "M" and Kurosawa's Yojimbo, which is out of print). If you're in a larger center, Kijiji might be useful. And it's worth digging around in secondhand movie stores - the going price of used DVDs seems to be dropping somewhat now that Blu-ray is becoming more popular.
posted by oulipian at 1:54 PM on September 25, 2008

I don't buy critierions anymore. They're too expensive and I'm telling you that kind of ownership is not worth it. I own a massive amount of DVDs and the best decision I ever made in my life was convincing myself I don't have to own EVERY season of a show and my DVDs don't have to line up.

Don't go down the criterion road. Really, instead make it your goal to see every single film on the criterion list and just rent them from netflix or a good rental place. (plus there's a few in the collection which just aren't worth owning to be honest)

Trust me. Don't go down that road!

Good luck!
posted by Lacking Subtlety at 4:55 PM on September 25, 2008

Owning a DVD collection is insane. Just rent, and re-rent as necessary. (Or borrow from the library).
posted by softsantear at 4:59 PM on September 25, 2008

Cultivate film student friends who collect Criterions. :)

More seriously: Last April, Criterion took down from its site the occasionally fascinating essays and other written extras included in its sets, which makes recommending Netflix in this case somewhat less satisfying. You used to be able to rent the DVDs bare from Netflix and augment for free with the online readings. At the time, a Criterion flunky told someone on the boards there that it was a technical glitch, but they don't seem to be very eager to fix it. Which is too bad, because there's more than enough commentary from other sources (Senses of Cinema, AllMovie, et many al) to keep the value of the Criterion essays way below the $30 mark.

That said, when you use the words "poor student," an art-house-sensitive service like Netflix or GreenCine remains the best answer. The price of one Criterion set ($24 - 32) gets you about 3 months of unlimited 1-at-a-time rentals from Netflix, and only occasionally has Netflix let me down in its selection of Criterion DVDs (and I'm not sure if the fact that Netflix offers only 2 of the 4 films in Criterion's Agnes Varda set is Netflix's fault or Criterion's). If you find a lot of movies have cool-sounding extras on a second disc, you may want to upgrade to the 2-at-a-time plan, which is around $14 a month, so you can have both discs home at once. Well worth it if you plan on watching at least 2 Criterions a month. I've been doing this for

I've found Amazon regularly has single-disc Criterions for $9 - 18, with double disc sets varying from $18 - 28. The better the movie the higher the price, it often seems. Criterion DVDs are rare in the used brick-and-mortar market where I am; I just snagged a copy of Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night at a local used bookstore for $15 and felt like I'd won the lottery (it's a deeply hilarious film, btw -- no, honest, three of us were almost on the floor at the bitchily snappy dialogue). Good luck paying less than $20 used for a Criterion with two discs, though; it just doesn't happen, as far as I can tell, short of a lucky thrift store find.

Seriously, though, GreenCine or Netflix is the way to go here, supplemented by readings on the Web at non-Criterion sites until Criterion gets its shit together enough to repost its own essays. Just keep a list of the movies you eventually want to own and wait to start your own collection until you can afford it.
posted by mediareport at 5:37 PM on September 25, 2008

I've been doing this for

...at least the last two years and it works great.
posted by mediareport at 5:40 PM on September 25, 2008

Um, I'm not advocating this just tossing it out there. My local DVD store here in Shanghai stocks most of them for ~US$1. If you buy a round trip ticket and buy several dozen discs, you'll probably save some in the end.
posted by FuManchu at 6:50 AM on September 26, 2008

Just throwing this out there:

Shoplift them from your local retailer. I work for your local retailer, and our most recent physical inventory indicates that some film major has been raping our Criterions.
posted by snoe at 2:04 PM on September 26, 2008

Film major, or just somebody who knows that the prices for used Criterions are much, much higher than average. When I worked at a used-media store, the guys who brought in duffel bags full of stuff still in the shrinkwrap tended to prefer box sets, for the same reason.
posted by box at 3:14 PM on September 26, 2008