Discussion Forums - DVD Bazaar

Brad, I get supply and demand.   The graphs and textual explanations make it easier for everyone.  IT was already well known, there is more supply than demand.  No one wanted credits at a lower price, why would they want them at a higher price.  I couldn't sell many at $2 each.  There were always some floating around.  Many offers were posted in the bazaar.  I've been trying to sell off my remaining credits for a year now.  Still have 15 left.  Doubt they will go anywhere, now.

I don't think anyone on "the Team" will understand what you are trying to tell them, however.  They are going to just continue to dig their asses deaper into the hole they started.

I see that some people on PBS think it means that people will actually start posting their books (to mail out and pay only $2.61 per credit, instead of buying them at the inflated price). My question is, why were they hoarding them in the first place?

A lot of comments indicate that they feel that this was done "at the request of members" (?), or, "due to members' complaints." Complaints of what, you ask? Oh, well, complaints of the DEVALUATION OF THE CREDIT, on each of the sites. Um, those complaints did not come along until the site initiated the swap fees, and later the membership fees. THAT is what devalued the credit--by making a member pay and additional fee, on top of (buying or mailing out a book for) the credit. If they really were going to FIX the devaluation, they would get rid of the swap fees. THEN, I predict, the swapping would increase!!

I like the new rule. My theory is that the credit was being devalued by clever members who knew how to buck the system (like extreme couponers). Maybe they were profiting. I'm bad at math so I never could figure out how they could afford to sell credits at $2 or less. Perhaps bulk mailings in the wishlist multiples thread made it possible. Or how about bulk offerings of caseless discs where the shipping savings far outweighed the cost of giving away a few free dvds that had hundreds of copies in the system. I just don't believe so many members were voluntarily eating losses. It seemed shady

Ok so I am an extremely new member.  I have not swapped the first DVD yet due to the fact that I left out of town right after I joined. Although I did load a few DVDs on my tower, 7 were wish lists,  I put them on hold till I returned.  I left on this trip in mid June and will return home mid August. While on this trip, I shopped pawn shops, thrift stores and retail stores for DVD's.  Since I only want tv shows in standard dvd format.  I have so far purchased 82 seasons of shows (many brand new) for a total of $266.15, with a disc total of 303.... that averages out to about .87 cent per disc.  I had planned to use a combination of swap and buying cheap credits in the bazaar to add to my tv show collection,  but with this new directive I can see I will be using this site MUCH less than I thought I would.  $3. is way too much for standard format, not so bad for blue ray, but I have no desire to switch. I think the problem with this directive is that it kills the site for those of us that aren't so much into blue ray.  Just my two cents but I agree that this may send many people on down the road. The cost IS too exorbent for standard format.

Ok so I am an extremely new member.  I have not swapped the first DVD yet due to the fact that I left out of town right after I joined. Although I did load a few DVDs on my tower, 7 were wish lists,  I put them on hold till I returned.  I left on this trip in mid June and will return home mid August. While on this trip, I shopped pawn shops, thrift stores and retail stores for DVD's.  Since I only want tv shows in standard dvd format.  I have so far purchased 82 seasons of shows (many brand new) for a total of $266.15, with a disc total of 303.... that averages out to about .87 cent per disc.  I had planned to use a combination of swap and buying cheap credits in the bazaar to add to my tv show collection,  but with this new directive I can see I will be using this site MUCH less than I thought I would.  $3. is way too much for standard format, not so bad for blue ray, but I have no desire to switch. I think the problem with this directive is that it kills the site for those of us that aren't so much into blue ray.  Just my two cents but I agree that this may send many people on down the road. $3. IS too exorbent for standard format.

I'd like to echo the sentiment of many here.  SwapADVD is meant to be a swap site.  For swapping, it only makes sense for the credit to be worth at least more than the postage.

Really.  For folks who are here to swap, the $3 minimum is not much of an issue.  This is an issue for folks who plan on buying super cheap credits instead of participating in swapping, and for folks who desperately want to turn their credits into cash.  Neither one of these activities is the core purpose of SwapADVD.

Most of the common DVD titles that have multiple copies in system I can find at my local pawn shops for $1 each. i occasionallly find hard to find titles for only $1 each. I just bought "Thief of Hearts" for $1 and it has been out of print for quite some time and used copies are quite expensive on Amazon and e-bay. I don't find too many out-of-print titles that way, but it does happen.

Plus I find tons of brand new releases for only $1 each. Just last week I bought a few recent titles like Paper Towns and Ricki and the Flash on DVD for $1 each. Blu-rays typically run $4.99 even for Blu-ray/DVD Combos, with newer titles at $9.99 and $14.99 for most Disney Blu-ray.

I had the Blu-ray for Zodiac - a 2-disc set - on my Wish List for quite some time. That is until I checked the price on Amazon and found out a brand new copy is just $7.49. (I am a Prime member and get free shipping on purchases that qualify.) With the new pricing that Zodiac Blu-ray would come to $12.49 with $3 credits bought from members through the club - FOR A USED ONE. And that is not the only brand new Blu-ray/DVD Combo for less than $10 on Amazon - There are many, many titles in that price range. I was just using it as an example. 

In fact I can't help but notice that on Amazon sometimes the Blu-ray costs less brand new than the single-disc DVD edition does. Not usually, but I have noticed that on occasion. Most of the time they run at around the same price. You do have to shop around.

I will not be leaving the club. But from now on most of the credits I will be using will be from actual trades and not from buying credits from other members. I will reserve that for only when I get a Wish List item granted at a time when I am out of credits. So with the price increase those who are selling credits can expect the amount of credits sold to another single member to drop considerably as well. I know a lot of people were buying 5 or more - even 10 or 20 credits at a time. 

I felt that something was going to have to change at Swap, but I thought they would eventually lower the price on the credits they sell to try and compete with other members selling them, Instead of telling other members that they needed to raise the prices on the ones they sold. It doesn't make sense at the pricing they use now to ever buy them directly from the club. $2.72 is usually what I pay to ship out a single DVD or Blu-ray.

The way the club is supposed to work is you post something you no longer want and then turn around and use the credit to get something you would like. So it doesn't make sense to me that a credit should cost more than it would cost to ship out an item. Especially if you are buying the credit directly from the club. It goes toward keeping the site running, I get that. But since they are not paying for the cost of the DVD, nor the cost to ship out that DVD it should not cost more than the price to ship out a DVD. Since I don't think anyone is actually paying the $3.95 per credit that the club charges it would only make sense for that price to come down to - say something like the $3 that they are requiring be the minimum for members to sell credits for. They might actually make money that way and not have to keep changing the rules. Which is making people leave. I just don't want to see them price themselves out of relevance. It would not take a lot more for that to happen. I know they lost quite a few members when they started charging a swap fee, but I thought that was totally fair, so I did not mind it.

However I can't help but feel I won't be using the club nearly as often as I have in the past. i have been trying to go through my wish list and delete any Blu-ray that has a disc count of more than 1. It will take awhile but I am getting it down. Also I can't help but notice a lot of used DVD's - particularly those that have multiple copies in sytem on Swap are only a penny for a used one on Amazon, of course you would have to add $3.99 shipping to that because a used copy doesn't usually qualify for free shipping - which would bring it to $4. and now a similiar title on Swap will come to no less than $3.49 with the swap fee. I feel that it would be worth the extra 51 cents to not have to contact a swap member and wait for a credit purchase transaction to be completed and then have to turn around and do another transaction to pay the 49 cent swap fee. When I can just pay an extra 51 cents on Amazon and only have to click add to cart and then to click check out and be done with it. Of course not every thing is a penny on Amazon - but recent searches I have done have shocked me as to how many titles are a penny - or at least less than a dollar. 

The people who were selling credits for around $2 most likely did so because they shipped out multiple items within the same order and got a deal on shipping and could afford to do that and still make a little money. This change only makes more money for the members selling them. And I am OK with that. But $3 is still cheaper than $3.95 so I doubt this change will do anything to help out sales of credits that the club offers, if that was the idea behind the change.

What good is this supposed to do exactly? I have titles people want, so I trade them but there's very little I want to trade my credits for in return. Am I supposed to just sit on them forever?

What good is this supposed to do exactly? I have titles people want, so I trade them but there's very little I want to trade my credits for in return. Am I supposed to just sit on them forever?

What good is this supposed to do exactly? I have DVDs people want, so I trade them but there's very little I want to trade my credits for in return. Am I supposed to just sit on them forever?

I guess me buying postage through the site isn't making enough cash for the owners. If the Swap sites are that hard up for money why don't you put ads on the site as well?

What good is this supposed to do exactly? I have titles people want, so I trade them but there's very little I want to trade my credits for in return. Am I supposed to just sit on them forever?

I honestly do not mind ads on this site if it supports the website cost.

I didn't realize so many here thought this site was a DVD store, with a name like Swap a DVD. I'm actually ok with the price increase for credits. The way I look at it is you can either send out your DVD's for less money a credit, or buy a credit right away (but for more money). This way, I believe, will hopefully promote adding more movies into the system for swapping, which is what this site is mainly for.

I personally try to put the movies/tv shows that I watch back into the system once I'm done watching, to let someone else enjoy the show. Honestly, when I originally joined all three swap sites, I was surprised they let you buy credits directly from the website, let alone the ability to sell your credits also.

We should atleast be allowed to offer deals on bulk credit purchases. $2.85 for 25+ credits or something.

Luckycutie, $3.00 is already discounted from the normal $3.75 Swap a CD price, which is only a few cents more. You'd make a few more per credit sold also. I'm not sure what the benefit would be for selling them cheaper. If everyone was selling them for that price, instead of $3, then it really wouldn't sell any faster either (because everone is selling them for that price). Not to single you out, but it's what I don't get with anybody selling them cheaper.

First of all, this is not ebay or Amazon and is not meant to be a place to sell DVDs to make money.  SwapaDVD was and is still a place to trade in your unwanted DVDs & blu-rays to get other ones, period.  I've noticed that most of the people complaining are members who used to buy their credits instead of posting DVDs.  It's called take and not give.

To the member who would like to offer credits for $2.85 if they buy groups of them, I say that's what created the need for the $3.00 rule.  If you offer them for $2.85, someone will undercut you by selling them for $2.75.  And then you or someone else will lower their price to $2.50.  This is how the price got down to as little as $1.50 in the past.  Now ask yourself, why would I post a dvd that will cost me at least $2.63 to send when I can buy a credit for less then that?  Many wouldn't and didn't.  That was the reason for the rule, not greed.  There's always going to be people who want to give less to take more.  That's the real greed.

I disagree with your policy on individuals selling DVD credits.  It is their credits, it should be their choice on what they sell them for.  If market value of DVD credits go below $3 then that is for the seller to decide what to sell them for.  We have to pay for postage, your .49 cent fee, trips to the post office, etc.; it makes no sense to pay $3 a credit if we become low on credits to trade for wishlisted DVDs.  I have lost out on some of my wishlisted DVDs because I was temporarily low on my DVD credit balance and buying the credits at $3 each for a 4-disc DVD TV series is just not cost worthy when I can get the same used DVD TV series on Amazon.com for under $12.

So therefor, I will be liquidating my credits and deleting my wishlist and terminate my account.  It is just not worth it anymore.

Regards, Movie-maniac

Hi, I've never used paypal for anything other than eBay or for use instead of a credit card to pay businesses. How does it work between two individuals? How would it work for credits on here? Would someone just need my email address, to pay me, or would I need someone else's email address to pay them? And is there a service fee for the seller or the buyer? Sorry this is such a rudimentary question, but I figure that it's easy for someone here to answer. Thanks in advance!

So far, I haven't gotten any answers, so let me add a question: do members here use Venmo for payment?

Also, if I post on the discussion forums that I would like to sell credits, how do I make sure that I get notified that someone wants to buy some, so that I can transfer the credits to them quickly? If they post a response on the board do I get an email? Or if they PM me, do I get an email?

I have 150 DVD credits to swap for DVD money @ $3 per.  I've never posted something like this, so I would appreciate mentoring by any interested respondent. For example, I don't find any link that facilitates the transfer of either credits or money between one member and another.

David "Mac" McWethy

Charter Member #3534

How can SwapaDVD write (under READ THIS FIRST!) that a minimum price of $3.00 is established for selling credits, while on the same page there's this listing:

Just added more than 50 discs with art 3 credits for 5, 6 for 12, 10 for

What's the deal?

King of Garage Sales,  people usually to not post or respond in this thread.

A good place to ask question is Questions Forum or Club Members Thoughts.

The post you linked is offering deals on Unpostable discs with no case. 

Members are allowed to offer deals on titles. 

5 discs for 3 credits

12 discs for 6 credits

etc.