The Absolute Cheapest DVDs on the Planet: DVDPriceSearch.com
Written: Aug 30 '02
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I started buying DVDs in the heyday of the online bargains. I frequently paid $5-6 for DVDs and rarely paid more than $10. Including the shipping. These days I usually end up paying a few dollars less than the going retail rate, hardly the same level of bargain. To make sure that I'm getting movies as cheaply as possible I use two DVD price comparison sites - DVDPriceCompare.com and DVDPriceSearch.com.
Both sites offer price comparison services. Both sites list coupons and specials from online stores. Both sites try to provide the best prices available to their users. That said, the two sites offer slightly different features and generally come up with different "best deals". I tend to find better deals on DVDPriceSearch although I religiously check both sites.
What DVDPriceSearch Has to Offer
In addition to price comparisons for specific DVDs, DVDPriceSearch lists the latest coupons and specials from various online vendors. They also list their 40 best sellers and their best deals if you're just looking for something new and don't have a specific title in mind. You can also browse the DVD database by genre or list all DVDs that have the lowest price at a particular store. You can also search for all DVDs with specific actors in them, DVDs within a specific price range, and DVDs discounted by more than a specific percentage off of the manufacturer's suggested retail prices.
Price Searching
Let's face it, that's really why we go to sites like DVDPriceSearch. Searching is easy - just type the name of the DVD in the search box and hit enter. You'll get a screen showing all of the hits and the lowest price found for each. At that point you'll be given the option to view your cart or compare prices. Viewing the cart, which is almost reflexive, just shows an intermediate step listing all movies in your current search session. Comparing prices actually brings up a comparison chart.
The chart simply lists stores across the top of a table and prices for the relevant DVDs in the rows below. Each entry is a linked price that goes directly to the page for that DVD on the listed site. At the bottom of the table are rows for tax, shipping, and specials. If a particular site has a special - be it a coupon, free shipping with the purchase of x number of DVDs, or whatever - it will show up there. This is a fairly new feature, one I appreciate because I can really see what my total cost will be given what I want to buy.
You'll notice I said DVDs not DVD above. Unlike DVDPriceCompare, DVDPriceSearch retains memory of all searches in a particular session and assumes you want to buy all of the DVDs in question. Thus it will show multiple DVDs and their prices in one shot. By default they'll just total up all DVDs at a single store and provide a total price including shipping (and tax if you specify a state). You can also toggle on a Best Price option that will split the DVDs among more than one store if that offers you a better deal. What's really nice about this is that it takes into account any known shipping specials. For instance, I have three DVDs in my cart right now. Two of them have low, but not their lowest prices, at a store that's offering free shipping with the purchase of two or more DVDs. DVDPriceSearch knows this and determined that with the shipping deal getting those two DVDs at this store was a better deal than getting each at its lowest priced store. Had I just been eyeballing the various prices I might not have noticed or realized that.
I do wish the Best Price option were on by default, but otherwise most everything else is. I get shipping prices listed by default even if I don't specify a location. As soon as I specify a state I also get tax information. If I do feel the need to tweak the results, I have lots of options. If there's a particular store I won't shop at, I can remove it from appearing in the results. Similarly I can force a specific store to always appear in the results. If I don't explicitly include or exclude stores I will get the cheapest eight stores in my table. If there aren't eight stores that carry the DVD I'll get some of the larger partners showing up with a N/A dash. I find this annoying but can live with it as I assume the extra advertising helps to pay for the service.
General Bargain Hunting
The search, by default, searches all stores in the database for titles containing the specified words. You can change the search parameters to look for all titles under a specific price or for all titles more than a specific percentage off. You can also limit the search to a specific store. This works great just for general browsing, but is particularly useful if you need another $x before you can use a coupon in a particular store. If you're $6.45 short of what you need, search for all DVDs in that store that cost less than $7. If you don't see anything you like, try $8. Obviously you'll have to judge if any movies you find are worthwhile, but I've found some surprisingly good movies in the $6 range this way.
You can also browse the movie database by store, showing only those movies with the best price in that store. If you're placing an order at a store already and have free shipping or need another DVD to use a coupon, this method of browsing ensures that you're getting a good price on anything you decide to buy.
They also list specials and coupons on the front page of the site and have a special coupon page. I've not found many of their coupons useful for the sites I end up shopping at, but it's always worth checking.
Database Issues
DVDPriceSearch can be a bit slow adding new titles to the database. They have the hot pre-releases and new releases rather quickly, but it can take some time to fill in the gaps on new titles. It can also take them a while to add new stores to their database. I'm not really sure what type of marketing and advertising agreement they make with the listed stores, but I assume that's the major reason for the slowdown. They've actually been doing better recently and have added several new smaller stores that offer excellent prices.
Pages load very quickly and the search is blazingly fast. I'm amazed at how fast it is considering how much data there is to sort through. From a technical standpoint the database and indexing is obviously designed and implemented well.
Look and Feel
Here's where DVDPriceSearch falls down a bit. The general design of the site is sound, but the particulars on some pages are not. The main search bar always appears at the top of the page. It's simple and easy to use. Beneath it are tabs for the top sellers, best bargains, upcoming releases, new releases, and browsing. Above it are small links for coupon pages and a few other informational pages. Again, straightforward and simple. The problem comes on the main content pages. They use yellow boxes filled to the overflowing with text. There's very little whitespace or separators, making it visually difficult to parse the information. The home page is particularly bad, but all of the coupon and informational pages have the same problem.
These informational pages are also riddled with banner ads, some having as many as five at various points throughout the page. They are very distracting and not very targetted. I can't complain too loudly when I'm getting a free service, but I do wish they'd find a better way to present their advertising if it must be there.
The pages listing DVDs, however, aren't laid out badly at all. They do feel a bit overcrowded, but they're blue and black on white and organized into tables which helps immensely. All of these pages show 20 titles per page. You can't configure that, which is a shame. I always prefer fewer pages with more entries on them when browsing.
I've already described the comparison cart in some detail. Other than my quibble about having the view cart option (which seems reduntant and I always press without thinking about it), the cart itself is easy to use.
DVDPriceSearch vs. DVDPriceCompare
DVDPriceSearch offers a much more robust price comparison service than DVDPriceCompare. It allows you to retain multiple movies and get prices for all at one; DVDPriceCompare does not. It automatically adds shipping; DVDPriceCompare does not. However, DVDPriceCompare is a bit faster at adding new stores and new movies so you can sometimes find deals there that you can't find at DVDPriceSearch.
DVDPriceCompare is a lot easier on the eyes and offers a more compact price comparison table. You can almost always see the entire thing at once, whereas you generally have to scroll for at least part of the DVDPriceSearch table. However, this is less of an issue than you might think since DVDPriceSearch puts the lowest prices on the left side while DVDPriceCompare does not.
DVDPriceCompare generally has more coupons and better coupons that DVDPriceSearch. It also often has better deals and specials, although DVDPriceSearch tends to list more of them. On the other hand, DVDPriceCompare does not let you browse by price or by discount nor does it show you a list of movies that are cheapest at any given store.
I use both sites. I use both sites almost every time I shop. However, most of the time, DVDPriceSearch offers me the best deal on the DVDs I want to buy.
Recommended:
Yes
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