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Criterion Website Sale - If it's this Tuesday, then it coincides with the release of THE GUNFIGHTER and THE HIT vs. the October 27th release of PARASITE. It looks like Criterion was already cognizant of not having anything interfering with the election (there are no releases dated for November 3rd).

Barnes and Noble Sale - The last few sales started on the Thursday evening/11:59 PM (depending on your time zone)? So even if Criterion were to make a decision to hold a website flash sale during the election (again, extremely unlikely), it likely wouldn't conflict with the Barnes and Noble sale.

Except that someone has said the B&N sale is starting on Nov 1

Are preorders generally included in the sale? Hoping to grab the Fellini box set.

I just got an email that the sale is tomorrow

Dear Criterion Collectors,

It’s that time again!

Because you’re a loyal Criterion.com shopper we wanted to give you a heads up that our 24-hour flash sale starts tomorrow, Tuesday, October 20 at noon ET!

All currently in-stock Blu-rays and DVDs will be marked down to 50% off the suggested retail price (SRP). Please note, the discount doesn’t apply to titles on preorder that aren’t yet released or out of stock titles that are on back-order.

Start building your Wish List now and set a reminder to shop at noon ET tomorrow!


Have fun!
The Criterion Team

Swift wrote: Mon Oct 19, 2020 10:54 pm Are preorders generally included in the sale? Hoping to grab the Fellini box set.

In-stock items only, typically.

And I just finished solidifying my wishlist this afternoon.

Something's new about their policy. I was just playing with the checkout process to see whether there is a PayPal payment option. There is not. What I found surprising was that they started charging tax. My tax amount was always zero. So, that's new! When did they start doing that?

Just getting the Varda set and Beau Travail was a huge pain, the site kept going offline during checkout. So... good luck!

I mean, it couldn't have been that huge of a pain if you were still able to complete the order within the first five minutes of the sale

The site is currently not working.

I was so quick to place an order I forgot I'd already picked up The Gunfighter and The Hit for less from Target! 8-[

I needed a suppository to get that order through.

2 down, 1 to go... done.

FYI I had three discount codes this year: two for being a Charter Criterion subscriber and one random one from April? Anyway I was able to apply all three and get another $30 off my order.

I had the April discount code too, so between that and the fact that Criterion hasn't begun charging tax for Texas yet, I spent a little less on my order than I would have in the Target sale.

Feego wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:04 pm I had the April discount code too, so between that and the fact that Criterion hasn't begun charging tax for Texas yet, I spent a little less on my order than I would have in the Target sale.

I actually bought about six or seven "older" titles that I wish I had bought much earlier when I could have gotten them without the sales tax. I know at least one more state has begun collecting sales tax on all online orders since the previous sale in the spring, so for people who are still tax free, it may not be a bad idea to load up now while you still can at less cost.

Friendly reminder that on any online order for which you are not charged sales tax, you are technically supposed to report that on your year-end taxes and pay "use tax" for it then

swo17 wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:25 pm Friendly reminder that on any online order for which you are not charged sales tax, you are technically supposed to report that on your year-end taxes and pay "use tax" for it then

I had a $50 credit I’ve been saving for the flash sale so between that and the $10 sent to Channel subscribers I set into motion my long term plan of getting Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema for $90 (plus tax). I am happy!

swo17 wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:25 pm Friendly reminder that on any online order for which you are not charged sales tax, you are technically supposed to report that on your year-end taxes and pay "use tax" for it then

Feego wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 6:04 pm I had the April discount code too, so between that and the fact that Criterion hasn't begun charging tax for Texas yet, I spent a little less on my order than I would have in the Target sale.

Forgot one thing, with Criterion you also have the added bonus of loyalty rewards ($50 certificate for every $500 spent). With those two advantages, if you plan well, the flash sale is easily better than any sale you'd get at Target, Deep Discount, B&N, etc.

It's really not, universally - almost any major retailer you can get cashback or buy gift cards online for 5-15% off which makes up for that difference. The tax really was the thing that made it particularly a good price, but I'm fine with a slightly smaller order this time around in advance of picking up the actual November releases at BN.

I mean, I got lots of Criterions from the Target sale each for $17.73 before tax. Spreading out Criterion's loyalty certificate across each purchase equates to 10% off, which only takes them down to $18 in this sale. (And B&N's sales are essentially the same if they honor your membership discount, other than the fact that you have to pay $25/year for that privilege.) My point about use tax was not to tell everyone here to pay it, but to suggest that it's not really fair to call one sale better than another simply because one of them doesn't necessarily add sales tax

Ribs wrote: Tue Oct 20, 2020 7:50 pm It's really not, universally - almost any major retailer you can get cashback or buy gift cards online for 5-15% off which makes up for that difference. The tax really was the thing that made it particularly a good price, but I'm fine with a slightly smaller order this time around in advance of picking up the actual November releases at BN.

True, Target's Red Card and B&N's MasterCard give 5% cashback. The 15% I imagine would be the 5% cashback in addition to the 10% membership discount (which is pretty close to 15% off total), but with the $25 annual membership fee, you'd need to buy quite a bit to make up for that (unless you're a regular B&N customer in which you'll probably be fine even without the Criterion sale as a factor).

Re: gift cards, I remember some people I know doing that with Best Buy, etc., but it never seemed worth it for a big retailer I rarely visited. I've seen Target and B&N gift cards for sale through my credit card, but it was bought via rewards point with no additional bonus - it made more sense just to simply take the cash.

Sometimes credit cards will have discounted rewards, although it’s a crapshoot and depends on your credit provider. But there exist websites like CardCash and Cardpool with discounted retailer GCs basically year round.