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jbeall wrote:

TheGodfather wrote:Received my shipping notice from dvdpacific for Army Of Shadows yesterday. Really early =D>

I'm still waiting on my shipping notice, and am moving on the 15th. Part of the reason I ordered it early is so that it would arrive before I move. Oh well...

Ordered it from dvdpacific as well?

TheGodfather wrote:Ordered it from dvdpacific as well?

I wish! No, I ordered Army... from dvdplanet, from whom I received La Haine and Overlord two weeks before the street date. I wonder if the criterion higher-ups read this thread and asked dvdplanet to stop shipping early...

DVDPlanet should still ship at least a week ahead of time. It takes at least a week for their packages to arrive with media mail.

jbeall wrote:

TheGodfather wrote:Ordered it from dvdpacific as well?

I wish! No, I ordered Army... from dvdplanet, from whom I received La Haine and Overlord two weeks before the street date. I wonder if the criterion higher-ups read this thread and asked dvdplanet to stop shipping early...

If that`s the case then I hope they don`t ask dvdpacific to stop shipping early as well

Speaking of wich: received my shipping notice for The Third Man - reissue yesterday as well

Guys, don't panic. Some DVDs get shipped to retailers earlier than others. It all has to do with manufacturing and shipment, not nefarious plots by Criterion.

Matt wrote:Guys, don't panic. Some DVDs get shipped to retailers earlier than others. It all has to do with manufacturing and shipment, not nefarious plots by Criterion.

My bad! I should have put a in my message. I'm only entertaining paranoid conspiracy theories because I want my dvds already!!! (FWIW, I ordered Becket from deepdiscount.com and that hasn't shipped either, but certainly isn't criterion's fault.)

I also recently received my copy from Amazon, and it also had the "wacky C" sticker on the front.

denti alligator wrote:DVDPlanet should still ship at least a week ahead of time. It takes at least a week for their packages to arrive with media mail.

Good call. I got my shipping notice today. I hope you're wrong on the second part, but in my experience a week sounds about right.



EDIT: It arrived Friday, 5/11. Figure 8 case, and it's heavy (meaning the booklet has some weight!). There's also a clear sticker on the outside of the cellophane wrapping:

"Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 French Resistance masterpiece is
'THE BEST FILM OF 2006!'
Premiere--New York Times--L.A. Weekly--Sight & Sound--Film Comment"


And now off with the wrapping!!

got my shipping notice for Sansho from DVDPlanet

Got my shipping notice for Army of Shadows, Sansho the Bailiff, and Vengeance is Mine from DVDPlanet this morning.

The Third Man arrived loose and scratched from DVD Planet. I guess I've been pretty lucky because this is the first time in 8 years I've ever had to send a damaged DVD back for replacement.

Matt wrote:The Third Man arrived loose and scratched from DVD Planet. I guess I've been pretty lucky because this is the first time in 8 years I've ever had to send a damaged DVD back for replacement.

I always do. DVD Planet and Deep Discount are pretty bad when it comes to that.

Matt wrote:The Third Man arrived loose and scratched from DVD Planet. I guess I've been pretty lucky because this is the first time in 8 years I've ever had to send a damaged DVD back for replacement.

Same here, I've never received a damaged package before (although I have had some loose discs on international shipments--everything always played fine though); my Third Man came with the spindle holding the supplement disc completely destroyed and the disc all scratched up. On a positive note, DVDPlanet's customer service was very pleasant and easy to work with when I called. They said they would ship a new one out right away and emailed me a label for the return.

My copy of Third Man seems to have arrived intact, albeit with a corner dent (haven't opened it). Can't tell whether the dent was there before they packed it into their tight fitting box. Will be calling DVD Planet for a replacement, although will probably look locally first.

Haven't had much luck with replacement shipments lately, and even local copies have been rather hard to locate and/or not in the best of shape (e.g., Bicycle Thief and especially Robeson being recent examples). Almost didn't keep the Robeson, except I got it rather cheaply and waited a bit too long to return it. It's in the worst shape of all my Criterions.

My Jodorowsky box was banged up pretty significantly. DVD Planet almost always seems to pack the carboard into the bottom corners of their shipping boxes, and they really aren't all that sturdy. The corner of this particular shipping box was ripped open and the Jodorowsky box was dented bigtime; replacement for that on is back order.

Thankfully Sansho was shipped with other items and it was in perfect shape. Somewhat unusual for me and Criterion cardboard, unfortunately. Watched it this past weekend in celebration.

My copy of The Third Man came a little banged up as well - mostly a tear in the corner and one of the plastic trays was cracked. The second disc was also loose but thankfully didn't have a single mark on it. My Jodorowsky box, however, was pretty banged up and Fando Y Lis was covered in scratches so I got a replacement.

The thing about DVDPlanet that is really starting to piss me off is recently they've begun mailing my orders in UPS bubble-mailers. It seems unless I'm ordering 4+ DVDs or a boxset, it comes in a flimsy, unstuffed mailer. That's how all my May Criterions arrived two weeks ago, and thankfully they survived the trip. I'm willing to bet my copies of Straight Time and Prince of the City will come in the same damn mailer...

I received my super-dented copy of The Third Man yesterday. Not really happy about that.

It was supposed to be shipped with Hawks' Scarface, which also came out today, but DVD Planet screwed up and put Demille's Unconquered in there instead. I called and they're shipping me Scarface for real this time. Strange mixup...

So far no bubble mailers from DVD Planet. (Now they'll start using them for me too...) I just have them ship media mail.

However, amazon has been using them from time to time (and they insist on using UPS). I think they shipped my first copy of Robeson in a bubblepak... guess what it looked like.

For some reason DVDPLANET is shipping UPS 1/2 day in bubblepaks. The last two orders I've received from them came in this fashion. My Third Man arrived dead. Both disc scratched, both holdings broken, and the outer cardboard looking a half eaten pizza. For my luck I can't have it replace since to mail 1 pound out of my country cost around 15 dollars. Fucking third world countries!!!

I must be lucky. Literally hundreds of DVDs from DVD Planet and I've had two cases (IIRC) with broken holdings - both Amaray, thankfully.

Everything so far has come boxed (as has everything from Amazon - US, UK and France). I always have DVD Planet ship either UPS Ground or UPS 2nd Day. The Third Man arrived in mint condition last week.

The only times I've had to return anything to DVD Planet they have e-mailed the RA and return label and immediately sent a replacement, instructing me to use the replacement's shipping container for the return. The 2-disc set of The Big Red One had two Disc 2s and another single disc was defective (can't recall which).

However, if anyone would like to bitch about CD WOW!, I'll be happy to pile on.

Never had a problem with any of the Criterion digipaks before but my Third Man package had a big tear in the corner of the front cover. It was sort of hidden and I didn't notice it until I removed the shrink-wrap. I don't think this tear happened during transit and so I think Criterion had some quality control issue with their Third Man digipaks (given that quite a few others had the same kind of problem).

In any case the tear was the only problem (no broken trays or loose discs) and so I am not sending it back (a little bit of glue took care of the tear).

-D

In case anyone's been having trouble finding this for a reasonable price, now that it's gone OOP: Walmart still lists it as in-stock on their website. Even with tax and shipping, it still comes to slightly less than list price.

Caveat: I loathe Walmart.

Thanks for the heads-up. I ordered one; let's see if it will be shipped.

My Late Ozu just shipped from DVD Planet.

criterionsnob wrote:My Late Ozu just shipped from DVD Planet.

Same here plus The two of us!!!

I was fortunate enough to run into a copy in a Borders and I'm glad I was aware of the OOP notice.

The scene featuring Joe Frazier walking down a long hall in silence is worth the price of admission but there are many beautiful and quirky moments.

Don't know much about film licensing but why would something this good go out of print? I can't imagine it's ever going to be picked up and marketed any better than Criterion did.

Shame. Glad I got the notice and ran into a copy.