ADV Films?

[hsapiens]

Has anyone ordered DVDs before from ADV Films? They've got this unbelievable sale on Farscape, Andromeda, and Mutant X. (Thanks for the heads up, rydra_wong!) I'd loaded up my cart with 4 seasons of Farscape and 2 of Andromeda when I see this at checkout:

All Sales are Final. Unless otherwise noted, defective products may be returned within 14 days of purchase, for EXCHANGE or IN STORE-CREDIT ONLY. NO REFUNDS. A 10% restocking fee may apply. Shipping charges are NOT refundable.

Products offered through this sale are clearance and close-out items. As such, product bar codes will be reconfigured, replaced or physically altered (including by means of cutting, punching or drilling). Some products may be open box. Some products may be delivered without full retail packaging. Except as expressly provided otherwise, products are sold as-is.
...
1. ALL SALE ITEMS. Please allow 1 - 4 weeks for processing and shipping due to high sales volumes.

At these prices, I can accept that I won't have a bar code on the sets and I don't really care that it might come minus an insert...but those return policies make me leery of getting scratched, "as is" discs delivered a couple of weeks past the time when they'll even reluctantly consider accepting an exchange where I pay shipping and possibly a restocking fee. :|

**~~**

That flu that's rampaging through Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas right now? It sucks. Big, big time.

Comments

[nialla]

We get our sampler discs for the library's Anime Club from ADV. I've never ordered anything directly from them, but they run sales pretty regularly.

I do remember someone on my flist ordering and it took a while, but I haven't heard of anyone receiving damaged discs. I figure the "as is" relates to the packaging -- overstocked items often have marked or drilled barcodes, but they're usually otherwise unopened unless it was returned to a store after someone opened it.

My only caveat on Farscape is whether it's the old editions versus the "Starburst" editions. They had a really bad habit of putting only a few episodes per disc with little in the way of extras on the original version. They made a slight improvement in the Starburst editions by having more extras and selling two-disc packs, but they still didn't have the number of episodes you'd expect, IIRC.

[moonshayde.livejournal.com]

I actually heard about it from you, I think. It took longer than say ordering for Amazon, but the wait was worth the price. So far, no damaged disks but I haven't watched them all yet. (And I see one disc got dislodged and possible scratched, but that's one out of 3 seasons.) I got the Starburst editions which are nice. I'd very glad that I bought them through ADV.

To be honest, I don't quite remember that disclaimer when I bought them, though.

[nialla]

I've been very tempted to buy some of the anime discs for the library collection, but I haven't yet. However, I just had a huge stack donated by a teen, but they're ones she found used at various shops and doesn't have a complete run of anything. Maybe I can find some titles at ADV's sale to fill in the blanks.

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

They've certainly got a banner sale going. Their site is a bit basic but those prices are just phenomenal. Makes me wish I knew which anime my brother likes so much because I'd pick some up for Christmas for him. Good thing I don't know, I guess, since I'd never be able to find it again come December. :)

[hsapiens.livejournal.com]

:) Thank you for the info. This is exactly what I wanted to hear. The thing says I'll have to wait 1-4 weeks for sale items to arrive, which stinks, but it'll take longer than that before I could get a price like that from Amazon, so in the grand scheme it seems like a fair trade-off.

The ones I'm looking at buying are the Starburst editions. I priced it by a adding together the 3 Starburst editions necessary to make a full season and came up with...

S1 = $32 (8+8+16)
S2 = $39 (13+13+13)
S3 = $39 (13+13+13)
S4 = $60 (20+20+20)

All in all, a very good deal since S1 of Farscape without as many extras is $115 at Amazon. The Starburst packs *are* 2 discs but the descriptions say they're double-sided (not my fave) and seem to have around 6-7 episodes per pack. Which was what set off my "too good" bells but I now think this is legit.

[rydra_wong]

The Starburst packs *are* 2 discs but the descriptions say they're double-sided (not my fave) and seem to have around 6-7 episodes per pack. Which was what set off my "too good" bells but I now think this is legit.

Yeah, that really is the format for the Starburst editions, AFAIK. And they have more commentaries and extras, so if you can live with the double-sidedness, I'd say they're the way to go - the Farscape lot give great commentary :).