M*A*S*H

[caddyman]

Every now and again I wander across to my Amazon wish list and look at, amongst other items, the complete M*A*S*H DVD box set covering all eleven seasons of the show.

I have wanted this for years, more so since the DVD collection allows you to view it without the bloody annoying laughter track. Although in the final two or three seasons the season became a little less funny and little more preachy, it’s still one of my all-time favourites and back in the days when my Clapham garret had cable, I would cheerfully watch the rerun double bill night after night on the Paramount Comedy channel.

The reason I keep going back and looking longingly at the series without ever buying it is simply down to the fact that it is so mind numbingly expensive. Amazon are offering two different versions of the complete box set with the cheapest at £149.99. Play have it at £159.99. The recommended retail price is reported at an incredible £199.99!

Who buys these things at those prices? I would baulk at paying prices that high for series that are much newer: the most recent MASH episode was filmed and broadcast in 1983: it will be 25 years old later this year. Why is it so damned expensive and what makes the DVD companies think that it is worth maintaining at that price? At £14.99 per season for most of the run, but with season 4 at £17.99 and seasons 10 and 11 at £27.99 and £23.99 respectively, it gets even more ludicrous.

Am I to assume that they are selling so well that every house in the land except mine has a copy?

I expect that the price will eventually fall. After years of waiting, the Beatles CDs finally dropped to a price I was willing to pay and I completed my collection. I guess that at some pointy MASH will too.

Comments

[phil99.livejournal.com]

Try:
http://www.selectcheaper.com/search/buy-cheap-M_A_S_H_COMPLETE_BOXSET_3261501000_DVD.htm?
OR
http://snipurl.com/1yi77

£118.59

[fencingsculptor.livejournal.com]

Well put sir. I am in full agreement.

The answer is I suspect greed.

M*A*S*H is one of my all time favourite series too and I own seasons 1 to 3 (I might even have season 4 too) while I got them at £9.99 each they were in the old style DVD cases 1 DVD per case and 3 cases per season. The packaging now has all 3/4 discs in the one supersized case. Also I don’t think I can de select the canned laughter on my versions :o(

I really want to get the remaining one's but really don't see why the complete collection works out so much.

DVDs cost Peanuts to produce in comparison to complicated old videos with their moving parts.

And if production companies would only sell complete series of things like MASH, Buffy, Quantum Leap, West Wing, Star Trek (TOS,TNG, DS9, Voyager and Enterprise …which really was TOS) for around the £50 mark I'd probably spend more than I do on acquiring shows I love ...

If you are a M*A*S*H fan this book is great…..but not at £75 !

http://www.amazon.co.uk/M-S-H-Complete-Book/dp/0810980835/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1201620525&sr=1-1

[drjohnsilence.livejournal.com]

It's $179 from Amazon.com. The individual seasons vary from $21-27.

The age of the product is important - affluent youths are hardly likely to be wanting to splash the cash on something that was last fresh twenty-five years before they were born. So I suspect the answer is less greed than demand. If the quantity demanded increased, the price would go down to maximize profits.

It actually always amazes me that "genre" products sell quite as cheaply as they do compared with their viewing figures. There must be an awful lot of people like us with disposable income around...

[bluesman.livejournal.com]

I feel the same way about the usurious price some online vendors want for Star Trek The Next Degeneration. If you had that much money to spend on the boxed complete set, you'd have your roof replaced or make a downpayment on a BMW.