What to do when the shops close?

G

Gray Shadow

Completely Average High School Student
Hello everyone I'm Gray Shadow it's very nice to meet you all and find a place to chat.

However I have a big poblem that I hope you can help me with. (I don't know if anyone's already stated this if so please point me in the right direction)

With HMV shutting it's doors and it's website ( a very sad day) I'm at a loss where I can buy anime. I've got manga covered thanks to Waterstones but in my town I used to have a choice between browsing through HMV's shelves (an enjoyable pastime and you could guarantee they would have the most upto date titles) or those of Forbidden Planet (the variety seems to be shrinking lately).

So where can I buy anime safely? HMV's website was pretty much guanranteed new and any discs that I had quibbles with you know I could get sorted out quickly but now I don't know where to go.

A friend has told me to download from *pirate website removed* which has a set fee per month but... I don't know maybe I'm too set in my ways.

Please help.
 
yeah those was the days, i used to go to HMV to see what they had at merry hill but sadly it all went to pot,

how dare they use my name to get free anime, downloading for free is a no no here. try and support the industry,

ummm i guess forbidden planet is probably the only dvd store i know to by a wide range of anime.
 
I have edited your post to remove the name as your 'friend' is recommending you pay to download illegal pirated anime, which is a dreadful thing to do both for your sake and the sake of the anime industry.

If you like to browse, have you tried Crunchyroll, Netflix and Anime On Demand? It's not the same as flipping through a rack of DVD cases, but it's a more 'visual' way to see what kind of things you might like and quite a few of the series on the legal streaming sites have gone on to be licensed for home video releases here. It's sad that so many shops have disappeared, but for many of us (even though I live close to London!) it's been a fact of life for a while already. I moved all my shopping online and so far, I haven't had any problems.

You never know, specialist shops like Forbidden Planet might expand their DVD sections gradually now that there's less competition!

R
 
While the demise of the high street experience is sad, we do have to move with the times. There are still plenty of places to buy on-line (at least until Amazon wraps it all up and becomes a monopoly able to charge what they like which they're starting to show worrying signs of doing... But we can cross that bridge when we come to it). There's a stickied thread of online retailers in this very section.
 
In Reading, our CEX has a larger anime selection than HMV ever did, assuming you don't mind second/hand stuff! But I've bought almost all my new anime online over the past few years, usually cheaper and more convienient. Conventions are the other good source, though it pays to play close attention to what you are buying... some (major) traders sell R1 stock without any warnings.

Our local specialist manga store closed it's physical premises about 18 months back, but continues to trade online/by post/local delivery, so I'm happy to continue supporting them.
 
Local shops? What is that? :mrgreen:

The closest shop i have for anime in here is about 35km from here and there's only maybe 20 dvds of old stuff and quite expensive.

I just buy online: cheaper, less trouble and much more variety.

I do like to go to a shop and just go through the shelves and see whats going on but for anime, i dont have that luck. By the way, Im from Portugal.
 
You mention HMV's website so I assume you've shopped online before?

Why not just turn to the existing online retailers?

Amazon.co.uk is an obvious one
UP1.co.uk - United Publications is very good and i've used them for years. They may even be better than Amazon shortly if Amazon keep upping their prices. At the very least they are friendly and approachable, they even wrap all my Manga specially after the post man decided to be rather rough with a dozen parcels
 
duoinchains said:
In Reading, our CEX has a larger anime selection than HMV ever did, assuming you don't mind second/hand stuff!
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It does!?! I must be going in there at the wrong times. I did get New Gal Force recently from there, so that was something.
 
Lawrence said:
CeX can be pretty good if you're lucky
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Lawrence said:
Personally I just use the internet
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As Ayase has said, there is a sticky with the common retailers. On a personal note I too enjoy high street stores and I'm lucky(ish) in that the only HMV left open in Northern Ireland is 5 minutes from work. The selection of late has been stale and the Forbidden Planet doesn't stock DVD's. As such much of my shopping is HMV, CeX or online. I am also getting into import so a number of the site I recommend are for other regions (maybe not the most appropriate this to suggest but given availability and pricing online it is sometimes the most cost effective way of buying anime). As for those sites I strongly recommend:

Local sites:

http://www.play.com
http://www.anime-on-line.com

Region 1 sites

http://www.rightstuf.com
You will be liable to pay duty and tax on items from this site if you spend above certain amounts

Multi region sites

http://www.up1.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk and http://www.amazon.com
http://www.ebay.co.uk

Another suggestion might be to buy direct from the distributor or producer of the anime

As for streaming the big ones have been mentioned but the only other one I can mention is Funimation's Youtube channel.
 
Thank you very much everyone for your responses.

I will definately check out all the sites mentioned. It's also nice to know that there are other people who will miss te high street experience. What little internet shopping I did do on the HMV website was basically because if something did go wrong I could go into a store for help which you can't really do with Play or Amazon (those are the first sites I'll be checking on).

To Rui- I am so sorry I did not know that the website I was given was a pirate site. I definately will not be following that friend's advice.
 
Gray Shadow said:
It's also nice to know that there are other people who will miss te high street experience.
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For Anime, no way. You can read the box blurb on a dozen sites and see the cover art work, hell the net has reviews and such to back up or dismiss a title.

For Manga however I do like looking at the volumes, browsing, you can see so much more by flicking through a book. Plus a DvD is in a fairly safe plastic box, buying Manga in person lets u pick a book thats in good condition, online who knows what'll arrive (even if its perfect when they post it who knows how the postie will treat it).
 
Amazon, they can hike the price of a preorder without telling you, saying the original price was an 'error'.

I use sainsburys entertainment now for new releases, normally cheaper than the tax dodgers. CEX online for older releases. Also up1.

Amazon is trying to wipe out the competition and using their position to increase prices.
 
Kite said:
Amazon, they can hike the price of a preorder without telling you, saying the original price was an 'error'.
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I don't have any great love for Amazon (as I said above, their recent price-hikes are disconcerting) but I'm fairly sure that wouldn't be legal. It certainly wouldn't be legal to charge you more than you'd agreed to pay for something without informing you.

I have twice ordered mispriced things from Amazon and on both occasions the order was cancelled by them and an e-mail sent to explain and apologise for the situation. Having worked in small retail businesses and been a self-employed retailer in the past I don't feel hard done by, as no company should have to sell things at a loss due to a pricing mistake. And legally, they aren't obliged to do so (though people often presume wrongly that they are).
 
It makes sense if it's a big price mess-up (ie 99p for something which costs £99) as it's just silly for the people whom orders multiples of that item to expect to get it for that price. But for £3 on a blu-ray (Skyfall Blu-Ray pack, was retailing at £11.89 for a couple days in late Jan, before increasing to £14.99). Probably trying to sucker people into buying the steel-tin edition, increasing the price and if you cancel you won't be able to order it again as it sold out.

Which was surprising when the Eflen Lied boxset went up for sale for something like £18.99 at start before rocketing to ~£36 that they didn't cancel those orders.

But in terms of new releases, they think they can get away with charging whatever like that. For example the blu-ray of Oblivion Island, currently on for £22.00. I got it for £15.99 from Sainsburys (where it is still available, plus nectar points)
 
But for £3 on a blu-ray (Skyfall Blu-Ray pack, was retailing at £11.89 for a couple days in late Jan, before increasing to £14.99). Probably trying to sucker people into buying the steel-tin edition, increasing the price and if you cancel you won't be able to order it again as it sold out.u/quote]

]quote]Which was surprising when the Eflen Lied boxset went up for sale for something like £18.99 at start before rocketing to ~£36 that they didn't cancel those orders.s/quotet
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I've not known it ever be the case that a retailer has upped the price of an item and kept it on order for the customer without their consent - That's not legal because at no point has the customer agreed to buy it at the higher price. It's always been my experience that mispriced items are cancelled from orders and customers are invited to order again at the new price. It might suck if is a limited edition and is sold out when people come to reorder, but £3 was an obvious misprice and no-one should have expected to get it for that.* A transaction requires the consent of both parties and the retailer can refuse to sell an item for a price they consider too low just as a customer isn't obliged to buy it for a price they consider too high.

That particular Elfen Lied set did have a surprisingly high RRP. Did the orders that were made when it was £18.99 get charged at that price? If so there's nothing dodgy there, Amazon just decided to honour their pre-order price guarantee (probably because they didn't stand to lose out as badly as in the case of Skyfall). If they were cancelled due to a misprice then Amazon were also within their rights to do so. If people ordered at £18.99 and were charged £36 without being informed the price was being increased due to a misprice however, then that's not legal.



Now I can't quote properly either. Help?

*Edit - I realise now I may have got the wrong end of the stick here and there was a £3 difference, in which case I have the same question as I do regarding the Elfen Lied set - Did people get it for that price, was it cancelled or were they charged more than they agreed?
 
Kite said:
I think it was sent out for £18.99

So either Amazon or 101 Films made a loss on it../quote]
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I know some people in here got EL for that price so amazon kept the price when people did the pre-order. Lucky them. I wouldnt have mind paying that but the actual price is too much for a series that i didnt like that much.
 
Regards amazon pricing, if you inform them about lower prices they do lower them/try to match it.

So perhaps if more people did that, they'd lower their prices and we'd all be happy :)
 
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