Well-I used to join, fulfill my contract and un-join the CD clubs back in the day-especially when I was a 20 something Army Officer stationed in Germany with limited musical choices on the radio (remember folks-back in the 90’s there were no IPODs or music downloads. Heck-it was very expensive and difficult to get a dial up connection in Germany at that point. Don’t even talk about cellphones-no one had them). Today via “MyPoints” I got an offer to join the Columbia House DVD club.
Now usually I’m a watch a movie once kinda gal. Yankee Bill will watch selected movies multiple times (hello, how many times CAN one man watch Caddy Shack?) but those “selected movies” are already owned by us on VHS and DVD for the most part. However the kiddos, well, let’s just say they are a different kettle of fish all together. They can watch the same thing over. And over. And over. Sometimes multiple times in a day.
Now I do try to limit their TV watching* but they do watch TV. On weekday mornings we watch Disney Channel and PBS-no videos, that’s how I can tell if what time it is. “Princess, Arthur is starting so you need to finish breakfast and get dressed! Arthur is over so it is almost time to go out for the bus!”. If we had a movie in we’d probably miss the bus! But in the evenings we watch movies. (notice all my choices bypass channels that have commercials! Take that you advertising moguls! HA!)
Also we have a DVD player that can be taken in the car and run off of the cigarette lighter (or power port, or whatever they call it these days). We bought it when we were still in the service and living in Virginia and making the 7 hour trek north fairly frequently to visit family. Believe me-the thing was worth it’s weight in gold for child entertainment value. It doesn’t live in the car permanently so the kiddos don’t get bored by it being there all the time, it has all the various ports so when they get older we can hook video games up to it for long distance camping trip driving**
OK, so now onto the math. The Columbia House deal is as follows:
5 DVDs for $.49, a 6th DVD for $14.95 and a 7th for now and get free shipping (instead of paying $9.95 S/H) and the 6th & 7th DVDs count towards the 5 DVDs that you have to buy in the next two years, leaving you with 3 DVD you have to buy at a regular price of $19.95 plus $1.99 S/H each.
So, that is: [ (5 X $.49) + ($14.95) + ($9.95) + (3 X $19.95) + (3 X $1.99)] / 10 =
$93.17 / 10 or $9.32 per movie
So, if you really want/need 10 new movies, then $9.32 cents per is probably a fairly reasonable deal, although you can frequently find them pretty close to that in Wally World as well. On the other hand, do you really need to be spending $93 on DVDs in a two year period with $27.35 of that being up front just to join? (even if you do get 7 movies?) Well, I don’t know. I guess it is up to the individual and what their wants/needs are. It could be a great way to knock out an entire family worth of Christmas presents (there is nothing in the literature that says you have to order DIFFERENT DVDs-you could order all of the nieces and nephews in your family the exact same Curious George DVD if you wanted), or you could get your 3 brother in laws all a copy of Talledega Nights . . . .
As for me, well, I’m not really sure that we need 10 more movies, not when I look at the $93 dollar price tag. By the time Buddy and Princess have taken videos out from the library and gotten them as gifts from family at birthdays and Christmas-well, I’m just not sure that it is worth it to me.
*They get to watch it from when they wake up till about 930ish, a bit later on the weekends, and then it is not allowed to come back on until after dinner until bedtime. Considering the fact that dinner usually doesn’t start until 6 and bedtime is 730 that is pretty self-limiting. Also the plan will adjust in the summer when they can go outside and play-they will be pushed outside earlier and will get their TV watching time inside during the heat of the day when no-one wants to be moving.
**I don’t believe in having a video gaming system in the house for the kids. Our plan is to buy an older, used system and only pull it out for car trips and to take on camping trips for them to use in case of rainy days. That way it will still be fresh and entertaining. Don’t get me wrong-we are not going to forbid them to use video games at friends houses etc, we would rather that they read, run around outside, play interactively etc.
Our television rules are similar to yours – and I also prefer DVDs to broadcast for the kids. We’ve been given some as gifts and then my friends and I swap to keep things interesting. This is getting less effective as the kids get older and develop disparate interests but it’s been to us so far.
As for games, our rule is no video systems. We’ll buy computer-based games to be used on the family computer (no computers in the bedrooms), which is located in the hall. If our son (now age 6) wants a Gameboy, he must be ten years old and save up half of the cost himself.
I am a firm believer in the “buy used” school of thought for things like DVDs and video games. Much cheaper. The exception is gifts, of course… but I rarely give DVDs as gifts. By the way, if you have a Target close to you, I noticed ours always has a rack of $5 DVDs, and the stock changes regularly.
I had thought about the DVD club too. I agree not a bad price per DVD, but do we need that many?
Another thing to add, I don’t buy the kids the newest movies (though family sometimes does for them), so I often can find the DVDs they like around that price or less.
Last Christmas Amazon had a special buy 3 get one free. I got Dora, Bob the Builder, Magic School Bus and Blues Clues. They were not the latest ones, but with the special were about $6 a piece.
Ever heard the expression “to good to be true”. Don’t get fooled by Columbia House once they have you as a member they treat you like garbage.It is difficult to get customer service by phone, e-mail responses look like they haven’t even read your complaint. They have charged me for shipping on days when the specials show free shipping. It takes tremendous time and effort to get your money back when they have overcharged you or sent you a DVD you did not request, or even declined. And other sites on the web indicate that some have had problems canceling their membership. The time and frustration alone makes this a very bad deal indeed.