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Future Shop has 100 disc spindles of 16x + or - Verbatims on sale for $19.95C. Make sure you grab the CMC's, my local shop has both, but it seems their most recent shipment was all Prodisc, you really have to root to get the good ones.

don't worry, Prodisc will be replaced by MBIL soon

And this was already mentioned in the hot deals forum. But what surprises me is that this is the THIRD time in 1.5 weeks that Verbatim DVDRs have gone on sale for $0.20ea, and it's the only one that's been posted on here. Previously The Source at Circuit City and NCIX both put the product on sale.

I'll have to start sticking my head in the hot deals section.
re FS over NCIX & The Source, I personally don't pursue online media sales anymore strictly due to shipping costs. If I'm buying hardware online then I'll perhaps add some media, otherwise not anymore. For example, at $20 per 100, then add $6min (I believe it's closer to $10 to ship a spindle) shipping, that's a 30% increase. When I was paying $100+ for 100 TY's, you bet online was the way to go, but now, no. Used to get everything way cheaper at blankmedia.ca but now shipping has stopped that. Another bad side effect of lower margins/lower price for the retailer, the potential slow down of on-line sales.
I've bot from NCIX in the past and will again, not by any stretch of the imagination a regular Source shopper.

... and then there's the old "Send me ONLY spindles that DON'T have an Ariel font please" followed by "...right..."

I ordered two spindles from future shop and was suprised that the shipping was $5.98. I had planned on going to the store to pick them up but when I saw the shipping was reasonalble I just ordered them online.

algrinch wrote:I ordered two spindles from future shop and was suprised that the shipping was $5.98. I had planned on going to the store to pick them up but when I saw the shipping was reasonalble I just ordered them online.

The Sources's sale included free shipping

Personally, I try to avoid purchasing from Futureshop as much as possible. They're pretty much responsible, along with Bestbuy and a few other big box stores in the USA, for the rapid decline of media quality in North America. Also, I don't like to perpetuate the current situation that allows companies with no customer service or employee training, basically get away with murder (metaphorically speaking of course), and still turn a profit.

I'm always disturbing the shit at Future Shop, telling folks with their arms full of Chinese media, "That's junk, and you won't like it". I do hear what your saying though Dolph, they are selling a lot of shit media, and worse yet, shit advise. Unfortunately most smaller shops aren't much more knowledgable, there aren't many stores that know there's more than one manufactor for just about every DVD brand.

dolphinius_rex wrote:Personally, I try to avoid purchasing from Futureshop as much as possible. They're pretty much responsible, along with Bestbuy and a few other big box stores in the USA, for the rapid decline of media quality in North America.

Care to elaborate?

evilboy wrote:

dolphinius_rex wrote:Personally, I try to avoid purchasing from Futureshop as much as possible. They're pretty much responsible, along with Bestbuy and a few other big box stores in the USA, for the rapid decline of media quality in North America.

Care to elaborate?

Well, in Canada, Futureshop is the #1 blank media seller in Canada. That means that all the major brands pretty much do whatever they tell them to, otherwise Futureshop doesn't sell their product. Maxell is an excellent example of a weak brand giving in to their demands. They've cut just about every corner in order to meet the price requirements of getting into Futureshop. And when the brands can't make any money selling their media, then it means there is less money to put into local service/support centres, and that means that RMA's and warranty support is handled worse, and things just go in a viscious cycle. Fuji isn't any better. Really only Sony has shown any backbone to these retail giants, and in the end, it's cost them a HUGE volume of sales.

When a retail giant tells you the only way they're selling your media is if it can be sold for $0.20/disc, you're stuck between a rock and hard place!

But the days of retail giants owning the blank media market are numbered in my opinion.

I see your point with the blank media. I wasn't aware of free shipping at the source. I will keep a closer eye on them in the future.

I don't count on salesmen to know anything. Like alot of consumers these days I come to the store armed with the knowledge I need to make my purchase.

I do have to say that the one thing that keeps me buying at places like Future Shop, Best buy, Costco, and Walmart is the return policy. If I don't like it I can bring it back. No hassels, no questions.

A while back I bought Mission speakers at a local Electronics store. I purchased a Subwoofer cable, and it turned out I didn't need. I brought it back the next day and got a huge hassel for returning it. Their policy is no returns. I liked everything else about the store but won't be back to buy anything there again.

I guess what I am saying is: a good return policy makes for good customer service for me.

Cheers

Yeah, the recordable media market in North America is crap. I put a lot of blame on consumers though. They think that all media is the same and even those that know better, won't pay for higher quality stuff.

Media manufacturers are also trying to squeeze every penny of profit they can so instead of turning to manufacturers like TY, they're contracting out with companies like CMC and Ritek. In the end, you have shelves full of media that, aside from the packaging, is the same.

Unfortunately I checked my local Future Shop here in the GTA, and 100 Spindles where nowhere to be found. I hesitate to buy online future shop cause then I might end up with Pro-disc, and that is a no, no.

Anybody live in the GTA can tell me which futureshop has stock in?

Ian wrote:Yeah, the recordable media market in North America is crap. I put a lot of blame on consumers though. They think that all media is the same and even those that know better, won't pay for higher quality stuff.

Media manufacturers are also trying to squeeze every penny of profit they can so instead of turning to manufacturers like TY, they're contracting out with companies like CMC and Ritek. In the end, you have shelves full of media that, aside from the packaging, is the same.

Actually, the more and more I'm learning about Taiyo Yuden, the more I think it's them responsible for not making themselves available to brand names. Everytime I learn something new about TY it makes me think more and more that they have a lot in common with Ritek (maybe not in media quality, but in terms of shadyness and business practices!).

dolphinius_rex wrote:Actually, the more and more I'm learning about Taiyo Yuden, the more I think it's them responsible for not making themselves available to brand names. Everytime I learn something new about TY it makes me think more and more that they have a lot in common with Ritek (maybe not in media quality, but in terms of shadyness and business practices!).

TY media WAS common under brand names.

Rumor has it that Plextor pays much more for a TY disc than Verbatim does and Plextor are stopping their media business because of that. I can't verify that, but if it is true, then it is shady business practice indeed.

How would I tell the difference between CMC and Prodisc?

read here:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=128909
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=175056

evilboy wrote:

dolphinius_rex wrote:Actually, the more and more I'm learning about Taiyo Yuden, the more I think it's them responsible for not making themselves available to brand names. Everytime I learn something new about TY it makes me think more and more that they have a lot in common with Ritek (maybe not in media quality, but in terms of shadyness and business practices!).

Rumor has it that Plextor pays much more for a TY disc than Verbatim does and Plextor are stopping their media business because of that. I can't verify that, but if it is true, then it is shady business practice indeed.

Plextor is getting out the media business? Have a link?

Also, do keep in mind that it is widely acknowledged that Plextor gets a higher grade of disc than Verbatim/Fuji/Sony/whoever else is rebranding TY at any given time gets.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... ost1608620

Unconfirmed rumor.

Well Since I am not happy with having to order online without confirming whether or not its CMC made Verbatim, I opted instead to picking up the 50pck of CMC verb at the source for $14.99can

evilboy wrote:Rumor has it that Plextor pays much more for a TY disc than Verbatim does and Plextor are stopping their media business because of that. I can't verify that, but if it is true, then it is shady business practice indeed.

Hmm is that a rumour

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... ost1608620

Unconfirmed rumor.

Might be my eyes or the misserable monitor at university but I don't see the rumour over there.

I think you might have a lower posts-per-page setting than I have.
(I prefer higher posts-per-page values so I don't need to wait as much.)

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p ... tcount=144

The Plextor news is now announced on the frontpage of a local media site.
The writer,who is in touch with Plextor Europe elaborated that the cause of
Plextor ending their media line is that they couldn't get a better deal from TY.
Verbatim gets their TY discs -20% cheaper than Plextor and they have had enough.
Apparently they also looked for an option of distributing a different media but
they couldn't find as high quality material as TY.
This is especially bad new for some European TY users to whom Plextor was
pretty much the only TY media around (the only other TY I have seen was
Verbatim but not always available).

I'm confused.


The "TY makes media in China" claim is most likely untrue though. A company with definite Japanese marketing strategy wouldn't relocate all their manufacturing to China.

evilboy wrote:The "TY makes media in China" claim is most likely untrue though. A company with definite Japanese marketing strategy wouldn't relocate all their manufacturing to China.

Well, they do have a facility of some sort in China, that much is for sure. But the most that is guarenteed at this point is that they are using it for packaging their media. This probably includes adding various surfaces to their discs.

Now what I don't understand is that their DVD Value Line is a shiny silver surface disc in 100pc bulk shrinkwrap. The box says "made in Japan" and "packaged in China" on it. What the heck kind of packaging was done in China? How were the discs shipped from Japan to China?

As always, there's something going on that TY doesn't want us to know about I suspect. Actually, considering this is TY, it's probably safe to say there isn't ANYTHING they want us to know about (they have serious control/paranoia issues).

evilboy wrote:I think you might have a lower posts-per-page setting than I have.
(I prefer higher posts-per-page values so I don't need to wait as much.)

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p ... tcount=144

The Plextor news is now announced on the frontpage of a local media site.
The writer,who is in touch with Plextor Europe elaborated that the cause of
Plextor ending their media line is that they couldn't get a better deal from TY.
Verbatim gets their TY discs -20% cheaper than Plextor and they have had enough.
Apparently they also looked for an option of distributing a different media but
they couldn't find as high quality material as TY.
This is especially bad new for some European TY users to whom Plextor was
pretty much the only TY media around (the only other TY I have seen was
Verbatim but not always available).

I'm confused.

Yes your right it's further up the number of posts.
Let's see if I can confirm that Plextor europe is ending.

The "TY makes media in China" claim is most likely untrue though. A company with definite Japanese marketing strategy wouldn't relocate all their manufacturing to China.

Not so sure about that incase of the strategy.

dolphinius_rex wrote:

evilboy wrote:The "TY makes media in China" claim is most likely untrue though. A company with definite Japanese marketing strategy wouldn't relocate all their manufacturing to China.

Well, they do have a facility of some sort in China, that much is for sure. But the most that is guarenteed at this point is that they are using it for packaging their media. This probably includes adding various surfaces to their discs.

If there adding surfaces then like some brands do you can allready say made in china

Now what I don't understand is that their DVD Value Line is a shiny silver surface disc in 100pc bulk shrinkwrap. The box says "made in Japan" and "packaged in China" on it. What the heck kind of packaging was done in China? How were the discs shipped from Japan to China?

As always, there's something going on that TY doesn't want us to know about I suspect. Actually, considering this is TY, it's probably safe to say there isn't ANYTHING they want us to know about (they have serious control/paranoia issues).