Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Pirates of the Communism

Some coworkers and I went to a new DVD shop tonight after work.  With the Olympics so close many of the DVD shops in town have either gone out of business or temporarily gone legit, actually stocking the shelves with legal Chinese DVDs.  Once the games are over they’ll all go back to selling the bootlegs, but government is making sure that tourists aren’t stopped going back to their home countries with armloads of DVDs.  The store we went to tonight is in the back of a dress shop, you walk through the shop and go into a little room in the back, full of DVDs. 

I got 19 individual DVDs, as well as some boxed sets:  A collection of every Cohen Brothers film; Season 4 of Boston Legal; and Seasons 1-3 of Battlestar Gallactica. 

Assuming an average cost of $15 the individual discs would cost me $285.  According to Amazon.com the Battlestar sets would cost me $123.  Boston Legal is $42, and it’s only available on pre-order.  A rough estimate, based on various individual prices on Amazon, puts the Cohen Brothers set at about $300.  Total for all purchases:  $450.  Add in sales tax of 8% and we have a grand total of $486.  Click below to see what I paid.