A new way of watching DVDs

Enjoy watching TV series on DVD? Constantly buying or renting them? Sick of paying massive amounts of money for them? Read on.

Like many people without Sky or Sky+, the future-Mrs-C and I enjoy watching television series on DVD.

The theory is this:

You can be selective.

You watch less TV overall, because you only watch things you want to watch and avoid channel surfing.

You don't miss or forget to record an episode.

You don't get all those annoying commercials.

But this can be pricey. Typically a recent box set of a new TV series will set you back around £40. This is a lot of money for something most of us will only watch once.

I tried renting the series from online DVD rental websites. But you have to be sent one disk at a time. So frequently I would be sent disks one and two, but then face an excrutiating three month wait for disk three.

So I am going to try something new. Buying and selling on Amazon marketplace.

If you have not heard of Amazon Marketplace, it is a place where normal punters, like you and I, can sell and buy their wares. If you go to most items for sale on Amazon under the price that it is selling the item will normally be the words 'Used and New'. Click on this and you will see the marketplace.

Unlike eBay, it is not an auction, so you can set the price of what you want to sell. As soon as someone meets the price, you post it to them.

Amazon deducts from the sale price a sellers fee, and VAT, while you set the postal costs. Before you even advertise the item Amazon will tell you how much you stand to make.

Last year I ordered series 5 of 24 before it was released. By doing this it cost me £29, as opposed to the full retail price of £49.99.

I watched it once and then lent it to a friend. Since then it has been gathering dust on my bookshelf at home.

Yesterday I sold it for £28. After seller's fees were deducted I pocketed £25. So essentially I paid £4 to watch this TV series. That is less than I would have paid to rent it.

So this is my new 'thing' for the year. I've just ordered The Wire. I'll let you know what happens when it comes to selling it.

If you have any other ideas to save money, like this, then let me know.

James Coney, Money Mail

Comments

[Carole]

I have been doing this for the last 3 years with great success.It is important to take care of the dvd and case so that its condition can be described as "as new" or "very good".The best sale I made was a film which I bought for £5.99 and sold for £39.50 a year later,as it had been deleted and became rare.This,however,is the exception.I know an excellent comparison site and through careful buying have been able to sell many dvds for more than I paid for them.
I must point out that you do not set the postal charge as you say. It is set by Amazon at £1.24 regardless of how many discs are contained in a set.And they take their fee and vat on this so you are left with £1.10.This is fine if you are posting one dvd as it will be a large letter costing £0.65 1st class,plus the cost of a jiffy bag,but if you are selling a boxed set,you will need to include the additional postage in the price of your item.