Best Buy buying HD DVD players and Movies for $

[superchad]

Best Buy is offering gift certificates for HD DVD players and movies no matter where purchased from but I have no idea what value the apply or how the calculate it.

[Sonnie]

It's not really a big deal at all...

Source: Press Release

19 March 2008
Best Buy Stands Behind Customers By Awarding More Than $10 Million in Gift Cards to HD-DVD Purchasers

Leading Consumer Electronics Retailer will Send $50 Gift Cards to Customers Who Purchased an HD-DVD Player from Best Buy in the U.S.

MINNEAPOLIS – March 19, 2008 – With Blu-ray declaring victory over HD-DVD in the high definition movie format war, Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, is giving $50 gift cards to customers who purchased an HD-DVD player or HD-DVD attachment from its U.S. stores before February 23, 2008. Customers will get a gift card for each player or HD-DVD attachment that they purchased. Through this program, Best Buy will distribute more than $10 million in gift cards to customers across the country.

“The DVD format war has divided our customers in a way we haven’t seen since Betamax took on VHS more than 20 years ago,” said Brian J. Dunn, president and chief operating officer for Best Buy. “At Best Buy, we understood and shared our customers’ frustrations as they were being asked to choose one format or the other. Now that the format war is over, we hope these gift cards will reassure our customers that we will help them make a smooth transition into the right technology for their needs.”

Most Best Buy customers won’t have to do anything to receive their gift card. As a demonstration of its commitment to its customers, Best Buy will proactively mail cards to all customers that the company can identify as having purchased an HD-DVD player. Members of the Best Buy Reward Zone program, customers who purchased Performance Service Plans (PSPs) or who made their purchase on BestBuy.com should look for their gift cards in the mail by May 1. Other customers who may not be easily identified can call (888) BEST BUY to receive their gift cards with proof of purchase through a credit card or their Best Buy receipt.

“The beauty of this offer is that it doesn’t require our customers to give up their HD-DVD player,” said Barry Judge, chief marketing officer for Best Buy. “We know that many people who purchased these players have HD-DVD movies that they would like to continue to watch. We’re telling our customers they can keep their players to play these movies as well as their older DVDs and use the $50 to treat themselves to anything else in our stores.”

HD-DVD players can actually deliver greatly enhanced video performance with standard DVDs by upconverting the video resolution.

Beginning on March 21, customers who do want to get rid of their HD-DVD players can visit Best Buy’s Online Trade-In Center at www.bestbuytradein.com. Visitors to the site will receive instant estimates of the value of their HD-DVD players and movies. Those who agree with the estimates can then ship their goods to the Trade-In Center free of charge by downloading a prepaid shipping label and will receive an additional gift card as payment for their trade-in. This service is open to HD-DVD owners regardless of where they bought their player.

For more information visit www.bestbuy.com/hddvd.

[superchad]

On NBC the news said offers were to anyone no matter where purchased, must have been another media blunder.

[eugovector]

In addition to giving a gift card to its customers, Best Buy will buy back your players (and other electronics) regardless of where they were purchased:

https://www.bestbuytradein.com/bb/

An A2 in good condition will get you $40.

[tonyvdb]

I would love to get my hands on an AX2 but so far I have not found one for a good price. I wonder if BestBuy Canada is offering the same deal?

[Sonnie]

What is a good price for an XA2?

[Vader]

I'm getting the $50 rebate for my A1, which I bought back in September 2006, but there is no way I'm gonna part with it, or my Onkyo. I will continue forward blu (because I have no choice, and then only until Sony crosses the line again), but I will continue to enjoy HD-DVD as I have for the last two years. Blu still has no player that can hold a candle to the XA2/Onkyo in terms of SD upconversion, build quality, or reliability (IMHO), but I have high expectations for the upcoming Panny 50. IMO, this is Best Buy trying to throw us HD-DVD refugees a bone and spur us to buy Blu from them... I think they may be in for a bit of a shock. It may work for those who just bought into HD-DVD in the last few months and have no library to speak of (in which case it makes little sense not to take BB up, unless you also use the player for SD upconversion). However, it makes no sense for those of us with substantial libraries to sell them back (at a HUGE loss, I might add), just to rebuy the same titles on BR (not to mention that some titles on HD-DVD probably wont show up on Blu for quite some time). For that matter, I still have several titles on LaserDisc which will probably never make it to DVD...

[Sonnie]

They offer $165 for an XA2 in excellent condition, which ain't quite enough for me to let go of it. I also have about a dozen titles, but I can get $10-12 each for those.

We have LD's rotting in a box. Worth nothing really.

[Vader]

Worth nothing really.

Remember, what something is worth is dependent on what you intend to do with it. You're right, if you are talking about reselling your LDs. However, mine are still worth quite a bit to me because I have no intention of selling them and still get a lot of enjoyment from them...

P.S. Happy Easter, everyone!...