Rental DVD's With Missing Features Suck

I rented Scott Pilgrim vs the World last night and loved all video game references. I noticed ones like the Zelda Link to the Past theme, Q*bert sound when a guy jumped down the stairs, and all the enemies turning into coins like in River City Ransom. There were probably tons of references I missed so I decided to watch the commentaries and trivia on the Bonus Features menu.

This is what the DVD shows though:

"This disc is intended for rental purposes only and only includes the feature film."

"Own it on Blu-Ray or DVD to view these bonus features and complete your moving watching experience"

What a pain. I was watching a rental and not a purchased copy. The deal with a movie rental used to be I get it for a limited time vs owning it and being able to watch the movie as many times as I want.

Now rental means I get it for a limited time AND features are missing. I won't be surprised if someday rental means I get to the final fight scene and I get a message saying:

"RENTAL COPY: Buy the DVD or Blu-Ray to see the rest of the movie"

Has anyone else seen this on their DVD's from Netflix or RedBox? What do you think about it?

Will Super Mario All-Stars Stay Limited Edition?

I was out shopping for Christmas presents this year and saw tons of signs for Super Mario All-Stars Wii at my local Best Buy. Every corner of the game section had a Wii case with Mario all over it, but none of them had the game inside. They only had other Wii accessories and games. The game was all sold out according to the sales clerk.

My local Target, two GameStops, and a Wal-mart were the same way.

I checked online GameStop and they were all out too and so was Amazon.

The game is reselling for $55-60, which is nearly double the $29.99 MSRP. Nintendo must not have made very many copies.

Do you think Nintendo will keep this as a limited edition and not make any more copies or will more Mario All-Stars flood the stores soon after the new year?

The Beatles Can Help You Make Money Next Christmas

If your looking to make some extra money next holiday season and you have some extra storage space - buy and resell Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition for Wii.

This year the price of Beatles Rock Band for Wii increased from about $230-240 in the summer to $425 in December. The lowest price on Amazon right now is $430 and eBay is $479.

These are list prices so people might not pay these high prices, but I personally sold a Limited Edition Wii version in December for $380 and the most recent sale on ebay was for $300.

Here's what you do:

Next August or September you find the lowest prices for the complete package (you could use our handy current listing comparison feature if you want). Buy five or six of these and store them in your garage, basement, or anywhere else. Around the 1st to 15th of December list these for sale on eBay and Amazon with a Buy It Now price of $340-350 and see if they sell.

My guess is next year you will be able to make some money doing this. MTV Games isn't making more of these limited edition bundles and they seem to be really popular Christmas gifts.

Tabs and Better Completed Auctions

Now With Tabs

We've finished reworking our game page design to better highlight some of the features available. The new design also frees up some screen real estate for future enhancements. The top portion of the page is the same as before. The bottom portion has a series of tabs:



The Used Prices tab is the content you see when loading the page. It highlights typical prices from various online retailers. The Current Listings tab shows the comparison of live listings feature that we've mentioned before. Unlike before, the current listings feature doesn't destroy the page; so you can click back to Used Prices instantly.

Completed Auctions Tab

The Completed Auctions tab displays information about recent sales on eBay. When the tab first loads, it looks similar to the pop-up dialog we used before, but inside a tab. It shows the date, amount and auction ID for each auction. A moment later, we ask eBay for some additional details about each auction and expand the table with the auction's title.

Having the title immediately available makes it easier to compare the several auctions without having to click through to eBay. If you notice a mistake, like that "Disc 2 only" copy of FF VII above, click the thumbs down button so we can remove it from our database.

Seeing the title also makes it easier to compare prices based on condition. If you're looking for a copy with the original box and instructions, just scan through the list to find a similar auction.

We're interested in adding more details about each completed auction. For instance, we might be able to show:

• number of bids
• shipping cost
• seller's feedback score
• item's condition (Good, Like New, etc)
• an auction thumbnail image

Let us know in the comments what extra details you'd like to see.

Shipping Price in Live Listings Comparison

Earlier this year, we added a feature to let you compare individual listings across Amazon, eBay and Half. The feature is great for shopping because it queries the three vendor sites directly and compiles up-to-date results in one place. You can be sure you're getting the best deal without having to visit each site separately.

The resulting comparison price now includes the shipping cost for each item. This was the most requested enhancement to this feature. Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't provide an API for for shipping prices, so we assume $3.99 shipping for each Amazon listing. It's not ideal, but reflects typical Amazon shipping rates. eBay and Half listings reflect the actual shipping returned by their APIs.

Let us know in the comments if you want any other enhancements to this feature. Happy holiday shopping!

20% Off Gamestop Used Games

Gamestop is doing a promotion for 20% off all used games. The discount is only available on their website.

Use the coupon code: 20USED

When you are comparison shopping on VGPC keep this extra discount in mind. It might make the Gamestop price cheaper than other sites on a few games.