Brad Ideas - Peerflix goes to dollar prices - Comments

Interesting

brad — Sat, 19 May 2007 01:34:36 -0700

Obviously you are going to want to have a redistribution center in the USA, since sending to Winnipeg introduces extra cost and delay for customers in the states.

The main problem was that when I tried to enter DVDs for trading, it was rare to get a DVD that I wanted to watch and was a fair trade. Now I'm picky, I will admit. I know what I want to watch and only have time for so many DVDs so I try to watch only the best.

For others, this might work a bit like the back rows of the video store, where you browse until you see something you might like.

Of course, you can only offer what you have in inventory using this system, so users need a way to list their inventory, and check back if a better selection of movies becomes available to match theirs from time to time. I don't want to have to type it in every time. (And there seems to be no way out, except aborting, once you start the trade process.)

TV DVDs are very popular. You ideally want a system which, like Netflix, understand the order of DVDs. When I trade in Season 2 of a show, I almost always want to trade it for season 3. It would be nice to automate this. Of course, the last season is trade for something more random, and likewise something random is traded for the first. Ditto for sequels. Of course an issue is that the more recent seasons are often more valuable (eBay or Peerflix price) than the older ones, and this can create an issue here.

My new personal desire is to include Region 2 PAL DVDs. They are higher resolution than our NTSC DVDs and have become readily available here, and it's also become much more common to be able to play them. Most modern DVD players have gone multiregion, and of course deCSS players are all multiregion.

New site/service for trading used DVDs

deck reyes — Fri, 18 May 2007 21:05:17 -0700

There is a new site/service that uses a unique model for trading used DVDs.Flickflop is the newest way to trade your used DVD movies.

-You trade against flickflop's growing inventory of DVD movies.
-Trade immediately, no more waiting if a DVD is available from another member.
-Tons of movies to choose from! Action, drama, comedy and more!
-No membership fees, no commitments
-Reasonable cost, $1.99 per trade including packaging and handling!

I'd be interested in finding out your take on our new service compare to a service such Peerflix.

Beauty of Netflix

brad — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 13:54:59 -0800

Netflix is indeed a nice system, and you can even use it by barely touching a computer, which is not true for Peerflix and similar.

Peerflix (or other P2P systems) have the following advantages:

Cost. Should be much cheaper for modest users. Very heavy users should use Peerflix or Blockbuster. Vastly cheaper for very light users as you only pay per DVD.
Ownership. You own the DVDs you have. If you quit, you own the DVDs, not Netflix. Of course you started owning the DVDs you originally introduced.
Speed. This one is more theoretical. Done right, when you get credit, somebody in your town mails it to you that day, you get it the next day. With Netflix, you mail in a DVD, they get it the next day at best, you get it the second day at best. I have only had this one-day thing happen once, so this is more theory than practice.

I don’t watch 13 DVDs/month, which is the break even point where Netflix is cheaper on their 3 DVD plan. However, I am not factoring in the depreciation question. If Peerflix suffers more serious depreciation problems it can lose its cost advantage except for people who watch only a very few DVDs/month, in which case the Netflix 1 disk plan may suffice.

ETOOCOMPLICATED

Ask BjÃ¸rn Hansen — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 00:35:59 -0800

I generally enjoy this sort of "game", but this doesn't sound fun.

I don't use Peerflix, so something in your proposal might have gone over my head, but it feels like it'd just make it even more annoying to use for a casual user. Part of the beauty of Netflix is the feeling of control you get with the queue. I want to watch movies, I don't want to play bidding games.

- ask

Peerflix goes to dollar prices

brad — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:31:19 -0800

I have written several times before about Peerflix — Now that I’ve started applying some tags as well as categories to my items you can now see all the Peerflix stories using that link — and the issues behind doing a P2P media trading/loaning system. Unlike my own ideas in this area, Peerflix took a selling approach. You sold and bought DVDs, initially for their own internal currency. It was 3 “Peerbux” for new releases, 2 for older ones, and 1 for bargain bin disks.

That system, however, was failing. You would often be stuck for months or more with an unpopular disk. Getting box sets was difficult. So in December they moved to pricing videos in real dollars. I found that interesting because it makes them, in a way, much closer to a specialty eBay. There are still a lot of differences from eBay — only unboxed disks are traded, they provide insurance for broken disks and most importantly, they set the price on disks.

One can trade DVDs on eBay fairy efficiently but it requires a lot of brain effort because you must put time into figuring good bid and ask prices for items of inconsequential price. Peerflix agreed that this is probably a poor idea, so they decided to set the prices. I don’t know how they set their initial prices, but it may have been by looking at eBay data or similar information.