Brad Ideas - peerflix - Comments

Actually

brad — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:46:20 -0700

Peerflix has always credited me for bad disks I received, though they were more obviously bad than "stops playing after 44 min" though the latter is actually more frustrating.

That it is just the disk and no case I think is pretty clearly laid out (especially since until recently almost all people started by putting disks in, not by buying them.) The postage is a usually a single stamp, so how can half.com be lower?

But yes, you do take the risk of a bad disk and having to file a claim, which is a pain. That you don't get the case is considered a feature, to keep mailing costs down.

Peerflix is a risky gamble

Stan — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:32:42 -0700

I purchased Casino Royale from Peerflex without having done much discovery such as this site. 1) I didn't get the case or art work; 2)the postage charged was 10% more than half.com or amazon.com despite less weight because of the lack of a case; 3) the discs were both all scratched up (no opportunity to determine ahead of time the quality of the purchase such as "like new" to take advantage of; and 4) the disc failed to play past 44 min. due to pixelization before coming to a complete stop; 5) Peerflix never responded to my complaints of the above and apparently do not hold themselves or their participants responsible if you get shafted. STAY AWAY FROM PEERFLIX unless you are a fool who likes to gamble.

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

BookMooch is another one

Anonymous — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 19:48:51 -0700

BookMooch does the same thing with books. However, the sender is responsible for the shipping costs for whatever they send, and a point system is used to balance trades.

http://bookmooch.com

Hi,

Rodger — Fri, 01 Sep 2006 09:53:38 -0700

Hi,

We're working on a new startup iLetYou that is aiming to change the way that you rent, which in turn fixes this problem of a true currency of exchange - something eBay has, but PeerFlix is constrained to arbitrary Peerbux values. You can sign up for a Private Beta invite:

http://www.iletyou.com

Feel free to let me know any additional thoughts.

Cheers,

Rodger
http://rodgerv.wordpress.com
http://www.iletyou.com

Rental Startup

Rodger — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 15:54:10 -0700

Hi All,

I see that timeliness of either trading out or trading in items is a problem with Peerflix. Is there any quality problems out there? This is another problem I foresaw - people trade off movies of lower relative value. Why would you trade off your favorites?

We're working on a new startup iLetYou that is aiming to change the way that you rent, in the process fixing many of these complaints. Sign up for a Private Beta invite when we launch:

http://www.iletyou.com

I am curious about everyone's thoughts on these issues.

Cheers,

Rodger
http://rodgerv.wordpress.com
http://www.iletyou.com

I really like this site

Anonymous — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 13:45:09 -0700

I really like this site SwapSimple.com - They responded to both my customer service emails immediately and you can trade across platforms (books for dvds vice versa)

I think it's worth looking at and commenting on.

Devon Mills

Of course they will still exist

brad — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 12:57:01 -0700

It would take a great deal to stamp them out. But you can't argue that a reduction in demand won't cause them to suffer somewhat, with lower chances of getting made or lower budgets or whatever.

Serious movies will still exist.

Sterling — Mon, 24 Jul 2006 08:46:39 -0700

I've noticed the same effect with the Netflix-equivalent I use here in the UK. But I'm not sure it means that "serious" movies are in trouble. The way I see it, these are more often the movies that directors really want to make; if a Steven Spielberg needs to make a few Jurassic Parks in order to also make a Schindler's List, chances are he will.

Hi.

Neil — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 04:53:24 -0700

Hi.

I run a book trading website in the UK (www.readitswapit.co.uk). Rather than operating a credit system like PeerFlix we offer direct swaps (you choose something you want from somebody else's books, and they choose something they want from yours).

I think this is a simpler model, and seems to work well for our users. What do you think? Visit here for a brief discussion of credit vs direct swapping and give us some feedback if you want.

A US-based site that (I believe) operates on a similar model is Zunafish.

Neil.

Problems printing, no answers yet.

Anonymous — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 09:38:38 -0700

I'm new to Peerflix. It was recommended by someone who used and liked the service.

I'm having problems. Two of the mailers printed incorrectly. One would not print at all, but an error message showed up on the paper. The second printed fine -- except the address area is blank.

(Two other labels printed without a hitch.)

Am I responsible for these errors? In the meantime, my PeerBux are being spent automatically with automatic fulfillment. Which means my balance will soon be at zero. Which means if I have to cancel these two shipments, I'll be in the negative, already hurting my reputation.

Has this happened to anyone else? What should I do?

Peerflix's real problem is...

Tysto — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 21:32:38 -0800

Peerflix's real problem is a complete inability to control supply. It's a great idea to provide a place for people to trade DVDs, but there's no way to actually enforce trading. I joined hoping to get rid of several disks I never liked much but which were pretty popular films (Pleasantville, Princess Mononoke). Requests snapped them up immediately, and I dutifully sent them off. But the movies that I want are almost all backlogged as "long wait." That makes sense: movies that are popular are good enough to keep. The person requesting Pleasantville will PROBABLY like it enough to keep it.

What I didn't count on was that even not-so-popular movies have a lopsided supply-demand ratio because even tho people only want to watch them once, NO ONE wants to actually BUY them in the first place. So one guy somewhere bought Venus in Furs and entered it on Peerflix, and now 40 other guys want to see it but have to wait one at a time.

I had hoped that I could trade, say, Help Wanted Female for ViF because the guy who entered ViF probably wants to watch HWF once and would pass it on. But that's clearly not the case. It's clear now that people merely want to trade disks they don't want for disks they do want and then keep them, meaning they are no longer in circulation but are, for the most part, still in Peerflix's inventory as available for trade. Since there's no obligation to pass disks on, Peerflix has no way to ensure their supply.

The only solution, I suppose, is to raise the value of a DVD when requests start to pile up for it. If a disk is worth 4 peerbux instead of 2, some who are holding on to it will be more tempted to put it back into circulation.