The Online Video Rental Battle

I would love to hate Blockbuster because it's a huge corporation that has owned the video rental business since the beginning. No matter what town you are in you most likely have at least one Blockbuster around the corner. Which is and will remain, at least for a while, the largest service for video rentals in the world. Recently, the company has been theatend by a small online video rental service called Netflix. A website providing fast delivery of thousands of titles with no late fees.

Realizing that this was not just a fad, Blockbuster retaliated by launching a huge ad campaign boasting "NO MORE LATE FEES". This campaign succeeded in that it created an interest in Blockbuster again. However, it ultimately failed when customers read the fine print stating that if a video is over a week past it's due date that your credit card is charged for the purchase of the movie or game. Essentially, no late fees means you buy it. This actually angered customers and created more interest for Netflix.

Blockbuster changed their approach once more and decided if you can't beat them, join them. They literally copied the netflix business model and created "Blockbuster Online". With this service you pick from a larger library of movies that are shipped to your home with no late fees. They also added incentives that netflix could not offer. Free coupons that you could print and trade in at a store for a free rental, popcorn, or money off used movies. Netflix game back with a well-deserved suit against a patent they had for the process of renting movies online.

That brings me to Blockbuster's latest enticement. Starting last month, all online rentals can be returned at any Blockbuster store. As a reward for doing so, you get a free in-store rental. This is huge because no matter what rental site you are using you never know what you'll be in the mood for when you finally get that movie. This also means you should never have to go without a movie. Something no other service will even be able to copy. They also have added free game rentals to their free online coupons. This is a huge improvement and I am currently staying with Blockbuster for my movies rentals. However, I still am on the two game plan with Gamefly and am looking for the day when Blockbuster adds that too.

This is all very exciting, but I've already grown tired of waiting on mail for my entertainment and looking forward to the real future of digital downloads. Microsoft is on the cutting edge right now providing SD and HD movies and tv shows available through Xbox Live Marketplace. There are multiple reasons why it doesn't work yet, but it's very close to what I've always imagined.

Great Zelda Retrospective

The PS3 Fiasco

About three weeks ago I decide that waiting for a Nintendo Wii to fall into my lap was not going to happen (Yes, I meant Wii, hold your horses I'm getting there) . So I wake up on a Sun morning at 5:00 am to head over to my local Target, where I heard they were getting a shipment. After standing in line for two hours, I was one of the lucky eight to receive a ticket. I felt sorry for the other 35 people but obviously not that sorry because I got one. While I was literally paying for my Wii, I spotted a PS3 box out of the corner of my eye. I asked if it was a display and the target employee told me "no, it was for sale." I quickly grabbed it, assuming that I would make a small fortune on ebay for it. $900.00 later I was walking out with not only my coveted Wii, but also a PS3 in hand.

As soon as I got home I placed the PS3 on ebay and hoped for the best. After 3 days of no bids, I was beginning to get concerned. Then I got a "Buy it now" bite for $1200. "SWEET!" I invoiced them through Paypal and almost immediately got a response. I went to my Paypal account to transfer the money and low and behold, it wasn't there. I went back to the confirmation email to review the fine print. It said "Because this is an international shipment, Paypal will hold your money in escrow until a tracking number is sent to this email address." This sounded extremely weird to me, so I called Paypal. After waiting on the phone for 30 min, a rep asked me where I was suppose to send it to. I told her that the purchase was from CA. but it now says that the shipment was to go to Nigeria. That's when she said "DON'T SEND IT!" It was a fake email from a scammer in Nigeria. SUCK!

Needless to say that after trying to sell my PS3 three times on ebay, I failed. I couldn't get more then $100 for all my efforts. The market was completely flooded to the point that they were selling for exactly what I bought it for. Not only that, but I tried to sell it to four of my friends and no one wanted it. So today I took it back to Target with a defeat on my face as well as one single tear. When I gave it to the clerk, he told me that I was one of many people returning their PS3's because they couldn't sell them on ebay.

So I guess if you are a Sony fanboy this is good news for you. You can get a PS3 no problem now. But if you are one of the many people that managed to get a PS3 in hopes of riches beyond your imagination, the time has past.