It's such a relief to see this forum back on the map and such a pleasure to see so many familiar names. (Also so amusing to see many of them tagged as "newbies" by the board software.) Missed you all!

So now, for my first post of the new era, I'm going to be my usual parasitic self and ask for comments and pointers on DDDHouse.com. I've never ordered from them before, but thanks to the Recent Hong Kong Films series at Lincoln Center, I've become reinvested in catching up on HK cinema, after a few years out of the loop. I feel a little guilty, since they're not one of the board sponsors, but they're even more crazy cheap than the local Chinatown shops! How easy and reliable are they? How are their shipping charges? How fast do they get their stuff to the U.S.? What's "DDD" anyway? Makes it sound like a porn site.

Oh, and why, when I'm at their site, does a second window pop up with a 404 error message, literally several times a minute? It's maddening. Has anyone else ever encountered this?

Thanks, gang.

I recently read a discussion on DDDHouse here:
Kung Fu Fandom DDDHouse thread

After reading that, I determined that I would probably not order from this company. However, some people seem to be happy with the service.

They have stellar reputation. excepting recent complaints about their Weekly Cheap Sale items. Some people are saying they've received repackaged defects. They also tend to be culled from those bad batches Universe runs off periodically it seems. Myself, I picked up the Shaw's Dancing Millionaress for HK$35 (DVD!). Other than a nicked up package, it seemed okay, I haven't viewed it yet.

DDDhouse will send a e-mail confirmation and shipping notice. Takes about 7 days to the US. What I like about their packaging is that, unlike most overseas online retailers, they still use old fashioned stamps on their packages. So recently, as an added value, I got a few commemorative stamps of Deng Xiaopeng's 100th birthday. (Those other recents stamps of abstract shapes are awful by the way.)
S/H is reasonable, moderately discounted for returning customers (in the US?).

I've never gotten that 404 popup. Sporadically, people have problems accessing their site due to the browser they are using (e.g., Netscape) or configuration setting.

They're very good about answering e-mail enquiries. A small operation but well regarded, generally.

I've ordered from dddhouse countless times (some would say far too many, since I still haven't watched discs I got from them a year ago :P) and never had any trouble. Their website was pretty flaky for quite a long time after they switched over to a new system, but seems more reliable now. If I'm ordering more than 4 or 5 titles from HK, dddhouse nearly always gets my business (for orders of 1 or 2 titles I usually use cd-wow these days).

I've used dddhouse numerous times in the past with nothing but success. My hard drive crashed earlier this year, otherwise I would have the owner's contact information and just send him an email right now about the alleged reselling of faulty discs. Given my interactions with the company in the past, I'm very skeptical about the accusations but would be interested to hear his response. Easy and reliable, I'd say very. S&H charges are quite low -- but then, I usually order around 17 titles at a time. S&H might be higher for smaller orders.

Although a friend of mine swears by DDDHouse and won't switch, I have switched to layoyo.com for most of my bulk orders, mainly because their Shaw Bros. films were a little cheaper. However, they don't appear to have that great looking sale going on for any of their shaw bros. titles, so for the cheap ones this time, dddhouse seems the best bet.

Both services ship quite quickly, though I haven't placed an order for a while, and can't tell you exactly how long. Not much different than orders from Barnes & Noble or yesasia.com, though, imho.

-- Peter

DDD= Deep Discount Dvd

wait...that is another one. Anyway,those are not accusations my friend - a faulty disc is a faulty disc. But I do believe that it's the distributors who send these discs to DDDHouse to get them rid off. They even print new covers for some of them. You should see my sorry KING OF COMEDY pressed onto a dvd-5. Or try to play C'EST LA VIE ("the cheap sale edition"),it's not working on anything. I'm not saying that ALL of them are badly pressed,but after 4 unplayable discs I just had enough. YesAsia and co. had the good idea of not selling old Universe titles.I still use DDD for Shaw Bros and Deltamac stuff,good prices and fine,reliable postage(registered!). Still,this thing should be sorted out. Maybe one day they will grow tired of all the returned discs&complaints and stop distributing them. Then hopefully Universe starts remastering its old catalogue (Mei Ah recently started theirs) using quality material and better pressing.

Just to clarify -- the accusations seemed to be that dddhouse was resealing and reselling faulty discs. I am skeptical of that, and am more inclined to think, as you do, that the distributors are selling poor discs, either by accident or design, to retailers, such as dddhouse. Certainly I've gotten my share of bad discs from various online retailers. It's part of the reason I have come to prefer VCDs -- vid quality not as good, but at least I'll be able to watch it. Never yet had a faulty one that wouldn't play.

-- Peter

"Certainly I've gotten my share of bad discs from various online retailers. It's part of the reason I have come to prefer VCDs -- vid quality not as good, but at least I'll be able to watch it. Never yet had a faulty one that wouldn't play."

Touch wood but I've never ever bought a faulty DVD. Faulty VCDs OTOH...though, in fairness, these were Malaysian rather than Hong Kong VCDs (and, for the record, not bought on-line either).

I've used DDDHouse and Layoyo both a fair bit and never had a problem with either. That said, I tend to go with YesAsia more than either of those ... their sticker price is a little higher, but the shipping's free if you buy more than $39 in an order (which I always do) and they have local shipping centers in the US, Canada and the UK so you never get dinged for customs. Plus they're pretty easily the best of the pan-asian companies ... if you want to pick up some korean or japanese titles at the same time as HK ones they're definitely the best way to go ...

Todd B.,

How much of a problem is customs with those other places? Like, what's the worst "dinging" which you've ever been afflicted with or heard of?

Thanks.

Worst customs charge I've had myself? Sixty bucks. It was a big order.

Was this in the U.S.? Just curious because I've never had any kind of customs charges imposed, though I always order upwards of 15-20 movies in each order.

I never had a customs charge applied when I was living in the US (on many many orders) - as far as I can tell it doesn't happen.

In the UK it seems to be about a 10-20% chance you'll get one, and it generally adds about 30% to the cost of your order :(

I'm in Canada. Generally speaking up here if a package is from a private shipper or is in plain packaging it doesn't get stopped, but if it has any sort of business name, packing invoice or anything else that marks it as being a commercial shipment visible it will be stopped and you'll be charged.