I just have to ask: has anyone actually found a copy of FRAMED...or THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH or PHASE IV at a Best Buy store? I'm finding it hard to believe these releases actually exist.

They exist. Not at every Best Buy (even in the same city), but I've got THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH and PHASE IV. I did see FRAMED at the store where I found those two, along with almost all of the other titles (more on that below).

There's three Best Buy's within 15 miles of where I live, and two of them have the Legend Films titles. The one less than a mile from my apartment doesn't have ANY of them. The distribution has been spotty and they were late in getting out, but they're out there.

I've still been unsuccessful in finding SERIAL at any of these locations. Even on the Best Buy web site, SERIAL (or, as they have it listed, "THE SERIAL") specifically says "Not available for store pickup" before I even attempt to enter my zip code.

I live nowhere near a Best Buy store, so I pre-ordered Legend's THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, PHASE IV and THE SENDER via Best Buy's website in mid-June. They've been constantly listed as back-ordered, and I got one of those e-mails the other day that said the order will be cancelled soon if the discs are still unavailable to ship (or if I don't call customer service to extend the back-order). However, today I recieved an e-mail notification that THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH just shipped.

Now I just have to make sure they maintain my order for the other two titles.

Are these permanent exclusives or will they be more widely distributed later? I've tried to find Framed at my local Best Buys but none have it.

Oh boy, another opportunity for me to say that this entire promotion has been a total joke. Titles such as THE DEADLY BEES and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH are available at two locations about 50-60 miles away from Seattle (in opposite directions). I don't know why BB thinks that rural hamlets are the best retail locations for this type of programming.

I gave up waiting for these to show up in NYC (they're still listed as "unavailable") and ordered a few online, with a coupon. Two weeks later, PHASE IV and MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH should be here this week; no sign yet of FRAMED. Best buy? Hardly that.

Like I said before, these films have been a no show on the wholesale side of things. I had to order most of them from DDD, and all of the ones that everyone has been looking for have not shown up as well.

I don't blame this so much on Best Buy as I do on Legend. They've really screwed this one up. I could have sold more of THE SKULL and STUDENT BODIES than the local Best Buy could have.


marc

Here in Baton Rouge, there are two Best Buy's. One (near the Mall of LA) didn't carry a single title. The other (east side) carried all the titles except The Sender. For 9.99 quite a bargain...I forgot what campy fun The Deadly Bees actually was!!!

Since I'm in the UK, the whole farce hasn't made that much of a difference to me since I guess whenever I get round to buying them I'll have to go online anyway. But...

I was just wondering if anyone's actually contacted Legend yet and asked them about this whole mess? I'd be interested to know what exactly it is they're trying to achieve with this nonsense - unless they're hoarding crates of them in a warehouse somewhere that they're going to drip-feed eBay with in a few months time - and more importantly how they feel about the fact that there is such a number of people who actually want to buy their product but can't. In any line of business this seems like a stupid tactic.

. . . I did and the response was along the lines that some stores had jumped the gun by putting them out before the correct date and that was causing confusion - although the situation has not appeared to get much better over the last couple of weeks since the "correct" date has come and gone . . . a friend was kind enough to purchase them at one of the remote locations (although I know he does not like to think of his city in quite this way) where they have been available for a month or so and send them to me - anway, I got mine, so I have given up trying to explain to Legend's "Customer Service" person at their site that something might be wrong with this deal . . .

My city is actually Olympia, Wade, not Lacey, but they're both the boonies. :P

...and I like it that way. :P

...Sometimes.

Anyway, the Lacey, WA store is nearly out of their titles now - I snagged the last copy of THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH for a friend in Sweden - and who knows if they'll replace 'em. I'm not holding my breath.

And Wade, I do hope that your friend doesn't take any personal offence at my "rural hamlets" remark. I was just trying to make a point. Seattle and its immediate surrounding suburbs cater to a healthy population of film buffs, so of course these titles are only available at outposts like Lacey and Marysville. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

I don't know where the fault lies, but this situation is neither a best buy nor a Legendary promotion. As I previously said, there is no true concept of "street date" with these people. The Best Buy website lists something like June 3rd as the original release date; and as Wade points out, subsequent "street dates" for this package have come and gone.

I contacted them to inquire about any wholesale distribution, explaining that more specialty stores like mine are very interested in them. I just got a stock answer saying Best Buy and amazon.


marc

". . . a person over on the HOME THEATER FORUM posted these titles are not available at ANY Best Buy in the brief 2.5 hour drive down some freeway or other . . ."

. . . sorry, I fouled my post up - I tired to write these titles are not available anyplace in the St. Louis Metro Area, but are at a Best Buy in Jefferson City, which is 2.5 hours away . . . the "road rage" comment down below still applies . . . I guess those in Seattle have it pretty good what with the titles only one hour up or down the road . . .

Is it any wonder that road rage exists? :angry:

The day after the good news on THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH, I got another notification that my online order of THE SENDER just shipped (Yay!), and another that my back-ordered PHASE IV was auto-cancelled (Boo!) --naturally, PHASE IV was the one I wanted most of the three-- so I immediately put in another order for it. Hopefully, that will work. What a way to run a railroad...

No NYC stores, No Seattle stores, No St. Louis stores.

Great planning by Best Buy & Legend.

Boondocks rule!!!!!! :wacko:

I forgot to add that the Best Buy in Lacey now has an endcap up featuring the LEGEND titles, which wasn't there a month ago when they first started carrying the titles.

So, apparently, there is a program - with an ad campaign - to reeducate the film illiterate in the hinterlands!

Bravo, Best Buy & Legend! :P

That settles it. Why don't we ALL email Legend Films and tell them how we feel.

Contact info:

Lindsay Luecht
lluecht@legendfilms.com


And to throw fuel on the fire they are touting The Forbidden Zone... IN COLOR.


marc

They've been pretty easy to find in L.A. I bought a bunch prior to street date a couple of weeks ago (as I mentioned in the earlier thread) and I stopped in another BB store I was passing by today because I decided I wanted FRAMED as well. The FRAMED dvd was right there available for sale in the correct section. I also quickly perused the horror section and noticed PHASE IV, but I had already bought that one.

That's not to excuse this whole exclusive arrangement - it definitely sucks for all the areas that aren't getting them, and also for international customers, but there are probably a lot of us that are finding them easily that are just not posting here because it was so easy to get them. Los Angeles appears to have been covered fairly well - it was a breeze for me to get these. I am also pretty sure these titles will all be available from other sites eventually, but I know I'd be just as angry right now if they were hard to find, or simply impossible to find, in my town.

The Best Buy website had been showing all the Legend titles as unavailable at all the stores in Houston, but that's now changed. However, despite the store closest to my office listing most of the titles mentioned in this thread as in stock, when I went over there at lunch today the only one I could find was THE DEADLY BEES. That may be more of an indicator of this particular store's general incompetence than anything else, as they're notorious for having items either out of stock or hidden somewhere in the back that are supposedly available in-store.

"No NYC stores, No Seattle stores, No St. Louis stores."

...no Cleveland stores.

6 area locations, not one Legend title. What a drag. And, when I went on-line to order them (here comes the exorbitant shipping fee), for some reason the BB site wouldn't load.

I've been disappointed by their declining selection regularly, lately, but now I'm off the chain entirely. They are actively keeping these titles off the market, and I can't support a company with that kind of policy.

I think it needs to be clarified that only five of these titles are "Best Buy exclusives":

Framed
The Sender
The Deadly Bees
Phase IV
Man Who Could Cheat Death

All of the other Legend releases are available for purchase at other on-line retailers such as Amazon.

Yeah, teh crappy ones in the bunch! ;)

For more Best Buy "fun," check the Warner exclusives thread on the Mobius Sci-Fi board.

Supposedly, they had a few copies of PHASE IV at the Steelyard store a few days ago. Not sure about the others though.

Score one for the boondocks, because all the aforementioned Legend titles are plentiful in the Best Buys around my area. I've picked up FRAMED, THE SENDER, PHASE IV, and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. They seem to be carried only at the smaller BBs that have a straight alphabetical system instead of DVDs organized by genre.

The DVDs at the Lacey, WA store, which had all 5 exclusive Legend titles, are organized by genre. :unsure:

Ditto Duluth, GA.

FRAMED shipped today, 16 days after I placed the order.

All the recently opened BBs in my area have four DVD sections: TV, Movies, Family (really just Disney), and Spanish. I imagine the demographics in our resrective areas are quite different. :)