Canadian source for institutional DVD sales??

I had a long conversation the other day with a friend who happens to be an
arts librarian. She's anxious to build up her library's DVD collection, and
has been given a fairly generous budget to do so. She wants to build a
somewhat artsy collection with a lot of emphasis on foreign/international
films, and older American classics-- silent film on up-- as well as
documentaries and instructional DVDS/videos on music, films on art history
and instruction, architecture, and dance. And so on. Being in Canada, she's
thus far been using Videomatica out in Vancouver quite a bit, but is
increasingly dissatisfied with their selection (I always thought it was
pretty good myself. Oh well). She's also using Facets in the States. She's
used these two because they seem to make a specialty of institutional sales
and don't require credit cards to do on-line or phoned-in orders. They're
apparently willing to open customer accounts instead and use an invoice
system.
She'd give Amazon a try but they don't seem to be set up that way. I'm not
sure if she's tried Chapters/Indigo.

My question is-- does anyone out there know of any dependable on-line DVD
outfits that are set up for institutional sales and have an excellent,
wide-ranging selection? Low prices would be nice too but are not essential.
Nor is it necessary for them to be Canadian, although that would be nice.

The right company could net itself some attractive sales figures from this,
and acquire a loyal and large customer in the bargain. Does anyone out there
have any suggestions?

G. M. Watson

"G. M. Watson" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I had a long conversation the other day with a friend who happens to be an
> arts librarian. She's anxious to build up her library's DVD collection,
and
> has been given a fairly generous budget to do so. She wants to build a
> somewhat artsy collection with a lot of emphasis on foreign/international
> films, and older American classics-- silent film on up-- as well as
> documentaries and instructional DVDS/videos on music, films on art history
> and instruction, architecture, and dance. And so on. Being in Canada,
she's
> thus far been using Videomatica out in Vancouver quite a bit, but is
> increasingly dissatisfied with their selection (I always thought it was
> pretty good myself. Oh well). She's also using Facets in the States. She's
> used these two because they seem to make a specialty of institutional
sales
> and don't require credit cards to do on-line or phoned-in orders. They're
> apparently willing to open customer accounts instead and use an invoice
> system.
> She'd give Amazon a try but they don't seem to be set up that way. I'm not
> sure if she's tried Chapters/Indigo.
>
> My question is-- does anyone out there know of any dependable on-line DVD
> outfits that are set up for institutional sales and have an excellent,
> wide-ranging selection? Low prices would be nice too but are not
essential.
> Nor is it necessary for them to be Canadian, although that would be nice.
>
> The right company could net itself some attractive sales figures from
this,
> and acquire a loyal and large customer in the bargain. Does anyone out
there
> have any suggestions?

Have a look at http://dvdafficionado.com . She can look through users
collections to get an idea of what to purchase. For retail in your area I
would avoid HMV as the pricing in 20-30% higher on average than any other
store. Check out the smaller mom & pop stores and some of the used dvd
locations. I'm not about to suggest particular stores as they never seem to
be thankfull for the reccomendation. The best I ever got was a simple thanks
as opposed to...free product or a discount which is clearly what I would do
for the nod.

The Criterion collection http://criterionco.com has within it's catalogue,
many "important" films as they refer to them. Except for The Rock, and any
other Michael Bay film. I have 8mm home made films sitting in a dusty box in
the back of my garage that are more "important". It would help if she knows
abit about movies from the 20's on. Bloor street east of Bathurst has a
number of quality used dvd shops that get decent titles in. They generally
only buy mint condition and sell for 30% less than new. She has to make sure
to buy the most current version of a particular title. For example, the new
Charlie Chaplin releases (2 dvd sets) are light years better than the
original releases.

For example, the 2dvd version of Warner Brother's Casablanca for $19.99
instead of $26.99. For new product there is really only one store that seems
to outbid the others, Futureshop. They make their oatmeal selling hardware
and software. The dvd's are often sold at or near cost for selected titles.
However, always try to give the smaller independants a shot as many of them
are also competitive.

Dunf

----------
In article <BlZ7b.216006$_. rogers.com>,
"Dunf" <> wrote:
>
> Have a look at http://dvdafficionado.com . She can look through users
> collections to get an idea of what to purchase. For retail in your area I
> would avoid HMV as the pricing in 20-30% higher on average than any other
> store. Check out the smaller mom & pop stores and some of the used dvd
> locations. I'm not about to suggest particular stores as they never seem to
> be thankfull for the reccomendation. The best I ever got was a simple thanks
> as opposed to...free product or a discount which is clearly what I would do
> for the nod.
>
> The Criterion collection http://criterionco.com has within it's catalogue,
> many "important" films as they refer to them. Except for The Rock, and any
> other Michael Bay film. I have 8mm home made films sitting in a dusty box in
> the back of my garage that are more "important". It would help if she knows
> abit about movies from the 20's on. Bloor street east of Bathurst has a
> number of quality used dvd shops that get decent titles in. They generally
> only buy mint condition and sell for 30% less than new. She has to make sure
> to buy the most current version of a particular title. For example, the new
> Charlie Chaplin releases (2 dvd sets) are light years better than the
> original releases.
>
> For example, the 2dvd version of Warner Brother's Casablanca for $19.99
> instead of $26.99. For new product there is really only one store that seems
> to outbid the others, Futureshop. They make their oatmeal selling hardware
> and software. The dvd's are often sold at or near cost for selected titles.
> However, always try to give the smaller independants a shot as many of them
> are also competitive.

Thanks for the response-- I had hoped for more, but I guess this is one more
example of why it's best to avoid use of the word "Canadian" in the headers
of Usenet posts. I will pass on your suggestion.
>

G. M. Watson